It’s been hard to stand up and be counted as a Bon Jovi fan in recent years with the brilliance of their late eighties peak, not to mention their successful adaptation to changing musical trends and high energy live shows for most of the succeeding two decades, in danger of being forgotten. Albums became increasingly lame, the distinctively melodic and soulful style Richie Sambora brought was no longer there, and worse still on their last 2019 tour, which took in Wembley Stadium, it was clear Jon Bon Jovi’s voice was not in good shape and its decline accelerating.

We now know why, because as captured in the ‘Thank You, Goodnight’ docuseries, his vocal cords had been severely damaged and he has needed extensive therapy to learn to sing again. It has been a long recovery process, and it was clear it was a lengthy road to being able to tour again. Eventually however, late last year dates were announced: a residency on home soil at Madison Square Garden and, rather than a full European tour, five shows in the UK and Ireland including a trio at Wembley, of which this was the first. I did fear it might be a car crash, but if nothing else saw it as a chance to thank and pay tribute to a band that have been a big part of my life for over 40 years.

The first indication that this might be a very different show from my 35 previous times seeing them, was that it opened with a mini interview on the big screens followed by the band emerging together from the rear of the stage as a collective, rather than the singer making his own dramatic entrance. The second was that they opened not with their own song, and not even a particularly uptempo one, in a cover of ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’. However the lyrical message could not have been more apposite, and it also showed how the band’s arrangements and vocal harmonies would not leave Jon too exposed though he hit a sustained solo higher note convincingly.

Everyone was dying to hear the old classics once again, but the band kept us waiting for a while as they worked backwards through their more recent catalogue in the modern pop rock of ‘Beautiful Drug’, ‘We Weren’t Born To Follow’ with Jon getting everyone to put their hands in the air during the night’s first anthem and ‘Lost Highway’ with a great backdrop of an open top car but, musically, missing the extra dimension the fiddle brought to the original.

But then when JBJ in his first remarks to the crowd, counted back through the years before alighting on 1986, the crowd immediately sang along ‘shot through the heart’. Did he sing ‘You Give Love a Bad name’ like he did 40 years ago? Hell no, and indeed he hasn’t come close for years, but this was the first, but not the last, example of where the crowd took over huge chunks in an atmosphere as good as any I’ve seen in my long history following them. Somewhat surprisingly it was also one of a few songs where John Shanks- producer and main co-writer of those bland recent albums- took the solo ahead of main guitarist Phil X.

The equally high energy ‘Born To Be My Baby’ left me needing something of a rest which came with ‘Legendary’, oddly the sole pick from their most recent album, and title of the tour, ‘Forever’. It’s in my personal Bon Jovi room 101 with its banal lowest common denominator lyrics but came alive in this setting particularly when John and Phil played together, using the full length of the stage and the front man briefly joined them in one of his rare departures from the mike stand. Another ‘Lost Highway’ cut in ‘Whole Lotta Leavin’ may have seemed one of the weaker set choices but was designed with his more limited vocal range in mind.

A keyboard intro from David Bryan and a red backdrop could only mean ‘Bed of Roses’, with the whole stadium a spectacular forest of phone lights and a mass singalong helping Jon through a song that exposed his vulnerability. Yet he didn’t back away from one of the more challenging songs in ‘In These Arms’ which I was delighted made the set. He admitted this tour saw them dipping their toe back into the water, and the big screen close ups starkly demonstrated how his face was contorted and he gripped the mike stand tight, concentrating intently after having had to retrain his muscle memory. It was a moving but uncomfortable watch.

He reminisced fondly about their many previous Wembley appearances, plus those that had to be moved to Milton Keynes when the new stadium opening overran, including 1995, before treating to the title track from ‘These Days’ which was premiered then and which those of us who like to think we are Jovi connoisseurs view as one of the band’s best songs, lyrically and in the musical arrangement.

After ‘This House Is Not For Sale’, with the album backdrop looking very spectacular, Jon said it was time to step things up a notch, with another communal singalong to a universally loved number in ‘Its My Life’, but I wasn’t prepared for another quite so soon, as I heard the intro to ‘Livin’ On a Prayer’ and once again the crowd took over the whole song without needing an invitation. It was impossible, and maybe irrelevant, to analyse how the main man was singing, above the noise!

I wondered if playing the song so soon meant he had been struggling and was going to play a truncated set, but in fact the gems kept coming and with no sense of anticlimax. ‘Raise Your Hands’ proved that even some of their lesser songs are perfect anthems for stadia such as this, and ‘I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead’ with its looser grooves showed off the band interplay ending with them all bowing down before David during his closing keyboard solo. However if there was a man of the match it was probably Tico Torres, a wizened figure these days but superb all night in a way I hadn’t really noticed before.

There was a surprise of the night in ‘Hey God’, Jon sounding better than expected, but it was a chance for Phil, who both visually and in his playing style contributes a harder rocking element, to let loose on a Flying V. An extended ‘Keep the Faith’ proved a fitting finale with solo slots for David on the organ and both guitarists, though during John’s closing one I found myself thinking ‘you’re no Richie Sambora’.

The latter wasn’t missed as much as I feared he might be during the first two encores, of which he was a massive part originally, in ‘I’ll Be There For You’, again the crowd helping Jon through with a massive sing along, and after a shout out to any cowboys, ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’. Then as Jon shouted out ‘is there a doctor in the house?’, ‘Bad Medicine’ sparked another joyous outbreak of singing and dancing, though Jon allowed himself to usher percussionist and backing singer Everett Bradley forward for a duet where the latter’s voice was much the stronger, then turn the conclusion of the song over to the crowd.

As the band took a final bow and basked in a warm reception there was one final moment, seemingly spontaneous but in fact one repeated at every show, as he said he couldn’t leave the crowd that way, and played a final encore in the form of a mass singalong to their biggest UK hit single, ‘Always’. Again his face was a pained study in concentration and at the end he showed that vulnerability as he seemed briefly overcome by emotion and I am sure I spotted a teardrop trickle down his face.

With this marathon 2 hour and 35 minute it really seemed as if Jon Bon Jovi was trying to prove to himself that he could still perform. He had nothing to prove to the fans there, but it was an emotional and special night nonetheless as six friends on stage and 90,000 in the crowd helped him through it.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 31 August 2026

JEFFERSON STARSHIP Jetpack (indie)
SHOGUN MOJO Under The Gun (Frontiers)
NOT MY WIFE Best Friend (indie)
BEN POOLE Time Has No Mercy (Gypsy Soul Records)
NIGHT TALKS Window Shopping (indie)
CHEZ KANE One Day (Is All That It Takes) (Frontiers)

Featured Albums w/c 31 August 2026

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

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