2 Questions RE Hyde Park 2003

Another hayfever episode if I remember rightly.

It was a great show, but being a bit negative, I remember the volume of the sound being a bit low and most of the show being played in daylight due to the early start.

Great set list though with a relatively rare (bounce tour) performance of These Days. It is the longest show I have seen.

I have one of the CD bootlegs which is pretty good quality.

I seem to recall Jon referring to 92,000 people during the show.

Found them on the DVD and have converted them to MP4

This is a show I would choose to go back in time and see above any other (except Wembley '95 but they don't count really).

The performance wasn't perfect by any stretch but I've been told the atmosphere was amazing, the weather looked glorious, it was a massive gig and they played for nearly three hours. The setlist was amazing as well.

This one together with the Times Square performance in 2002 are constantly cited as being the largest crowds the band has ever played at. Times Square supposedly had 500,000 in attendance that day, but I am sure that is an over exaggeration, like really really by a lot. On the other hand, it was a free show so....

I tend to be a little biased towards this gig, as it was my first full Bon Jovi show and my first ever outdoor show. As you said, the atmosphere was electric and the weather was gorgeous, and it was the first and only time that I've seen the band use fireworks (plus that odd but cool little credits sequence that they had on the screen at the end). And Jon's "you guys will turn me into one of the Kray brothers yet. **** it, lets play" speech when they broke the curfew was easily the most rock n'roll thing I'd seen at a live gig at that point

... But looking back on it, the show had its drawbacks too. Watching the songs from it on the TLFR DVD, Jon really does sound pretty bad. And although the setlist was decent in terms of what songs were played (These Days, Blood On Blood, Lola with Ray Davies, LYHOM for only the second time that tour I believe, and the only time I've ever seen Never Say Goodbye), the setlist structure was just bizarre. Within the first 12 songs, all the new songs plus Prayer, Bad Name, Wanted, KTF and Its My Life had been played. I can only assume that most of the casuals in the audience fell asleep until Bad Medicine at that point. Prayer and especially Wanted really need to be end of the night songs, although I do like Born To Be My Baby in the later position it was in.

To conclude, I would say of the three Hyde Park shows, 03 was in the middle. It was better than this year, but I think 2011 was the best of the three

Aloha !

Yeah, you're pretty much spot on with everything you just said, especially the comment in regards to the "**** it let's play" moment. A few days after the show, fans who had seen the band play there were begging for a DVD release, but I still remember Thierry saying "Yep, hayfever, Jon sounds terrible" right when Jon had sung the first verse of Bounce. Although the set looks good compared to nowadays standards, back then it was quite a let down as Richie and Jon had been bigging it up by saying they'd play a few surprises. Instead, it was predictable beyond belief. Nowadays the Bounce record gets some praise on here, but back then it was slammed on Jovitalk, so most songs did nothing to the die hards. I also remember Justin Hawkins of The Darkness slamming the show saying it had nothing to do with a rock show and Jon getting worked up about this.

Once the actual footage was officially released on the bonus disc for This Left Feels Right it's very obvious how dreadful Jon did sound that night. He got better 1,5 hour into the show, but it really was one of the worst performances of the tour in regards to how his vocals held up. The only reason why people seem to think this show was a highlight on the tour is because Jon and Richie have mentioned it a lot over the years, and it's the last show of the European leg of the Bounce tour. There's one thing I do agree on, and that's the atmosphere. I've seen quite a lot of festival shows now, or just outdoor Bon Jovi shows, and I've never experienced anything like it.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

I'm listening to the Hyde Park 2003 audio, and "I got the girl" is playing right now. I remember all the complaining for Jon's voice and for including so many Crush songs on the set by then.

Nowadays I'd love to listen some Crush album cuts (apart of IML and Captain Lame and the Red Queen from Wonderland) instead of LH ones.

There's no way there were 500,00 people in Times Square. Not even close.

The show was huger than anything I've ever been at. I was surprised so many people turned up. Hyde Park was literally taken over. You could see that the band were pumped when they hit the stage. Jon's voice was off but I didn't pay too much attention. The Never Say Goodbye closer was just perfect.

I think they did plan on releasing a DVD because there were cameramen everywhere, including ones on cranes towards the back of the crowd. Either Jon's voice or the quality of the footage put them off releasing anything official.