A review by Queen Of New Orleans / wendyrispin@aol.com

Saturday 16th June........Milton Keynes Bowl........best night of my life :)


Ok then here goes saturday night was the most amazing night of my life, friday night i never slept a wink, i was way too excited, saturday we left home around 10 we was told that we couldnt pick up the onstage passes till 4 we got there at 2 and went on our travels to find the right box office, we evenetually found it :), to be told that the passes had not yet arrived yet and that we had to go back at 4, (While we managed to get lost though we came across a huge Bon Jovi tour truck It had Bon Jovi all over it for you guys in that went to the show it was the same pic that was printed on the tickets so i took pics of my husband and daughter stood near it ) so we all goes back to the car park for some food, (by this time i am beside myself with excitment ), at 3.30 we go off on our travels again to the right box office this time, we stood in the queue for around 10 mins, when it was our turn i paniced the lady said have you brought confirmation with you that it is you who won the prize, i almost died i wernt told to take anything with me, i told her no that i had not and that i wernt told too so i had to tell her how how i managed to win then and lucky for me she gave me then, my husband even had the cheek to ask her for another pass for my daughter, hey and guess what she gave him one just like that too :), just goes to show what you can have if you ask the right people :).
we where given 3 wrist bands that had on stage pass all over it i was sooooooo proud to be wearing one :).
we where also given a piece of paper telling us that we had to make our way to the side of the stage 10 mins after Matchbox Twentys set had finished.
After reading the piece of paper for the 100th time ( i never wanted to do something wrong and miss the show lol) we made our way to the bowl entrance (in the rain i might add :( ) It was already packed inside the bowl as the gates opend at 2.30 and we couldnt go in till after we picked up the passes at 4 coz we was told there would be no pass out.
Once inside we spent a fortune on merchandise i couldnt decide which tshirt to buy so i bought a Matchbox Twenty one, (i was told to get the Matchbox Twenty ones on the way in as they sell out fast )i bought a Bon Jovi world tour one and a Bon Jovi UK tour one,(by this time i was getting worried looks off my husband lol lol) i think i was spending too much lol, little did he know i had not yet finished lol , i also bought a programme, and some pin badges, already deciding that i would get a poster on the way out as i never wanted to carry it around with me all day.
By now oh gosh the feeling is unreal.
we got inside the bowl by his time it was pretty full,
we managed to find a spot pretty close, (not in the pit ) my membership has yet to come through), we settled ourselves in waiting for the first group to take the stage.

Ok so here is where it starts..... can i just say at this point in my opinion the support acts for Bon Jovi are the best they have ever had.


Delirious where better than i had expected i had only ever heard them play one song before, i had seen them on tv a few weeks earlier.( it started to rain as soon as they hit the stage) ( we took a few pics altough i think we knew they would turn out)

Matchbox Twenty where great i have been a fan of theres for a while now i think they was only me and my daughter that knew there songs, we seemed to be the only ones singing where we was stood, the when they played If Your Gone ever one was saying oh thats who they are Rob did a great Job with the crowds in the pit they got right into the show. (We took quite a few pics of Matchbox Twenty hopefully they will come out by this time we had made our way a bit closer to the stage )

Matchbox Twenty Setlist in no particular order....

Angry,
Black and white people
If Your Gone (at which point I heard quite a few people say "oh thats who they are"
Mad season
Bent
Real World
Long Day
3 A.M.
Push
Back to good



Ok this is where my life life will never be the same lol
10 minuites after Matchbox Twenty left the stage we made our way to the side of the stage, ( 10 minutes seemed to be like an hour ) there was quite a few competition winners there :).
My husband even had the nerve to ask one of the security guys at the front of the stage if he would take some pics of them while they was up on stage ( from reviews from Hampden it seems the securuity guys was doing this there ) we was told that they are not allowed to do this :(

The only dissapointing thing about that whole show was we missed around an hour of Bob Jovi's set , we could hear Bon Jovi take the stage but from where we was kept we couldnt see, we could only see if jon was to talk on a certain part of the stage.

