Bon
Jovi Live @ Hampden Park, Glasgow (UK) - Saturday 3rd June 2006
After spending three quarters of an hour in traffic on one of the hottest days
of the year so far, it was good to soak up the party atmosphere around the national
stadium which looked more like a cowboy hat convention at times rather than
a Bon Jovi concert.
6.30pm and Nickleback hit the stage. I admit to not being their biggest fan
but they did what they were booked for, to warm up the audience in anticipation
of the main act. Nickleback are not a stadium band, they are more suited to
smaller venues and are the sort of band you have to have an acquired taste for
but all in all, they were solid enough and played for about 40 minutes finishing
with How You Remind Me which certainly had the crowd singing and rounded off
their set nicely.
8.00pm, the PA stops blasting out songs and Bon Jovi take to the stage opening
with Last Man Standing, a strange intro choice in my opinion but when Jon appears
dressed in black and starts to strut over the bridge and along the walkway which
goes quite far out into the audience, the shivers run down my spine. This is
what I came for, to see one of the few bands who can still perform to a large
stadium crowd and do it to the highest standard.
Ripping through the early part of the show with a mixture of old and new songs,
the Scottish audience really gets going and as the night draws in, the lighting,
which is reminiscent of a New York skyline to either side of the large video
screen, creates a real atmospheric aspect to the whole show. I haven’t
been to an open air show for a few years and I forgot how great it is to be
part of the whole stadium experience.
The band plays for almost two and a half hours and come on for a couple of encores
which the crowd sing along to religiously as they have done throughout the whole
evening. As the concert ends and the stadium starts to empty, everyone is still
on a high and just reminiscing about the last few hours where Bon Jovi re-affirmed
their position in my mind as one of the few rock acts that has remained consistent
over the last several decades.
The only minor issue was the sub-standard sound within Hampden Park and the
fact that I wish that they had played some of my other favourite numbers but
hey, that would have meant the guys playing all night or coming back the next
day. A fantastic concert that will remain with me for a long time to come –
9/10.
By Grant W.
Set list: Last Man Standing, You Give Love A Bad Name, I'd Die For You, Captain
Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars, Raise Your Hands, Bad Medicine, Radio
Saved My Life Tonight, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Complicated, Story Of My Life,
I'll Be There For You, Livin’ On A Prayer, Wild In The Streets, Someday
I'll Be Saturday Night, Runaway, Everyday, Just Older, Who Says You Can't Go
Home, Keep The Faith, Born To Be My Baby, In These Arms, It's My Life, I Want
To Be Loved, Sleep When I'm Dead.
by Grant W.
If anybody
has any photos from the UK Bon Jovi Tour and would like to see them in this
column, drop me a line @ EMAIL
Visit the Bon
Jovi Website