Milton Keynes National Bowl
16th June 2001
One Wild Night 2001 World Tour


Jon looking round the bowl just before the band start playing

OK, so we’ve had a few days to recover from Huddersfield now, Jon has given his address to Oxford University (and got a t-shirt out of it). Oh, and the rain which threatened us all day Wednesday has decided that today is the day to soak all the Bon Jovi fans going to the National Bowl at Milton Keynes.

Due to the earlier start time we set off just after 8am, arriving at Milton Keynes around 10:30 where we went straight to the fan club queue. Fortunately by now the rain had about stopped, but the ground was very wet and muddy. Whilst we were queuing the rain came down again for about 10 minutes but otherwise it was ok. At 12:30 the box office started giving out wristbands to the fanpit. They dealt with the queue very swiftly and it didn’t take long for us to get our bands. After this we were free to have a look round the venue.

As a first-time visitor to Milton Keynes I was generally very impressed. The bowl is located in the middle of a parkland-type area and is very nice, not unlike Roundhay Park in Leeds. Sadly, there was only one merchandise stall outside the venue making it very difficult to buy anything before the gates opened without a very long wait.

As with Huddersfield the gates opened 15 minutes early for fan-club members (and a big thanx to all at Backstage With JBJ for the organisation this year) so we could buy t-shirts and get to the fanpit. This time I was on the second row on Hugh and Dave’s side.

During the wait it rained a little but nothing like the downpours earlier. At 5:45pm Delirious? took to the stage. They played for about 30 minutes which I think was the same set as Huddersfield, which included highlight track Deeper. It rained during the first two songs but didn’t affect the band who played well and were friendly with the audience.

After their set there was a 20 minute break (the road crew were much more efficient this time), and Matchbox 20 came on. They played for about an hour and were well-received by the crowd (some of whom were there specifically for them). Guitarist Adam Clark was very friendly, waving the fans and posing for photo’s at every opportunity. The highlights of their set were To Get It Back and Mad Season. Singer Rob Thomas didn’t joke around with the bands name this time, simply announcing them as Matchbox 20 and saying they would pass an hour for us.

After an hour they left the stage, leaving the stage crew to prepare for the main attraction. At about 7:30 the covers were taken from the set, letting us see the mock of the Empire State Building again. Earlier in the day the red-light tower at the very top had been removed (presumably in case of lightning) but it was present again by show-time. At 7:50 the ‘Opening communications link’ appeared on-screen and the audience fully woke-up.

Again the band were in the elevator with the camera in the top corner, Hugh pressed buttons, Jon grinned at the screen. A ‘ding’ announced their arrival on-stage, the doors opened and the band strolled out to take in the scene.

Jon was wearing camouflage combat trousers, a large black leather jacket (same one as Dublin), a cowboy hat and the same bug glasses he wore at Huddersfield. Richie was a union jack t-shirt with grey snake-skin trousers and jacket.

The band took their instruments and played One Wild Night with a nod from Jon as starting cue. Everyone sang along with the words, clapped on time and generally made a lot of noise. When the song finished the band went into Raise Your Hands (which everyone did at chorus-time). They song sounded great and it was immediately obvious that Jon was feeling a lot better than he did at Huddersfield. At the end the band ran though the spoken intro to Bad Name (Jon saying he wasn’t here for politics, he wasn’t here for sports, he was here in the name of love and rock and roll). This time, Jon sang all the words (except the usual end of chorus part).


Jon on one of his many visits to our side of the stage

Again, In These Arms was next, with a nice piano introduction by Dave which was slightly different to the album version. Jon had no problems with his singing this time, hitting the high notes as usual. At the end he sang slightly different lyrics ‘like the poet needs the pain, like the seasons need to change, I can’t explain, I need you…’.

