| ANU'S TOUR DIARY
BON JOVI'S ONE WILD NIGHT TOUR 2001 "ten wild
nights with
31st May 2001 - STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN Marianne had ordered a taxi for 7 ppl before we went to bed, so we knew we were gonna get a big one... But when the taxi showed up, we were all dumbstruck – it was not just a big taxi, it was a black, stretched limousine, with leather seats & all. What a feeling it was, to pull up next to the fan club queue in a stretched limo! LOL! There were about 10 ppl ahead of us in the queue, 1 Swedish girl, B & K and a bunch of Finnish ppl (including Heidi & Milja). At first there was no separate, fenced-off queue for fan club members, but after hassling the security ppl and explaining to them why a fenced queue is the only sensible solution they finally came out around noon and set up barriers between the GA queue and the fan club queue. Around 14:30 the security ppl came out to the queue to hand wristbands for fan club members. At the same time, they also told the ppl in the GA queue that ppl with the red wristbands = members of BWJBJ would be allowed to enter the stadium before the GA queue ppl. A wise move, IMHO, to let the GA ppl know what was gonna happen – a good way to avoid unnecessary panic & pushing, once the fan club gate was gonna be opened. I can’t remember when it was exactly, but some time during the afternoon, we were treated with some extra fun – a Bon Jovi soundcheck. We heard them doing Mystery Train, Two Story Town, Wild Is The Wind and Homebound Train. It was really kewl! Also, before we were let in, Tony & Mike came out with a videocamera, to film something for BJTV (and possibly for something else as well). Us Finns decided to show them what we’re made of and started singing IML & Born To Be My Baby. Jon's bro came to the queue with a crew member and interviewed B & K and some other ppl, and asked us where we were from... So we shouted FINLAND and made a big fuss about the Finnish ppl being the first ones in the queue, and just had a lot of fun being silly in front of the camera. Around 16:30, after a slight delay, the fan club gate was finally opened... And to my surprise, everything went really smoothly – we were let in in pairs and nobody was running. It was an amazing feeling, to just walk up to the barricade and take your spot. I got a good spot between my friends, a teeny bit to the left of Jon. A great start for the tour! :o) After a couple of hours of waiting, the Swedish band Sahlene took the stage. They were ok, I suppose, didn’t do much for me tho. The most interesting part of their set was watching how low the singer girl’s pants were dropping... By the end of their set, her “cheeks” were rather well exposed. LMAO! After Sahlene it was time for the moment I had feared – Mel C opening for Bon Jovi. To be honest with ya, she wasn’t as bad as I thought she might be (Babylon Zoo is still definitely the worst Jovi-opener ever!!!), but she wasn’t THAT good either. Guess she got the crowd rocking rather well tho, at least I found myself humming along to some of her most famous tunes... Still, I was more than glad when her set was over and it was time for the final change-over and then for “our guys” to take the stage. Around 20:30 it was finally showtime... The opening video was really cool, think it was the same the band had had in the US, with the searching & live transmission stuff and all. Stockholm was actually the only time when they played the “we haven’t got the band, we haven’t got the band” thing before the OWN intro music and showing the band in the elevator. And about the show then... The band looked and sounded top form, Jon was looking as cute & sexy as ever, as was Dave. The set list was great, including
the following songs:
Encore 1 Homebound Train
I got a few smiles from Jon and some big time flirting from Dave... And before Cpt Crash, a really kewl thing happened: Jon started talking about how there were ppl from different countries in the audience, he had seen ppl from Italy and Portugal... At this point, Antti & I held up my “Greetings from Finland” banner. Jon read it outloud, said something like “I see ppl from Finland here”, and then, just like that, he grabbed his guitar and started singing, “Hello Helsinki, hello Helsinki…Hello Helsinki, hello Helsinki, I’m on my way back to you”. The other band members joined him too and for a moment, they all jammed together, improvising everything as they went on. It was just too cool!!! :o) Another great thing was them playing Wild Is The Wind – when they were playing the intro, Jon looked at Elina & the others and their banner for a long time... I can’t say it for sure but I think he must have read the letter and recognised Elina, the birthday girl. Who knows, maybe the letter was the reason they played WITW in the first place! After the show we all bought some
merchandise and then took the Tunnelbana back to the city centre, had burgers
at McD(isease, LOL) and walked back to the hostel.
3rd June 2001 – WERCHTER, HOLLAND In the morning I took a taxi from Leuven to Werchter. When I arrived at the Festival Site, there were dozens of ppl in front of the gates when I got to the festival site, but since B & K had agreed to save me a spot, I walked right down to the front of the fc queue. There were maybe 8 ppl in front of B & K in the queue but it was ok. The queueing was as boring as ever, I didn’t really sit down much cause it was raining on & off. At about 11-ish am Kenny & Claire arrived at the queue, it was great to see them again. By that time there were hundreds of ppl in the queues and I was getting worried about the fc arrangements, there were no barriers between the fc queue and the GA queues, and it was clear that getting from the box office where the wristbands were gonna be handed out to the queue was gonna be difficult. I stayed at the gates all the time, but there were ppl in our group who lined up at the box office and were prepared to get wristbands to all of us. When they started handing out the wristbands, the queueing went from mad to practically hell-ish – we were getting squashed against the gates and there wasn’t a single security person in sight. I was getting desperate, there was no way I’d make it to the front... Hell, I was gonna be happy if i got out of the queue alive. But then, when I finally got in, I managed to get front row nevertheless… "My usual spot" even, between Jon & Huey. After some waiting the first support band, Fred & the Healers (??) took the stage. The lead singer/guitarist was pretty good with his guitar but otherwise their stuff was rather boring, I was relieved when they finally got off the stage. The second support act in Werchter was Mel C again, her set was much the same as it was in Stockholm. I thought she was a bit better in Stockholm than in Belgium, tho. After Mel C’s set there was another change-over and then it was SHOWTIME again... The moment the video screens started showing the intro vid, the rain and the freezing weather were forgotten – the crowd was really into the show from the first second on. The female members of the crowd were given an extra treat during the first couple of songs of the show, when Jon’s lace-up leather pants came undone...LMAO... And no, he wasn’t “going commando” this time – some ppl claim they saw him wearing a sky-blue thong. ;-) He kept going back to Tico’s drumset with his back turned to the audience and kept messing about with his crotch. Not surprisingly, this drove just about all girlies in the audience into a mad frenzy and made them scream VERY loudly...LOL... After the first (?) song Jon stayed a while at the drumset, so Richie saw it fit to take the mic and thanked the Belgians for showing up to see the show and for making OWN a number one album in Belgium. Then he looked at Jon who was still messing about with his crotch and said to the mic, “Erm, we’ll be with you shortly”. It was just hysterical, everybody bursted out laffin’... Then Jon came back to the mic, laffin’ out loud, and said, “And now back to our show”, and then they went on with the next song. The show was really good again, the band looked & sounded fantastic, altho Jon’s voice seemed to suffer from the cold a bit at the beginning. The set list of the show was:
