Bob Dylan – Wembley Stadium, 7th July 1984

I can’t remember why we went to both nights of this tour – I mean the first night was on our doorstep in Newcastle so why trek all the way down to London to see him again, especially as I would have had to phone in sick for the two days I missed on my college course! In the end I am so glad we did though as will become obvious later!

We must have got up early after the Newcastle gig and set off to hitchhike down to London. I think we got a couple of short lifts and were then picked up by a group of lads in a car. They were off to a Northern Soul Weekend and spent most of the journey talking about taking loads of speed to keep them going! They dropped us off on the A1 just outside of Stamford. Unfortunately for us the jucntion they chose didn’t have an on slip so getting a lift was tricky. We decided to walk along the side of the A1 to the next junction which wasn’t very far. As we walked there was a layby which would have been a good place to hitchike from but it had a lorry parked up in it. We struggled our way past it and as we did he beeped at us. We turned round and he was waving us to come back. When we opened the door her told us that he had passed us three times already and figured he better pick us up or we’d get there before him!

He took us all the way to Harlow and we got another lift that dropped us somewhere in North West London. If we’d got there half an hour earlier we’d have been able to catch a bus to Tottenham where my brother’s girlfriend lived and where we were all staying tonight. As it was we’d missed the last one and we had to get the tube into central London and back out again. The flat was through a hairdressers and up the stairs. It was on West Green Road which had a large Afro-Caribbean population and sound systems seemed to be going all night! (I didn’t know it at the time but in less than a year I would be living there for a few months when I moved to London to start a job!

I can’t remember how we got to Wembley the next day or why we went sperately from the others. After the Newcastle gig we decided to sit in the seats rather than be on the pitch so we found ourselves seats and waited. I don’t remeber much about the two supports acts Nick Lowe or UB40. I was actually looking forward to seeing UB40 but I remember them to be quite dull. I seem to recall the press mentioning that a woman suddenly appeared naked in the crowd and most people were more interested in her than the band!

Their Setlist was

Cherry Oh Baby
Red Red Wine
Please Don’t Make Me Cry
My Way of Thinking
Food for Thought
The Earth Dies Screaming
Many Rivers to Cross
One in Ten
E
Red Red Wine

Carlos Santana was on thebill again but like Newcastle I wanted to see Dylan. The show he put on was very similar to the one at Newcastle until he got about half way through the first set of encores. When he got to Leopard skin pill box hat as well as inviting Carlos Santana back onto the stage he also introduced a couple of other guests namely Eric Clapton and Chrysse Hynde! Then there was a change to the previous nights set when they played It’s all over now Baby Blue with another guest Van Maorrison sharing vocals with Dylan.

I’m pretty sure that Van left after that song and the setlist returned to the one from Newcastle with Tombstone Blues with Clapton, Santana and Hynde. Then much to my delight Dyaln appeared to be teaching Clapton the next song which turned out to be Senor (Tales of Yankee Power).

The full set list was:

Highway 61
Jokerman
All along the watchtower
Just like a woman
Maggies Farm
I and I
Licence to kill
Just My Imagination (Sang by Greg Sutton)
A hard rains a gonna fall (Acoustic)
Tangled up in blue (Acoustic)
It’s alright Ma (Acoustic)
Simple twist of Fate
Masters of War
Ballad of a thin man
Why should I choose
Every grain of sand
Like a Rolling Stone

Encores
Mr Tambourine man (Acoustic)
Girl from the North Country (Acoustic)
It aint me babe (Acoustic)
Leopard skin pill box hat (with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and Chrissie Hynde)
It’s all over now Baby Blue (Sang by Van Morrison – with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and Chrissie Hynde)
Tombstone blues (with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and Chrissie Hynde)
Senor(tales of Yankee power) (with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and Chrissie Hynde)
Blowin in the wind (with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and Chrissie Hynde)

Knockin on heavens door (with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and Chrissie Hynde)
The times they are a changin (with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and Chrissie Hynde)

Here are some videos from the show!

The following tracks from the album Real Live were recorded at this show:

Highway 61 Revisted
Maggies Farm
It ain’t me Babe
Tangled up in Blue
Masters of War
Ballad of a Thin Man

Sadly none of the songs with Clapton, Hynde or Morrsion made it to the album!

Hitchhiking back the following morning we got dropped off at a jucntion near Liecester Forest East Services which had a slip road that took most of the northbound traffic past the junction so we were worried we wouldn’t get a lift. We wandered over the sliproad to see if we could walk through the fields to the sevices but it din’t look possible. As we crossed the sliproad again an old  Jaguar came along so I stuck out my thumb and to my surprise it stopped (even though it was probably illegal for him to do so) We jumped in, not really caring where he was going, the next services would do! It turned out he was going to Newcastle and even better he’d seen Dylan at the City Hall back in 1966!

14 Replies to “Bob Dylan – Wembley Stadium, 7th July 1984”

    1. Yes I was there I remember we had a choice between reggae Sunsplash at crystal palace or Bob Dylan well that was an obvious choice.my mum and dad were also there me and my good friends lee and Andy we scored some hash off someone in the audience then sat in the seats up high for uc50 who I thought were not at all a good which was a shame..Santana were good then at night we was down the front basking in Dylan’s glow..a time I will never forget..

