Hi Everybody out there in Jovi Land!
I gotta get rid of my anger about a couple of things happening at the Gelsenkirchen Show / Schalke Arena!
First of all: The organisation with wristbands was horrible. A lot of Fanclubmembers were blaming the local security, but it was definetly not their fault! They were not allowed to hand out wristbands before the Production Team from BJ gave their ok, after bringing up the whole stage and doing soundcheck for BJ and LIVE. So it is just stupid by the FANCLUB to name 1pm as pick up time for wristbands, because the production setup is NEVER finished by that time! Wristbands came out by 3.15pm! Offical Doors were postponed due to the large ammount of FC Members!

The ARENAS` roof had to be closed to avoid noise pollution! That was the reason for a HORRIBLE SOUND during LIVE´S performance, because all the bands that play Gelsenkirchen come along with a PA that is built to rock open Air Areas and is built in a closed venue then, which won´t work ever! Like Bruce Springsteen a week earlier, BJ had - comparing to their normal Standarts - a HORRIBLEE Sound throughout the WHOLE SET! You couldn´t hear the beginning of the guitarsolos clear, Richie´s voice was hardly to hear often, even during I´LL BE THERE FOR YOU. People sitting in the upper Seats section told me the couldn´t understand most of the lyrics due to the shitty sound.
When the band started I really thought it will be a great night. After having seen 33 Shows so far, you can tell if it´s gonna be a BIG Night after 5 Songs. The band was playing tight, Jon laughed, everything looked ok - but it just LOOKED ok. After PRAYER Jon went to the back of the Stage, went nuts, screamed at his guitar rodie, kicked the stage wall, threw his microfone to the floor, and went off stage, at any possible time, he had not to sing during songs. He didn´t even say hello to the audience. The people in the Arena were partying so hard, it was definetly the best audience I have seen since Dublin 1996 and Jon didn´t make ONE speech in 2 hrs. 20 minutes, apart from introducing Richie before THERE FOR YOU - not very polite.
First we thought Jon was pissed off because of the horrible sound, then during the set we found out, he must have had SERIOUS health problems, and the closed venue that night was not doing him any good. He tried to get his breath like a dying fish sometimes - he went back to laughing after 105 min. when he let the audience sing the "nanananananana"-verse from BORN TO BE MY BABY, shouting: "Tico, these guys are keeping me alive". Richie asked him various time during the set if he is ok, when the finished the show, everybody hit Jons shoulder, basiclly they all knew, it was a very hard night for him.
I really haven´t seen the BAND that "un-funny" in all those years, when Richie found out, Jon was not fine, he didn´t smile for more than half an hour, Tico didn´t smile the whole night, just Dave and Hugh were having real fun. Personally i would have prefered it, they cancelled to play a show that night and postponed it to the next evening, than getting Jon in that kind of trouble. I guess 99% of the people did not realize he wasn´t fine that night, but I´m sure, the die-hards found it out really quick!
I hope he will be fine until MUNICH, so we all get a real fun-packed, great-sounding BON JOVI SHOW like we did everytime over all those years-except last Friday night, which was NOT the bands fault!
In the end I´d like to admire, that the ARENA in Gelsenkirchen, is GREAT for football, but it is a NIGHTMARE VENUE for concerts!
Up the guys,
see ya,
Karl