Encore 1 Saturday Night
During one of the songs in the first half of the show, Jon’s mic & guitar went dead for a while, but he himself probably didn’t notice it at all. Then, as the band was playing Wanted, the “worst” possible thing happened... Jon had made the audience to sing the first verse & chorus of the song, and just as they were gonna go to the second verse, EVERYTHING went dead. The stage lights, the PA, everything. The only things that were working were the screens and the off-stage spotlights. Usually Jon hates that kinda stuff, but this time the look on his face was definitely a classic... He looked absolutely amazed, stared at his guitar and the mic and then looked at the audience and his band mates in an amused astonishment, as if to say “What the f***?? Who turned off the lights?!”. Then he & the band tried to make the audience to continue with Wanted but it didn’t work out so well, so they went backstage to wait until the systems were fixed. When they came back, the lights were still off but the sound was working... Jon took the mic and said, “we don’t need those stinking lights anyway, let’s rock” and then they continued Wanted from exactly where they had been cut off. It was fantastic and for once Jon & the band didn’t seem to mind the power cut either, which made it all even more special. The rest of the show was fabulous too, as usual. But I suppose we should’ve guessed that when things start to get screwed, they’re gonna get REALLY screwed... And so, when the band was doing their final encore song I’ll Be There For You, all of a sudden, in the middle of the song, there was a complete silence & darkness - the lights & PA had blown up AGAIN. I couldn’t believe it and neither could the band – could this happen TWICE during just one gig?? Apparently so. This time Jon probably didn’t appreciate it as much as before, but I loved it nevertheless, and so did the rest of the crowd... I just stood there, cheering & clapping & taking it all in. The crowd kept on singing the whoo-oo-oohs while the band did their bows and waved & left the stage… And the singing continued for minutes and minutes even after the band had gone. It was simply magical. Going back from Werchter to Leuven
was a bit of an ordeal at first, I had to walk for gawd knows how long
to get to the bus stop. But it was ok in the end.
5th June 2001 – AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND The queueing was as mad & annoying as it generally seems to be in Holland – by the time we got to the Arena, there was about 20-something ppl there, and more ppl kept coming all the time. Apart from the Mad Pizza Quers and us, nobody seemed to have any respect towards other ppl, at least in regards to who came there before them, etc... Not all of the queue-jumpers were Dutch tho, Germany and even the UK were well represented. After some hassle about the actual place of the queue – whether to queue in front of a set of ordinary doors or proper turnstiles - around 10 am, some security ppl came to set up a few barriers so that the doors could be opened, but after that, there was not a single security person in sight until about half an hour before they let us in… And there were no barriers either... So by the time the fc doors were gonna be opened, the "queue" had gotten WAY outta hand. Ppl were pushing really hard and several ppl who had only gotten to the venue less than an hour before had managed to push their way almost to the front of the queue... I can't understand how ppl can possibly be so rude, to think that it's their god-given right to step on other ppl and just jump the queue or push their way to the front. Rot in hell, you motherf***ers! :o( Anywayzee, the whole fan club entrance turned out to be, well, more or less a fiasco. Ppl were getting crushed and squeezed through the gate by force, then we had to run up a staircase where we were given the wristbands, and then they stopped us on top of the staircase, in front of a set of doors. At first it was ok, but then ppl who were coming in way after us started going up the other flight of stairs next to the one where we were standing, and that caused another mad panic… Everyone ran up, trying to beat the ones who had not only just got their wristbands, way after us, but who had also just arrived at the venue like an hour or two hours before. It was really crazy with a lot of pushing & shoving… So crazy that it was a miracle that nobody got hurt. Then, after making us wait in the VERY hot starcase thing for like 15 mins, they opened the doors… We were told not to run and most of us didn't indeed run when they escorted us to the side of the stage and up the stairs to the actual field… But once we were in the pit, it was mad running all over again. I got a good spot tho, front row between Jon & Huey. Antti & Kenny got front row too, at the side barrier in front of Richie. So it was gonna be a good show for me after all. :o) The first support act were Kane, a Dutch band who played VERY loud and rather hard & heavy and somewhat boring, chorusless rock. The only good thing about that band was the singer, he was kinda cute. ;o) Then it was Anastacia's turn… She was ok, had good backing singers and one really good song (Don't You Wanna Fall In Love With Me). But the best part of her set was when Richie came to play and sing Cowboys & Kisses with her, it was really cool! She seemed to enjoy it too. Then, around 20:30, it was Bon Jovi's turn to take the stage… The crowd was rocking from the first moments of the intro vid, the atmosphere was really good… And the band was on top form again, having a great time on stage. I had decided to hang up my "GOING COMMANDO, JON?" banner on the barricade for this show, esp since I had forgotten my banners at the hotel in Belgium. I didn't really pay any attention to it, but I did see Jon reading it… Can't remember which song it was tho. He looked at the banner for a while and read it, I could read it from his lips that he was reading it… Then he shook his head as if to wonder what it really meant & smiled at me. I also got a few other looks from Jon during the show and a bunch of smiles & raised eyebrows from Dave. :o) The set list of the show was FABULOUS, I couldn't believe my ears when they began to play Raise Your Hands! I had dreamed about hearing that song live for so long and now they played it! OMG!!! I went SOOO bananas when I realised what song it was and just kept partying & dancing all through the song… And afterwards when I was cheering really loudly, Huey saw me shouting… He did that funny imitated scream thing at me, it was hysterical! :o) Also, I REALLY loved hearing Something To Believe In too, it's such a great (and underrated!) song. Here's the set list of the show…
Encore 1 It's My Life
After the show we went to see the
Mad Pizza Quers who had rushed bakk to the fc queue on Gate D, and then
made our way bakk to the B&B. I was the only one who was gonna go to
queue early for the second show too, the others weren't gonna bother… So
I headed straight to bed.
