I was never a quitter | 9 February | Bon Jovi 8 February 1993, Quebec | First show of the Keep the Faith Tour

Vintage sweater with North American tour dates, Quebec first. source Worthpoint

Thursday 9 February 
The soundtrack for today is:

Bon Jovi
8 February 1993
Quebec City, Canada
🏟️ Keep the Faith/ Sleep When I’m Dead/ I Believe Tour

A show that is a must see!
Because of several reasons.
One: All bootlegs available with a video stream should be regarded with great reverence!
Reverence I never seem to be able to put in, because I can only JUST fit in listening to one Bon Jovi concert about 5 days a week (which I round of as “daily”);
But I never have two hours spare to sit down and enjoy the video.

Which is a shame, and Mea Culpa, but that’s just the way it is.

But another reason this show is a must see, at least for me, is because there are no photos or tickets available from the Quebec show. So the only option I have is coming up with a screenshot! 
See below.

And there are even more reasons for listening to this show, than for watching it. Because it is the first show of The Keep The Faith Tour!
A.k.a their comeback tour, after a three year hiatus, where Jon and Richie made their first solo albums, and the rest of the world held their breath if the band would ever get back together again.

And, well, because it’s an amazing show!

So pop on your headphones, listen to 8 February 1993, and let’s dive in the story behind this one.

 

I was never a quitter

👩🏼‍💻 the story 9 February

.

Jon touching the crowd in a rare performance of If I Was Your Mother. Credit video hAnD90 YouTube channel

It was not even the first time Jon Bon Jovi mentioned Generation X, a brand new term at the time.
I have also heard him mentioning it five weeks prior, December 1992.

Which means he knew about Generation X before the 1994 Douglas Coupland novel, which is regarded as its name bearer.

Originally, as you can hear in Jon’s speech, Generation X referred to people born 1962 and up, and in 1994 
Douglas would pull it back even further.

But in 1999 cohort 1955-1965 was dubbed Generation Jones (robbing Douglas Coupland himself of the X-label he made big) and Generation X was locked in at 1965 to 1980, pretty unanimously. 
Which is where it has been ever since.

However, in the earliest beginning, when things still seemed simple, a select few among whom The New York Times and Jon Bon Jovi, were already using the term Generation X to define a new generation, that felt they were setback from the start.
They felt that they could better give up, because it wasn’t worth fighting for.

Something that worked like a red flag on a bull, to Jon “We’ve got to hold on” Bon Jovi, which could explain why he was such an early user of the term.
He immediately understood that the nihilism went against everything Bon Jovi stood for, and in December 1992, and on 8 February 1993 [ timestamped at 29:28 ] , you can here him addressing them specifically.

After explaining the term, and the pessimistic mindset this group of people suffered from, thinking that it, life, is not worth fighting for, he says:

“Now, I might not be the wisest man, I might not be a scholar or a saint, but one thing I’ll never be, is a quitter.”

Little did the audience know, that Jon Bon Jovi had every bit of reason to not settle for the complacency of this next generation.
He had a task and it wasn’t decades from now, in some unknown future where he would be “over 30”, which is an age the youngest generation refers to as “old”.

Not only was Jon Bon Jovi turning 30 in the upcoming month;
But he was also at the opening concert of a tour that had done the worst in terms of disappointing ticketsales and the subsequent cancelling and rescheduling that followed.
Jon Bon Jovi did not have the luxury of an uncertain future;
He had the urgency of someone who knew how stark it would look, if he did not find a way to make this tour, this band work.
This revived Bon Jovi that had cleared out all 80s management and that had become an organization where Jon Bon Jovi was the one who determined how things went.

A new Bon Jovi, whose innovative 1992 record had made them the designated survivor of all the metal and hardrock bands, was now halfway there to joining the fate of their peers, who had been forgotten in the 80s.

Unless, he pushed through and pulled through, and somehow magically would turn this ship around….

So when he was talking about Gen X wanting to give in before the fight, he wasn’t just talking about them. He was talking about himself, and about the band.

And what followed after Quebec, were the most full-on, most intense months Bon Jovi had ever seen.

