When did you first notice Jon's voice had started to decline?

Yeah, the extreme nasality combined with the very inconsistent high register was painful. He could actually hit many of the high notes better again in 2017-19, but was obviously a billion times worse on every other aspect of his voice.

I got into the band towards the end of the Bounce era, and everybody on here was bitching how much Jon's vocals had deteriorated. So I was aware of a decline - the boxset afterwards which featured live shows with the octave drop for The Radio Saved My Life Tonight's chorus pretty much cemented that.

I remember the live vocals getting stronger around LH, and I'm pretty sure than Jon was very aware of a slight vocal decline around the These Days tour. There's a reason his solo record was much more low key (in both ways).

That didn't sell that well, and the TLFR versions were not popular. So back to the soaring highs again, even though he knew these were an issue for him.

Same case here. I started listening to live shows and following the band in a time where vocal issues were already a problem.

If I had to set dates to Jon’s vocal decline, I’d first say the mythical Wembley ‘95. Sure, he could still reach the notes, and the energy was awesome, but Jon’s voice was quite thin in several songs.

Same for ‘96 shows. The band was perhaps at its tightest, but Jon’s voice wasn’t what it was until 1993.

After that, I think other progressive inflection points were Bremen 2003, Borgata 2004 and the last leg of HAND tour. After the Indian summer and great improvement on LH and The Circle eras, the next drop came with the Sandy relief concert in 2012 and the video of Jon in the studio recording What about now.

The final and definitive drop came after Richie left, and then it has keep going downhill, as we all know.


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I agree that 2002 was the first time he started to sound objectively bad.

Hard to say nowadays….. i mean he sounds so horrific now that looking back say to 2010 he seems brilliant….. but i know back in 2010 i was saying to myself jeez he sounds average compared to 2000 …..

Looking back to 2010? Even in 2014 he sounded brilliant compared to today:

https://youtu.be/HbjX-ljw-iw

https://youtu.be/3bnH68v-w5s

https://youtu.be/1i3sjxW4IwU

https://youtu.be/pXM90oGIJYA

I had never seen these videos before. They are great! It is so cool to see a live performance of Rich Man Living in a Poor Man's House. That version of Midnight in Chelsea is especially good.

2018 nonetheless, this performance of BOR made the hairs on my neck stand up:


It’s absolutely brilliant.

My thoughts are 2013 is where it started to go for good. I know that ties in with when Richie left but it's not meant to. With certain WAN songs I saw Jon leaving the stadiums and anthems behind and onto more acoustic stuff (Springsteen, Dylan, Steve Earle, Leonard Cohen) and I thought that was the best (and most credible) way to go. I thought it could be a positive progression at that time (for the whole band) and those very cool solo 2014 performances I've just seen for the first time reinforce that. That probably wasn't going to be where the money was though...

I guess you can tell when all the demanding ultra popular songs start leaving the sets. It was a simple as asking oneself "Why isn't this band playing Always every night? Everybody wants to hear it."