2006: Have a Nice Day European Tour - 3rd Leg

On June, 8th 2006 I departed for the 3rd and final leg of my Bon Jovi European Tour experience, and no doubt that despite I had not recovered from the previous 3 weeks, I still had the toughest journey ahead.

I took a plane to London, after which I had to take a train to Southampton, where I camped outside the stadium by myself to queue for the Bon Jovi show. The hot sun woke me up early the following day. Fortunately there were stadium staff toilets right next to our camping, so we could use them to get ourselves washed for the day. Sunny and hot, those two words sum up the whole day.

The band kicked off with their traditional rocker from their last release. They followed with "Rockin'all over the world", just as they had done in Manchester and Coventry. But this time I was present and I have to say the it really fit in the set. Great sing along "I like it ...I like it ...", just very contagious. The usual "Bad Name", "Captain Crash", "Die for you", "Born to be my Baby", "Story of my Life" followed. The time machine introduced "Runaway" and back to 2006 we heard "Radio". As they moved to "Sleep", the first surprise of the night was revealed: "Jumpin' Jack Flash", 10 years after their last performed it, and it sounded fresh and funny as always. "Dancin' in the Streets" was also played in the "Sleep" medley which reminded me of the Hyde Park 2003 superb show. After so many shows "Sleep" got full circle and was loose and funny enough that reached its perfect format. "In these Arms" was another great moment since Dave sang the second verse, and the song carried a tremendous amount of energy as usual. "Have a Nice Day", "Who says you can't go home" and "It's my Life" kept the energy high and a brilliant interpretation of "There for you" by Mr Sambora took everyone's breath away. The more he sings it, the better it sounds. "Complicated" proved to be one of the last album's strongest live songs. "Medicine" had an excelent rendition with Jon giving a speech about having volunteers to rock the house with him. Richie, Hugh and Bobby joined him as he walked slowly from front of drums towards the edge of the stage, posing like the real Rock starts they are - Great interlude. "Raise your Hands" kept the mood, while "Prayer" was sung by the whole stadium to close the main set. After a short break they got back with "Bells of Freedom", "Wanted" (with the audience singing the 1st verse ans Richie the 2nd), "Everyday", in one of its rare performences in 2006, and stunning version of "Faith".

At the final bow Jeff saw me and waved me hello. He even said something to Tico pointing at me. I was a real funny moment. Jon was at his top game, and I saw as he noticed the Portuguese scarf I carried. Finally I have add this was the best spot I got for the tour. It was front row center, between Jon and Richie

It was then rush hour as I walked as fast as I could towards the train station, to arrive, after a zillion adventures, in Milton Keynes at 2:00 a.m., where many of my Portuguese friends were expecting me.

On June, 10th 2006, after a long night traveling and with only 2 hour sleep I managed to survive through the day and end up on the 5th row, between Jon and Hugh with my friend Sara by my side. In Jon's mythical words during the Wembley 95 3rd show "It was a long day in a hot sun" and indeed that was what we witnessed from 3 pm 'till 8 pm only relived with the enthusiasm of a local band and Nickelback, who were in a very good mood.
When the band everybody was waiting for hit the stage, it was easy to realize why we were about to witness the biggest party of the tour. I had never seen so many people screaming and singing at the top of their lungs. The guys were in a great mood and the set list started to become special when in the middle of "Sleep When I'm Dead" the band threw in a meddley of "Papa was a Rolling Stone" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash", something they had not playd in the previous 10 years, which immediately reminded the 1995 World TOur. "The Boys are Back in Town" was probably the biggest surprise and the band was in such a good mood, that even Richie went to Jon's mic to talk with the crowd. Jon reacted making fun of the guitarist and his old haits, only to be acknowledged with some funny moves.

"Bells of Freedom" was played in the middle of the main set, just before Richie stood up for another stunning performence of "I'll be There for You". "Complicated", "Raise your hands" and "Livin'on a Prayer" ended the main set with band and audience on fire.
Everybody was nuts and there were tons of screams, although it must be said that it was during "Livin'on a Prayer" that all the madness reached its peak. It was impossible not to hear the crowd singing every word of the 80's favorite, with Jon extending the final chorus again and again so the vibe could last for some extra minutes. Superb.

For the encore, they saved the fan's very favorite tunes, and so after a moving rendition of "Blood on BLood", "Someday I'll be Saturday Night" was performed passionately wih Jon giving a speech in its interlude. The words came directly from his heart as it was impossible not to feel his emotions taking over. Afterwards another highlight: "Livin in Sin", a song the band had not played in Europe since the 80's, raising emotions to sky heights. "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Keep the Faith" grabed the magic and turned it into pure addrenaline, being the perfect ending for round #1.
After the show was over everyone ran to get the best place in the queue for the next day's show. And so we queued for the next 16 hours before, returning inside the Milton Keynes Bowl and watching Nickleback performing for the last time in front of the Bon Jovi audience this tour. The support were visibly moved by the good times they spent on the road with such a cool guys.

