Bruce Springsteen fan told him to play Liverpool gig

A Bruce Springsteen superfan who told the music legend he should play in Liverpool says he is looking forward to the star's first performances in the city this week.

Phil Beard, 72, says he has spent "many, many, many thousands of pounds" travelling the world to watch the singer perform at about 75 gigs since 1981.

On meeting the star at a US book-g in 2016, he urged him to consider playing in his home city of Liverpool. He also encouraged Springsteen's E Street Band guitarist Stevie Van Zandt at two meetings, with the latter having since performed at the city's Cavern Club.

Mr Beard has now booked tickets for both of Springsteen's concerts at Anfield stadium on Wednesday and Saturday.

Mr Beard says he became "hooked" on the star's rock music, after first hearing it in 1976.

He said he found the music "resonates" because of "the story in the songs - his truthfulness, the power, the rock and roll".

Along with his wife Eileen, he watched all of Springsteen's three gigs in Manchester last month.

And that's on top of about 30 concerts across North America – including in Nashville and Memphis – plus many more in Europe.

Mr Beard says he has been a big music fan since the age of 10, when he would listen to the BBC radio show Pick of the Pops with his mother.

He ired The Beatles and US singer Roy Orbison but its to initially being "turned off by the hype" around New Jersey singer-songwriter Springsteen, who first released an album in 1973.

However a friend encouraged him to listen to the songs Born to Run and Thunder Road in 1976, and Mr Beard recalls he "bought all three albums the next day".

Mr Beard first saw Springsteen perform at Wembley in 1981 and has since travelled with his wife to watch his concerts in the US, Canada and .

He says that, although Eileen was a music fan when they married in 1978, "she wasn't that bothered" about the singer until seeing him perform the song Point Blank at a gig and it was "like a light went on".

"She became as much a fan as me."

The couple, who live in Formby, retired from their civil service careers 10 years ago and do not have children, so instead they have used some of their disposable income on travelling and music.

Mr Beard says he "wouldn't like to have a guess" at how much they have spent, adding: "It'd probably be frightening… to some people it'll be incomprehensible."

But the concerts became a comfort after he suffered symptoms due to a form of blood cancer called multiple myeloma, which Springsteen's wife and bandmate Patti Scialfa was also diagnosed with in 2018.

Following chemotherapy treatment, a nurse recommended the couple to travel and coincidentally Springsteen soon announced some gigs after the lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic.

They booked a trip to see him in the US, which Mr Beard, who is in remission, said was "such a fantastic thing to do and really helped us mentally".

"The fact that when you go see him, you're just lost - time stands still," he says.

"It's just incredible the amount of work he's put into his shows."

He says the couple's ion for music makes them "feel young".

"We're just enthusiastic about music and getting ourselves the moment."

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