On 27th July 2004, at Galway’s Pearse Stadium, for what would be the third and final supercharged occasion that week, I played lead guitar with Paddy Casey and his band as he opened for Bob Dylan on the 2004 IRL / UK leg of his ‘never-ending tour’. We’d played before the great man only the night before at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena (26 Jun 2004), and exactly one week before at London’s Finsbury Park (20 Jun 2004).

Long before this run of shows I was a genuine devotee and had seen Dylan in Melbourne, Germany, and Dublin. So as the saying goes I was ‘living my best life’, and watching three more concerts, or being and playing on the bill with him would have been memorable and thrilling enough. But one thing stands out above all else in my memory …

There was no question of meeting, getting near to, or even seeing Bob backstage. A visually impenetrable ring of police delivering him to and from the stage assured one that, as per the mythical stories of privacy and water-tight security around him ever since some crazed fan had lunged forward brandishing large scissors sometime in the 70s (intent on obtaining a lock of Bob’s hair, with or without his approval it seems), the time of chance encounters or meets-and-greets had long since passed.

At Finsbury Park seven days before, I had lapped up the show amongst paid punters in the regular ticketed area. Even high up the bill, our guest passes did not afford any extra privilege in this regard. But at Galway’s Pearse Stadium this day, a chink – if only a very small one – appeared in the armour.

After the dust had settled on Paddy’s set,  hoping to catch something from Dylan’s then-latest album, ‘Love and Theft’, my brother Edward and I made our way out into the crowd. I had been all day ‘bigging up’ his Finsbury Park performance of ‘Lonesome Day Blues’.

But just as Bob was coming on, we spotted a fenced-off area between the edge of the stage and the crowd barriers. Though protected by security on all sides, it was completely empty, and we each had Access All Areas passes dangling from our necks! So in that unspoken way, Ed and I were instantly decided and began our approach from the west side of the grounds with confidence.

On at least one occasion we were met with refusal, told by security we could go no further. But we were undeterred. Emphasising the ALL Areas wording of our laminate passes we continued to push our luck until, lo and behold, perhaps aided in our quest by the confusion and the applause we found ourselves the only two souls inhabiting that sacred space, staring up at Bob who from behind his small piano, playing and singing, stared back as if to say, ‘How the F did you guys get in there?’