Your opinion on a Walls sounding album.

Um...Metallica, U2, Maiden pretty much sell out every show that they do, in the UK at least. Large arenas, stadiums. Over her they are all much more popular than Bon Jovi at the moment. Aerosmith still do pretty well. Whitesnake and Europe are definitely on a smaller level. But Europe do not sound the same as they did in the 80s at all...they are a 70s sounding rock band now like Deep Purple. They sound nothing like The Final Countdown....etc...it's like a different band now...

Whitesnake started out as a blues group and turned into a hair band in the 80s. They got a ton of shit for it, too. To say they "always had the same sound" is rather weird. Of course, the same goes for Europe, as already mentioned. But unlike Whitesnake, Europe's singer didn't fire the entire band to be MTV ready. I enjoy some of Whitesnake's / Coverdale's stuff, but to act like he's a pillar of artistic integrity is pretty off.

And Metallica also had their fair share of stylistic changes. Yeah, they've been doing "back to the roots"-records lately. But neither St Anger nor Load are thrash metal records.

Don't care about U2, so who knows about these guys.

I am not saying they always had the same sound,they recycle their sound with couple of new sparks here and there.

Metallica sell out because they dont do tour like other bands,U2 also,Maiden dont sell out,it is close to that like BJ for the same reason-touring even more than BJ,from 1990 to 2018 they only didnt tour 1994,1997,2002,and 2015.

You're probably talking about the US. If so, I wouldn't know. As I said I was talking about the UK and those bands do sell out here. Metallica, Maiden and U2 are huge live acts. BJ doesn't even come close nowadays...again, I'm talking about the UK/Europe.

Metallica tour a lot. They may not do a full album very often, but even with no new material out they are on the road every couple of years and usually headline huge festivals, or their own stadium shows and full size arenas. Bon Jovi haven't toured here since 2013, or bothered to do much in the way of promo, and as such demand for them had dropped dramatically...

U2 have obviosuly changed their style a few times. Apart from the Load/Reload era Metallica have pretty much sayed faithful to their sound. Maiden have always just sounded like Maiden.

metallica before this worldwire tour had st,anger tour 2003-2004 and magnetic tour 2008-2010 like album tours,everything else between is couple of shows between 10 and 20 shows mostly festivals,but BJ is popular beside UK,Europe is large market,specially now when bands go to the eastern Europe,Balkan.BJ for sure will do good europe tour 2019,they need one show in England,one in Scotland, one in Ireland,and one in Wales ,not so many like they used to do,so 3 to 4 shows in UK at most.

It really shocks me to see people comparing Bon Jovi’s current popularity with bands like u2, Maiden and Metallica.

In 2010, they have to give away a lot of tickets to avoid empty spaces on their O2 Residency. They sold out one night in Sao Paulo, but you could still buy tickets 3 days before the show. Rio was only half full.

In 2011, most of the European stadium/open field concerts were far from sold out.

In 2013 they played for half empty stadiums in Europe, and decided to go places tbey hadn’t played for a long long time in order to sell more tickets.

Now on the other hand ... when U2 announced their first show in Sao Paulo last year, it sold out in 2 hours, and they added 3 more, which also sold out very quickly (stadium shows).

If you go to the streets nowadays in Brazil and ask random people the following question:

Hey, do you know that XXX is playing here this year ?

60% will answer:

U2 , Metallica, Maiden : yeah, they are great !
Bon Jovi : really? Does he still play ?

Even on the media. There is big coverage on tv and on the radio of these bands arriving, with interviews and bla bla bla ... When is Bon Jovi, there is almost nothing.

I dont agree with "In 2011, most of the European stadium/open field concerts were far from sold out"-take a look a videos from that period on youtube,not sold out but 90% for sure yes.
In 2013 is little worse,maybe 70 to 80 % but not half empty.
U2 music is music for masses,they are pure pop rock,sound for almost everyone and cant be compared just like Maiden and Metallica-hard rock and metal bands with different fan base.
Every rock band lost their audinece over the years,because there are new ones but you dont get new Metallica and Maiden.

Aloha !

I'd say let's look at the numbers:

First number is amount of tickets sold according to Bon Jovi, second number is the official capacity. Both numbers are rounded off.

Stadion Maksimir: 33:000/60.000 = 45% not sold
Ostrahege: 25.000/80.000 = 70% not sold
Munich: 68.000/69.000 = 2% not sold
Ullevaal: 31.000/35.000 = 12% not sold
Olympic Stadion: 45.000/45.000 = sold out
Casa Arena: 30.000/10.000 = Pretty impressive numbers. Yes, this is official.
Murrayfield: 55.000/67.000 = 18% not sold
Old Trafford: 42.000/50.000 = 16% not sold
Hyde Park: 42.000/50.000 = 16% not sold
Ashton Gate Stadium: 20.000/27.000 = 25% not sold
RDS: 68.000/70.000 = 4% not sold
Türk Telekom Arena: 35.000/50.000 = 30% not sold
Piața Constituției: 50.000/80.000 = 38% not sold
Esprit Arena: 55.000/65.000 = 15% not sold
Letzigrund Stadium: 37.000/50.000 = 26% not sold
Maimarkt-Gelände: 40.000/80.000 = 50% not sold
Stadio Friuli: 40.000/25.000 = Yep, again, official numbers. Impressive, eh?
Olympic Stadium: 60.000/70.000 = 14% not sold
Ernst Happel Stadium: 55.000/60.000 = 8% not sold
Zeebrugge Beach: 25.000/50.000 = 50% not sold
Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys: 40.000/65.000 = 39% not sold
Anoeta Stadium: 35.000/40.000 = 12% not sold
Bela Vista Park: 60.000/80.000 = 25% not sold

Out of the entire list 3 shows sold more than 90% of the tickets.

As for the Because We Can tour...Several venues (Slane Castle, Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Bela Vista Park, Stade de Suisse, Hampden Park) were half full, which is why two were rescheduled to smaller venues (Waldbühne in Berlin for one, I've forgotten the other show), which even then weren't sold out. As for other shows; They were booked for smaller venues as well, which they subsequently didn't sell out either.

Going by how well the band did on the Because We Can tour, how well the latest record did, and how many hits they've had the last 10 years there's no reason to believe they'd be able to sell as many tickets as they did in 2013, let alone 2011. Jon wants a high fee but it won't cover the expenses made by other parties as most people over here just aren't willing to pay over 80 Euro's for a ticket. Bon Jovi have become a financial liability when it comes to booking them for the bigger venues.

Now mind you, I'm not saying Bon Jovi are a small player, but they are nowhere near the league of the Rolling Stones, U2, Guns N' Roses, AC/DC, Metallica and even Coldplay are. A thing all these bands have in common is how they either haven't saturated the market, their studio output is still rated relevant, their shows didn't get worse, nor do they ask for high ticket prices. Bon Jovi have done all four, thus they lose out in the end.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Sonic. I agree with almost everything but GNR are nostalgia act and almost dead from 1993 on. I would say ACDC are the same nostalgia act like GNR, nothing impressive for 20 years.....
Coldplay, U2 still doing albums and yes they are still relevant.
I still respect BJ for what they done in 30+ years and they deserve to be in that league with Stones, U2, Boss.