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28 June 2003 - London, UK Concert Review 30 June 2003
A very, very special night in London

A review by dence / dence77@hotmail.com

Saturday night in London was my 8th Bon Jovi show. My wife and I travelled over from Northern Ireland because we know from past experience that Saturday nights in London with Bon Jovi are usually pretty special. But this one surpassed them all. I didn't think they had it in them to match or improve on the Milton Keynes show of June 2001 but somehow they did it! This was a very, very unique evening and I think it meant as much to the band as it did to the 92,000 fans. (92,000! And how many more seated on the grass outside?!)

I've never seen Jon enjoy himself as much on stage. We were at the Dublin show last week and although I enjoyed it I came away feeling that it was a bit routine. This was anything but routine. The set was shuffled up a bit, we got a lot more 'chat' from Jon between the songs and he dedicated The Distance to the fans who had supported them for 20 years (is it really that long?!).
We didn't queue at all but simply turned up at about 5:30 and went into the Gold Circle and by the time things got swinging we were pretty near the front of it. Lay Your Hands On Me was superb and what a fantastic bonus lay in store for use in the first encore when we were privileged to hear Blood On Blood! It was a nice touch to see the girls on stage during I Got The Girl and Ray Davies' guest appearance for Lola was another great surprise.

It was getting late and I reckoned they had maybe dropped a few of the regular tunes in favour of these rarities but I was wrong. Captain Crash was brilliant with fantastic lighting effects and These Days is a constant reminder of the fact that Jon is an excellent songwriter as well as a gifted showman and entertainer.

OK I think I've got value for my cash, Jon's voice is starting to waver and the curfew has been passed so I won't mind if the guys call it a night. Wrong again. The 'energizer bunny' just keeps on going. Twist and Shout brought on the biggest boogie Hyde Park has ever witnessed.

Thanks guys. Great night. See ya next time around. But wait, he's just asked a roadie for an accoustic guitar! The show was closed with a beautiful rendition of Never Say Goodbye and by now I had lost count of all the special treats that had been pulled out of the bag for this show. We were thanked for making the dreams of a bunch of kids from New Jersey come true and they left the stage to huge applause. After fireworks and a short movie everybody went home happy (except a few foul mouthed tarts who don't seem to understand that a crowd this big tends to exit quite slowly - there's always at least one!).

As I said, I was unsure whether or not this band could improve on what they had done for us in the past. They definitely have delivered far beyond all expectations. I've seen Springsteen twice this year (Paris and Dublin) and (for me) no one will ever match those shows (please don't criticise me for that - each to his own opinion!) but Bon Jovi have come very close. Like Bruce, on Saturday night Jon gave his all from the first chord to the last and kept going with a slightly faltering voice at the end when many other singers would have called it a night. The band continually thanked us for loyalty and support but they in turn must be given huge credit for still taking it on the road and giving their best after all these years. Respect.

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