We was the third group to take the stage we got to go at Hugh's side i walked up to where we was to stand for our 3 songs and hugh looked me straight in the eyes and smiled at me (oh gosh this is unreal).
I could not and still cant believe what the crowds look like from off the stage it was sooooo unbeliveble there was not a spare space of land out there on that field.
To see everyone clapping and singing oh gosh it was truly amazing.
We was onstage for Just Older, Wild In The Streets, And Blaze Of Glory,
i had eye contact with David too he seemed to stare at me forever lol well it was maybe just for seconds but it sure felt like forever lol.
They started to play Wild In The Street ( Oh Gosh), at this point my life is never to be the same again ( i bet you are thinking oh she got to dance with him erm nope wrong) Jon started to walk over to where we was stood he was staring at me right in the eyes i smiled at him and waved he held out his hand (oh gosh) i reached out to touch his hand, this seemed to go in slow motion, he shook my hand, oh gosh this moment i will never ever forget, at this point there was only me and my husband that reached out to touch him, noone else in our group held out there hands, my 12 year old daughter just stood there to scared to hold out her hand ( she later said he is a World wide super star you aint allowed to touch them lol ) i patted Jon on the back, and held his hand again ( i am crying reliving the moment here ) At this point Jon started to walk away, and knowing my daughter had not yet touched him, my husband grabbed hold of Jon and steered him towards my daughter, and Jon been the sweet guy he is took hold of my daughters hand and gave that sweet smile of his :) i couldnt believe how small he looks in real life too lol i was sure he was taller than he is.
After we had been onstage for the three songs we where taken off the stage and the security guy started to cut all the writbands off the people that had been onstage at this point i started to panic i wanted to keep mine lol just to say i had been up there with the best guy on this planet, but lucky for me they gave us them back :)
then for some unknow reason we was ushered into the pit, we did not have pit bands so i am not sure why we was put in there, i never complained though lol.
we managed to get a spot to the side of the stage to take some pics well actually we took two rolls of film in about 15 mins lol lol, we never manged to get any pics of richie though he never came over to the side of the stage at the time we was there :(.
After the show my ears where buzzing it was sooooo loud and to feel all the vibrations through the stage floor it was unreal.
we made our way back to the car (after picking up my poster before we left the bowl) calling everyone we knew on our mobiles telling them we touched Jon Bon Jovi lol lol.
we got home around 3.30 and fell into bed at around 5, we was up at 9 in the hope of going into town to find a shop open on a sunday that would develope the pictures but they was all closed :(
so i am off now to take them into town and get them done hopefully i will have them back later and if they are any good ( oh which i hope they are ) i will share them with you. :)
so there you go i that was the 27th time i have seen Bon Jovi and that was Bon Jovi at there best, that was the best show i have ever seen and to touch Jon and be on the stage with him, it was the most amazing night of my life and one i will never ever forget, at last i have lived my dream :)

Set List.....One Wild Night / Raise Your Hands, You Give Love A Bad Name / In These Arms / It's My Life / Born To Be My Baby / Bed of Roses / I Got the Girl / Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen from Mars / Just Older / Wild In the Streets / Blaze of Glory / Lay Your Hands On Me / Keep the Faith / Bad Medicine

Encore 1: I'll Be There For You / Say It Isn't So / I'll Sleep When I'm Dead / Tequila / Twist and Shout

Encore 2: Someday I'll Be Saturday Night / Wanted Dead Or Alive

Encore 3: Livin' On A Prayer

I would just also like to say a huge thank you to the guys that gave me the chance to do this, to the guys at peoplesound.com and to the guys at Mercury records......and also for the people that let me send the Ecard to there email address because without them i wouldnt have been able to do it. Thank you so much for letting me live my dream, things will never be the same for me again :)

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