I went to see Bon Jovi in concert last night at Milton Keynes National Bowl. Perfect weather for it of course, particularly given that doors opened around 3.30pm and you had to get their early to bag your space. There were ALOT of people there; around 70,000 if rumours are to be believed (and are they? Don't ask me, I'm a hopeless judge of crowds. I just know it was BIG).Nickelback were supporting and they were excellent but the spectacular set only came into its own when Mr. Jonathan Bon Jovi Esq. and his boys came on stage. It sparkled and danced, whirled and entertained all on its own, which was just as well, given that - as you will no doubt note - the band might was well have been a bunch of performing ants for all we could see. The sun, not wishing to be outdown by a mere stage, also decided to put on a little performance of its own as it set.
Now, I've never been to a big stadium-style gig before. I'm much more used to turning up at the Shepherd's Bush Empire an hour or two before the gig, grabbing a pint of watery coke and trying not to stick to the floor all night. So, you can imagine, that this was a new experience for me. Also - and this is where I have to be careful not to come across as snobbish or elitist in anyway* - the clientele was a little different to my usual fayre. I am a dedicated people watcher at the best of times but this really was the most amazing fodder. Nuff said. You were not allowed to bring food or drink into the arena, other than SEALED bottles of WATER no larger than 500MLS - we brought four since it was so bloomin' hot - and the refreshments provided were ridiculously expensive, naturally.
Now think of how many people were there. If I tell you that between the two of us, we spent a total of £102 - £70 plus £10 booking fee for tickets, 4 beers, 1 Coke, 1 Calippo and a portion of chicken & chips - you can imagine how much money they must be making. And we didn't even buy any merchandise!
I think my favourite part of the evening was something that highlighted a modern phenomenon. When the old favourite Living on a Prayer came on, the view of the crowd in front of me suddenly looked like a million fireflies had appeared. It took me a moment to realise that it was in fact thousands of camera phones being held up...
I was supposed to have gone along with my friend Suzie, who originally bought the tickets, but she is quite heavily pregnant and has been really ill so the poor love very reluctantly handed me her ticket as she thought being stuck in the middle of a large crowd rocking out in a field whilst she was copiously vomiting was probably not the best plan. So instead I went with David, which meant that we got seats in the disabled enclosure and had our own toilets. Result! There really are advantages for the disadvantaged...
Now, here's the confessional: I'm not really a huge Bon Jovi fan. That said, I think they've done much for the rock scene over the past 20 or so years and not many bands have the staying power that they've shown so you gotta give 'em credit. They adopted Rock God Stance (legs wide apart and slightly bent: check. Upper body tilted slightly back: check. Orgasmic grimace: check) after relentless Rock God Stance and cheesed their way through hit after hit. Jon has aged terribly well and actually came out for the encore wearing an England shirt (last season's, I should point out) which made the crowd - bunch of footballing types that they were - go wild, so bless him.
There were three Norwegian girls behind us - clearly of the sapphic persuasion - one of whom was in a wheelchair and had 'Keep The Faith' tattooed on her arm. At the first note of Living on a Prayer, she was helped to stand by one of her companions and she then proceeded to blub her way through the rest of the concert. Aaahhh, you're probably thinking. Well I'd have had more sympathy if she'd SHUT THE HELL UP throughout the rest of the performance rather than jabbering away excessively loudly, nineteen to the dozen with her friends and blowing smoke in my bloody face.
How many of you have I lost now?
*and will no doubt fail
1 comment:
Sounds like you had about the same sort of experience as I did! I was lucky enough to get Gold Circle tickets (well they were the only ones left, we didn't decide to go until last week) which were £75 each, but were quite surprised to find we still weren't actually in the front section - there was a "pink wristband" section right at the front, I don't know who you had to sleep with to get in there but clearly I hadn't met them.
We had a really good view, we were right next to the walkway that JBJ walked across a few times, but water was a real problem too. At most (smaller/indoor) rock gigs that I've been too, the bouncers at the front will gladly just hand out water to anybody who's looking a bit warm. But not at Milton Keynes; they had a system where you had to pass them an empty water bottle, and then they'd fill it up and pass it back to you. But most people, like me, had either had their bottles confiscated on the door, or had put them in the bin when they were empty rather than throwing them on the floor. And because we didn't want to lose our places, it meant we were stood in the circle from gates opening at 3.30pm, until the gig finished at about 11pm. Without any food or drink. Needless to say, I was very glad to get home...
The roads weren't much better than the trains - it took us 90mins to drive to Milton Keynes in the morning from Peterborough. On the way back, it took 90mins to get out of Milton Keynes itself.
The band were pretty cool though - like you I'm not a particularly mad fan although there are dozens of their songs that I like and knew the words to. They certainly know how to put on a show, and even the lead singer of Nickelback was getting into the spirit (even if his band are really bad)!
Anyway, I wrote a review which is nowhere near as good as yours, and took a few photos, which you can view on my blog if you like: Bon Jovi @ Milton Keynes Bowl
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