Highway 81 Revisited: Bruce Springsteen's Longest UK Tour

by Mike Saunders

134 pages, Paperback

Published July 17, 2026

Reviews

[Robert Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longtime Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes scholar Mike Saunders (his informative liner notes in the 2007 boxed set "Jukebox" are essential reading) has finally published his first book.
"Highway 81 Revisited: Bruce Springsteen's Longest UK Tour" is a slender but extremely detailed documentation of this specific era in E Street Band history.
After performing just two shows in London, England on the "Born to Run" tour in 1975, there were years of rumours of a return visit that, for numerous reasons, never happened. Finally in May-June 1981, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, promoting "The River" album, made their way back to the United Kingdom. Saunders discusses those often cancelled plans and explains why the eventual actual tour confirmation was of such importance to the British fans at the time. The tour consisted of 16 shows over four weeks which Saunders himself attended 4 of, and briefly met Springsteen after the May 27 gig in Brighton.
With great historical accuracy Saunders describes the various venues that were booked for the tour and presents the complete setlist for each show along with quotes from contemporary reviews of each concert.
The book also pleasantly offers pics of actual vintage ticket stubs, concert ads, backstage passes, 7" singles, paperback biographies and magazine covers from the era. We're additionally treated to images of the various live albums that have been released from this period such as: "Hammersmith Odeon London '75," "London 11/24/1975," "No Nukes," "London June 4, 1981" and "Wembley Arena June 5, 1981." All of these various images add to the flavour of the book and really help paint a picture of what it was like being a fan anticipating these concerts.
E Street Band fans who love to examine Springsteen minutia will find much to absorb and process here. To his credit, Saunders wisely avoids falling into the trap of just coldly presenting the data. Instead, his voice remains conversational in style and his enthusiasm is easily relatable.

Now about that long promised Southside Johnny book.....


Robert Lawson
Author of Solidarity Forever: The Art and Soul of Stevie Van Zandt

[Dan French · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m so pleased and proud that Mike has become a fellow author. He’s one of the best writers I know, as anyone who reads his ‘Facebonker’ FB posts knows, and his detailed style has long been asking to find a long-form outlet beyond the social media format. (His comprehensive book project about Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes is ongoing, many years in the making already; it’ll definitely be worth the wait.)

When he recently shared his Facebook series about the 1981 Springsteen UK tour for its 45th anniversary (originally conceived in 1991 for Badlands for the 10th anniversary, then updated for Backstreets for the 40th anniversary), easily the definitive account of that unique watershed era for Springsteen and the E Street Band, more than one of us thought: ‘that could be a book’. I thought: ‘it not only could be, it really, really should be… and it almost is one anyway’. He’d effectively written a book already without realising he’d done so, and all it needed was some time to put the parts together, do the formatting (less easily done in Facebook anyway) and add some extra detail and Saunders tweaks for his satisfaction.

Since I already publish the Trethewey Press imprint on Amazon, the obvious route was to host it there, so Mike could focus on the creative side of the production. Big thanks to Phil Jump at Badlands for coming on board with a special pre-signed edition again. The phrase ‘it wrote itself’ is so true in this case. Many congratulations, Mike!