An Eternal Youth

NEVER let it be said that Bryan Adams is anything but accommodating. There he is, relaxing backstage at the Wildpark Stadium in Karlsruhe, Germany, watching Euro 96 on the telly, and he has to leave at the climax of the match to give interviews to the Irish media. You see, since he has set up home in London, the Canadian rocker has become a bit of a footie fan, so he's making a sacrifice here by dragging himself away to talk to yours truly. Germany are busy beating Croatia in the quarter finals, and in the stadium outside, 35,000 concert goers watch con the big screen as their team goes to glory. Soon, they will be cheering the man from Vancouver when he takes to the stage to promote his new album, 18 Til I Die, but for the moment, the day belongs to the German soccer team.

Barely two years since we last saw him live, Adams is back on the road, playing the football fields of Europe, and having his usual rollicking good time. The kids, it seems, still wanna rock, and ol' Bryan is ready to roll it out for them once again. If the title of his new album is anything to go by, then young Master Adams will be rockin' the kids into their graves while he stays permanently suspended some where around voting age. 18 Til I Die is the Canadian rocker's refusal to act his age, a musical manifesto for the chronically immature. Most of us can't even remember when we became legally entitled to buy a pint, yet here's this 37 year old telling us that he's found the fountain of eternal youth, and he's gonna stage dive into it until he drowns. Do we buy it? Hell yes Guess we really were born yesterday.

The eternal 18 year old settles into his dressing room couch and strums lazily at an acoustic guitar, clutching it like a protective barrier between muse and media. We begin by talking about the album, Bryan's first full studio set since 1991's Waking Up The Neighbours, and his follow up to 1993's Greatest Hits collection, So Far So Good. It looks set to follow the previous two albums into the megazone, having already entered the UK charts at No 1, equalling the recent feat of these real 18 year olds, Ash, so I guess that means Bryan's formula for eternal youth is still working.

"I just can't believe I did another one" exclaims Canada's boy(ish) wonder. "Can't believe I've get another one out already. I don't knew. Every time I finish an album I always look at it at the end and then go, I can't believe I actually finished one. It's always astonishing to me when I see it finally, it's quite a rush it's like finishing painting a house or something. It's quite a great feeling."

And what about the title track, 18 Til I Die does that describe your general mood? De you still feel like a big kid in the reck'n'roll candy shop?

"I think it sort of embodies the spirit of the record. The song has a tongue firmly implanted in cheek, you knew, and lots of songs do on the album. I mean, some of the best, chat up lines I've ever written are en this album!

If anyone out there is having trouble shifting the girls, then why net try out some of Bryan's lines next time you're down in the POD? Start with, "I wanna do to you what you do to me", or hew about "The only thing that leeks good en me is you" if all else fails, then this one should do the trick "I wanna be your underwear". Have you actually tried these out in a social situation, Bryan? De they really work? And, most importantly, do they come with some sort of manhood back guarantee?

"Well, let's just say it's sort of exercising a few of my scribbles. A let of these ideas, for example, The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You was a song title that I had for a couple of years, and just before Christmas time, Mutt (Lange, Bryan's co-writer and producer) was messing around with this guitar track, and I said, I've got a title for you for that one, and the song just kinda wrote itself."

Which absolves Bryan from any blame for such lines as "Don't look good in no Gucci shoes, no Armani suits or designer beets". The video for Bryan's latest hit single features the fashion shy Canadian sporting a wide range of top labels for the camera. Monsieur Bryan you are toe modest you leek marvellous in your Moschinos.

"Oh, the video's just taken off the lyrics, and Matthew Rowlston, who's a fashion photographer, directed the video, and he thought it would be good to stir it up and dress me up a little bit. If Bone can be The Fly, anything goes, right?"

So, Bryan, you wouldn't normally see yourself as a fashion conscious kind of 18 year old?

"Net particularly, no. But I don't, mind the odd nice pair of trousers. Who wouldn't?

Nobody would in fact, nobody does. Designer labels are new as common as the Fruit Of The Loom tag on your underwear, and fashion is no longer the domain of social climbers and celebrities. Is rock's Mr Every man striking a fashion blew for the common people?

"Designers have realised that people have a desire to look smart and people don't have a let of money, so they've made it mere accessible to people. And there are brilliant new young designers that are making things for people that are comfortable and stylish. Everyone wants to leek stylish en a Saturday night. They want to get all styled in. Everybody does. Listen, fashion isn't something new.

And neither is lingerie. Which is why it may come as a bit of surprise to learn that another clothing oriented tune en the album has come up against a bit of friction from some prudish quarters. I Want To Be Your Underwear, indeed. Bit below the belt, that one, eh, Bryan?

"There's nothing naughty about it! If James Brown can sing I wanna be your sex machine, I can sing I wanna be your underwear. Thank you very much!" He laughs as though actually contemplating life as a pair of knickers.

Bryan Adams's glittering career began 20 years ago, when the son of English immigrants dropped, out of high school in Vancouver and formed a songwriting partnership with Canadian musician Jim Vallance. The pair penned hit songs for bands such as Bachman Turner Overdrive, Kiss, Loverboy and Bonnie Tyler, before Bryan released his debut single, a wee tune called Let Me Take You Dancing, in 1979. The song was not exactly indicative of Bryan's hard rocking style, and it has since faded into oblivion. Four years after this false start, Bryan finally cracked the US Top 10 with the single, Straight From The Heart, and the album, Cuts Like A Knife, and rock `n' roll has never looked back. Now, in 1996, Bryan Adams is still rocking, only this time he wants us to believe that he's not only the oldest juvenile delinquent in town, but he's also a soft, flimsy item of female clothing. Do you ever worry that your fans may not suspend disbelief long enough to buy this new album in laundry loads?

"If it didn't do well, you mean? Nah, I'm not driven by record sales. A lot of people around me are I'm just happy to get a record finished. To me, that's it. It's in the hands of the gods now. I hope the record gets received well, I hope people like what we've done. You always want your records to bed heard by people, and then they can make up their own minds if they like it or not. You know, alternative music has become the mainstream, so I'm the alternative now."

HE'S not far wrong there. The old boys from old school of rawk are an endangered species, and their territories have been invaded by the smarter, snappier Britpack and the technically superior dance posse, not to mention a whole new generation, of post grunge anti heroes. In this altered climate of rock music, Adams is a bit of a dinosaur, albeit a lively, ass kicking dinosaur, and though he'll never have to support Bis or sign en to a rock `n' roll revival tour of the Home Counties in order to keep body and soul alive, he will someday have to face the reality that he won't remain 18 till he dies. Until then, however, there's another 35,000 eager fans of alternative music waiting outside to hear a back catalogue of evergreen hits like Run To You, Everything I Do, Can't Stop This Thing We Started and Summer Of 69. Germany's win has put them in a celebratory mood, and support act Melissa Etheridge has kept their spirits up with her own unstoppable energy. Just one question before you go out there and do it to them, Bryan, and it's about the aforementioned Summer of `69, which still remains the most popular number en your live show. Were they really the best days of your life?

"You have to remember that that song wasn't written about the summer of `69. There was a bunch of silly reasons why we called the song that first of all, it sounded good second of all, we thought `69 had the old sexual connotation, and we thought that was quite clever. But the actual song has no bearing whatsoever en 1969. It's metaphorical, it's nostalgic. It's a sort of song that leeks back a little bit. But for me, growing up, I had a pretty cool time. Hey, I had a ball growing tip. My brother and I flitting around the world with my folks, you knew, we lived in a let of places. And I've said in the past that my touring with my mum and dad in the early part of my years has kept me with that read spirit ever since. And I've still get it."