the worst Bon Jovi Tour for you?

I remember the opposite actually. The recepption to the O2 run was mostly very positive, I still rememember how every show people here were praising Jon's voice (phrases like "best Bed Of Roses since bla bla bla", "best Always since..." were thrown quite often), not to mention the rarities that nobody expected he could ever sing, Something To Believe In, Let It Rock; and some other cool shit like Santa Fe.

I do admit that night 12 was a bit dissapointing, as most fans expected it to be the best of the residency and it was more of the same, but it was still saved by the return of These Days and off course Letting You Go.

Still, I'd say it was a very positive time for the band on this board.

Yeah, addition, the album The Circle, despite having some poor songs, worked better live than What About Now.

Love the Only Rule is better than Water.

Bullet and Thorn in my Side were more exciting than I'm With You or What About Now.

Happy Now worked better than Army of One.

Damn, even We Were not Born to Follow was a better single than Because We Can.

I think the general point about the Circle tour is right. They did sound good and some of the performances were great. However the O2 residency, I think even Jon Bon Bon would half-heartedly admit that it was a low-point of their career. And in terms of performance and engagement, I was there for 3 of the shows, I wasn't drunk, and the most poignant memory is texting with Emil from this board, saying 'Die, Captain die!' Seen the band loads of times by now, those 3 shows were the 3 worst shows I have seen - despite being there for Let It Rock, Homebound Train, Santa Fe and Letting Go. I admit, I haven't seen them on this tour, which would have probably brought those 3 gigs higher up on my list.

As someone who did the vast majority of the O2 shows, I'd disagree that they were terrible. Taken as a run of arena shows, they were perfectly good with some decent performances and some cracking rarities- I never thought I'd ever see Santa Fe performed in my lifetime.

But they were definitely a missed opportunity for the hinted full album nights and playing more rarities than they did. Sadly they just didn't have the balls to do it, and some of the gigs became very samey. The 22nd June one and the last one in particular spring to mind, I was pretty pissed off at the final gig until they played TD/IHLYG. They could have had some solo/acoustic gigs at the Indigo2 on an off day too, could have really done a lot with the period. In that respect, it was definitely wasted and just became a run of 12 Bon Jovi concerts as opposed to a real watershed event.

But for the most part I was happy with the gigs- a little light on songs from The Circle, Thorn being underplayed, other songs not making it at all, Working Man and the village people choreography but they weren't in any way disastrous from a performance point of view- ticket wise was obviously pretty bad, but it certainly helped in being able to scoop up some bargains as supply outstripped demand at the prices they were asking.

They sold over 188,000 tickets for 12 shows, averaging about 15,700 per gig. You'd be hard pressed to find any act selling over 15,000 tickets for a show at the O2. They may not have played to capacity during all 12 shows, or offered bargain prices, but it wasn't a financial disaster by any means.