6th June 2001 – AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND I had set my alarm to wake me up quite early, but when the alarm went off, I was feeling so shitty that I couldn't get up, so I decided to sleep for another couple of hours, cause my health was definitely more important to me than getting near the front of the queue. I finally got to the venue around, there were dozens of ppl there already and it was all going just as wrong as it had gone the day before. There were still no barricades or security to keep the queue in order, so MANY MANY ppl jumped the queue without even raising an eyebrow. It made me sick. :o( The whole fan club members entrance was a fiasco again, there was an unbelievable amount of pushing and pressure and ppl getting squashed through the gate by force. It was awful. But it wasn't until we were allowed to rush in to the venue and to the pit when the REAL magnitude of the fan club fiasco was revealed… Even tho the local security knew PRECISELY that they were supposed to let all fan club members in before the general public, THEY HAD OPENED ONE GENERAL ADMISSION GATE BEFORE THE FAN CLUB GATE!!! You can imagine the shock, panic and utter disappointment of the fan club members, especially ppl like the Mad Pizza Quers, when they saw that just about the whole front row was already taken and even the entire pit was almost half full. Many ppl were crying and I would've been too, had it not been for a few dear friends of mine… I can never thank them enuff for their help! I was so relieved when I got to the front again that I nearly cried. The support acts were the same as the nite before, Kane was still boring but Anastacia was quite ok. She invited Richie on stage again to do Cowboys & Kisses, this time it went a bit better too than the nite before – Richie didn't only play well, he had obviously tried to memorise the lyrics too! LOL! Other than Cowboys & Kisses, Anastacia's best song was again Don't You Wanna Fall In Love With Me. This time I even got the hang of the choreography…LOL… Anyway, after the support acts had done their bits, it was Bon Jovi Time again. If possible, "the round number two" was even better than round number one! Maybe it was because the show was sold out, or maybe they had just been having a lot of fun in the town before the show… ;o) The set list was a bit different, we were treated with the wonderful accappella version of Can't Help Falling In Love before the band broke into Bed Of Roses. The guys were on a really good mood again, they were joking and making fun of each other (Jon declared that Dave loves this city and is gonna run for a Mayor and then he joked about how Dave's got 50 000 votes right there…Funny stuff like that) and generally having a ball. And so was the audience, having a ball I mean… Everyone was singing & shouting and the atmosphere was fantastic. Also, during I-can't-remember-which-song, two rather, eh, $lutty-looking girls got up on stage, from the stage pit on Dave's side. As far as I can tell, they weren't really fans, more like groupie-wannabes – for one thing, they really looked like something you could've picked up from the notorious Red Light District…LOL… And for another, until they went on to have their "5 minutes of fame", they seemed to pay no attention whatsoever on the songs the guys were playing, they just kept on talking with each other, apparently planning their little "attack". When they jumped on stage, one of them went to, eh, "dance" with Richie (who looked terrified at first, poor thing!) and the other one with Jon, but soon both of them were all over Jon, seemingly trying to engage him into a public foreplay of some kind… He played along pretty well and flirted with the girls and even pushed the crew guy(s) back for a while so that he could keep on dancing with them, but soon he had them taken away. And after that, he was extra careful not to get too close to any other more or less $lutty-looking girls in the stage pits. Instead, he went for the "ordinary" girls, which I thought was fabulous of him. :o) The set list of the "round number
two" was just as great, if not even better as that of the "round number
one"…
Encore 1: Blaze of Glory
I got a few VERY nice smiles from
Jon & Huey during the show, and Dave was flirting with me BIG TIME
again… ;o) After the show, we grabbed something to eat & drink and
made our way back to our hotels, Kenny & Claire going to their hotel
and Antti and I going to our B&B.
8th June 2001 – GLASGOW, SCOTLAND Our alarms went off around early again and after the usual morning routines, we were in the queue again. After the disastrous fan club arrangements in Werchter & Amsterdam, Glasgow felt like heaven – Stella and Melissa had put together a list of all the fc members in the queue – later to be known as The List – and we were happy to add our names to it as well. The security at Hampden was really friendly and co-operative, and even tho they made us change the location of the queue twice (at first so that the queue kinda snaked around, then later they moved us to queue by this one wall), everything went really smoothly… Until they day shift of the security ppl came on. They managed to screw the actual entrance to the stadium, by opening 3 extra gates for fc members – not too bad as such, but all the ppl who had practically just arrived or had not been at the venue for too long went for those extra gates, and they were the ones that were opened first. Still, after minutes and minutes of nervous waiting and panicking about the doors and all the hassle of actually getting in, I managed to get a good spot at the front row again, about in front of Huey/Dave, and so did Marianne, Heidi and Milja. So everything was alright again… Apart from the weather, it was BLOODY cold, probably not more than +5°C. But we tried to hang in there nevertheless. In Glasgow we got to experience Delirious? and Matchbox 20 for the first time… And I gotta say that they weren't bad at all. Delirious? put out a good show, the songs were more or less average rock songs but the singer had a pretty darn nice ar$e. ;o) Except for the underwear line, LMAO… I personally didn't have any expectations towards either one of the bands, and they managed to leave a positive impression. Especially Matchbox 20, they were a real rocking band and had a bunch of great songs. I still prefer Toploader as the Ultimate Bon Jovi Support Act, but MB20 are definitely the second best. As for the Jovi show then… It was a great show, the band were enjoying themselves – apart from the weather, which seemed to cause Jon some problems with his voice. At all the shows before this, Jon had been wearing either the lace-up jeans, leather pants or the batique-coloured pants, but this time he was wearing loose green army-style pants, a college-style leather jacket and huge blue sunglasses. And, from the first encores on, the unbelievable tea-cosy hat…LMAO… I can't remember whether I got smiles from Jon this time, but I definitely got some WONDERFUL smiles from Dave – Born To Be My Baby seems to be "our" song, he always looks at me during that one. And smiles and raises his eyebrows and all that. :o) And at the end of Wanted, too, Dave always seems to look at me and nod at me to the slowing beats of the bass drum when I slow down my "double-claps" accordingly. There were a couple of funny/special