Croeso Billy - a musical icon plays the Principality Stadium

This was the big gig we have been waiting for all year. Billy Joel is an iconic artist and someone Cathy and I have always wanted to see play. And for the first time in his career he was coming to Cymru, playing a venue we could walk to, in his only European gig in 2024. We had to go! And on Friday night we did!

It was the biggest gig we've been to since seeing the Muppets at the O2. It was also my first stadium gig since seeing U2 nearly 20 years ago in the same stadium. (Although it had a different name then!)

We had a lot of emails ahead of the event warning us of restrictions and entry requirement, but getting in was an absolute breeze. There was also absolutely no hassle from fellow gig-goers, although that might be because we were in the seats in the middle tier. The standing area below us was packed. 

Chris Isaak was the support act. He was pretty good. I only knew one song of his, same as everyone else, and he played it midway in the set. You can guess what the song was. He can't hit the high notes any more but he did his best. The rest of his setlist was mainly rock and roll country bluesy stuff. I liked it.

And then at 8pm, the main man came on. True, from where we were sitting he was only a few centimetres tall, but there were huge screens either side and multiple cameras so we could see him quite clearly.

The screens were also used for a montage of background images in several songs - night scenes of New York during the song New York State of Mind, and a fast gallery of pictures of all the people and events name-checked in We Didn't Start the Fire. It was a very effective show. With the roof closed, it didn't feel like a stadium show - more like the world's biggest lounge act.

Billy leaned into his advancing years, apologising that he would probably struggle with the high notes when he sang An Innocent Man. He did point out that he recorded the song in 1983 and didn't expect to still be singing it 40 years later. The flipside of that was an injection of youth when his very young daughters joined him on stage - the older of the two belting out the chorus of My Life to great cheers from the crowd.

The show was all hits and a couple of cover bits - he got cheers when he sang snippets of What's New Pussycat?, and Green Green Grass of Home, and he also sang a chunk of Start Me Up after warning us "I'm no Mick Jagger..." He also gave some of his band opportunities to sing in one or two places, so he could get a breather. 

The final song of the main set was just him, with the piano, singing Piano Man. It was incredible. He stopped and let the crowd sing the chorus and we could see his expression on the big screen. He was visibly moved. It felt like the entire stadium had switched on the torch setting on their phones during it. We were all in the mood for a melody, and he had us feeling alright. 

The encore was five of the higher tempo songs including Uptown Girl, It's Still Rock and Roll to Me, and finishing with You May Be Right. During that one, Cathy looked into my eyes and sang she may just be the lunatic I'm looking for and I sang it back to her. It's one of our favourite songs and the perfect high note to end the show on.