So far so good….with Bryan Adams

Pratik Dogra Tewnty eight years of rock ‘n’ roll, the magic of Bryan Adams lives on. Distinctive vocals and unpretentious songwriting skills have made the Canadian icon a niche, which has endured for almost three decades. As he turns 48, his journey to the top reinforces the fact that ‘ the artist should be best remembered, only for his art’. Everything else is just an excess baggage.Adams, was born in Kingston, Ontario to English parents. With his diplomat parents, he lived in England, Israel, France, Portugal, and Austria through most of the 1960s, until finally settling in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 1973. At the age of 15, he dropped out of school and set off his musical career. With singleminded fervor, a trait not usually identified with adolecence, he pursued his musical ambitions. He once admitted, "In high school, I was too far into my music to even pay attention to girls." After quiting school, he played in nightclubs for bands like Shock and Sweeney Todd. When the latter released an album called If Wishes Were Horses, they had young Adams as the lead singer. He even took part-time chores like washing dishes, selling pet food and working in record stores, to supplement his income. The First Break Adams solo career took off with the release of his self-titled debut album ‘Bryan Adams’ in February, 1980 on A&M Records. He had been touring, recording demos and working as a studio musician, but it was when Adams formed a song-writing partnership with drummer Jim Vallance, result of a serendipitous meeting, that things got rolling for him. As his first album wasn’t released in America initially, (although "Hiding from Love" was issued as a single), Adams assembled a backup band and embarked on his first Canadian tour as a solo act. He spent four months playing in clubs and colleges. The tour turned out to be a foundation for his second album, ‘You Want It, You Got It’, which he recorded with A&M in New York in two weeks. It was released in the spring of 1981. This second album became Adams` first ‘official` release in America and by January of 1982 the album had broken into the Billboard charts peaking at No. 118 in its 13th week. The single "Lonely Nights" became his first Hot 100 entry at No. 84 and peaked at No 3 on the mainstream rock chart. He follwed it up with his third album ‘Cuts Like a Knife’ in January of 1983, with the single "Straight from the Heart", peaking in the Top Ten of the Hot 100. The album also reached Top Ten, selling platinum and spawned over further Top 40 hits with the title song and the single,"This Time". The extensive tours, conducted by Adams, further stimulated the album’s success. The tour was kicked of from Canada and continued to America, where he opened for Journey. From there, it moved into Europe followed by shows in Japan, before flying back for the final leg in Canada. The `Reckless` Success and beyond On Adams` 25th birthday he released his fourth album ‘Reckless’. It was preceded by the single "Run to You", which reached the Top Ten. It was followed by an astonishing five Top 20 singles drawn from the album, "Somebody", "Heaven" (which hit number one), "Summer of `69" (Top Ten), "One Night Love Affair", and a duet with Tina Turner, "It`s Only Love". ‘Reckless’ reached No. 1 in America, selling five million copies, besides a reported three million more in the rest of the world. The album got Adams his first two Grammy nominations, Best Male Rock Performance for the album as a whole, and Best Rock Performance by a duo or group for "It`s Only Love". As usual, Adams toured extensively in support of it. His "World Wide in `85" tour which began in the December of 1984, went on until the November of 1985. Next up was ‘Into the Fire’, which was released in March of 1987, prefaced by the single "Heat of the Night" which became Adams` fifth Top Ten hit in America. The album reached the Top Ten America and sold a million copies with another million sold overseas. It also spawned the Top 40 hits with the singles "Hearts on Fire" and "Victim of Love". Adams` worldwide tour in support of the album went on for more than a year. In the June of 1991, Adams hit the road again. He toured Europe, co-headlining with ZZ Top. This coincided with the release of the single "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" which topped the charts for seven weeks, the longest any song had remained at No. 1 in eight years. It was even a bigger international success, spending 16 weeks at No 1 in England making it the longest-running chart-topper in the history of the British charts. ’Waking Up the Neighbours’ was released in the September of 1991 and Adams once again took off, this time until July of 1993. The album featured two Top Ten hits "Can`t Stop This Thing We Started" and "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You". They were immediately backed up by three more Top 40 hits, "There Will Never Be Another Tonight", "Do I Have to Say the Words?" and "Thought I`d Died and Gone to Heaven". ‘Waking Up the Neighbours’ sold four million copies in America and another six million in the rest of the world. It also earned Adams a Grammy nomination and his first Academy Award nomination. While he was getting ready to release his next studio album, in the interim, he released released a hits compilation, ‘So Far So Good’, in November 1993 featuring the single "Please Forgive Me," a new Adams/Lange track. The song plummneted into the Top Ten. Then came the Adams` theme song for the movie ‘The Three Musketeers’, "All for Love", recorded with Rod Stewart and Sting, which hit No. 1 in America in the January of 1994. The same month, Adams embarked on an ambitious tour of the Far East, including countries like Vietnam, which were usually overlooked by Western pop artists. At the Pinnacle After a brief hiatus, in the beginning of 1996, Adams released a new album ‘18 `Til I Die’. The album featured the flamenco-tinged "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" from the Johnny Depp/Marlon Brando film Don Juan DeMarco. Adams had yet another No. 1 hit to his credit, as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and his second Oscar nomination for Best Song. The 18-month world tour followed the album release and the album soon went platinum in America. The singles "Lets Make A Night To Remember" flirted briefly in the Top 40 and the provocatively titled "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You", did better abroad than in America. Unlike many, Adams does not use a rotation of session musicians in his backup band. He has a group of musicians with whom he tours regularly, the lineup of which seldom changes. This makes Bryan Adams more of a band than a solo artist, with the same group of musicians appearing on all albums and live performances. Over the years, Adams has been a part of many charity concerts. His first high profile charity appearance came in 1985 when he opened the United States chapter of Live Aid. More recently, on January 29, 2005, Adams joined the CBC benefit concert in Toronto for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Later that year, he played in Qatar and raised an astonishing £1.5M (USD 2,617,000) from the performance and the auction of a guitar he purposely had got signed by many of the world`s most prominent guitarists. The money went to Qatar`s "Reach Out to Asia" campaign to help the underprivileged across the continent. Money raised also went to some of his own projects like rebuilding a school in Thailand and building a new sports center in Sri Lanka, both of which had been devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami. On January 29, 2006, Adams became the first western artist to perform in Karachi, Pakistan, in conjunction with a benefit concert to raise money for underprivileged children to go to school. Some of the proceeds of that concert also went to victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. THE BRYAN ADAMS TRIVIA Bryan Adams was born to English parents, but also has Maltese ancestry. He personally paid tribute to his Maltese ancestors at a massive concert held in Malta on the 28th of June 2007. The original album title for Bryan Adams second album was ‘Bryan Adams Hasn`t Heard Of You Either’ but that title was rejected by A&M as being too provocative. It was released as ‘You want it, you got it’. His fans are generally referred to as Baddies. Live! Live! Live, is the complete recording of a concert in Werchter, Belgium on 3 July 1988, a part of his world tour, which was broadcast by the CBC in Canada and on MTV around the world. He supports English Premier league side, Chelsea FC and the song “ We r Gonna Win” from his album ‘18 Til I Die’ is dedicated to the football club.