moments during the show that are worth mentioning… During I Got The Girl, Jon went on for quite long about how he's gonna lock Stephanie up (and how Dave & Richie should lock up their daughters, LOL) and how eventually he has to give up, cause "truth is some day somebody is gonna take her to see". It was really sweet. :o) At one point, before…ummm…can't remember which songs, Tim was bringing Jon his black Takamine guitar, but apparently there was something wrong, so he brought another guitar… I'm not sure about this anymore, cos it's been a while since the show (writing this a "bit" late, LOL), but I seem to recall that when Jon tried that second guitar, he motioned Tim to bring the first guitar bakk after all. Maybe I'm wrong tho, wouldn't be the first time. LOL! Jon also acknowledged the cold weather, asking the audience whether it was supposed to be summertime in Scotland… And whether anyone would like to give him a massage… As if anyone of us girlies could say no to that! ;o) The set list at Hampden was great, as usual, it was fantastic to hear Blood on Blood… And I Can't Help Falling In Love and I'll Be There For You are always great to hear as well. This is what they played… One Wild Night
Encore 1 I'll Be There For You
After the show we met up with Kenny
and Claire and all that gang again to go back to Brian's. It had started
to rain and I was really cold… But not as cold as I was about an hour or
hour and a half later, when we were still waiting for a taxi at this supposed
taxi "lane" that smelled like pee and was generally awful. I had just lost
my patience and gone down to the street to look for taxis and come back
empty-handed cause I didn't know the addy of the place where we were going
to, when Kenny showed up with two taxis and we finally made it back. Our
train to Dublin was leaving at 8:20 am, so Marianne and I went straight
to bed. Or almost straight, I checked my e-mails before going to bed, had
about 120 new messages in my Inbox. LOL!
10th June 2001 – DUBLIN, IRELAND When we got to the queue there were already quite a lot of there, but not all of them were fan club members – Stella had organised The List again, and we were happy to join in. The ppl at the front of the queue, who weren't fan club members, were not all too happy when they heard about the fan club privileges and were giving a hard time to the fc members. It looked like it could've turned ugly, but luckily it worked out in the end. Around noon some security ppl came out and set up another queue to the other side of the gate, and when they were doing that, some security guys came to the main queue and explained that aroud 14:00 the fan club members will receive their wristbands and will then be moved to the other queue, and that queue will be going in before the other queue. The non-fan club members tried to protest a bit, but didn't make a huge deal out of it anymore. Anyways, we got in fine again with the fan club wristbands and got front row too, all three of us Finns. Marianne and I stayed together, and Antti went to stand in front of Richie. And then to the show itself… Delirious? opened the evening again, they were rocking and the singer still had a great ar$e – and underwear lines, LOL… Matchbox 20 were really good this time, apparently they're kinda bigger in Ireland than in the UK, so they gave their everything to the audience. The singer, Rob Thomas, talked quite a bit, was joking with the audience etc. It was good fun to watch & listen to them. But, of course, the biggest stars of the evening were Bon Jovi… Even tho their set was delayed a bit, cause the main screen got screwed up. But when the show finally started, the audience was rocking their hearts out from the first seconds of the intro vid. The stage at RDS was really high, so high I couldn't even see the elevator and only saw Tico's head from behind the drumset (couldn't see the whole drumset even), but it didn't matter too much… Cause the show was just awesome. It was definitely an "on" nite for Jon, he was on fire and played and interacted with the audience a lot. The whole band was in top form and seemed to enjoy themselves immensely. They really seem to love Dublin, Jon even said so during the show. Can't remember his exact words, tho. There were a few really special things happening during the show… During Bed Of Roses, Jon danced with Lisa Mobus from the e-mail lists, she was really over the moon for it, and it was great to watch such a true fan getting that dance and that kiss from Jon. During I Got The Girl both Stephanie and Jesse were on stage, Steph in the pit on Dave's side and Jesse, who was wearing huge hearing protectors, was with Dorothea in the other stage pit. Towards the end of the song Jon motioned Steph to come over… At first, this older girl (Lisa's friend, I think) thought Jon was motioning at her and started to run towards him, but Jon shook his head and said "no, not you!" or something, and when that other girl had gone back to the pit, Steph ran to Jon from the side of the pit. He grabbed her into his arms and gave her a kiss, it was really sweet! :o) You could see Jon just radiating with father's pride when Steph had ran back to the pit. Another maybe not so special but definitely funny moment happened, I can't remember during which song, when this guy jumped on stage from the stage pit on Richie's side and just peacefully strolled accross the stage. He was over halfway through the stage when one of the crew members ran after him, grabbed him and dragged him off the stage. LOL! Yet another really cool moment happened at the beginning of Lay Your Hands On Me when Marianne and I got on screen holding Marianne's AMEN banner. Jon was giving his Jonny's-Church-Of-Rock'n'Roll speech and asked, "brothers, can I get an amen?"… As Richie, Huey and Dave – and the audience – were giving him the amens, we were on screen with the AMEN banner. It was too funny, usually when ppl get on screen they at least smile or point at themselves or something, but we just took a quick glance at the screen and then looked at each other in shock…LMAO… I don't think Jon noticed the AMEN banner, but Dave, Richie and Huey did, and rewarded us with smiles. :o) I did get a couple of other smiles & looks from Jon tho, so it didn't matter that much. The general atmosphere of the Dublin show was absolutely fantastic, even tho the set list wasn't THAT special – apart from the U2 cover in the end, of course. It was kinda sweet to see Jon and Richie reading the lyrics and chords to One while they were playing it… Guess it made it even better, or at least more human. After all, they might have decided on playing the song just before the encores, as the long lyric/chord sheets weren't taped onto the stage floor right at the beginning of the show but somewhere in the middle. They did mess up the end of the song (One) a bit, I think… I don't know what happened but towards the end of the song, Jon said something to Huey who soon left the stage, didn't even come back for the final bow & the elevator ending. But it was really really cool nevertheless. This is what they played at RDS:
Encore 1 Blaze Of Glory
After the show we went back to our
hotel, checked out the bar there but didn't see anyone except Darren, so
we went to check out a "hotel room party" at Suey & co's room. We stayed
there for a while and then went to bed.
