JonBon

JON BON IN 97

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It was a cold, cold morning in October 1997 when Jon Bon Jovi came to town. He was in Australia for a tour, 2 solo shows in Sydney and Melbourne, and man what shows!! More on that later!

So, I came to Sydney, and was milling in a Hotel off Oxford Street. This was my first time staying by myself in Sydney and of course at that time a Mutant Axe murderer was killing people in the area I was. So hoo fuckin ray for that! Anyway, there was a competition on the radio to win tickets to a private acoustic how Jongles was doing. What ya had to do was this. Ring 2Day Fm when they said to and if thy picked up the phone you just had to start singing a Bon Jovi song. Yeah! So, I had to meet up with a friend of mine in town to go to a record fair! So, it�s 6am I�ve just left the hotel and was walking into the city. I�m calling on my mobile to try and win. It rings� They answer, here�s me in the middle of the street blaring out my best rendition of �You give love a bad name� I win a double pass to go! YAY! Man, if it was anyone but me! That night we found out that they�d arrived so we went to the Hotel on our hot tip. So a Tarago pulls up. Out gets Jon�s band which includes Hugh! We go and say G�day to Hugh, he�s a legend, also met Everet Bradley Jon�s percussionist. No Jon though, but was cool to meet the band!

So yay for that. Next day!

He�s doing something at Planet Hollywood, ooh a Press Conference that�s right, so we�re there at 7:00am freezin our asses of in a wind that would blow the top off a cow! Anyway, he decides to rock up at 1:30ish, by now we all have icicles forming on our noses and chins. He does the quick walk past, and he�s gone, wow good thing we waited 378 hours for that! So time to high tail it to Bondi for the acoustic gig, BUT FIRST! Jon�s on the radio, hmm, does that mean he�s there now? Yes, yes it does. So we know the secret little entrance to the car park, and go and wait for him. There�s about 20 people there and a couple of Body guards. So we have a chat to the dudes for a while. Jon�s kick ass Caddy is waiting for him with a hot driver! She was nice! Waiting, waiting, the elevator opens, our heats stop. The band walks out, so I say Hi to Hugh again, yay. False alarm, then DING! Out walks Mr Jon Bon Jovi, not in a good mood Jon Bon, didn�t say a word. He was signing for people and got to me. I had my Laser Disc of Moonlight and Valentino with him on the front. He took it, looked at it with an expression that I interpreted as �Wow I haven�t seen one of these before it looks pretty damn cool.� So he starts to sign it. Just then, someone bumps his arm. Not a big bump, not a bump that left a huge streak of Silver texta on it, but enough that his J in Jon is wonky. He freezes. I freeze. He looks at me with a look to say �Holy shit man I�m sorry� I SAY to him, �I DON�T CARE!� he shrugs his shoulders with a look to say �Cool, I�ll keep signing� and did, gave him a thankyou and he was on his way.

Then we went to line up for the acoustic show. That rocked, was 2nd row for it, and sang all the words, Hugh kept lookin down and smiling at me and Jon was in fine form! That night we slept.

The next day we got tickets to Midday with Kerry Anne, a TV show that used to be one here, so our conglomerate of Jovi fans were all in and rockin! He did�t play, just talked, about his hair, his ass, all the great stuff I wanna hear about! But he came over and di some piccies and signed stuff for people. Not me though I was put of arms reach unfortunately. So that�s was fun.

The 1st gig of his 2 was that night in Australia, man it was great to see him up on stage again, the dude can fuckin rock! He played heaps of his stuff, lots of Jovi stuff, but surprisingly at this show, no Wanted or Prayer, only because local hero and icon Jimmy Barnes made an appearance. They played Working Class Man and I think it was Good Times, and it kicked ass. I was 5 rows back for this show in front of Bobby Bandiera, he was great! Weird to hear Jovi songs without Richie, Dave and Tico especially the harmonies!

So the next day we flew to Melbourne, we had tickets for IMT or In Melbourne Tonight if ya wanna write it out. They were doing Jon�s segment taped during the day, so we got in of course. He again did signings and stuff but the Milftons weren�t organised and some psycho fans swamped Jon and he left, D�oh! I was busy being photo boy anyway, I think I got a couple of goodies, which reminds me to actually put em in an album one day. So we had his gig in Melbourne that night, I got front row on Hugh�s side and it was a better gig. We got Wanted, Prayer, he swore a lot cause shit kept fucking up, so we all cheered, it�s just something about hearing your Idol swear, I dunno, just cool. No Barnsery, just Jonny and it was a cack cause I was singing along as I do, and Hugh was looking down numerous times, smiling, laughing and shaking his head at me. He loved it! Gave me a wave and a thumbs up at the end of the night. I got his set list from the stage at the end of the gig, Yay! Souvenir!

The next day was sucky. We again got tickets to a show, this one called �Hey Hey It�s Saturday�, a long running variety show here that ran for 21 odd years. Anyway the Joves loved it and always went on it. Jon went on and played 2 songs and had a chat to Daryl the host. NOW! I had previously set up with a mate who knew the producer that I was gonna get Jon to sign my ankle on TV and go and get it tattooed while the show was still on! BUT, as much as I was told it was gonna happen, it never did. Kinda shattered, but not any more cause look how it turned out just over 6 months later! Woo hoo Richie!!

So the end of the tour was a bit of a let down, but Jon isn�t to blame, hell he probably never knew about it! The gigs ruled, the TV shows were great! It was a blast, but he was Mr Grumpy for the tour, couple of highs and some lows, but memories still the same!