Tour Reviews/Photos/Newspaper Clippings/Promo

London evening standart

BON JOVI - WITH BEEF AND CHEESE

While the great unwashed were gorging themselves
on the West Country musical banquet of
Glastonbury, 80,000 people were happy with a Bon
Jovi cheeseburger in the urban comfort of Hyde
Park on Saturday night. For two decades, Bon Jovi
have set a very American dream of fast living and
hard loving to a pop-metal soundtrack finding
favour with those who value guitar brawn over
lyrical beauty.

Much of that guitar muscle came from the fingers
of Nicky Haslam lookalike Richie Sambora - a man
so tired of living in the sexy shadow of frontman
Jon Bon Jovi that he had resorted to desperate
measures. F**k Me! was crudely emblazoned across
his scrawny behind in an attempt to wrestle
attention away from the beefcake singer.

Jon Bon Jovi's glow-white grin and unnaturally
thick mane dominated the split screen above the
stage as he bounced through anthems such as You
Give Love A Bad Name.

A rolling cast of fans was ushered in and out of
lowered fenced platforms, giving lusty women the
chance to get their claws into their Jon's
drainpipe trousers. Thankfully, the huge stage -
black and chrome styling resembling a swanky
office façade - provided room for escape.

The air-punching crowd, many proudly sporting
earlier tour T-shirts, latched on to every
hook-heavy number. Everyday, from recent album
Bounce, Keep The Faith, Wanted Dead Or Alive,
It's My Life and, above all, Livin' On A Prayer
were greeted with fits of jumping joy and air
guitar. It wasn't until the warm summer evening
faded to twilight that Bon Jovi stepped outside
their own back catalogue. The hedonistic high
energy of I'll Sleep When I'm Dead mutated first
into the super-safe double of Dancing In The
Streets and Rocking All Over The World.
Experimental it wasn't.

"I'm looking for believers out there, can I get
an amen?" mocked Jon Bon Jovi in a preacher
voice. "I wanna help all those unfortunate ones
stuck up in Glastonbury," he added with an ironic
smile.

Little did he know that he had already helped
them immeasurably, just by performing more than
100 miles away.

From the guardian

Bon Jovi

Hyde Park, London

Sharon O'Connell
Monday June 30, 2003
The Guardian

With stadium rock enjoying something of a renaissance thanks to the likes of the Datsuns and the Darkness, it is easy to forget that the real thing never went away. This year, Bon Jovi celebrate 20 years of arena-conquering, iconic status and, with a 90,000-strong crowd gathered here in London, their diminutive front man has good reason to proclaim, as he does in the chorus of opening song Bounce, that "nothing's gonna keep me down".
Bon Jovi deal in pop-metal anthems and the kind of classic power ballads for which the air punch was surely invented. As such, they are deeply unfashionable, which bothers their fans not one bit. The band's New Jersey origins, their self- conscious, blue-collar sensibilities and lyrical themes of struggle, nobility of work and subsequent hard-earned fun on a Saturday night may be the soft-metal equivalent of West Side Story, but they are also the rallying call of a loyal tribe.

Their hero is chisel-cheeked singer Jon Bon Jovi, now long-since shorn of his ridiculous blond perm, but still keeping the faith with terrifyingly tight black pants, black leather jacket over a bare torso and dark shades. His sidekick is gnarly guitarist Richie Sambora, whose solo posturing and sartorial style underline the fact that this is a band rich and successful enough to not give a damn about cool.

It is striking just how many colossal hits Bon Jovi have to their name. Runaway, Wanted Dead or Alive, Keep the Faith, You Give Love a Bad Name and, of course, Livin' on a Prayer are all cheap, portentous and cataclysmically clichéd, but still they endure, writ deep into the consciousness of anyone who might have happened by a radio in the 1980s.

Keep the Faith dips in and out of the Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil with much backside-wiggling on the singer's part, but whether this is a heartfelt homage to the Stones' legendary performance in this very park or an outrageous claim to their crown, it is hard to tell.

Bon Jovi's fans, however, have little interest in sub-text. Whatever motivates the (surprisingly young) hordes of air-punching men and women waving crude cardboard banners begging, "Jon can I play with your G-string", one thing is certain: their faith is unshakeable.

My Kiel pics :

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...9962&members=1

my Wolves pics (including setlist)

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...9962&members=1

cheers choccy, great pics.

Wtf??? This guy is talking out of backside! Beef and cheese?lol
More like champagne and strawberries! anyone for tennis?!

- Does anyone remember the "F*ck Glastonbury" sign from Wembley 95? Ironically that was also the same weekend. I don't think many people will remember that year at Glastonbury but they sure will remember Bon Jovi at Wembley '95 and Bon Jovi at Hyde Park 2003 for decades to come!

Great pics Choc!!!

Jon totally embarrased me at Wolves! - I was kinda "adjusting" myself and when I looked up, there he was standing at the front of the stage staring down and grinning at me!!lol I could have died!!!!!! ha!!!!

http://pic8.picturetrail.com/VOL254/...6/28471113.jpg

That is cool .

great, isnt it? i was happy when i saw this banner at wolves

LOL!!! you guys are cheeky!!! but it's cool all the same!

From manutd.com

Old Trafford hosts rockers




Old Trafford was transformed into a concert arena on Thursday afternoon as 150 construction workers built the stage that US rockers Bon Jovi will use to entertain thousands of fans.

A 100-ton structure was built in front of the West Stand, with protective covering on the pitch as final preparations were made for Thursday night's concert.

"If anything, it's been more complex organising this than the Champions League final," stadium safety officer Arthur Roberts told ManUtd.com in a break from arranging the gig.

"The stage has been brought over from Belgium, so we've got European health and safety issues as well as American and UK ones to deal with.

"The workers entered the stadium for the first time on Saturday to lay the tracks for the stage. Since then, they've been working flat out to build the stage, which has legs to spread its weight over the pitch."

Some die-hard fans spent the night at Old Trafford, waking up in their sleeping bags on the forecourt, with thousands more arriving as the day wore on.

An afternoon sound-check gave them - and the club staff inside the stadium - a taste of what was to come later in the evening, as Old Trafford hosted its second major event of the summer.

And, of course, the stadium will be full of United fans Keeping The Faith next season!

Report by Simon Davies.