Originally posted by ManchesterBon Jovi @ COMS
Adam Moss
23/ 6/2008
THERE was rain - and then it rained some more - but it couldn't dampen the spirits of the thousands crammed into the City of Manchester Stadium to see veteran rockers Bon Jovi strut their stuff live.
Slippery When Wet indeed.
And it was that legendary 1986 album which provided the breathless opening to this gig. Wasting no time they dug out two Bon Jovi classics to give the front end of the show a few fireworks. Kicking off with the anthemic Livin' On A Prayer then ploughing directly into You Give Love A Bad Name.
All of a sudden we were back in the heart and soul of the 1980s and I felt undressed without shoulder pads, ridiculously manicured hair and a forearm full of bangles.
But it was obvious the tempo would have to take a little dip at some point - the band are not exactly spring chickens these days. Jon Bon Jovi aside, New Jersey's most celebrated pop rockers are clearly starting to look their age - guitarist Richie Sambora looking for all the world like he's been poured into his outfit by someone without an eye for portion control.
But, hey, at least the legendary stringsman has found enough time outside of rehab to make a sustained appearance on this tour.
And the band are all the better for his fabulous fretwork. We're talking old school rock and roll lead guitar here folks, including facial grimaces in all the right places. Stirring stuff for air guitarists everywhere.
Jon Bon Jovi still looks ridiculously effervescent of course. Hellraising rockers just can't look like that without some kind of surgical help can they? I mean, look at Lemmy.
It makes you sick. JBJ still bounds across the stage like a schoolboy from time to time, though the days of hi-wires used to propel him through the air and over the crowd are long gone.
Drives
But it is drummer Tico Torres that really drives this band. While Sambora's guitar licks and Bon Jovi's vocals grab the (Blaze of) glory it is Torres' unrelenting rhythmic assault at the business end of musical affairs which tee up the band's legendary BIG choruses and singalong sections.
The man is a machine. I was exhausted just watching him. I guess it must be all that golf he enjoys so much which keeps him sprightly.
It was still raining at the City of Manchester Stadium. The crowd - a real mixed bag of older and younger rockers, thirtysomething females swooning at JBJ and, well, a bunch of people you just wouldn't expect at a rock concert, weren't relenting though.
So out came 'Always' - the band's big slushy power ballad - and you must have been able to hear the chorus of nasal Mancunian across the Pennines. I've never heard Bon Jovi sound so 'Shameless'. Hilarious, yet strangely moving.
And, after a brief lull for a new acoustic track, the hits kept coming.
No wonder they've won so many awards. How on earth did anyone else get the chance to have a hit single in the charts during the 1980s and 1990s?
"It's been two years Manchester!" JBJ shouted through the microphone. "Are you with me?" he asked.
If I can have the name of your age-defying moisturiser Jon then count me in.
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