"When the change was made uptown and the Big Man joined the band..."

It's two years to the day since the world lost the Big Man, Clarence Clemons. This larger-than-life character was the iconic, legendary saxophone player from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band  -  but you knew that already, didn't you...?

I've learnt today from the incomparable Springsteen fansite, Backstreets, that New Jersey councillors have agreed to making January 11th ( Clemons' birthday ) the official Clarence Clemons Day. Which is pretty cool...


I'm going to see Brooooooooooooce and friends in Coventry on Thursday, the first time I've seen them in 4 years. Really looking forward to it! Interestingly, Bruce has recently acquired a habit of playing old albums in their entirety during the band's 3-hour sets. They played all of Darkness On The Edge Of Town at Wembley Stadium on Saturday and all of Born In The USA at Milan's Stadio San Siro on the 3rd of June. Whether they'll do this again in Coventry is anyone's guess but it's fun to speculate. Personally, I'd love to see / hear Bruce's second album The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle performed as a piece. It's a beautifully sequenced album ( a bit of a lost art, that ) which just flows and would be ideal for the newly-expanded E Street Band, horn section and all. You never know...

Soundtrack: some bloke from New Jersey :-)