If they ever make a motion picture about the band Bon Jovi, they will cap it after those earliest months of 1993! After what is known in fandom as “The Holy Month of April,” where Jon Bon Jovi gave all he had and gave the best concerts of his life.
They had to carry him off stage.

These earliest months of the Keep the Faith Tour, is when Bon Jovi became Bon Jovi.
Where they not just earned their place in the new decade, but lay the foundation of all the decades to come.
Decades they would share, side by side, with Generation X.

“When I wrote this song, I realized it was a bit timeless.” Jon finishes his speech on Generation X. “Because even if against the odds, I’m going out; It’s gonna be in a blaze of glory.”

Therefor:

8 February 1993, Quebec City, Canada🇨🇦
Bon Jovi | Live at Colisée de Quebec | First Show of the Keep The Faith Tour | Quebec City 1993

is the soundtrack for today

.
The show has been added to the playlist 
“Part II: Bon Jovi concerts on this day 6 Dec- and up (before 1997)”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScbVI_oPZcf77OtrO_935JD
on February 8th.

.
 ~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week 

 

That was it! 

Thank you for reading my Daily Bon Jovi Yoga blog!
Subscribe to the blog, to get these stories inspired by Bon Jovi concerts in your mailbox.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably on the top right.

My other bog is Rock Star Writer.

Twitter: soundtrack Bon Jovi on this day concert 
Rock Star Writer on Facebook: all English blogposts and a soundtrack on this day

Full profile of the entire Rock Star project, below the playlist/video.

The Bon Jovi concerts on this day series has moved into its second playlist:
Part II: Bon Jovi concerts on this day 6 Dec- and up (before 1997)
Updated with the most recent date at the top.

 

This Daily Bon Jovi Yoga blog is an element of “Rock Star” [phase 3]

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: writing + YouTube videos
leg 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
leg 2: The Void April 2022 – January 2023
leg 3: Storytelling 17 January 2023 – 

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer 
2. About Bon Jovi concerts: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga(current blog)
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

3 YouTube channels, all to be rebooted late January 2023
1. English YouTube Stories of Bon Jovi and the White Tigress
2. Nederlandse YouTube Het Yogaboek van Liefdeseend
3. YouTube Rock Your Business

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

🌍🌎 📚🛒
An online bookshop

& One company:

Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be


Books

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

Give it all for your giant squid | 20 January | Bon Jovi 24 July 1993, Tinley Park

Jon Bon Jovi in 1993

Friday 20 January
The soundtrack for today is:

Bon Jovi
24 July 1993
Tinley Park, Illinois
🏟️ Keep the Faith/ Sleep When I’m Dead/ I Believe Tour

Brand new upload on YouTube’s hAnD90 channel.

And a concert recording described by hAnD90 as:
“It’s not solely bad, but you need to be ready to adjust to ever-changing sounds [ .. ] If you manage that, you’re in for one hell of a ride! 

Adjust to the ever-changing, and you’re in for one hell of a ride?
No way my writing is going to top that life advice.
And because there are no photos of this show, not even a proper photo of the tour schedule or concert ticket, and because the show itself is 2 hours and 20 minutes of absolute Bon Jovi GOLD!
– I chose to let myself be inspired by a coincidental aspect of this show;

It’s the very first <1997 concert upload, that took place on my birthday.

And for this post I looked back on the 6 months that have passed since.

If you want to read about the Tinley Park concert itself, you can check this page on this legendary concert:
https://bjtours.jimdofree.com/the-tours/1993-keep-the-faith-i-ll-sleep-when-i-m-dead-i-believe/100-1993-07-24-world-music-theatre-tinley-park-illinois-usa/
BJ Tours website is a collaboration with hAnD90,  and the page is already updated with this stunning concert.

 

Give it all for your giant squid

👩🏼‍💻 the story 20 january

.

To say the first 6 months of this year of my life, needed “adjusting to ever-changing” would be an understatement.
Except I acknowledge that the most important factor in the ever changing bit were not external factors but something else:
Me.

After basically (you can cover your eyes at this point) throwing away everything from March 2020 and up;
Perhaps summer 2018 and up;
Possibly even late 20th century and up;
I was absolutely, thoroughly, and may I say violently, done with what my life had become, and more importantly, who I had become.