13th June 2001 – HUDDERSFIELD, UK The day (well, early morning) begun with the good ol' routines. We had some hassle wiv the place of the fan club queue (they wanted to move us to where the general public were but we stuck to our guns and got to stay) but thanks to Stella, it got all sorted out. Around 8:30 am a reporter and a photographer from the Huddersfield Examiner came to the queue and took some pics wiv us… And interviewed some of us too, I was one of the ppl they talked to, and indeed my comments even made it to the paper. It was pretty kewl! :o) Other than that, the queueing went the usual way – got our McDiseases, used the free loo at the nearby pub, got more and more nervous as the day went on. Anyhow, when the time finally arrived to go and get our wristbands, around 14:00 hrs, everything went so smoothly we couldn't believe our eyes… I guess we owed most of it to the Marshall Arts guy, the cute young bald-ish dude. He was SO sweet, made sure in person that things were going well. The first 20 or so fan club members, including us, were allowed to pick up the wristbands first, even tho the box office where the wristbands were picked up was like in the middle of the queue. Then we walked up to this fence by the river and stayed there, cause at that point it wasn't still clear through which gate the fan club members were going to allowed to enter. There were maybe a couple of queue-jumpers but even all of them were fan club members – the security kept going up & down the queue to make sure everyone had wristbands. Things were looking great… And they turned out even better – the fan club members were escorted to the gate in small-ish groups, got their tics checked and then WALKED into the stadium and into the pit. WAY COOL! :o) All of us Finns got good spots in the front row again, it was fantastic. As for the actual show then… Delirious? and MB20 were great again, especially MB20. I guess this was the first time I really got into them and their music, they were definitely rockin'. After MB20 and the change-over, it was Jovi time again… And as usual, they put out a great show. Jon was having fun with the audience, talking about being Doctor Jon to them (Richie was also joking something about Professor Jon, LOL) and about how the entire Huddersfield has come to see them, how there's 50 000 ppl in the stadium and some 10 000 more outside – there were TONS of ppl watching & listening the show on this road that was going up the hill right on the other side of the stadium, it was funny how Jon actually paid attention to those ppl. :o) During I'll Sleep When I'm Dead one girl did "Amdams" and jumped out of the stage pit on Richie's side… At first she went to dance wiv Richie but soon she danced up to Jon, wiggling her ar$e at the audience (she actually had her back turned to the audience and was really making a point about wiggling her, well, rather average-sized and shaped ar$e at us, LMAO) and trying to get Jon to attend to her public foreplay performance. Jon played along well, danced with her and even pushed the security ppl away again for a while. When she was taken back to the stage pit (or hurried back down and in to the audience, dunno which), Jon took the mic laffin' and said, "wow you gotta love this man, it's a good job if you can get it!" LOL… I made eye contact wiv Huey, Jon and David again during the show, got smiles from all of them, it was really kewl. It's so funny how David always looks at me during Born To Be My Baby and Wanted… Guess those really are "our songs", LOL! At the end of the show, when the band were doing their bows and thanking the audience, Jon smiled and shook his head at me when I waved my "Greetings from Finland" banner, making my day. :o) The set list of the Hudds show was:
Encore 1: 100 Years
After the show we hung around for
a bit, and then we walked bakk to the hotel and went to bed, feeling pretty
much completely dead.
16th June 2001 – MILTON KEYNES, UK After an early start it was yet another day of queueing… A bit after midday the security started handing out wristbands to the fc members and I made my way to the other side of the Bowl wiv Marianne & co. Once we got to the other side, it was time for the phone-in interview… Oh, right, I haven't mentioned it before – on the day before the MK show, Kai Ulmanen from RadioMafia, one of the Finnish national radio stations, had called me and asked if I wanted to do the interview we had been talking about before the tour. I said sure and told him what time he could call me back on the day of the show… He called me on my mobile and It turned out to be a nice interview, about 10 mins or so. He asked me all kinds of questions about what's so good about Bon Jovi and what is it like to travel around Europe to see Jovi shows, etc. Guess I could say that the fc arrangements in MK weren't exactly as good as we expected… When the fc members were going in, it was just a mad panic. Tons and tons of ppl were running in and pushing in… Instead of escorting ppl in in groups, they allowed everyone to come in at once, which caused a helluva lot of pushing… The "queue" was stopped a few times along the way and at the pit gate – which was REALLY narrow for some reason – there was SO much pushing that ppl were in serious danger of hurting themselves badly. As far as I know nobody actually got hurt, or at least not too badly, but it was awful anyway. Ppl who had been in the queue from the wee morning hours or even since the nite before had to stay in the back of the pit or somewhere in the middle, while ppl who had only arrived in the morning or around noon made it to the front row. :o( Luckily all of us Finns made it to the front again, but many, many others didn't. After we had got settled in the front, we tried to relax a bit cause we had a LONG wait to go until Delirious? was gonna be on. At one point, Marianne and I sat down and had a strawberry picnic – without the whipped cream tho, LOL… It was good fun and we had a great time while waiting for the Jovis. The hours passed by and around 18:15 Delirious? finally took the stage. Their set just seemed to get better and better over time, and this time the rain gave it an extra boost – at one point, the singer jumped down from the stage and came to stand up on the barricade, and at the end of their set, he took off his wet socks and threw them to the audience. LOL! Next up were MB20 and they were really good too, I was totally rockin' all through their set. Good thing we were gonna see them one more time after MK! :o) During the change-over between MB20 and Bon Jovi the crew played sum kewl music, like Aerosmith and the usual AC/DC. A little after 20:00 hrs it was finally Bon Jovi Time again… And I gotta say, the MK show definitely went right up there with Dublin and the second Amdam nite as one of the best shows of the tour. The atmosphere was simply AMAZING, from the very first seconds of the intro vid… The crowd was totally rockin', everybody was singing and dancing/jumping and clapping their hands, even the peeps on the side & back "slopes" of the Bowl. There were several special moments during the show, like when Kenny & "Charlie" were on stage, on Richie's side, and Jon & Richie came to high-five them and the other ppl in that pit… Or when during Bed Of Roses, instead of asking a girl from the pit to dance with him, Jon motioned at this "red" girl in the front row (she was wearing a red dress and a red cowboy hat) and shouted her to come up on stage to dance with him – she accepted the invitation gladly and was lifted up over the barricade and escorted quickly to the stage, where Jon took her in his arms and danced with her and told the guys to keep on playing the solo part. "Two more, two more", Jon shouted at the guys and they kept on playing while Jon danced with the very lucky "red" girl… And at the end of the solo part, when Jon gave her a sweet kiss on the lips, the entire crowd went just mad. It was so cool! And I was really happy for that girl, she must've been over the moon! :o) I myself got a smile or two from Jon and Huey, and the usual flirting from Dave again… It was pretty kewl too. ;o) Oh, and another kewl moment was during Cpt Crash, when they showed this REALLY weird-looking couple on screen – it was Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen from Mars, hanging out and partying the nite away at the back of the pit…LMAO… They looked just hysterical and it was all really funny. :o) There were no huge surprises in the
set list – maybe Jon was playing it safe, cos lots of "important ppl" were
at the show, including his family and Heather and some other celebrities
and a bunch of record execs – but it was a pretty darn good set list anyway.
