Rocking All Over St Mary's
Created | Updated Jun 15, 2006
Back in October last year, while driving home from a day out in Southampton, me and Excelsior heard the news that Bon Jovi were going to be playing a gig at St Mary's Stadium in Southampton. We decided then and there to go skint for the month and get tickets. So Friday, 9 June rolls around and we are ready to rock. After a few curses about whose idea was it to have a concert in Southampton on a Friday evening, we got to St Mary's courtesy of free bus tickets provided with the concert tickets, which impressed me. We found our seats and sat around waiting for Nickelback to start their set. A steward approached the girls sitting next to us and offered them the chance to stand in the enclosure at the front of the stage. The same deal was offered to us, but Excelsior doesn't do well in crowds so we had to decline. No problem, says the steward, we can give you corporate box seats that'll give you a better view of the stage. Result. So we moved and settled down to wait for Nickelback, who were surprisingly good. As a seasoned concert-goer I'm not usually impressed with support acts, not since the Black Crows were booed offstage at Wembley for refusing to play in the rain — it was only a light shower, for Bob's sake. No problems this time, the sun was blistering and the music was loud.
At 8.00pm a roar went up as Bon Jovi came on stage. They started with a number from their new album and Jon Bon Jovi strolled out onto a bridge that cut through the crowd, much to their delight. Then the show really took off when they carried on with, of all things, Status Quo's 'Rockin' All Over The World', to the delight of the crowd who joined in with gusto. The foreigners in the crowd, which included Shane Warne, just thought we were nuts, but who cares? Mixing new songs with old, the band looked like they were genuinely enjoying themselves, if the grin on Jon Bon Jovi's face was anything to go by. In any case, the crowd definitely were. 'Lay Your Hands on Me', 'Have a Nice Day', 'You Give Love a Bad Name', 'Bad Medicine', 'Runaway', 'It's My Life' and the new single 'Who Says You Can't Go Home' were belted out by band and crowd. When the opening chords of 'Livin' On A Prayer' started, the crowd didn't bother waiting for Jon Bon Jovi to start; they carried on without him, to his amusement. When he finally joined in the crowd just got louder — there must have been fillings rattling on the Isle of Wight by then.
About halfway through, Jon Bon Jovi left for a well-deserved break and left the stage to Ritchie Sambora, who sang 'I'll Be There For You'. To say shivers went down my spine is an understatement. I never realised what a wonderful voice he has and how well he plays the blues. The applause he received was deafening and it is not often a guitarist receives a standing ovation for his singing ability. Pretty please come back to the South Coast on your own, Mr Sambora! I'll be first in the queue for tickets.
Towards the end things quietened down a bit, if that was at all possible. 'Keep The Faith' was dedicated to the Saints fans, which was greeted by a few catcalls from the Pompey fans in the audience... *ahem*... they couldn't hear me from the stage, anyway. The band finally left the stage with a few words of support for the England team in the World Cup and deafening cheers from the crowd.
If they ever decide to come back to the South Coast, there will always be a warm welcome for them. Come back soon, guys.
