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

Ha ha...this is the best post I've read in a while.

This is the first tour since HAND that I didn't get to a show overseas...damn, work, they give you stock in the company and then expect you to have no life. I missed seeing, Kev, Paul, Carli, Yvonne, Seb, Thierry, Emil, and tons more. Hopefully, next tour...if there is one.

Here he is at last!

@seb
In my opinion you can't judge a performance from a camera phone unless timing is out and guitars are out if tune etc.

Been a Jovi fan since Crossroads, but only been to a handful of shows before, so bit of a Jovi novice compared to most on here...but here's how I found Hyde Park.

First off, having done shows at Hyde before, there's no point in paying top dollar for GC / DC. I save my pennies for arena shows where you're not crammed in and you're guaranteed a good view. My only worry is that the atmosphere in GA might be dead. This was so not the case last night though, GA was rocking where we were!

Had my doubts at first with the "British Summer Festival" thing. The whole set up looked cheap...dodgy recreations of supposedly British idioms (except the Mexican set-up on the left, what was that about?). Ironically when I went for a beer, what did they have on tap? Fosters and Heineken...yeah, very British! There's tons of great beers in this country, ales and lagers, why not support them? And £5.50 a pint? No thanks. Seeing the weather and the amount of booze being consumed, I fully expected it to get moody before BJ even took the stage. A British Summer gig isn't complete without some a-holes ruining it for people by starting a ruck.

But thankfully, the exact opposite was true! Not sure how far back from GC we were...where we stood it was busy but still plenty of room to dance. There were a only a smattering of Jovi t-shirt wearers but despite that everyone was singing and dancing to just about every song, even the new stuff. There was a walkway near us, and people were dancing and conga-ring along it, dancing with complete strangers, even swapping t-shirts at one point! Really friendly, no hassle, one of the best atmosphere's I've had at a gig. Couldn't see the stage for sh*t but screens and sound were brill (didn't notice the incident with Phil and Jon). The place went bat-sh*t mental for Living On A Prayer.

My music tastes are pretty wide (Foos, Bruce, Prince, etc) and one of my faves is Madonna (yes, I get stick for it!). Her shows are the exact same setlist every show of the tour. So to those not happy with the songs that were or weren't played, count yourselves lucky! Still, I guess the hardcore / multi-show fans might get a little tired of the same songs, but comes with the territory of seeing them so many times. Not all of us can afford to do that.

Been following the tour all year, but was still surprised by the number of encores. Really thought they'd finished just before they came back out for Blood On Blood, so was thrilled to have that as the closer and loved the acoustic intro. Everyone we spoke to around us, hardcore and casual fans, said it was a great show. As someone else said on here, its a combo of allsorts that makes a show great for you...the people you're with, the journey there, the weather, the sound quality, etc. Needless to say GA was rocking last night!

...and funniest part of the night....I forget which song, but Jon was strumming a long intro that sounded like the start of "Summer of '69".

Everyone must have had the same thought and there was a spontaneous Bryan Adams singalong that loads of people joined in with...we almost made it all the way to the first chorus!

Oh, and kudos to the band for opening with the Quo's "Rockin' All Over The World", perfect opener for a hot summer gig in London.

Thanks for sharing your experience, but I went to see Madonna last year and she was doing playback in some songs, playing unplugged guitars, etc, and it's OK! Because we just can't compare Bon Jovi to Madonna. They're different acts, one is a pop rock band that needs to play music, Madonna, on the other side, is all about the choreography she and the dancers do, the scenography and the big screens.

When you go to her show, that I bet you went to a lot of them, the songs are connected and a choreography is done for every single song, it's like watching a musical. It'd be very hard for her and the crew to have two different setlists or do changes on the go because the whole experience could be screwed up. But Bon Jovi is just a band, a very successful one, but a band nonetheless, and they can shake up things on the go, move songs, do a new medley and it wouldn't affect negatively the experience of the whole show.