This is what they played:
Encore 1: I'll Be There For You
After the show I kinda lost everybody
when trying to get a set list – and trying to find my way out of the Bowl,
LOL… But it wasn't too bad, cause I ended up by the helicopter field and
saw the band arriving at the field in their vans and getting to the helicopter.
I waited there until the helicopter took off and then made my way to the
hotel. We had a little rest and packed our bags and soon we were getting
ready to leave. Then Kenny called me and told me that the guy with the
minibus who was gonna take us to Cardiff was apparently there already…
So we said our more or less sad goodbyes to Antti, who wasn't gonna go
to any other shows anymore. He was a true gentleman and hugged us all,
LOL… Then we took our backpacks and made our way outside where we met Kenny,
Jon, Lee and his gf. We walked up to where the minibus was, and after we
had stuffed in our bags, we were on our way to Cardiff.
17th June 2001 – CARDIFF, WALES The minibus ride went ok, but we were rather beat when we finally arrived at Cardiff as we hadn't had the chance to get any proper sleep. The driver took us directly to the Millennium Stadium and to the fan club queue – or, as it later turned out, the place we *THOUGHT* to be the fan club queue – and left us there with our backpacks. There were only less than 10 ppl in front of us, so we made ourselves comfortable (LOL) at the gates, set up The List and took a little rest. After a while me & Kenny went to find our hotel, the Ibis hotel, and asked if it was possible to check in already at that hour. We were told that if I checked myself and the girls in then, we would've had to pay for the entire previous nite, so I just left my backpack at the luggage room and went to freshen up a bit and then we went bakk to the queue. When we got bakk, the girls went to take their bags to the luggage room as well. There was a bit of a mess with the place of the fan club queue again, we talked repeatedly with the security ppl but until maybe 10-ish, they weren't sure where we were supposed to be. I think it was between 9 and 10 when the queue moved up from Gate 5 next to a portacabin box office that was set up at the beginning of the street leading up to Gate 5. We still had the list and ppl kept it going, so there were no bad queue jumpers at the fc queue, at least not among the first 67 ppl whose names were on The List. We had a pretty good time in the queue, talking and joking about sex & relationships and all sorts of stuff…LOL… The fan club members got their wristbands around 14:00 and after that, they had to go to another gate. Despite the move it was all really well organised, the members were organising themselves in lines according to The List and everything was going well. Marianne, Milja, Heidi & me had written two identical banners for this show, they said, "CHEERS GUYS, SEE YOU NEXT TIME IN FINLAND!" and looked really kewl. :o) All four of us got front row again, Marianne & me together and Heidi & Milja together. We had a bit of a wait again until Delirious? came on, so Marianne and I had a bit of something to eat & drink. Around, erm, I can't remember when, Delirious? took the stage… They put on a really good show again, the singer dude is a true showman. At one point, he did the same as he did in MK, jumped off the stage and came to stand at the barricade – but this time right next to ME! And he was even holding my hand for support, I helped him and the security ppl to keep him up there! He was wearing really nice pants again (hee hee) and I REALLY wanted to grab his bum… FOMCLMAO!!! But of course I didn't, I just held his hand. He flashed me a sweet smile before and after standing on the barricade, which was nice. :o) When Delirious? were all done and the change-over had passed, Matchbox 20 took the stage. And just like before, they were brilliant again… I still think Toploader were the best support act for the Jovis ever, but MB20 were definitely the second best. They really kicked ar$e! :o) Marianne was holding up her "Rob sexy pants" banner – I helped her tho and was holding the other end – but it took a while for Rob to notice it… But finally, during I can't remember which song, Rob saw the banner. When he read it, he had this really cute, astonished look on his face…LOL… He looked so amazed it was almost as if he had looked shocked, LMAO! It was just too funny. :o) After MB20 had finished their set, the Jovi roadies took over the stage once more to do the final change-over. Then the house lights went off and
it was SHOW TIME once more… And what a friggin' awesome show it was! At
first, I felt like the audience wasn't getting into the show, but apparently
the Welsh crowd just takes a little time to warm up, cause after the first
few songs, the crowd was REALLY rockin'. It was yet another one of those
nites when the band fed off the audience and vice versa. Jon was on fire,
playing wiv the audience and the ppl in the stage pits… I got a couple
of looks & smiles from Jon & Huey, and again sum serious flirtin'
from Dave, esp during Born To Be My Baby… And during Wanted, he did the
nods again and rewarded my precise clapping rhythm wiv the cutest smile
& wink. :o) I can't remember which song(s) it was (or they were), but
me & Marianne were on screen again a couple of times… Think one of
the times might have been Bad Med or Lay Your Hands On Me, when Marianne
had the "AMEN" banner out again. LOL! We had agreed with Milja & Heidi
to take out our "cheers" banners at the beginning of the first encores
and that's what we did… And got some VERY nice smiles & thumbs-ups
from the whole band! Milja & Heidi were on screen wiv their banner,
and at the end of the show, when the band were doing their final bows before
the acoustic Never Say Goodbye, Jon looked at me and our banner… He put
his hand on his heart, smiled at me and gave me a
