I was browsing through the categories and reviews and came across this one and felt compelled to write about my love of one of the world's biggest rock bands.
As some of you may know already if you have read my earlier reviews I am a huge fan of Bon Jovi. I have seen them live on 3 occasions and hopefully will see them again.

The band are :-
Jon Bon Jovi - vocals, guitar
Richie Sambora - vocals, guitar
David Bryan - keyboards, backing vocals
Tico Torres - drums
Hugh McDonald - Bass

Bon Jovi have released numerous albums and singles during their decades-spanning career, but it is really the experience of seeing them live, that I think shows just how hard-working and talented they really are.

My first experience of seeing Bon Jovi live was at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, June 2004, the 'Bounce' tour. We chose to go and see them there as living in the North East of England it was one of the easiest places to get to, and also we love Scotland. And as the Scots certainly know how to enjoy themselves, we knew we were guaranteed a great atmosphere!
It was a warm humid day as we settled into our seats in the stands. The support band were 'Live' and were actually quite good! After their set, it wasn't too long before Bon Jovi took to the stage, playing tracks from the 'Bounce' album and also some old favourites too, such as Living On A Prayer, It's My Life, Raise Your Hands and Wanted Dead or Alive.
Before entering the stadium, leaflets were distributed which gave information on how to get a chance to be on stage with Bon Jovi during the concert. This involved sending a text to the number stated, and if you received a text back you would be able to join the other winners and go up on stage. There were quite a few people taken up onto the sides of the stage at regular intervals during the cocncert, some of then got to shake hands with Jon Bon Jovi, or dance with him. I was not one of these lucky folk!

Their live sound was fantastic, Jon's vocals faultless. They put so much into their performance and Jon interacts well with the crowd at every opportunity. The stand- out track of the night for me was Keep The Faith, which built slowly to an amazing finale.

I mentioned the day was humid and there were one or two lightning flashes overhead which fitted in well with the electric atmosphere inside the stadium! The band played a long set of over 2 hours - so real good value for your money.

The second time I saw the band perform live was 2 years later, June 2006, the Have A Nice Day tour. Again we went to Scotland, this time to Hampden Park. It was a red hot summer day, and we had a nice walk to the stadium, stopping off at some bars along the way. We had a good time sitting outside the various bars with a drink amongst a lot of Bon Jovi fans.
The support band this time were Nickelback, which I was really pleased about as they are one of my favourite bands.
We were seated in the stands again, but as everyone was stood up and dancing, it was just as good as being on the pitch.
Bon Jovi played tracks from the Have A Nice Day album and again some of their earlier hits, including You Give Love A Bad Name, Just Older, Someday I'll Be Saturday Night. The stand-out tracks this time being I'll Be There For You with Richie Sambora giving an excellent lead vocal, and Wanted Dead Or Alive, which is one of my favourite songs. Again the band played another long set, though I'm sure the fans would have been happy to be there all night!

I travelled to London last year to see the band play at Twickenham Stadium in June. Why not Scotland again? Well the band did play at Hampden Park again but unfortunately we had already booked our holiday before the dates were announced and London was the only concert we were able to attend.
We made the long journey down by coach the day before the concert, and were staying at a North London hotel, but still had quite a bit travelling on the day of the concert - a bus, the tube and a train ride to get us to Twickenham.
I felt the atmosphere at Twickenham was not as good as we experienced in Scotland, but still had a good time. The support band were Biffy Clyro, who I had not heard of at the time, but I understand they had a chart hit with 'Mountains'.

Bon Jovi played another long set of songs from the Lost Highway album, and also quite a few songs ive not heard live before such as Diamond Ring, Always and Dry County (which for me was the stand-out song this time).The band also did a cover of the Stones 'Start Me Up' complete with Jon doing a hilarious Mick Jagger impression!
After the concert, we had the long walk, train, tube and bus journey back to the hotel so were pretty exhausted but had a great time.

I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing them again, but I don't think I'd like to travel to London again, so would like to stick with Scotland, unless they play somewhere here in the North-East again, as they did a few years back.

If you like Bon Jovi and haven't seen them live, I would definately recommend it. They are not the 'poodle-haired pop stars' critics once said about them, they are simply a hard-working rock band who deserve some credit for selling millions of albums and continuing to play to sell-out stadiums world-wide.
A fantastic night out and worth every penny!

Thanks for reading!