And yet, when Adams talks about the making of Reckless and the events leading up to it, the story he tells is that of the archetypal working class hero. Reckless has sold 12 million copies, while his biggest hit, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, sold 15 million as it topped the charts all over the world in 1991. And it is, in a subtle way, emblematic of the kind of man Adams is. What he wore in that Sounds cover photo back in ’83 is pretty much what he’s wearing today: plain white T-shirt, jeans and heavy boots. But really, he hasn’t changed so much over the years, give or take a few lines on his face. It’s a framed front cover of Sounds from 1983: Adams pictured on stage, the sinews in his neck drawn taut as he sings, one hand on his guitar, the other raised high, fist clenched. But while Adams is making tea in an adjacent kitchenette, he pulls out a treasured souvenir of his rock’n’roll past. Instead, there is something from his other line of work as a photographer: a black-and-white study of a nude woman, in a style reminiscent of Helmut Newton. The office is simply furnished there are no gold or platinum discs on the walls no trophies from his 100 million-selling recording career. He has lived in this area since the early 90s. On one of the last warm days of the summer, he’s at his office, a converted mews house just off the King’s Road in London, close to the Thames. There is a deluxe edition of Reckless released on November 10 and a UK tour to follow where Adams will be performing the album in its entirety. Thirty years on, Adams is returning to the album that shaped his career and changed his life. With Reckless, Bryan Adams would knock the ball clean out of the park. His hard rock sensibility – explicit in Kids Wanna Rock – was something that spoke to fans of Van Halen and ZZ Top, and the way he sang, belting it out like a young Rod Stewart, gave him that extra edge. He turned 25 on the day Reckless was released – November 5, 1984. But Adams was of a different generation to those established big-hitters.

As a rock record made for radio, it plugged into that mainstream audience dominated by Bruce Springsteen, John Cougar Mellencamp and Don Henley. With Reckless, Adams found a niche that was all his own. And with that, he knew, at last, that he’d nailed it.

The three tracks were re-recorded using a drummer that Adams discovered playing in a ska band in a strip joint. In addition, he and Vallance wrote a new song from scratch – a song that answered Bruce Allen’s question in the most emphatic fashion. He called Jim Vallance, his co-songwriter, and told him: “We need to pump up the volume on this.” With his manager’s words still ringing in his head, Adams chose two tracks that could be “taken up a notch” – One Night Love Affair and Summer Of ’69. The next day, he was on a plane back to Vancouver. According to Adams, these three words “changed everything”.

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