Bruce Springsteen

Think about the last time you saw a Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band concert. His rock and roll is thunderous and poetic. Amazing, isn’t it? And it’s no less impressive that he has been doing this for more than 4 decades. When ‘Born To Run’ was released in 1975 it became his landmark record and an American rock classic, a milestone few artists ever experience.

It is hard to imagine a period of time when Springsteen isn’t touring or recording but in July 1976, not long after the ‘Born To Run’ tour, he was crippled by a contractual lawsuit with his first manager that threatened his career. As a performer and recording artist,. Springsteen seemed to vanish. Unable to record or tour without legal complications, he and the E Street Band spent the next 10 months holed up in New Jersey rehearsing and creating tracks for what would become the album, ‘Darkness On The Edge of Town’. The suit was settled in May 1977 and Springsteen was free to move on. ‘Darkness...’ was recorded and released in early June 1978.

The new tour opened almost a week earlier in May in Buffalo, NY, and reconfirmed his reputation as a musical force. This time was pivotal in Springsteen’s career and he was anxious to make up any lost momentum from his 2-year public absence. He needn’t have worried. I took these photographs mid-way through the ‘Darkness On The Edge of Town’ tour in Toronto, Ontario at Maple Gardens / Concert Bowl on November 16, 1978. They are presented in the order they were photographed during the concert.

Click below to order your unique copy of this limited-edition photo box set

• ‘OneNightIn1978’ is a limited photo edition of 50 box sets and 2artist’s proofs.

• Each contains six(6)–9”x12”, 310 gsm archival prints.

• I have printed, signed, and numbered each of the black and white images.

• They are made from high-resolution scans of the original film negatives.

• Four of the six photographs were recently discovered in my files.

• The cloth-covered box was handmade specifically for this edition by Samantha Couture

  of Fly Leaf Bindery.

• The design and typesetting was created by Stuart Brown of Viva & Co. 

Patrick Harbron began his career documenting the luminaries of rock and roll in 1976. His photographs of the best-known musicians and performers such as Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Blondie, The Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Ray Charles, Queen, The Who, and many others have been widely published in magazines, books, and album covers. The photographs have been shown and collected through numerous gallery exhibits. Harbron's work has been nominated for two Juno Awards for album art and is included in the Taschen book, '1000 Record Covers'.