The Boss includes 1984 album in three-hour set at London’s Olympic Park

Bruce Springsteen headlined the second and final night of Hard Rock Calling at London’s Olympic Park last night (June 30).

Taking to the stage shortly after 7pm, The Boss and his E Street Band started with a number of songs from 1982 album ‘Nebraska’ before stopping to announce they would be performing 1984 album ‘Born In The USA’ in its entirety. This followed similar performances at Wembley Stadium and Coventry’s Ricoh Arena, where the New Jersey artist performed ‘Darkness On The Edge Of Town’ and ‘Born To Run’ respectively. The latter was dedicated to the memory of actor James Gandolfini, who passed away a day previously.

“That was ‘Born In The USA’” said Springsteen as the band finished album closer ‘My Hometown’ before launching into ‘Waitin’ On A Sunny Day’ from ‘The Rising’. As is customary during the song, he pulled a young crowd member from the front row to sing onstage. After a couple of unaccompanied runs through the chorus, the girl, no older than 10, shouted “Come on E Street Band”, and they started playing again.

Another Springsteen tradition is to take requests from the crowd and there were a number of large cardboard banners at the front. One was for ‘Johnny 99’, while another was for ‘Jungleland’ from 1975’s ‘Born To Run’.

Introducing the song, Springsteen said: “This is a song I play once in a while. I was trying to write everything I knew about life up to then. I still find things way down the road that surprise me. This is about rock’n’roll, and life in general.”

For the encore, he chose an acoustic version of ‘My Lucky Day’ from 2009’s ‘Working On A Dream’. He dedicated it to a tattooed member of the audience in the front row, saying: “That’s a nice tattoo you’ve got there. That’s worth a spontaneous song on its own. I run into people all over the place with tattoos. I don’t have one myself but I appreciate them on other people. Anyway, this one’s for you, kid.”

Earlier in the day, Alabama Shakes and The Black Crowes had played on the main stage at the festival, the first day of which was headlined by Kasabian.

Bruce Springsteen played:

‘Shackled And Drawn’
‘Badlands’
‘Prove It All Night’
‘Johnny 99’
‘Reason To Believe’
‘Atlantic City’
‘Wrecking Ball’
‘Death To My Hometown’
‘Born In The USA’
‘Cover Me’
‘Darlington County’
‘Working On The Highway’
‘Downbound Train’
‘I’m On Fire’
‘No Surrender’
‘Bobby Jean’
‘I’m Goin’ Down’
‘Glory Days’
‘Dancing In The Dark’
‘My Hometown’
‘Waitin’ On A Sunny Day’
‘Lonesome Day’
‘The Rising’
‘Light Of Day’
‘Jungleland’
‘Born To Run’
‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out’
‘American Land’
‘My Lucky Day’