We went to Bruce Springsteen in Belfast and it was truly Glory Days for fans

You know it's summer in Belfast when the biggest outdoor gig of the year lands and they don't come any bigger than Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band.

The sell-out 40,000 crowd at Boucher Playing Fields was awash with cowboy hats and American flag bandanas with die-hard fans travelling from as far away as Italy to see The Boss step on stage for his first of four Irish dates.

It might have been a slightly late start with a 30 minute delay to the set but wow, it was well worth the wait.

The Belfast crowd had waited 11 years for Springsteen and his band to return to the city so when he stepped on stage with a roar of "Belfast" the crowd erupted.

Read more: In pictures: Bruce Springsteen takes to the stage in Belfast

Ironically for this country, the song that kicked things off was "No Surrender". Never before had that term united a crowd in Northern Ireland like it did at that moment.

Fans aged from 4 to 84 sang along, danced and cheered as Springsteen rocked his way through hits such as "Lonesome Day", "Nightshift", Promised Land, Badlands, Glory Days and Hungry Heart.

Entire families screamed as he made his way off stage on a number of occasions to shake hands and hug fans who were lucky enough to get close to the stage.

One fan had her shirt signed by the singer and another was brought over the barriers to share a dance with him but it was the young children propped up on their parent's and grandparent's shoulders who really got a treat.

He reached across the first couple of rows and gave one very young fan his harmonica while others received plectrums.

At one point Springsteen warned, "your feet will ache, your legs will ache, your backs will ache" and he wasn't wrong as he played non-stop for over three hours.

I think the only one whose back wasn't aching by the end was the man on stage, who at 74 isn't showing any signs of slowing down.

At times the performance was more like a big band orchestral concert than a rock gig with the wonderful E Street Band commanding the stage with sax solos and guitar riffs.

But is was the famous double encores that really made the crowd come alive at the end, making the aching joints worthwhile as Springsteen belted out fan favourites "Dancing in the Dark" and "Born to Run" before finishing off with the brilliant "I'll See You In My Dreams".

As the crowds filtered along the Boucher Road, some still singing it was clear that Belfast had been treated to something special.

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