A combination of circumstances explains why I’ve hardly written since late October, made no videos for either one of my channels, and even my Soundtrack of the day series with Bon Jovi concerts and the photo collages I make- both series that are daily-ish- have been very inconsistent.
I can cover for the past 2.5 month of barely being visible, and in my opinion those are not the biggest problem.

But the reason I lost all those years, perhaps dating back to late 20th century, was because I “just start”-ed and “just do it”-ed my ass off after graduation, without understanding how horribly off-path I was.
And that even if I had succeeded, it would only  have accelerated my demise.

I was like how Elizabeth Gilbert described in her book Eat Pray Love, when she thought she wanted to start a family, while every time she got her period she said:
“Thank you God for letting me live another month.”

That’s how clear my signs were I was living the wrong life.
But only clear in retrospect, because just like Gilbert, I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was on the right path, because just like her attempt to start a family, my path too was normal, and desired by so many people.
And I took it without any difficulty really.
I had jobs, careers, and had a wonderful partner with whom I had such a good life and could have started a family if I had wanted to;
It all looked really good on the outside.

But ultimately the things that all came crashing down 2018 and up, and that are taking me the last 2.5 months to unpack – where at times I am almost frozen in my anxiety to choose right this time – all gave off red flags decades ago.
Their own versions of letting me live another month, prayers.
I didn’t want the future I was supposedly building anymore than Gilbert wanted a family.

And although I changed aspects of it, for sure- important aspects too, in particular my love life  – I did not change other aspects.
There, I still showed up as Elizabeth wanting a family, yet secretly praying it wouldn’t happen.

And that is what these past 2.5 months have been about. Because I’m figuring out what it is I need to change, which aspects are still me pretending.
And they’re often very, very subtle.
For instance, last Wednesday after seeing the Leonard Cohen documentary,  I wrote a piece about that I don’t want to be a yoga teacher, but if I am a storyteller and part of the story is told on the yoga mat?
Great!
So that’s what my YouTube channels in 2023 will be rebooted like.

For my English YouTube this means I will make a video, Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs, which is my existing series.
For example: “Wanted Dead or Alive”
And then another video “Wanted Dead or Alive, part 2. Bring your mat.”
The word yoga is entirely taken out of it!

And after years and years of struggling with this yoga teacher thing, that felt so constricting I have ended my yoga career countless times-
I now can’t wait to get this started!
I’m a storyteller and part of the story is on the mat. 
Riddle solved.

I think that was the biggie really, the thing I have wrestled with the most, these last few years in particular.
If you want to know the entire journey that lead to this epiphany, you can read it in last Wednesday’s post, on my Rock Star Writer blog:
A revelation, unprepared and overthrown. The birth of a storyteller. | Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen documentary

Do you know the first moment realized Elizabeth she was onto something?
The first moment she understood something was off here?
When she encountered a friend who had been trying to get pregnant for years, and she was now pregnant and glowing with happiness.
Elizabeth listened to the stories she told, about wanting a baby for so long, and how happy she was, and she couldn’t stop staring at the radiating glow on her friends face.
She knew she had looked like that too, just recently, and searched her memory, frantically, trying to remember when it had been that she had looked this happy.
And then she remembered!

The editor in chief from GQ magazine had called her and asked if she wanted to go on an expedition on a boat, on the pacific ocean, that was looking for the mythical giant squid. A creature ultimately caught on camera in 2006, so it can very well be linked to the offer Elizabeth received.

Receiving that phone call, was when Elizabeth had looked this radiantly happy.
What was a pregnancy and the promise of starting a family for her friend, was looking for an undiscovered giant squid to her.

At the concert in Tinley Park, on the 24th of July 1993, the band kept playing encore after encore. Jon was clearly thankful for the enthusiasm of the crowd, but he must have also remembered their other Illinois concert earlier that year.
Rosemont, 5 March 1993.

A concert in their messiest months, haunted by a poorly organized first leg of their tour and disappointing ticket sales, when it was supposed to have been a comeback tour for their Keep the Faith album.
The first album of the band in four years.

That first 1993 Illinois concert had been a tough time, when the renewed bond between the bandmembers was tested, and the name of their tour and album, Keep the Faith, became a life imitating art conundrum.

