OK so I should point out straight away that I am a Bon Jovi fan.
Indeed I have been a fan since 1989 when at the tender age of 15 I heard ‘Lay Your Hands On Me’ for the first time. In fact I liked that song, and the New Jersey album that it came from, so much that I saw the band in concert on December 28th 1989. My first ever live show and an experience I will never forget.
So with my “potential bias” disclaimer out-of-the-way, what of Bon Jovi, a band usually dismissed by critics? Well they are now thirty years into a highly successful career…a career that nearly came to an end as early as 1990 when the band were suffering from severe burn out (the success of “Slippery…” and “…Jersey” and the never-ending tour that followed meaning the band just didn’t want to see each other for a while). Luckily they carried on. If they hadn’t there would have been no Keep The Faith, no Crush and no These Days and it is the latter album that is the benchmark to which I compare all Bon Jovi albums.
I see the band as having three parts to their career. The first part from 1983 till 1991, a period where they became the biggest rock band on the planet. The second from 1992 until 2002 where they survived grunge and creatively hit their high point with These Days in 1995. The third part could be seen as from 2003 to the present day. The four albums during that time have all been good…just not that great. For every ‘Welcome to Wherever You Are’ we got a ‘Joey’. For every ‘When We Were Beautiful’ we got a ‘Whole Lot of Leavin’. They just haven’t been consistent and the band hasn’t’ stretched themselves. Their twelfth album What About Now is more of the same.
Twenty years ago a 17-year-old me saw Living Colour in the Glasgow Barrowlands. It was their ‘Stain’ tour and I’d already been a fan for many years; though I’d never seen them.
Much has been made in the media of Biffy Clyro’s new album Opposites. For the months leading up to the release there have been interviews, “exclusives”, two tracks released, and Radio gigs to promote it. But also not least the excitement felt from the fans in the wait for it to be with us.
