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After performing for 50 years, you might expect 74-year-old Billy Joel to simply go through the motions at a gig in 2023. You would be wrong.
Last night the Piano Man proved he’s so much more than just that at BST Hyde Park, as he riled up the crowd with deadpan jokes, epic solo performances and the energy of a 20-year-old whippersnapper – but with the experience of a rock n’ roll great.
Categorising Billy’s life work into the genre of ‘rock’ seems reductive. He seeps into pop with Uptown Girl, arm-swaying country with The Entertainer, and even jazz with some painstaking piano and saxophone riffs.
Oh, and his voice is as mighty as ever, by the way. He growled like James Brown, crooned like Tom Jones, and rocked like Mick Jagger (although he did joke, after a red-herring performance of Start Me Up, that actually, he can’t.)
Billy set the tone for the evening when he swiveled on his chair after opening with energetic performances of My Life and then Movin’ Out, and said: ‘Thank you London, England. It’s good to see ya,’ before adding, somewhat morbidly: ‘I’m not sure when this old ass is going to be back again.’
To this, the crowd erupted into laugher, as they did two minutes later when he joked dryly, squinting into the horizon through some black-out sunglasses: ‘The brightest sun I’ve ever seen on stage is in England.’
Introducing his next song, Billy mentioned the album it was from – Streetlife Serenade – to which the die hards, clad in Billy Joel T-shirts and caps, whooped and cheered.
In his New York accent, Billy quipped back: ‘Don’t bulls**t me, you didn’t buy that album, nobody bought that album.’ It was around this point, we knew we were in for a very good night.
Well into the evening, couples in the crowd – who looked like they’ve been rocking together since Piano Man came out in 1974 – turned to each other, with their faces almost touching, belting the words out with the intensity of teenagers in love.
New York State of Mind transported Hyde Park onto the star-lit streets of the Big Apple, with its jazzy riffs, and romantic, growling croons, evoking a sense of hazy, 2am nights echoing with the laughter of the past.
Always a Woman put the spotlight on individual women in the crowd, making for a moving few minutes of Billy’s velvet voice sound-tracking the real-time montage. One woman cried tears of joy when the camera found her for a second time.
Surprisingly River of Dreams, from Billy’s 1993 album of the same name, marked the peak of the eclectic set. Misty river scenes and a sea of 60,000 people bobbing as one took what is a outwardly jaunty song into a more meaningful realm.
Incredibly, in the middle of the song came an unexpected Tina Turner tribute of River Deep Mountain High, sang by the multi-talented Crystal Taliefero, who brought all the vibes throughout the set.
Kudos to Billy for letting his bandmates shine, as another particularly memorable moment came from guitarist Mike Delguidice, who belted out Giacomo Puccini’s Nessun dorma, with the note-sure gusto of Pavarotti.
The strangest moment by far didn’t come with Billy’s characteristically blunt response to a ‘medical emergency’ in the crowd, or even when he looked up at the big screen and asked why he could see his dad, but in the encore when the rocker brought Joe Jonas on stage to sing Uptown Girl, leaving the crowd baffled but somewhat impressed.
But Billy didn’t need Joe Jonas, really. The encore was fire – literally – as a raging blaze was superimposed around Billy for a spirited performance of We Didn’t Start the Fire.
Nodding to his trademark wit, as he did look admittedly a little knackered by the end of the set (and played up to this too), Billy wrapped things up with cover of The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night for his penultimate song, ‘I should be sleepin’ like a log…’
The crowd knew exactly what was about to happen when, 16 songs in, Billy produced a harmonica, and Piano Man was met with 60,000-person singalong (but of course it was).
But while Billy joked endlessly about his age, and peppered his set with self-deprecating humour, there is no denying he is a rockstar more than worthy of his headline slot.
In fact, he could just be the most underrated, and yet mind-bogglingly entertaining BST performer so far. Move over Bruce Springsteen, Billy is in town.
So we’ll say it again and again until you refuse to return to London, Billy, you ‘old ass’: ‘Sing us a song, you’re the piano man. Sing us a song tonight. Well, we’re all in the mood for a melody. And you’ve got us feelin’ alright.’
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MORE : Billy Joel has very blunt response to ‘medical emergency’ in BST Hyde Park crowd
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