A pretty kewl thing happened before they started playing, umm, Sat Nite, I think it was… That day was Father's Day in Britain, so Jon decided to honour the day and brought Jesse on stage (or it was some crew member who actually brought him, but Jon had asked Jesse to come over) He even introduced him to the audience, saying, "This is my son, Jesse James". It was SOOOO cute, Jon was glowing with fatherly pride when he talked with Jesse for a while and then sat him down at Tico's drumset platform. He probably meant Jesse to stay there for the entire song, but little Jesse didn't quite think so…LOL… First, he almost jumped off the drumset platform when Tico hit the bass drum for the first time, before he had been brought a pair of huge hearing protectors… And then, just after a couple of minutes (if even that!), he simply got off the platform and walked backstage, looking rather bored. LMAO! Jon didn't notice it at first as he was facing the audience, but when he turned around in the middle of the song, you could see he was surprised not to find Jesse there anymore and was thinking like, "now where did he disappear?". Jon didn't seem to mind tho, he just laffed and shrugged his shoulders. Also, towards the end of the show, when the band were doing their bows after, erm, Prayer I think, something really funny happened… This absolutely bizarre-looking guy, with a long plastic wig and a red plastic guitar, ran across the stage from Dave's side, stopped at the microphone and said, "Rock'n'roll!" to the mic. Then he ran off to the opposite side of the stage and disappeared as mysteriously as he had appeared. The guys apparently had NO clue who it was or why he did what he did, they all looked absolutely astonished and were laffin' their ar$es off…LOL… Then Jon took the mic and said, "Who the HELL was that?!", still laffin' and clapping his hands. It was hysterical! :o) The set list of the Cardiff show
was:
Encore1: These Days
They were obviously gonna end their set with Prayer, but the crowd just kept on cheering and shouting and clapping and demanding more… The noise was just overwhelming… So Jon took the mic, said something like "oh what the hell, bring me my guitar!" And then, when the other band members had already gone backstage, Jon & Richie did the most amazing acoustic rendition of Never Say Goodbye. I'm sure I wasn't the only one in that crowd with tears in her eyes… It was simply and breath-takingly beautiful. *sigh* After the show we had to say goodbye
to a lot of ppl… It was a sad moment really, cause I knew that I won't
be seeing any of those ppl until the next time Bon Jovi are touring in
Europe. :o( Reluctantly we finally made our way back to the hotel… Marianne
and I chatted for a while and then we went to bed, feeling pretty much
dead after going through two shows on consecutive days, without any proper
sleep in between.
19th June 2001 – PARIS, FRANCE Despite being dead tired when my alarm went off around 5:30 am, I got up almost rite away and started getting ready – after all, I had a train to catch and finally one more show to go to. I made it to the EuroStar Terminal in good time and even had time to get some change and buy myself a baguette & some water for the road. Going to the EuroStar Train was really kewl, the passengers had to check in just like going to a plane… I found my seat easily and made myself comfortable. I was really tired so I nodded off pretty soon after the train left London behind, was kinda half asleep when it went to the actual Channel Tunnel. When I woke up I decided it was snack time and ate the baguette, and then it was time to "get pretty"… Meaning that it was time to do my make-up & get changed. :o) Quite soon after that the train arrived at Paris and pulled up to the Paris Nord Station. I had a map with me, so I made my way to the Metro ticket office and bought a single ticket to Palais Omnisports de Bercy… And then I was off. The Paris Metro turned out to be almost as logical & straightforward as the Tube in London, and after only one change (can't remember where that was tho) I was at the Bercy stop. I got off the metro train and walked up the stairs… I thought I was gonna have to search for the venue, but when I got up the stairs from the Metro, it was practically right ahead of me. A funny-looking building, with grass (!!) growing on the sides of the roof. Quite soon after I got to the venue, Kenny and I decided to try and get all fc members to one queue, by one of the turnstiles. I went to the big GA queue and started asking ppl if they were fc members… And told them that if they were, they should go to such and such queue. As was to be expected in France, a lot of ppl spoke only French and were a bit confused at first, but I think we got most Backstage members to go to the other, designated queue. The fc members were supposed to get their wristbands at 15:30, after which they were supposed to go to Gate 32, but by 15:45 there was still no sign of anyone who could be handing out the wristbands. Ppl were getting impatient – and rather dead, it was really hot outside – but there was nothing they could do but wait… Until, a little after 16:00, this french guy came to the top of the stairs to address the fc members. He said something in French, something which he didn't bother to translate in English, and all of a sudden, everybody started pushing down the stairs and running towards the backstage gate. I was like "WTF IS GOING ON??!??" and made my way back there as well… And when I got there, it was like a hell had broken loose – ppl were right by the actual backstage gates, between the metal gates & a huge EST truck, pushing and shoving and generally panicking. Since somebody had to take control of the situation, I went to the front of the pushing crowd and SHOUTED at them, from the top of my lungs, to STOP PUSHING AND MOVE TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRUCK NOW! I walked up to the sign post next at the sidewalk and shouted that that's the place where the fc member should stay… Then I asked Kenny & a few others to keep the crowd in place and went to get some help and some info on what the heck was happening. Soon a few crew members came out and started handing the wristbands to the fc members, I was actually helping them to deliver the wristbands. We were checking ppl's membership cards and making sure those who wanted two wristbands had someone right there with them to give the extra wristband to. Anyhoo, bakk to the show… The stage set up of the Paris show was completely different from the other shows I had seen, it was the US rooftop scene stage and seemed REALLY small and low – and close! – compared to the Empire State Building stage. The barricade was very low, about to my bellybutton. Despite the complete chaos earlier on, when the fc members were let in, things went rather well and peacefully. Soon after the fc members were in, the GA doors were opened… And when the GA ppl were in, the pressure started to build up, slowly but surely. It didn't get too bad until the Jovis took the stage, but I gotta say I'm eternally grateful for the band & the management for the pit arrangements – not just because it makes it possible for them to offer us some kind of fan club benefits, but mostly because it's SUCH a huge safety issue. When the pit is used accordingly and not filled too much, there's usually very little pressure in the front… Ok, sure, there's bound to be SOME pressure, but it's not too much and too mad, you know. So I do hope & pray, from the bottom of my heart, that Bon Jovi would employ the double barricade system on their next European tour as well! That and the wonderful fan club arrangements. :o) This time we didn't have to wait for too long for the