Once the song had finished Jon spoke to the crowd for the first time. He said they had been to the Bowl in the 80’s, and the 90’s and that now in 2001 we had a tough act to follow, as well as challenging us to do as well as previous audiences. He then said ‘I’m sure you know this song, you made it a huge hit and I thank you with all my heart – it’s called It’s My Life’, followed by Tico’s drumbeat start to the song. It was obvious from the crowd reaction that this song was popular, the crowd noise was incredible.

It’s My Life was immediately followed by Jon’s ‘2,3,4’ shouted intro to Born To Be My Baby. This song sounded great as usual and was well received by the crowd.

When the song ended Jon stood at the mic whilst Hugh and Richie changed guitars, I though he was going to sing Can’t Help Falling In Love a capella again, but instead Dave started the piano intro to Bed Of Roses. This is another song that demonstrates just how good a singer Jon is, as well as giving the rest of the band a chance to shine. During Richie’s solo, instead of getting a girl from the on-stage fan area’s, Jon motioned for a woman in a pink cowboy hat at the front of the fan-pit to come on-stage and dance with him. Once she reached the stage the solo was nearly over so Jon told the band to play it again another 2 times. The repetition of the solo was almost seamless and showed how good Richie, Dave, Tico and Hugh are.

After the extended Bed Of Roses, Hugh started playing the bass intro to I Got The Girl, which is in my opinion one of the weaker tracks on Crush. Jon was playing guitar for the first time in the evening, and the live version is much better than the album version. Richie said ‘let them talk Jonny’ just after Jon has sung the line about watching the neighbours talk all the time.


Jon and Richie on screen during Just Older

Before the middle eight section Jon told us a story about seeing a ghost one night in his sleep, and how at first he thought it was Elvis, but then he realised it was Wayne Newton! Wayne told him to get tickets to the convent for his daughter, something Richie and Dave both agreed with. (The whole story was a lot longer and funnier but that’s the idea). During the story Jon threw his Bono-stylee bug-eyed sunglasses (‘cheap’ by his definition) into the crowd. The song then continued.

Once the song ended Jon was handed his acoustic guitar, before starting the now-familiar speech about seeing movie stars, producers, directors, the mayor of Milton Keynes all hanging out with Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen From Mars (he also mentioned not expecting a visit from the President of Oxford University to his house – a reference to the speech he gave at Oxford University the previous day).

Captain Crash sounded good, and two members of the audience had dressed as Crash and the Beauty Queen- they kept appearing on the huge screens. At the end the screens showed footage of all the couples mentioned.

Just Huddersfield, Crash went straight into Just Older. One of Crushs’ best tracks, this sounded very good, with the bands improvising a little just before the middle eight section. As the song ended Tico began the drum intro to Wild In The Streets, after Jon had got rid of his guitar he prompted everyone to start clapping along. Dave and Richie were introduced just before their respective solo’s as usual.

The first surprise of the night was next. Blaze Of Glory hasn’t been played much on the European 2000/01 tour for some reason, but it was played tonight. The video for the song was played on-screen (making me really want to watch Young Guns 2). At the end of the song, Jon, Richie and Hugh all left the stage, leaving Dave and Tico in the spotlights for their intro to Lay Your Hands On Me. The crowd shouted the ‘Hey’ where necessary, before the gospel-like singing of ‘Lay Your Hands On Me’.


Richie, Hugh and Jon towards the start of the show

I should point out that by now the audience where well warmed-up. At Huddersfield the crowd reaction was instant, but MK seemed to talk longer to warm-up. Once they did however it was amazing. Jon was clearly impressed with the singing, and the song played very good. It looked like Jon was thinking of shaking hands with the front of the fanpit but sadly he didn’t. At the start of the song, and at the chorus fireworks exploded from the empire state building set.

Another pleasant surprise was that the song was not immediately followed by I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead (it’s good medley but a bit repetitive by now). Instead Hugh played the instantly recognisable intro to Keep The Faith (has anyone else noticed that the album version starts differently? - the live version is much better though). Again fireworks exploded during the song, included a hug batch at the end. As a bonus the band played a sample of the Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil before the ‘walking in the footsteps of societies lies’ section, which was followed by Jon's jungle-esque screams as heard on the Live in London video from 1995.

