Thanks to the wretched pandemic, London hasn’t seen Bruce Springsteen and his long-term sidemen (and women) the E Street Band since 2016. Before that The Boss had been a regular fixture on London’s biggest stages, but his return to headline British Summer Time in Hyde Park 2023 is a big one, both because it’s been so long and because – as his joyous but mortality-flecked 2020 album ‘Letter to You’ reminds us – we’re presumably getting somewhere near the natural end of the E Street Band’s touring life. Sure they’re tough old geezers and there has been some new blood over the years, but their epic three-hour-plus sets take it out of a guy. By modern rockstar standards, the 72-year-old Springsteen has a good few tours left in him yet, but it’s certainly never too soon to get on board with America’s greatest rock band.
Usually the band play without support, but mini-festival British Summer Time is naturally an exception – details of further support is TBA, though typically there’s a big name or two directly under the headliner and then more obscure acts elsewhere.