100% right there my friend! Madonna's shows are completely about the theatre of it, so it has to be exactly the same each night so the crew know where they need to be. Really is like comparing apples with pears, sitting Madge alongside Jovi, two totally different beasts...but it gives some perspective to those that aren't happy with setlist changes. Be thankful you get any at all!

There's two things I love...great rock music and great dance music. Madge falls in the latter and she is the one artist I would pay stupid money to see (and I have!!). But because of how her shows work, her Hyde Park gig last summer really wasn't that good. You need to be able to see the show to appreciate it as well as hear it, so standing so far back in a big field doesn't work. But for someone like Jovi, its perfect.

Where did you see Madge last year? How did you find it?

Besides, isn’t Bruce is a solo artist with a backup band? While Bon Jovi is… oh, wait…

…Right. Never mind.

Saw her at River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires last december, she told us she had a high fever and was ill, but was still really good, I was standing in the middle of the field so I couldn't appreciate it very well. Madonna is something you need to have good places or it's kinda wasting your money. Had a good time, though.

In the rock concerts, as you say, you can have a great time wherever you are. I still like to be as near as I can of the stage, I've always been really close to it and I love the fact of having the musicians that near

I wouldn’t say “a bigger loss” but I agree that Tico is an unsung hero and the loss would be just as big if it were Tico (or David, for that matter). Bon Jovi owes their success to the combined efforts of the entire band, not any single member (including Jon) more than any other.

I have no doubt that Jon Bongiovi would be successful at whatever he decided to do. He’s simply that talented and that driven. But, imo, the phenomenal success that is “Bon Jovi” would never have happened had it not been for the synergy of Jon, David, Tico, and Richie (and I would also add Alec). The spotlight would probably still have shone on Jon no matter what; but the glare wouldn’t be as bright, nor the audience as big, if it hadn’t been for his “employees” and their unique contributions, individually and collectively.


I apologize for a cross-thread response here; but this is exactly why I kept harping “we don’t know” on the Richie/tour thread and begged people to wait for the facts before writing Richie off so completely.

I get what you’re saying: people can’t truly evaluate the concert experience only from what is available to them through YouTube and comments others make about the experience. While they have a right to their opinions and a right to express them, the fact that they don’t have the whole experience somewhat invalidates them.

By the same token, isn’t assuming that we know enough about Richie and/or his motivations in the current situation (based only on random pictures, tweets, and the comments of others) the same thing…

And about that:
My personal theory: THIS, not hemlines, is Richie’s personal issue. No facts to back it up; just a gut feeling.

Let’s face it. Nothing has changed legally since the first contract. Jon has always been the owner. Jon has always been the boss. Richie, David, Tico, and Alec were always employees.

But look at the early documentaries, the early interviews, the early shows. While legally, Jon was “Bon Jovi”, in actuality, “Bon Jovi” was a band; and everyone had input and shared the spotlight. Consider Jon’s own words about Garageland from the Boxset DVD:

…because there’s an opportunity for a band to grow as a band, to go out there on the road and become one, you know where each of the members of the band is as important as the next. It’s not just about the close-up in the video of the singer’s face. And that’s what Garageland was about. It was about this (holds up fist and begins holding up one finger at a time and putting it back down as he continues) because if anybody sticks out, you’re not gonna win the fight, y’know? It was important that the unity, the closed fist, is what …

Anyone who has watched what’s been happening over the last few years can see how this philosophy has changed.

Maybe the personal issue is that Richie never wanted to be a session player. That’s not what he signed on for – then or now. It would have been better for the fans if the decision had been made prior to starting the tour, but like people who complain about shows: unless we’re actually there we don’t know why it happened when it did.

And maybe this is why Richie said, “I feel bad for the fans. They’re not getting the real deal.” Not because he’s not there; but because in recent years shows have evolved into JBJ and Friends and comments have become peppered with more “I”s than “we”s (which is how Doc defines the beginning of the end after NJ in the same DVD.)

Or maybe you and the others were right and it’s all just a ego-driven hissy-fit on Richie’s part... No one really knows.

Stepping off my soapbox now. If this whole thing taught me one thing, it’s that people (myself included) are going to believe what they want to believe. And that’s probably as it should be.