Today we have met journalist Mia Gerdin. She worked for the newspaper Dagens Nyheter in 1975 and saw her first Springsteen concert in november that year, at Konserthuset.

That was such an mindblowing experience for Mia, that she didn’t see any other show until 1992, because she didn’t want anything to ruin her memories. She also told us a story of how she was chosen with three other journalists to interview Bruce in a restaurant in Gamla Stan (the old town). The four of them waited for hours, with no sign of Bruce. Mia thought about leaving, but the possibility that the other papers could get an interview and she wouldn’t if she left, made her stay. Finally Bruce showed up, he was very slim and shy, wearing a leather jacket and obviously not so sure how to behave with the journalists.

“He had a Hell’s Angels pin in the zipper of his jacket and I remember one of my first questions was if he liked motorbikes. He smiled a bit shyly, but then he opened up and said he did, and so we started talking”, Mia told us.

In 1992 Mia went to see Bruce with his new band, she found him to be as good as ever as an entertainer, but the band couldn’t fully match him, not int the way E Street Band did. “But I really liked the backround vocalists he brought along, that was someting new that I would liked to have seen more of”, she said.

In 1996 Mia saw him again at Cirkus. “He performed in March, at a time when people always get a cold, but you couldn’t hear a single sneeze or cough during the show, and that doesn’t happen often! Going to that show was like attending a mass at church, people sat very silently but attentive. I liked it, but I missed the partyrocking. My body wanted to dance and move, but during this show you weren’t allowed to”, Mia said.

She also told us about how some of her women friends and collegues had found Springsteen’s music macho, dull and out of date during the eighties, but she meant that they had failed to see the tenderness and complexity that also exists in the songs.

Mia thinks that one of the things that makes Bruce such a good live performer is that he really enjoys being on stage and he sets out to deliver something more personal to his audience than just a run through his greatest hits.

We thank Mia for a very interesting conversation, sha also showed us som pictures she took during the show in 1975, pictures that has never been published. Hopefully we can use some of them in our documentary too.

Next we meet journalist Håkan Lahger on Wednesday, so stay with us!