Bryan Adams

INFLATABLE underwear, orgasms, marriage proposals and a basic rock `n' roll blueprint were just some of the elements on display at Bryan Adams's concert last night.

Much maligned in the rock media (with little of it fully justified), Adams stalks that thin line between AOR artist and credible rocker. On this showing, he's as much a credible thirtysomething rock performer as any other thirty-something rocker you care to mention - and there are loads of those around. The bottom line? Adams's user-friendly rock music - no dark edges, no post-modernist touches, very little humour - might not be as good as some, but it's far better than most, given the parameters he works within.

This was essentially a greatest hits show almost three hours of songs that the capacity audience knew the words to. Adams has, however, merely two songs to play the old reliables, slow and fast. The least appealing aspect of his music is the lack of texture - this is as musically fundamental a rock `n' roll show as you're ever likely to hear. The most engaging factors are a downhome, genuinely genial show of basic emotions particularly on the ballads Have You Ever Loved A Woman, Heaven and Please Forgive Me, itself the scene of the aforementioned marriage proposal and a distinct man-of-the-people demeanour that seems to expose itself quite naturally.

So all the right Pavlovian buttons were pressed. The kids wanted to rock and they did. All is well in the land of Bryan Adams. A good, solid, entertaining gig.