Official July 5th 2013 - Hyde Park, London, UK thread

That is so cool. Will you be enlarging it and displaying it on a prominent wall in your home?

Edit Bobbys head out first

LOL. I took another look at the pic after I posted my reply, and realized it would need a a little cropping. Funny, didn't even notice Bobby the first time I viewed it.

Last time I checked, Europe was still part of the world. And we know for a fact that, comparing the last few tours of both artists, Bruce has sold more tickets and grossed more money there than Bon Jovi. In particular, Bon Jovi can only dream of being as big as Bruce in Spain, Italy, France, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. I think that’s pretty damn good for someone who is considered a no one

Right here goes.....

Left work at 1pm for some lunch and went over Hyde Park to try and upgrade GA to GC - There were only a few left but the guy said it wouldnt be a problem. He went away and took forever. Then came back and said it had to be cash only. I had card - as I was at the "card purchase" stand.
The woman behind the booth said she would hold them for me until I got back at 4 after work and true to her word she did - she could have sold them but didnt. That was very nice of her. So in we go............

Cant remember what time we got in (as we had gone back to hotel to get changed after upgrading - it was 5 mins from Hyde Park) and Bush were just finishing their set.

Great set up with the villages and food places. Great weather. Great atmosphere. Every thing was...great.

Had several beers and got chatting to family who were mother in law, husband, wife and their two kids who must have been about 6 and 8. All Jovi nutters!!!

Had an excellent view and watched Kaiser Chiefs. Who although are not my cup of tea done a good job in getting crowd moving. Strange what's happened to them and it was during their set I started remembering back to 2005 when they came out - I was working at Universal and they were tipped to be the next legendary band. Hasn't quite worked out like that has it? Makes you think about how big Jovi still are after 30 years. Its amazing really.

So onto Jovi - Im not going to go into the songs but it was a great solid show. I thought JBJ was on top form and as usual the unsung hero was Tico who I think gets better every tour. He would be a bigger loss than Richie if he ever decided he had enough of it - imo.

So when WSYCGH came on I said to the bloke with his two kids that I didn't like this one and that it only seems to creep back into the European set lists as they go mad for it. He didnt know this and so I said does he not follow the band on forums? He told me that although his family are Jovi nutters and they watch youtube clips and follow the band through social media they DONT belong to forums as they have become a place for people to moan from behind the keyboard about set lists and performances. You cant tell an atmosphere behind a camera that's filming but people make all kind of judgements. They are just places of mostly negativity.

I thought of this place and agreed with him.......Sorry but I do.

I'm sick of people who didn't go giving their opinions on a gig they DIDN'T attend and just looking at the set-list.
Before the gig I decided I didn't care what songs I got. I just wanted them performed brilliantly and to me (and I've seen them over 20 times) they were and that's all I ask for.

Im a fan of nearly 25 years and I could moan that Ive hardly had anything rare of late but Im not going to.
If I followed AC/DC all the way around the world Id get the same 18 songs in the same order every night of the tour. Yet people still moan about Jovi using 60 odd songs.

They have to play what they think the crowd want to hear. Its no good chucking in rare songs as most wont have heard them. How rare do you go? Get Back? Love Lies? Boderline? Every Day? Misunderstood? What makes one rare song the better choice than the other? Because Everyday is newer than Get Back is it better to play that rare song? Why?

Im not a huge Springsteen fan and everyone waxes lryical about the way some shows are so rare. That would be shit for me. Id want the hits.

Regarding Richie I really missed him during Wanted but at the same time had visions of him sitting behind a sewing machine moaning about hem lines so I forgot about him which is a shame. I feel for samboraisgod as its hard when one of your favs isnt there - like Slash and GNR. I thought Phil done a great job considering they are not his songs.

So all in all I had a great 3 hours. Rocked and Rolled then went to Hard Rock Cafe for some grub. They played Its My Life on the video screen and the place erupted as it was full of Jovi fans. Two really drunk guys in there were going mental and had my missus in stitches - especially when his head smashed into the light above the table!

So you can pull this post apart, tell me Im wrong and that Jovi suck, the set was shit, JBJ was shit etc but unless you were there. I couldn't give a toss. I had a fantastic time and so did the crowd and thats all that counts.

Thanks for reading.

Sums it up for me with regards to the concerts i go to. Great read thanks

I actually really like Crash myself, but its one of those I think should be rotated. It was never a hit (or even a single as far as I'm aware?), the "casuals" shouldn't know it- it's only there because the swaying looks awesome if the whole crowd partake, but there are plenty other songs that can be swayed to.

Thanks for reading. Im still buzzing sitting in my new Jovi shirt. The Navy blue one.

Wore my classic 1988-90 shirt for the gig and still got so many comments. As far as I could see (obviously I didnt see everyones!) it was the oldest shirt there.

I just think people see and read far to much into gigs these days. Before internet we would never had known what was played in Hampden Park let alone Budapest. We would turn up on the day and take each song as it comes.

Too many sit behind keyboards and judge.

One negative - just one......I dont like and never have liked the way JBJ says I aint going anywher, I got 12 albums I could play here.

It should be We.

Its a band effort.

Thats my only little gripe but not enough to worry about or ruin my experience.

That's really cool. I'd love to have seen your face when you realized what you'd captured. I remember years ago when a friend emailed me that she saw a pic of me with Joe Perry. I thought she was horsing around until I opened the attachment and saw that someone had caught me leaning on the catwalk as Joe strutted by playing his guitar. Nice bit of serendipity.

It's really fun when something works out like that. You'd probably never be able to deliberately capture a moment like that if you tried!

Awesome picture! Thanks for sharing!!

Top top review mate, and you echo everything that I feel about the band right now. I too, get very wound up by the moaners who judge the entire show on a setlist. Villa Park had a bland setlist by all accounts but some might say it was one of the best shows in the UK this tour. Either way Villa Park was a very decent performance and the setlist was bang average - which brings me onto the other point I agree with:

Raraties. You cannot fill an entire setlist with raraties because the percentage of die hards that attend these shows is very low. I would say about 10%. This was proven in the early stages of The Circle tour when they were playing songs like Only Lonely in the early stages of the set. To the die hard this was a wet dream, but for the other 90% its like "what the ****...". Compiling a good setlist is very difficult. You have to find that fine line between die hard and casual because you will not please everyone. With the absence of Richie of course you're going to get a standard main bulk set, because (as great as Phil X has been) Richie just has a lot more in the locker.

Great review and i'm glad that someone can talk a bit of sense around here.