In 1995, Bon Jovi sold out three consecutive nights at Wembley Stadium...

Will certainly give it a try mate. Will try it now!

Cheers man. Very kind!

Kerrang!, January 1996

'Best Band': Bon Jovi

''A top year for Bon Jovi, who enjoyed three consecutive sell-out nights at Wembley in June.

They won the Kerrang! Hall of Fame Distinction at K!'s annual Awards ceremony, and they were also voted Best International Live Act. Plus, Jon and the boys exchanged tongue-in-cheek jibes with Brit starlets Reef.

''Their 'These Days' album, the band's sixth, shifted millions of copies worldwide. A truly triumphant year in every respect.''

'Best Album': Bon Jovi - 'These Days'

''These Days' has sold consistently all over the world and makes Bon Jovi just about the biggest rock band on the planet these days.''

DID YOU KNOW: ''Last year's 'Cross Road' Jovi compilation - one of the UK's best selling albums of the last five years, only snuck in at no.8 in the 1994 Kerrang! reader's poll.''

'Worst Band': Bon Jovi

''At the start of the year, we still had a lingering unpleasant aftertaste from watching Jon snog Cindy Crawford for super-soppy festive single 'Please Come Home For Christmas'. Please never do anything vaguely similar, Jon.

Drummer Tico Torres also made folk painfully jealous and irritated by frolicking on the beach with a topless Eva ''Hello Boys'' Herzigova, the Wonderbra model. Not that Tico invited those 40 tabloid photographers...

In June, Bon Jovi busked at three different UK locations in the space of a day. Smooth bastards.''

DID YOU KNOW:''Jon Bon Jovi has now shaved off all of his chest hair for a role in new 'erotic thriller' 'The Leading Man'. His bald torso is said to look ''hideous''.''

Worst Album: Bon Jovi - 'These Days'

''Well, it would definitely seem as though you either love Bon Jovi or you bloody well loathe them. Two entries into the 'worst album of the year' category. Oh dear...''

DID YOU KNOW: ''Cross Road was voted worst album of the year in 1994, as well as coming in at no.7 for 1995.''

Tasty Bloke of the Year: Jon Bon Jovi

''Jon's first comment to get the girls clutching their crotches last year was a prediction for the band's Wembley summer shows. He promised everyone an orgasm during their set. We were only too happy to excite the ladies by running the line: ''Jon Bon Jovi - 'Watch Me Orgasm'?'', on the cover of Kerrang!

More knicker-wetting news sprang a couple of months ago, when Jon admitted that his acting role in 'The Leading Man' would involve him wearing only his birthday suit. ''I see my dick everyday!'' he shrugged, and Britain experienced minor earthquakes as a million fans collapsed simultaneously.''

Best Promo Video: 'Something For The Pain' - Bon Jovi

''Something For The Pain' features a young kid standing in a record store. He's watching a screen showing impersonators of Eddie Vedder and Courtney Love, and is clearly giving them the thumbs down. When Bon Jovi appear, he looks much happier.

Bon Jovi themselves hardly appear in the video at all - probably down to the band's dislike of videos full stop. Their most recent video, 'Lie To Me', caused internal arguments aplenty.''

DID YOU KNOW: ''Bon Jovi deny that their 'Something For The Pain' video was taking the piss out of grunge stars. ''Actually'', reckons JBJ, ''everyone came off looking pretty good in it. I don't think there's any defamation going on there...''

Dick of the Year: Jon Bon Jovi

''The final Jovi 'triumph'. There are many reasons one might cast a vote for Jon: he's got lots of money, and he's the Tasty Bloke of the Year. He's snogged Cindy Crawford. None of his songs sound like Green Day and they're a bit girly.''

DID YOU KNOW: ''Jon Bon Jovi probably doesn't care that some of you think he's a dick. Still, he's paid off all the Kerrang! staff's mortgages in exchange for your home addresses. Chico and Lefty will be paying a visit soon.''



''These Days around the world in '95 were the best. Thanks guys, see ya in July!'' - note from JBJ next to image of him holding award.

Nope you are 100% right on that post methinks.

Tracks 7-10 on AOTL are phenomenal. They piss all over anything on WAN for my money. I enjoy WAN, it has some 'nice' and catchy songs but none of them will have any staying power for me. I'm With You, Water and What's Left of Me are as good as it gets but I don't feel that they came from the same place as Richie's stuff.

On a sidenote, if I was Richie, I would be incredibly pissed that AOTL tanked so badly. Those songs (7-10) should have meant success for that album on their own. The fact he poured his soul out in those songs and was ignored must be heartbreaking.

I think Richie in the band is as guilty as Jon for writing shite but that just underscores your point - Solo Richie has more to offer me than Bon Jovi Richie. I honestly believe the same is true for Solo Jon Bon Jovi.

May I say - F*ckin' aswesome!!! No wonder I became a fan around that time. They were the best and the mother****in' coolest band on the planet. Probably the only time that happened for them. How times change....

I was only a couple of years old then, but man I wish I could have experienced it. Apparently they were everywhere...THE band. And, without sounding biased...they deserved to be. 'These Days' and the 'Live in London' DVD are proof of that.

Completely agree. I would add Taking A Chance on The Wind to that and there you have it, 5 tracks on a record that are waaaay beyond anything Bon Jovi have done since These Days or maybe say Crush. To be honest, if I was adding up ALL other Bon Jovi songs that I felt were 'honest' after Crush - I'd get to only 3.
These are ...Novocaine, Make a Memory and Whole Lot of Leaving. Now these album has 5.
Of course, there's Last Man Standing, Undivided, The Distance, etc that are great songs. But all of them have some sort of non-genuine feel about them (maybe that's just me, who knows). Anyhow....this is a different conversation that the OP.

This band was the greatest band in the world, for all the right reasons. Now they are one of the biggest bands out there, but for a lot of bad reasons. I wish they had stopped some time on the way and wouldn't have got here. It's still impressive.

Haha...correct! That was the one song that changed it all. There was always a bit of It's My Life in Bon Jovi (I Believe, Saturday Night) but the extend that song changed them is in my book - completely detrimental. Ahh well. We all know that though.

This is brilliant! Thanks for this. This was the time that Jon could make fun of himself. He said shit that was funny and it wasn't all about Changing the world and the power of we! He was still a rock star then.

I became a fan thanks to "It's My Life" and I love that tune, but I see what you're talking about and I think you have a point. I also think Bon Jovi felt the pressure of the new millenium in addition to the new decade and shit. There's a world and some between "New Jersey" and "Keep The Faith" as well as between "These Days" and "Crush". Also in terms of looks. We don't really have that between "The Circle" and "What About Now", but then again, the whole album and relative tour is peculiar for different reasons.

Anyway, I HATE how the States pretty much force Bon Jovi into the nostalgia act category just because they couldn't be bothered with the stuff from the '90s. You see a documentary or promo video about Bon Jovi and they're like "in 1988 "New Jersey" was a massive hit and overdid "Slippery When Wet" thanks to months of touring. In 2000 they come back with the smashing hit "It's My Life", yadda yadda...". And I'm like what the hell are you talking about? I can't stand that shit.