Fan prayers answered as Hard Rock keeps the faith with Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi rock Saturday night in Hyde Park...
Arriving at Saturday’s Hard Rock Calling during Kinks’ frontman Ray Davies crowd-pleasing set, there is no doubt who the fans are here to see. With an earlier line-up that forced even the most knowledgable music fans scurrying for their online biogs, many fans opt to arrive in the two hours prior to Bon Jovi’s headlining performance. As Davies finishes his set with fan favourites All Day and All of the Night and Waterloo Sunset, the queues for entrance stretch through Hyde Park on a glorious day that bears a marked contrast toFriday’s soggy start to the weekend.
With no hope of making it across the arena to catch Imelda May performing on the Pepsi Max Stage, thousands of fans jostle for prime viewing position in the June sunshine. Despite their halcyon days coming a decade and a half ago, Bon Jovi have attracted a large number of younger fans. Teeny boppers and grizzled rock veterans alike come bedecked in their Bon Jovi tour T-shirts, clutching posters, inflatables and cowboy hats. With such a huge crowd, surely this gig will get loud?
Jon tackles the setting sun with his aviators...
Sadly not. At least to begin with anyway.
When Jon, Richie, David and Tico (and Hugh) hit the stage, the crowd cheer, but in a very polite, British way, offering a stark contrast to the drunken revelry that accompanied Springsteen’s concert here last year.
In a red flavour of his trademark military jacket – a nod to London? – and mirrored aviators, Jon Bon Jovi launches into opener Raise Your Hands to general equanimity from the huge crowd. Not until second songYou Give Love a Bad Name do the mass of fans finally find a voice, singing along in a fervour. Then (relatively) quiet again for the band’s third.
Fairweather fans for a fairweather event? It would seem so, as any track that made it onto the crowd’s worn copies of Cross Road (with the inclusion of international hit It’s My Life) is greeted with rapturous support, and any lesser known song is treated with majority bewilderment.
Worship at the Church of Bon Jovi
But this is something Bon Jovi must be used to. Despite this concert forming part of the tour of their album, The Circle, the band perform what is undoubtedly a greatest hits set. Only two tracks from the recent album make it onto a setlist that heavily favours older, better-known songs – much to the delight of the crowd.
Playing to their strengths makes the Hyde Park gig better and better, and as the sun goes down the crowd starts to warm. By the time Bon Jovi have finished their main set with Keep the Faith – a set that includes a Pretty Woman detour during Bad Medicine and a gentle cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah – everyone is singing and dancing around like true converts to the Church of Bon Jovi.
Those few hoarse from singing along with every song are replaced by their neighbours when Jon returns to the stage in his eveningwear (a leather jacket) for an encore that includes Wanted Dead or Alive and Livin’ On A Prayer. Further encores give us Always, These Days and finisher I Love This Town.
The crowd are still baying for more when the band leave the stage for the final time, furiously waving ‘F*ck the Curfew’ banners to entice the band back. All to no avail, despite Jon’s early promise to “play until the police drag us away”.
Heat of the night: the band return for three encores...
Still, with over three hours of rocking, the Hard Rock Calling crowd pours out of Hyde Park satisfied, and Bon Jovi leave London in a blaze of glory…
Bon Jovi’s Hard Rock Calling setlist:
- Raise Your Hands
- You Give Love a Bad Name
- Born to Be My Baby
- We Weren’t Born to Follow
- Lost Highway
- It’s My Life
- In These Arms
- Blaze of Glory
- Lay Your Hands on Me
- Captain Crash & the Beauty Queen From Mars
- Bad Medicine / Pretty Woman
- Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen cover)
- When We Were Beautiful
- I’ll Be There For You
- Who Says You Can’t Go Home
- I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
- Hey God
- Have a Nice Day
- Keep the Faith
Bon Jovi rock out to huge Hyde Park crowd...Encore: - Dry County
- Wanted Dead or Alive
- Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night
- Livin’ on a PrayerEncore 2:
- Always
- These Days
- Blood on BloodEncore 3:
- I Love This Town
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