IT was a concert that will never be forgotten by those who were fortunate enough to be there. Frank Sinatra, Ibrox stadium, July 1990.
“Oh yes, it was a major organisational shambles, which makes it all the more galling for those who missed out,” wrote Jack Webster in the Herald.
“Because this was also, without doubt, the greatest show business night I have seen during 30 years in Glasgow. I thought my days of shouting and waving were 40 years behind me but there I was, a sober-suited citizen well past that kind of thing, now behaving like a teenage fanatic.” On a cold summer night, the stadium became a cauldron of worship for the greatest popular entertainer the world had ever seen, Webster continued.
Pundits had said that Sinatra’s voice was long gone, “so we would be doing no more than fitting a memory to an inferior reality. Francis Albert Sinatra gave his own magnificent answer. From the moment he strode on to that massive stage, he transformed that bleak Scottish night into an occasion which we quickly sensed was going to live with us for ever... The sound of an appreciative Glasgow audience went with him into the night sky and, by all accounts, delighted him.
I have seen many a top performer undertake the obligatory tour and be glad to see the last of us. Not so Sinatra ... Frankie was taking a good look at us, deeply and genuinely moved by what he saw. And what he saw ...was the very best Scottish audience I have ever encountered.”
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