  1. Thanks for this & especially the audience photos, I was there too with my mate Ben, amazing day.

  2. Does anyone happen to have a poster from this concert? This was my parents first date and weirdly enough a few years later I was born on 7th July so would be a great present for them.

  3. Thanks for this. I was there and still rate it as maybe the best concert I ever attended. I was standing half way between the mixing desk and the stage and had a perfect view. Some other memories:
    I enjoyed Nick Lowe and applauded enthusiastically. Everyone around me hated his performance.
    UB40 were a massive disappointment. At the time they were starting their own record label and kept introducing ‘special guests’ – reggae artists signed to their label.
    The songs played over the PA before Dylan appeared – pop music from the 1940s. The one I remember is “Love will make you fail in school.”
    Mick Taylor in his white jacket.
    Singing my heart out to *It ain’t me babe.”
    How important “Masters of War” felt.
    Hoping Dylan would say something in support of the striking miners. He does, after all, come from a mining town.
    Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Chrissie Hynde. All along the watchtower.
    After the concert, I saw Dylan and the other musicians getting on the coach that would take them, I presume, to their hotel. I was only a few feet away and said “Thank you, Bob”. He ignored me and got on the bus.
    After the concert there was a large and very scary crush of people trying to get into Wembley Park tube station. It could very easily have ended in disaster.

  4. I wasn’t there, because I stayed at home to look after the children, so my wife and friend could go. They said it was just great!

  5. I was there. If I remember rightly I left after the encore only to hear the strains of Blowing in the Wind coming from the stadium as I walked down the road. Brilliant concert, Dylan was awesome. Santana- boring. UB40 were ok ish. Loved Nick Lowe set, really good.
    Bloody hot day and I learned a way to navigate through a large crowd to the bar – I saw a guy pretending to vomit as he walked along and everybody would get out of his way! Great days, long remembered even today.

  6. Iwas there with my mate fantastic my favorite song toomstone blues when see the vids on utube I was gob smacked we are so lucky to watch them after all those years gone by Bob looks so cool doing toomstone sun an’t yellow it’s chicken 😘

  7. Iwas there with my mate fantastic my favorite song toomstone blues when see the vids on utube I was gob smacked we are so lucky to watch them after all those years gone by Bob looks so cool doing toomstone sun an’t yellow it’s chicken 😘

  8. I was at the Wembley gig. I remember Chrissie Hynde suddenly appearing on stage, seemingly uninvited, and doing backing vocals, trying to cosy up to Bob. He didn’t look impressed, and when he then introduced all the musicians on stage he pointed at her and said, ‘I have absolutely no idea who this is’. Brutal.

    1. Blimey, I thought the Pretenders played, mind plays funny tricks. I’d forgotten everybody else, so it was great to see that I’d seen Santana, UB40 and Nick Lowe?! And I wisnae pissed…….

  9. Thanks for your post – a great read, including the replies. This was only my 2nd Bob gig, after the Sunday NEC gig in 1981. I was a student living in North Ken (Redbourne House, next to Little Wormwood Scrubs) so didn’t have far to travel but somehow didn’t manage to meet my mate at Baker St Station so we couldn’t compare notes until term started in October. Got chatting with a group of lads and some Liverpool girls on the ride up, so we went for a drink before going into the venue – the lads departed early, leaving me with an opportunity that 20 y.o. me was singularly incapable of taking any advantage of! Down to the stadium, we initially sat in the upper tier, more or less behind the photos accompanying this blog. I had four large spliffs and we shared one – mainly to calm me after managing to get in with four large spliffs! The girls complained that I rolled them [inexpertly] too strong so I had most. After Santana finished I wanted to go on the pitch – only I went and by the gig’s end was maybe 10 bodies back from the front, just left of centre stage. Others have detailed the events on stage – I play Real Live periodically and proudly tell anyone present that I’m on it, lustily ‘singing’ It Ain’t Me Babe. Great atmosphere, well-behaved crowd; never spoken to, danced with, and hugged so many strangers – the power of a strong spliff perhaps. As mentioned by others and clear from the photos, very hot – I stuffed my shirt into a blue and white striped Tesco carrier bag with my programme – at the end of the gig my chest was imprinted with blue and white stripes and ‘ocseT’! Great gig, fabulous entertainment, unforgettable experience, reliving it in my head right now. Didn’t want to leave the venue at the end – found a tap on the other side of the pitch and sat there slowly rehydrating and basking in the afterglow of it all
    (and maybe missing the station crush). I have some photos of Dylan on the stage – there’s an opportunity to post gig photos to a new Dylan gig site ‘bobserve.com’ – the ones accompanying this blog should go there, they certainly take me right back to that moment 🫠, wish I was there now 😢

  10. OMG! It was hotter than hell that day at Wembley and they run out of cigarettes but thankfully I bumped into a friend who had loads. My wife Annie (RIP) and I went with my best mate Jamie (RIP) & his wife Caroline. Jamie drank 2 gallons of Scrumpy and promptly started falling asleep on me!! Jamie and Caroline also didn’t have enough money for food but that was half expected and we had plenty of money to buy them food. I thought Nick Lowe was great but struggled with UB40, I also really enjoyed Santana and loved Dylan who as you know had some great guests. My wife drove us home to Portsmouth and aged just 30 we sat in bed drinking a mugs of tea saying we were too old for days like that lol. Well until the next time. We both really enjoyed the day but the heat made it a tough day

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