opening act, as the doors were opened around 18:30 and Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes took the stage around 20:15. I had never seen Southside before, I hadn't even heard too many of his/their songs, but I gotta say he/they ROCKED! Southside and the Jukes really kicked sum serious ar$e, they had great, rockin' tunes – and a good-looking young-ish guitar/bass player, LOL… I took some pics of them for Mika to see and was rockin' all through their set. I only recognised a couple of songs tho, GLORIA (or did they sing that one or am I just dreaming???) and Havin' A Party and maybe a couple of others. When Southside & the Jukes finished their set, it was time for the final change-over again. Around 21:00 the house lights finally went off and the crowd went wild… And pushy, I knew it within minutes that it was gonna be a tough nite. But I didn't care, I was front row at "my usual spot" right between Jon & Huey, nothing was gonna spoil it for me. :o) I was really taking it all in, watched the intro vid very carefully and generally tried to make the most of the show every single second. The elevator thingy was a bit different, cause the stage was different, but it was just as cool as ever, if not even cooler cause the stage was so low. The show kicked off with One Wild Night, as usual, and the band seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely again. It must have done good to Jon's voice to be singing indoors for a change… He was on top form, as was the rest of the band. They were all smiling and interacting wiv the audience, especially Jon & Dave, and Huey was making contact wiv the crowd as well. I got "the usual" (LOL!) smiles & winks & raised eyebrows from Dave during Born To Be My Baby, and during Wanted he kept looking at me and nodding his head to the beats & my clappings. And I also got quite a few absolutely gorgeous smiles from Jon… :o) At one point Jon looked at me for so long (well it was prolly only a couple of seconds, but it felt like an eternity!) that I was sure he was looking someone else… But when he turned away and I looked around, I realised it had to have been me he was looking at. It totally made my show!! :o) The set list of the show was great,
we got to hear In These Arms,
These Days (Encore 1)
During Bad Med Jon did the thing B & K had been waiting for and dreaming about – around halfway through the song he ripped his shirt open… OMG!! Women were dropping like flies and flashes were lighting all around the arena. Shame my own pic, the only one I dared to take, didn't really come out too well. But it was a gorgeous sight nevertheless, Jon sure knows how to make girlies' hearts skip! :o) All in all the show was absolutely amazing… It was simply awesome, not just cause it was a wonderful show but because it was such a different setting, an intimate inside arena. I was taking it all in and enjoying every single second, even tho it was HOT HOT HOT and the crowd was pushing me quite hard against the barricade. The security were keeping a close eye on the crowd behind us, lighting up their flashlights and trying to check that ppl weren't collapsing. A LOT of ppl had to be pulled out of the crowd during the show, the first few girls were pulled out even before the Jovis took the stage, during and before Southside Johnny. All too soon the band was breaking into the final encores… Perhaps the greatest feeling of all for me personally was when they played Wanted… I can't really explain it in words, but somehow at that moment, when the guys were playing Wanted and I was standing there in the front row, watching them and listening to them and taking it all in, I felt… I dunno, just somehow complete. Like it was the absolute best thing that could have possibly been happening to me at that moment, that there was no time or place or situation where or when I could've been happier. I was smiling ear to ear all through the song, yet still my eyes were getting a bit misty… Maybe it was the realisation that it was really gonna be the last show, the last time in a few years I was gonna see the band on stage and hear them play live. Or maybe it was just the utter perfection of that moment, I dunno. Anyway, after Wanted it was time to get the show in the ultimate party gear with Prayer, Tequila and Twist n Shout. I was truly partying my ar$e off, dancing as much as I possibly could in that crowd and singing my heart out… And feeling extremely happy & lucky, especially when during the final end bows I got one last smile from Jon, Dave & Huey. :o) What a perfect way to end an absolutely positively totally fantastic, marvellous, superb, awesome tour! :o) But, alas, happiness cannot last… After the show it was time to face the reality again, in the form of goodbyes to my friends. It was SO sad to say goodbye my dear friends, knowing I wouldn't be seeing them again until the next Jovi tour. :o( I didn't have a place to go and my train wasn't leaving until after 6 am, so I decided to hang out around the venue, watching the crew packing up the trucks and getting ready to leave. It was really hitting me big time then, the harsh reality of my tour being over for good this time. I was feeling pretty sad and had tears in my eyes… :o( When the equipment trucks and the crew buses were finally gone I walked to the nearby Novotel hotel and asked them to call me a taxi. I was worried I wouldn't have enuff money for the taxi as I only had 140-something francs, but luckily the taxi was only about 80 francs. As I got to the railway station I noticed it was closed still, but there was an all-nite restaurant just across the street so I decided to go there. I wasn't exactly feeling hungry but wanted to eat something nevertheless, so I ordered an onion soup & a cup of tea. Had to give myself a bit of a treat, something to comfort me in my early stages of post-tour depression… After drinking the tea and eating most of the soup I started feeling really drowsy… And soon I was kinda half-asleep, leaning on to the wall and trying not to dip my head or my hair into the soup bowl. LOL "CHEERS GUYS, SEE YOU NEXT TIME AGAIN! I had a wonderful, fantastic, awesome time on the road, the shows were fabulous, the ppl were great, it was just the best thing ever. I already miss being on the road… Seeing the shows, meeting the band members, chatting with the crew guys, getting to hang around with my friends whom I only see when I'm on tour. Thank you Jon, Dave, Huey, Richie & Tico for the most amazing shows yet again… Thank you Marianne, Antti, Heidi & Milja for the company – you are just the best touring mates ever. *grin* Thank you "ladies & the dude", you know who you are… Luv you all SO much! And thank you to ALL my other non-Finnish friends too whom I met on the road. Luv you all to bits and miss you much!!! :o)" |