How Pickering band Rocketsmith got the gig supporting Bryan Adams at Dalby Forest

They wrote to explain why they would be such a great fit to support the Canadian superstar at his gig on June 21, and pitch was so good, it got signed off by Bryan Adams’ team, and they are now going to be opening the show.

Guitarist Mark Norton said the band has been going for 15 years in various guises but they feel they are settled and that the time is now right to be playing at bigger arenas.

"Now, for the first time, we’re in a position where we’ve got recorded material and a bit of belief that we might go further than playing down the Dog and Duck – I’m not saying Glastonbury but our music is good enough for us to do something,” he said.

They realised they couldn’t just do the same thing everyone else was doing and needed to push themselves in a different way.

"We wrote and said 'we’re in the area, we know how to get the crowd going’ and passed that on to an old school friend with a job at Dalby Forest,” said Mark.

"We assumed it wasn’t happening as we didn’t hear back for months but one Friday morning we got a reply saying ‘come and do it’.

"For our style of music, it’s probably the perfect crowd.

"We’ve always tried to make a point of not just turning up and playing, it’s getting people involved and we’ve always tried to do that.”

Adams’ hit (Everything I Do), I Do It For You – which featured in the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves – was number one consecutively for 16 weeks, the longest unbroken run at the top of the charts.

"I think everyone has grown up listening to Bryan Adams – if you had the radio on, he’d be on at some point,” said Mark.

"His music takes you to a place in time and everyone has that place in time that they recognise when they hear one of his songs.

"He’s written some really catchy songs and you don’t get to be number one for the longest time ever without knowing how to do that.”

Their date supporting the global icon must have been fate – Rocketsmith singer Andy Warriner posted on Facebook that his wife Christine had found tickets from their first gig together in 1997 – which just happened to be to see Bryan Adams!

The post read: “Having to pinch myself that 27 years later Andy is going to be supporting him”.

Adams will bring some of the greatest hits of his more than 40-year career, as well as playing songs from his latest studio album, So Happy It Hurts, when he appears at Dalby Forest on June 21.

He wrote some of the biggest hits of the 80s and 90s including Heaven, Run To You, Please Forgive Me, When You’re Gone’ (featuring Melanie C) and the globally celebrated anthem Summer of ‘69.

Rocketsmith and Cassyette will provide support.

Dalby will also host Nile Rodgers and Chic on June 22, and Richard Ashcroft on June 23.

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