The aforementioned BJ Tours website says of this first Illinois concert in Rosemont:
“The show Jon later on referred to as “THE TURNING POINT OF THE TOUR!”
Apparently, someone had said to him backstage that this would be the last time he’d be able to play such a venue because of Keep The Faith not having been the big success after its release.
The band [ .. ] went on to play as if it was the last time they’d ever be able to take a stage.”

They say Jon had to be carried of stage, that’s how close he came to exhaustion. He literally gave all he had, and the rest is history.

Four months later, they were back in Illinois and it all seemed to be so easy now.
But they remembered they had to fight for this.
They had to push through, when nothing worked, and the show could have been their last.

Bon Jovi had recognized the seriousness, of getting one last chance.
Just like I do now.

Therefor their victory concert, 4,5 months later

24 July1993, Tinley Park, Illinois 🇺🇸
Bon Jovi | Stunning Concert at World Music Theatre | Tinley Park 1993

is the soundtrack for today

.
The show has been added in to the first playlist 
“Part I: Bon Jovi concerts on this day 10 June – 5 Dec (before 1997)”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScAo9UN4GyhtQWYfl3d6jMT
on July 24.

.
 ~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week 

 

That was it! 

Thank you for reading my Daily Bon Jovi Yoga blog!
Subscribe to the blog, to get these stories inspired by Bon Jovi concerts in your mailbox.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably on the top right.

My other bog is Rock Star Writer.

Twitter: soundtrack Bon Jovi on this day concert 
Rock Star Writer on Facebook: all English blogposts and a soundtrack on this day

Full profile of the entire Rock Star project, below the playlist/video.

The Bon Jovi concerts on this day series has moved into its second playlist:
Part II: Bon Jovi concerts on this day 6 Dec- and up (before 1997)
Updated with the most recent date at the top.

 

This Daily Bon Jovi Yoga blog is an element of “Rock Star” [phase 3]

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: writing + YouTube videos
leg 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
leg 2: The Void April 2022 – January 2023
leg 3: Storytelling 17 January 2023 – 

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer 
2. About Bon Jovi concerts: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga(current blog)
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

3 YouTube channels, all to be rebooted late January 2023
1. English YouTube Stories of Bon Jovi and the White Tigress
2. Nederlandse YouTube Het Yogaboek van Liefdeseend
3. YouTube Rock Your Business

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

🌍🌎 📚🛒
An online bookshop

& One company:

Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be


Books

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

Give your best work today | 10 January | Bon Jovi 2 January 1990, Wembley 1st night, 33 y.o. recording released

Tuesday 10 January
The soundtrack for today is:

Bon Jovi
2 January 1990
Wembley, first night
London, England
🏟️ New Jersey Syndicate Tour

Omg, omg….
I mean, I’ll be damned if everybody attending the live premiere of this recording last night, did not pinch themselves every other song, barely believing what it was they were actually listening to!
In Bon Jovi fandom this was the type of excitement I imagine archeologists have when they open up a new pyramid, biologists when they find a new species, and astronomers when they find a new star.
That’s how big this was.

Because first of all; The entire streak of Wembley concerts, early 1990, is a bit of a myth. Hardly anyone knows about them.
Bon Jovi’s Wembley is synonymous with the 1995 tour, and NOT with early 1990.
So there was that; This concert already belonging to one of the more obscure parts of the neverending New Jersey Syndicate Tour.

But the recording did not exist!
I mean, it did exist within fandom. But it was so absolutely horrendous, that bar one song which could be extracted by niche channel Fighter BJ (Tokyo Road) fandom had agreed this one was beyond saving.

For decades the recording of the first night in Wembley was dusting away in drawers of bootleg traders all over the world, and in a cut up version.
The recording had been cut to pieces and put together in the wrong order.

Until one day, 33 years later, master restorer hAnD90 suddenly found himself having all the pieces to the puzzle;
He had access to a 5 year old upload of the full show, but he now also realized he knew what was wrong with it.
Why, this recording sounded so horrendous. And what to do about it.

Which was how, 33 years after the date, we got to hear Bon Jovi’s very first night at the Wembley Arena.

 

Give your best work today

👩🏼‍💻 the story 10 january

.

