LEGENDARY singer songwriter Bob Dylan celebrated July 4th in Limerick last night when he played at Thomond Park stadium.
A crowd of about 18,000 attended the concert, which heard a somewhat croaky-sounding Dylan win huge cheers from fans as he opened up with a rendition of his Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hata song from his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde.
Wearing a black suit and beige-coloured Trilby hat he went quickly into Lay Lady Layfrom his 1969 Nashville Skylinealbum. Soon the crowd was singing along to more familiar classics such as Just Like a Womanalso from Blonde on Blonde.
Earlier the Thomond Park crowd also saw performances by American blues singer Seasick Steve, multimillion selling artist David Gray and British rockers Alabama 3.
The band are best known for their song Woke Up This Morning, which played over the opening credits of the highly-successful TV series The Sopranos. Up and coming young Limerick band Last Days of Death Country opened the concert after winning the "Battle for Bob" band competition.
The competition was organised after the iconic star requested that a local four-piece band be chosen to open the proceedings.
It was the first time that Bob Dylan performed in Limerick and the concert completes this year’s series of concerts at the rugby stadium where pop singer Pink recently performed in front of more than 20,000 people.
For the hardened Bob Dylan fans last night’s concert finished off a weekend of festivities celebrating his music, with local fans running a “Bob Fest” celebrating his music over the weekend.