Bryan Adams aims for Llangollen Eisteddfod steam trip

Bryan Adams performed at Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena in 2019

Rocker Bryan Adams aims to take a trip on the steam railway when he performs in Llangollen this summer of '24.

The Everything I Do singer is performing a headline concert on 18 June as part of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.

Adams said: "I love a steam railway. I love taking the train, I wish I could take the train everywhere."

But his trip to Denbighshire will not just be about swapping music tracks for train tracks.

The International Eisteddfod in Llangollen has been held since 1947, attracting 4,000 performers and 35,000 visitors to the picturesque town.

It began with a vision that the ancient Welsh eisteddfod tradition could provide a means of healing the wounds of World War Two and help promote lasting peace.

• Katherine Jenkins, Tom Jones to play Llangollen

• Manics and Suede to headline Eisteddfod on UK tour

With war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict, Llangollen's peace message will perhaps resonate particularly powerfully.

Adams, 64, believes music can unite and bring people together, he told Lucy Owen on BBC Radio Wales.

"It's proven itself over the years to be very, very powerful," added the Canadian, whose hits include (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, which was number one for a record-breaking 16 weeks in 1991.

"I did a show for Nelson Mandela in 1988 I think it was, to free Nelson Mandela. You don't see it so much nowadays those big concerts like Live Aid.

"But it does have the power to influence. And I recently released a song called What If There Were No Sides At All, which is a sort of anti-war song, and it's been getting a great response, it's only ever been released as a video on YouTube, but I think music does have the power to influence and change, of course."

(Everything I Do) I Choo-Choo It For You: Full steam ahead on the Llangollen Railway for Bryan Adams

The star, who has released 17 albums, is in the process of re-recording his music.

"It's kind of taking a page out of Taylor Swift's book and taking control of my music and I just found her and many other artists who are doing it quite inspiring," he added.

"It's quite a daunting task to actually re-record the songs. They have been faithfully rerecorded and so they become artist-controlled rather than record company-controlled."

To try to make the new recordings as authentic as possible, Adams has used the same equipment used for his hits, including the 1985 original of Summer of '69.

He said he was able to recreate sounds as he had kept the same amplifiers and instruments for more than 40 years.

Adams had let a couple of guitars go, including one used on Summer of '69 - but it found its way back to him.

He explained: "At some time in the early '90s, I decided to sell a couple of guitars and I let them go.

"Then when the internet started to take off, people started sending me photos and I realised that some of the guitars in the photographs were these two guitars that I'd sold and I thought 'Oh, I wish I'd never sold those'.

"Then I was doing this record signing at this shop in Toronto and this guy came up to me and said 'hey, I have your old guitar, would you like to buy it back?'

"And I said 'sure, which one is it?', because I didn't think he was telling the truth, but I opened it up and there was this guitar."

It was in fact the one he had recorded his 1985 hit on, with the fan not asking much, but was just happy to return it.

"It was complete serendipity that everything sort of came back," Adams said.

"You'd think any guitar and any amp combination would make the sound but in fact no."

You can hear Bryan Adams on BBC Radio Wales at 12:00 BST on Saturday 13 April and on BBC Sounds