As to the main event, if the band had one and only one concern to this gig was to make it different from the night before. Not decreasing the quality, they repopulated the set list in order to give the audience a complementary performence from what they gave on show #1. That being said, they started with "Keep on Rockin' in the free World", another gemn they barely play live, which sounded fresh and amazing. Richie was wearing a Quee's guard hat and the guitar trio posed for a while, letting al their charisma take over. "Wild in the Streets" and "Just Older" replaced "Rokin' all over the world" and "Radio" respectively, anf if the former is always able to set a party mood, the latter gave the hard core fans a treat shared by the pleasure the band shows when playing it. Jon spoke about the Wembley Stadium not being finnished in time, and the subsequent replacement of the venue to the Milton Keynes bowl thanking the people for not returning their tickets and sticking with the band. They played "Always" to the fan's delight, even if in the "This Left feels Right" version. "Everyday" replaced "Complicated" from night 1, while "Bounce" was added and a long version of "Dancing in the Streets" showed up in the "Sleep when I'm Dead" medley. Jon let Dave sing the 2nd verse of "In THese Arms" and it was very cool seeing Jon making fun of his camarade for the fact he messed up with the lyrics. "Shout" was appended to the end of "Bad Medicine" and the main set was closed with "Livin' on a Prayer", as the crowd got completely hysterical.

As to my personal experience, Jon smilled at our banner saying "Portugal: fine wine, Hot women, Great weather! What else do you want?", and he also acknowledged the one saying "Portugal brings sunshine to this tour". He even made a cool sign with his finger when I showed the one saying "I Believe", making us thing they could actually play the song - which eventually did not happen. Bobby and Hugh also reacted to the banners laughing to some of them.

After the encore break, the band returned with "Blood on Blood", "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "These Days", before bowing to a giant valley of people surrended to them. After pretending to have finnished, when TIco asked the crowd to cheer up so Jon would want to come back for more, they got back to their instruments and performed "Last man Standing", probably the most epic song of the album being promoted, followed by an extended version of "Keep the Faith". During this song there was a little incident in which Hugh didn't saw Jon's sign to start playing the bass line for "Sympathy for the Devil", the front man started singing and only then the musicians started playing the song. After the song the band thanked with Jon promising they would be back again. Overall there were less surprises then on night # 1, but undoubtely it was no less than another brilliant show.
the next day we took the train and headed to Hull, where we would be seeing the last show of the European 2006 Tour. Again we queued for the night and managed to get by before getting into the last venue of our 2006 tour. It rained a lot for the following 3 hours and the 2 opening acts were really terrible. Niklebeck were missed as we had to listen to some kids who couldn't play in a syncrhonous way, and the next ones were no better since they couldn't play anything other than slow tunes. Too bad to be truth.

When the 4 guys from New jersey finally hit the stage, the rain magically stopped and we stood there seeing the "Last men standing" up on stage of their final 2006 European gig. The first couple of songs were very good with Jon smilling a lot and the band sounding very strong. The first sign that something was wrong for me, was when when they abruptally skipped the extra chorus by the end of "Born to be my Baby", or shortly there after when Jon didn't stand next to Richie during the 2nd verse of "Story of my Life". But is was the last show, and I was too emotionally atteched to the momento to feel anything bad could happen. "Blood on Blood" was a nice surprise, since it was played in the main set, and Jon had the chance to thank everybody for following them for the tour (and smile when saw my signature Portugal scarf).

"One last fucking time" was the sentence with which he signed Dave to sing "In These Arms"'s 2nd verse, and once again Dave messed up and said the wrong words, switching the last 2 lines of the song. Jon's sentence and mood were now becoming too obvious that something was not alright. After an energetic version of "Have a Nice Day" they played "Who says you can't go home" with Jon asking the people to move the song from nr 2 to nr 1 sending text messages. And it was this song that under the farewell scenario did realy touch me, gaining a whole new meaning for me. It represented the end of the tour after a whole month following these guys, the lyrics could not get more meaningful. I sang for the last time that song from the top of my lungs and the bottom of my heart as tears were dropping down my face. "Been there, Done that, I ain't looking back, it's been a long long road, feels like I never left, and so the story goes.... it doesn't matter where you are, don't matter where you go, if it's a million miles away or just a mile at the road, take it in, take it with you when you go...." and that was it, my face covered with tears and my voice barely being able to come out as my emotions had reached the surface. I was saying goodbye for now to one of my life's most precious experiences. Life on the road with my heroes, From north to south, by plane, car or train, laying on a different bed every night, spending too much time on the telephone and rocking with every single one of those million of faces that shared with me these 14 shows.

"It's my Life" was kind of recovering for me, but the tears came back as Richie put all his heart into "I'll be There for you"... I was definetly there for them, and I was aware the band knew it. "Complicated" rocked the house, but unfortunatly it was the last one, since all the remaining songs were fast fowarded in auto-pilot. Jon was angry at something, not even looking at Richie by the end of "Wanted Dead or Alive". After a 3 song encore the band bowed with Tico, Dave, Hugh, Bobby and Jeff smiling, while Richie kind of struggling to be nice, and Jon not being able to hide his bad mood.

I only had time to grab the set list and go with my friends to the hotel... with everything coming back to my mind. It was over, in the worse way, with the worse of the 14 shows.
June, 14th, 2006, after taking the train to London, we waved goodbye to our tour buddies and left London, taking a plane back home, only to realize we were completely exhausted. This journey was over.. but the passion was stronger than ever.