Billy Joel review, Old Trafford, Manchester: Time portal of music from the most capable of entertainers

Hordes had travelled far and wide to see the New Yorker's sole UK show

Billy Joel performing to a sell out crowd at Old Trafford Football Ground in Manchester (FARRELL / BACKGRID)

“When’s it gonna start getting dark 'round here?” Billy Joel asks a packed-out Old Trafford as the Manchester rain-clouds dispersed ahead of a show from the most capable of entertainers who immediately assured the 50,000-strong crowd he was there to deliver.

Hordes of fans have travelled far and wide to see the New Yorker's sole UK show; kitted out in memorabilia emblazoned with his name. With 12 albums amassed over a five-decade career, Joel tears through his back catalogue and proves himself to be a musician just as revered as his pal and musical peer, Bruce Springsteen.

The 69-year-old plonks himself behind a snazzy rotating baby grand piano, never missing an opportunity to dish out some comedy in between tracks (“I used to like that number,” he quips to the chuckling assemblage after announcing his age).

He has the set-list to back such bravado up. Hulking his way onto the stage at 8pm - sans support act - the goateed showman launches into a lively rendition of 1978 single “My Life” before leading listeners through a time portal of tracks from his heyday.

Selected picks range from the frantic (“Pressure”) to the upbeat (“Don’t Ask Me Why”), with time set aside for the ballads the crowd were clearly waiting for: “New York State of Mind” is performed to the backdrop projection of his three children in celebration of Father’s Day, while the audience sing the affecting tones of “She’s Always a Woman” in unison, their arms draped around the shoulders of the parent, lover or friend they are accompanied by.

There are frequent lulls as Joel’s passion for British music sees him perform brief covers of tracks he stated he wishes he’d written - “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and then “Your Song" by Elton John whom, he assures fans, is still his friend despite “bullshit” press reports. Diehard fans, while swept away by the detours, decry their presence in place of absent tracks (“Goodnight Saigon" and "Miami 2017” to name just two).

He regularly throws the choice to the audience, offering up two songs and performing the one with the most feverish response. Winners “Vienna,” “The Longest Time” and “Downeaster Alexa” are all welcome additions to an evening of air-tight musicality played with confidence by Joel and his backing band, including long-time saxophonist Mark Rivera.

Joel performs for two-and-a-half hours - a whole one hour longer than the majority of concerts played by acts half his age. Having left the stage following a grandiose double-bill of “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” and the harmonica-led “Piano Man” - both highlights - he returns and ditches the keys for the guitar, launching into a run of 80s hits including “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and “Uptown Girl.”

Darkness may have descended upon the stadium by evening’s end but the audience vacates the stadium with their lives lit up by one of the great: one fire Billy Joel definitely started.

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