Rough and Rowdy Dylan was everything I expected

Mal Pope is a songwriter who co-produced the film Jack To A King, about the 10-year rise of Swansea City FC

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I walked onto the stage of the Swansea Building Society Arena with no fanfare.

For an hour and 45 mins he sat on a piano stool, either looking at the back of the stage playing his guitar or playing piano facing the front of the stage slightly hidden by the music stand of his baby grand.

At 9.45 the music stopped. He got up and together with his band lined up at the back of the stage behind all of the equipment. Then he walked off. As one, the crowd rose to their feet and cheered him to the rafters.

A few minutes passed. The applause and shouts for encores rose as a few dark figures returned to the stage. With that the house lights came on to illuminate the crew clearing empty bottles of water from the stage. ‘HE’ had probably already left the building.

Some were a little shocked, some disappointed, others were revelling in the afterglow of spending time in the presence of a legend. Me... I wasn’t surprised because I had already been to a concert by... Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan has been a star for the whole of my life. His first album just about sold enough to breakeven. His second ‘Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’ turned him into a star. He was easy to understand a poet of his times. He played acoustic guitar and harmonica. His songs were topical and political, and they captured the mood of a nation of young people who wanted to rebel against the man. He was even awarded the ‘Tom Paine Award’ from the Emergencies Civil Liberties Committee at their Annual Bill of Rights dinner. He had gained acceptance.