Manchester State of Mind

Last night I went to see one of my all time favourite singer/ songwriters, Billy Joel. It has been 12 years since his last UK shows and also since he toured solo. Apart from joint shows with Elton John and a millenium gig at Madison Square Garden he had given up touring. After last night I'm pleased he changed his mind. With no new product to promote apart from a live CD culled from 12 nights at MSG earlier this year, the set was simply a trawl through his back catalogue. He may be a little shorter of hair and fuller of figure these days but his demeanour with the audience is still self deprecating and very funny. His voice, whilst lacking the highs of olden days is still in fine form. He played a mixture of obscure album tracks through to the crowd pleasers in a set just short of 150 minutes. His only concession to age was that in the latter part of the main set he played piano on a couple of numbers where in previous years he would have been running around the stage with a hand held mike. Hey, no big deal when the delivery was still excellent. He finished the night with as good a three song encore as you could hope for. Only The Good Die Young, Scenes from An Italian Restaurant and the sublime Piano Man. The latter sung by all of the 20,000 sold out crowd. He must have heard an audience do this a thousand times but he looked delighted. He took his leave with his customary call of "Don't take any shit from anybody". This was for a short period going to be an alternate title to this blog. The setlist was:- Prelude/Angry YoungMan My Life Everybody Loves You Now The Entertainer Just the Way You Are Zanzibar Miami 2017 New York State of Mind Downeaster Alexa She's Always a Woman Don't Ask Me Why Allentown Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) Keepin' The Faith Innocent Man Uptown Girl River of Dreams Highway To Hell We Didn't Start The Fire It's Still Rock and Roll To Me You May Be Right Encores: Only The Good Die Young Scenes from an Italian Restaurant Piano Man