A review by Simon Moxon / smoxon@yahoo.com

Well the weather held out and my three friends and I were looking forward to a great show. Our first mistake was turning up at 3pm then waiting for the gates to open at just after 4pm and getting seated for 4.15pm. My god what total boredom! Jovi were not due on stage until 8pm so we were in all waiting around for about 5 hours. Now usually there are some support bands who even if you don't like them, give you something to watch and listen to. Almost two years to the day we were in almost the same seats watching Nickleback blow the roof off the stadium with 'How You Remind Me'. That was a truly memorable moment that I will never forget. No such flamin luck this time as the road crew drag out a table and a D.J. from the local radio station comes on a plays a few predictable tracks, He then thinks that by keep on mentioning 'Bon Jovi' it will win him some fans. He was wrong! Then we are amazed to find out there is no proper support band and the winners of a local radio competition take to the stage and bless em, do their best but to say I felt short changed does not do my feelings justice. The promoter really made a job threatening boo boo there. 8pm arrives and Bon Jovi take to the stage full of energy but it's like listening to a bootleg recorded on a mobile phone. In fact it's worse than that, simply terrible sound. It reminded me of Wembley 2000 where the sound was also bad. 2006 at the same venue and there was no problem with the sound so there can be no real excuses. By the last third of the set it was listenable to but the rest was just pants. Surely they had someone walking around checking the sound! I could hear the guy on the desk was constantly fiddling with the sound but basicly he failed, totally. The band though were in fine form considering their near the end of a mammoth tour and I think they put their all into it. The set was pretty cool but come on guys give some of the songs a rest, you have a huge back catalouge to choose from why keep playing the same songs? 'Runaway' for instance was never much of a song in the first place and the crowd just stood there no reaction at all, drop it please! Highlights were 'Raise you hands' and 'In these arms'. Would love to hear some different stuff, 'Dry County', 'Hey God' or even 'Lay Your Hands'. Another thing, I am a huge Richie fan, fellow guitarist ( I even own one of his old Strats) and love his solo stuff but, am I the only one that hates him singing 'I'll be there for you' and These days'? Richie, please sing one of your own songs, 'In it for love' would be perfect! The show was a bit short but the guys worked hard and all in all I enjoyed their performance which was only let down by the dreadful sound quality.

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