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Bon Jovi : Molineux Stadium, 24th June 2003

REVIEW

Monday 30th June 2003


Somethings never die, and Bon Jovi are one of those things, they have been around for what seems like forever. Love them or hate them, you have to respect them for staying around for as long as they have.

This is Bon Jovi's ‘Bounce’ tour. Now there are no prizes for guessing which track they opened the set with - 'Bounce', you can't beat promoting your newest album first. Also the audience are more likely to remember the first track more than any other track. So now the shameless promotion of 'Bounce' was out of the way, it was time to be treated to some of the more classic Bon Jovi tracks.

I have to admit I was shocked when the immortal opening line 'Shot through the heart, and you're to blame...' came belting out over the PA system, hang on a second, surely Bon Jovi aren't playing one of their biggest hits only two songs in. To our amazement they had decided to play 'You Give Love A Bad Name' as the second track.



All the members of Bon Jovi are starting to show signs of ageing, yet they can still run around the stage as if they were just mere teenagers. Richie Sambora as always was cool as a cucumber on guitar, but let's be honest he has had many years to perfect his guitar playing. Tico Torres was simply awesome banging out those heavy drum beats with the precision of a military operation. And of course there is Jon Bon Jovi himself who even today is the desire of most womens fantasies.

Now I won't bore you with the songs they played as, you will probably realise they just about played every track you can think of. They even included another track from the new album entitled 'The Distance', which went down extremely well with the audience. The only track that was noticeably missed out was 'Always'.



The main surprise of this show was the fact that they played their biggest hits towards the beginning of the show, and only the bravest of bands would do a thing like that, usually they save their biggest hits for the encore. However when you have such a popular back catalogue then you are able to get away with it. They decided to save 'Bad Medicine' for the encore, which gave the audience a chance to display their vocal ability.

Bon Jovi put on a great show, and it is easy to see why even after all these years they are still one of the biggest rock bands around. I will definately be queing up for tickets next time they come back to Britain.

review by Luke Seagrave
photos by Luke Seagrave