Sarfraz Manzoor

Bruce Springsteen has been making music for over 30 years. With classic albums such as ‘Born to Run’, ‘Born in the USA’ and ‘The Rising’ and a reputation as one of the greatest live performers, Springsteen has won millions of fans around the world for whom his music has been the soundtrack to their own lives.

The writer and broadcaster Sarfraz Manzoor has been listening to Bruce Springsteen since he was a teenage boy growing up in Luton in the eighties. He credits Springsteen’s music with inspiring him to leave Luton arguing “more than anything else, it was Bruce who gave me the motivation to leave Luton, and provided the map of how to escape. During the years since, Springsteen has provided the looping soundtrack to my changing life.”

Manzoor, a Guardian columnist, film maker and cultural commentator, is now writing a memoir about growing up in the Eighties as a Springsteen fan. At the time he thought he was the only one, but having attended countless concerts around the world he discovered that there were many more men and women like him for whom Bruce Springsteen was more than just another rock star.

Sarfraz investigates the unique relationship between Bruce and his fans and explores why it has endured over the years. He meets some of Springsteen’s celebrity fans including Stephen Merchant, co writer of the Office, Danny Jones from McFly, Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh, author Nick Hornby and Prime Minister Tony Blair

This documentary tries to get to the bottom of what it is that makes Bruce Springsteen so special to so many of his fans.