Born to Brum: Why Bruce Springsteen is adored by blue-collar Britain

Jim White never ‘had a job down the refinery’ but, like 75,000 other superfans, roared along to every song the Boss played at Villa Park this week as if it were his own life the lyrics were mirroring

Bossing it: Bruce Springsteen performing at Villa Park on 16 June (Redferns/Getty)

One of the signs of growing old is becoming aware of how often we are all assailed with tips on how to stay young. And last Friday I discovered the one surefire method of holding back the years: take some of whatever Bruce Springsteen is on.

Arriving at Villa Park for the latest stop-off on the Boss’s ever-rolling world tour, it felt like a Saga outing. A mass of grey hair, wobble and paunches was descending on the turnstiles, where many were obliged to turn sideways to squeeze through. True in comparison to the kind of audience he attracts these days, anyone would look youthful. But the moment Springsteen appeared on stage, it was obvious we were in the presence of a man who gives every impression of having halted time.

Without giving too much away about my own association with chronology, I first saw him in concert 38 years ago. And, beyond a slight sinking of his jowls and a marginal retreat in his hairline, he seems barely to have changed. Granted my seat at the back of the Holte End was so far from the stage I was practically in Bromsgrove. But even from such a distance, it was evident that his energy, his work ethic, his capacity for tearing around entertaining all remain undimmed by the passing decades. Three hours he played, non-stop, the roll call of hits merging into one another with no more of a gap than a brisk “one, two, three, four”. There was barely time to take a breath, let alone engage in the kind of lie-down most of us in the crowd needed just from climbing the steps to our seats. Frankly, it was exhausting watching him.