I was once watching a random music channel with my brother, and Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad Name came on. We sat watching the video, and my brother said “those videos just look like they were so much fun to make”. I was half listening to what he was saying and half transfixed by Jon Bon Jovi. Once I’d watched that video, I went away and researched the band and managed to find a video online made up of 5-second clips from every song recorded by Bon Jovi to the present day. I played that video every day religiously, learnt the order of those songs and wrote down the name of the ones I liked the most and thus began my obsession, quite literally overnight. I listened to little else for months, and one day, my dad asked me “what is it about that band in particular? What brought on this sudden overnight obsession?” – the answer lay somewhere in the combination of live videos, hooks and the hair.
Fast forward a year or two, and they’re still easily my favourite band (this is before I properly discovered Def Leppard – but more on that later), so when I heard that they were doing a world tour, I got a little bit excited. However, my hopes were crushed when there was no mention of a London date. For months, nothing. Just as I lost hope, Jon Bon Jovi appeared on TV stating that the band was to play the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park in the summer.
I managed to swing the afternoon off school to go to London early and get a good place. The atmosphere around Hyde Park was amazing – roasting day, and I nearly got heatstroke standing in the same spot for three hours, but I wasn’t losing pole position by the barrier. Then, the last opening act finished, and the long wait was over. David Bryan and Tico Torres appeared, followed by Richie Sambora. Then, finally, finally, on walked Jon Bon Jovi, in a bright red vest and holding an acoustic guitar. They opened with You Give Love a Bad Name and my life was complete. They went on to perform practically every song that they’d ever written post-Slippery, as well as performing tracks from their latest album, What About Now. Bad Medicine, Raise Your Hands, It’s My Life all preceded the encore, which everyone was waiting for. The lights went down, and there was a single spotlight. “We’ve got to hold on, to what we’ve got..doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not….” and the whole of Hyde Park went mad. There is nothing like being in a crowd of thousands of people screaming the chorus to Livin’ On a Prayer.
Sometimes even now, I’ll listen to a Bon Jovi song and reflexively expect to hear another one, and I’ve since realised that it’s because I can still recite the order of the songs in that video.