Keep The Faith was followed by Jon’s usual question, ‘Is there a doctor in the house?’, launching Bad Medicine. No Gloria sample unfortunately but Lulu’s Shout played at the end was generally well-received. Shout ended the main set, after which the band briefly left the stage.

Upon their return Jon was wearing what can only be described as a tea-cosy (apparently the same on he had at Glasgow). I’m told Richie is colour-blind but I have my doubts about Jon's vision now too. I know all of them were feeling cold (alas a mild evening in Britain) but this was hilarious. The hat was bright green, blue yellow and red. Anyway, enough about the hat.

The next surprise of the night was next, I’ll Be There For You is another song which hasn’t been played much on the European tour. It sounded fantastic, and Jon had no problem with the scream towards the end of the song. The crowd started the ‘woah-oh-oh’ section during Richie’s solo which was a bit annoying but at least the enthusiasm was apparent. This was followed by Say It Isn’t So, which as with Huddersfield didn’t really seem to fit in with the setlist. Still, it sounded good and the video was played on-screen whilst they sang.

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead lacked the audience participation intro (presumably we were warmed-up enough by now), so they simply played the song. Towards the end instead of singing ‘We’ll make every night like New Years’ Eve’ Jon sang ‘We’ll make very night like Milton Keynes’ which was very cool, but sadly most people near me didn’t seem to hear this. At the end of the song Jon made sure everyone was clapping, including asking the bus drivers in the coach park and security at the front of the stage. When a few of them put their hands up and started clapping Jon said he would personally pay them a bonus. During all this Jon was doing his comedy dance, which was joined with a speech about getting guys to dance with the motivation that they couldn’t look as foolish as him. They went straight into Tequila, letting the audience shout ‘Tequila’ at the necessary points. Tequila was followed by Twist And Shout which the crowd loved, singing and dancing with the band. After the song finished I thought the band would bow and leave the stage, ending the concert. Fortunately they didn’t, they left the stage but the house lights stayed down and we screamed for more. An audience rendition of the chorus of ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ occurred in the gap.

The band returned on-stage and played Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night. Jon told us a short story at the bridge (can’t remember any of it I’m afraid), also Hugh’s guitar broke so he had to run off-stage and get a replacement. Once the song ended, Jon and Richie stood together and played a small acoustic intro to Wanted Dead Or Alive. At the start of the first verse Jon let the crowd sing the opening line, before joining in. As expected the song was excellent and went down very well with the crowd. At the end of the song the band bowed together, but Jon returned to the mic and asked if we had to go to work tomorrow. Richie said we had to go to Sunday school so we had to do something bad on Saturday first. Jon started singing the a capella intro to Livin’ On A Prayer. Pretty soon the whole audience was singing along, both with Jon's intro and the main song. Jon lead the audience participation outro as usual (unlike Huddersfield). At the end Jon introduced the band members, then the band bowed again and left into the elevator then entered the stage from initially. No fireworks again sadly, the less-than-useful house lights came on and 65,000 tried to leave through two quite narrow exits.

Still, it was an excellent show, much better than Huddersfield – although as previously mentioned Jon’s health probably had something to do with that.

Bon Jovi will probably be in the studios next year, so it’ll probably be 2003 before we see them live again. Can’t wait.


Richie, Dave, Jon and Tico on screen at the end of the show

Setlist
One Wild Night
Raise Your Hands
You Give Love A Bad Name
In These Arms
It’s My Life
Born To Be My Baby
Bed Of Roses
I Got The Girl
Captain Crash And The Beauty Queen From Mars
Just Older
Wild In The Streets
Blaze Of Glory
Lay Your Hands On Me
Keep The Faith ~ Sympathy For The Devil
Bad Medicine ~ Shout
-------
I’ll Be There For You
Say It Isn’t So
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
Tequila
Twist And Shout
-------
Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night
Wanted Dead Or Alive
Livin’ On A Prayer

 

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