Bob Dylan in June

Just about bowed out of the hot spell but I think that we are soon going to heading straight into another one and the weekend looks like it is going to be hot and sunny again. In the midst of all this World Cup 2006 activity, which for me means sitting down in front of the TV and watching as many matches as I think I can stand, my second Bob Dylan ticket arrived for the show in Bournemouth on the 28th of this month. The first Bob Dylan ticket from out of the 2 bookings that I made back in March arrived weeks and weeks ago and if truth were told I was beginning to get a little bit anxious as to whether or not the Bournemouth ticket had got lost in the post or something like that. It really shouldn’t have though as all these tickets are sent out on a signed for delivery service and in theory the only person who would be able to sign for the ticket would have been me. Anyway I can put all those kind of thoughts into one of the many garbage bins of my mind and really begin to look forward to seeing the shows as it duly arrived a couple of days ago. It is almost certain that they will be the only 2 UK shows that Bob plays this year as at the end of 2005 he was over here for a tour which culminated in five shows at London’s Brixton Academy from out of which I went to see 3 and they were all pretty damn fantastic in my opinion but then again I guess you could count me a fan as when I have got these 2 June shows under my belt I will have seen Bob 28 times.

It is a funny thing that Bob is playing Bournemouth as I went there a couple of months ago for the first time in my life and I thought about him when I was there, strolling along the promenade. The reason I went was because I had earlier that week taken delivery of my new car, a Toyota Avensis, which I paid the best part of 13 grand for and which had only 14,000 miles on the clock. Needless to say I was very excited as I don’t often change cars, the last one I had was a Nissan Primera which had lasted us 7 years and I have to say in all that time it had never put a foot wrong. Brilliant cars, Nissans. There ain’t no doubt about that. Anyway back to the story and I was looking for somewhere to have a good drive to and it so happened that Tamdin my wife was seeing patients in Chippenham that weekend in her capacity as a practitioner of Tibetan herbal medicine. I therefore decided it would be rather cool to drive down and go via the south coast and pick her up late on the Saturday afternoon after she had finished. When looked at the map I realised that I could stop off at Bournemouth on the way as it was a place that I had never been to and I had heard a lot about in respect of the fact that it had probably the most popular beach in the UK when it was summer and the weather was hot. That and also the fact that Bob sometimes called in to play there when he was on tour in the UK.

So that is exactly what I did and I ended up parking the new car in the car park of the Bournemouth International Centre which just happened to be the place where Bob played when he was in town. The centre that is, not the car park. I spent a couple of hours taking in the magnificent beach and having a good walk by the sea going west in the direction of Poole. I was lucky as it was one of those beautiful early Spring days where the temperature is nice and warm and there is not a single cloud in the sky. Magic. I even imagined if Bob did the same thing when he was in town, taking time out before the show to get a blast of fresh air courtesy of the English Channel. Possible I guess, but unlikely.

Then after all that a couple of days later Bob’s European Summer Tour 2006 schedule appeared on the Net and lo and behold the only 2 UK shows that he was going to do were Bournemouth and Cardiff. I knew at that instant that would have to get tickets for both of them. Bournemouth because it had been a hell of a coincidence that I had just been there for the first time in my life and Cardiff because it was the city in which I was born and the place where I had seen him perform 3 times already in 1997, 2000 and 2004. I have written about my Bob experiences quite extensively in the past and collected all the writings together in Justifying the Star: Writings Around Bob Dylan 2000 – 2004 but I have more or less stopped that now. For instance I didn’t write anything about the Academy shows in 2005. I guess maybe at some point I might post bits of Justifying the Star onto Ghost Eternal if I run out of other stuff to put on as I think it is quite good in parts but then again I am biased. Anyway the reason I mention this is that a favourite part of the whole Bob Dylan experience for me is, when he has announced shows and I have got tickets, the sense of expectation that goes with knowing that at some point in the near future I will be going to see him again. The thought never fails to generate a feeling of real excitement on my part, primarily because in my opinion he is a great artist who will be remembered by future generation in the same way as Mozart is now. Anyway, that is another story.

The 2 shows in June are likely to comprise pretty much the same songs that have been in his set for the last few years which means that the majority of the set will be built around the Love and Theft material from 2001 along with a good helping of mid-60’s classics such Positively Fourth Street, It’s Alright Ma I’m Only Bleeding, Girl of the North Country, Highway 61 Revisited, and then as encores Like a Rolling Stone and All Along the Watchtower. It is almost certainly going to be stuff like that, and I would be very surprised if there was anything in the way of a major deviation from this tried and tested set list from this particular cycle of the Never Ending Tour. The big news however is that Bob Dylan has a new album slated for release at the end of August and naturally there is going to be hopeful thoughts swirling through my mind that he is going to debut a few songs from it. This is going to be extremely unlikely however although I am sure there will be people in the audience who will be requesting songs from it. People who will be trying to look clever and whom Bob will ignore absolutely and completely. The name of the album is Modern Times and it apparently contains 10 new Dylan originals produced by himself under the name Jack Frost and backed by his current touring band. Some of the song titles have also been given and they sound intriguing in a way that only a new Bob Dylan song ever could, conjuring up visions of a lost land in a strange twilight where the extraordinary is imminent. Listen to these and see what you think – When the Deal Goes Down, Spirit on the Water, Thunder on the Mountain and Workingman’s Blues. Really that is all I need to know about them at the moment. I don’t need to hear them, just the titles of the songs alone are enough for them to slowly seep into my mind and conjure up those precious inner visions. And in the meantime, well, Bournemouth & Cardiff here we come!