To give you some idea of the time capsule this recording opened up;
Blood on Blood is introduced commemorating the footage they saw on CNN from their hotel room, from New Year’s Eve on Times Square. With a big ball hitting the sign 1990.
He mentions the fall of the Berlin Wall, the unison of East and West and Gorbatsjov. He foreshadows the year 2000 when the people in the crowd  (“you grew up listening to Aerosmith”) will be the new leaders, saving the Universe.

To have this recording unlocked after more than three decades is a literal blast from the past, because from the three Wembley shows they gave, this one is by far the strongest.
The band was worn out at this point, because the Jersey Tour had been going on non-stop since August 1988.
They were exhausted.

Yet here they were, for their 200-ish show of the tour, giving ALL they got.
Only to have it getting lost in time, because until last night, there was no one, who would have been able to tell you, coherently, what the show was like.
They gave it all for a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the fans, knowing perfectly well that arena would be filled the next night. And the next night.
Not knowing, how they’d cope.

But here we are, 33 years later.
And now we can all hear what it was like that second day of a whole new decade.
January 2, 1990.

Two minutes after kicking off Lay Your Hands, there is already a shout out that I have never heard at this point in the show. General gist of it is to fasten your seatbelts!
Just so no one starts unprepared 😉

It’s followed by a smashing I’d Die For You and Wild In The Streets, only to have another intro, this time to You Give Love A Bad Name, that I never heard before!

“Bootleggers roll your tapes, critics sharpen your pencils.
And people? 

Check your heartbeat!
Doctor!”

*You Give Love A Bad Name starts*

We move to Tokyo Road, with a creative interpretation of the bridge lyrics, that is not known for being the place to play around.
Then a stunning Pink Flamingos, the keyboard intro to Let It Rock, that both rock so hard they could probably hear it in Miami.

For the connoisseurs;
This is the moment the recording gets a different source, so from Living in Sin and upwards it has an old school cassette feel to it.

But I’m guessing most of us will be too enchanted by the military style staccato drums, psychedelic keyboard, and improvised lyrics to Living In Sin wondering how on earth the band knows when Jon is done with the improvisation.
I heard it’s a fist next to his head, calling out for the official start to Living In Sin as on the record.

After Living In Sin – which takes 10 minutes just to give you an idea songs were played for real!- we go to the aforementioned intro to Blood On Blood.
It’s time to kick off the new decade, with this anthem of friendship.
Including Richie Sambora singing as well as improvising a guitar riff I never heard there either.

This is the point where it becomes obvious the best Bon Jovi concert of the decade, was probably given on January 2nd 1990, and then we forgot about it for 33 years.

After Runaway, it is time for the first encore, and this is when David, Tico and Alec could enjoy a break, because for 20 minutes we get the Jon & Richie Show!
Opening with an acoustic Livin’ On A Prayer, as we first heard on MTV late 1989.
Moving into a guitar and harmonica jam session, where the real fan can hear Homebound Train being teased but No!
We go to Love for Sale, a song that has only ever come acoustic, so this is not as controversial as playing your biggest hit (Livin’ on a Prayer) without half the band present.

Then we move to the other acoustic song on the New Jersey album; Ride Cowboy Ride.
And into the guitar song, where Richie Sambora plays on his guitar.
It’s always different, but there is one very catchy melody which I know he has weaved in on numerous occasions, and I don’t know what it is;
But he does that here 😉 

The guitar song leads into Wanted Dead or Alive, and the rest of the band is back!

After Wanted, we get a second encore pulling out all the stops with the cover The Boys Are Back In Town, and then Bad Medicine.

Wrapping up what was probably the best concert of the entire decade.

The moral of the story is that we don’t know what happens with our best work. Maybe it gets lost in time, until someone retrieves it decades from now.
Maybe never.
But also, that we should never save ourselves for tomorrow, just like Bon Jovi did not save themselves for 3 or 4 January either.
They didn’t save themselves at all.

They made bold choices that challenged the audience, in particular the long acoustic set including their biggest hit Livin’ on a Prayer.
They took chances.

But what matters in the end is not how it works out. It’s not how your work is received, or judged;
It’s not about how well someone documents it, nor how sharp the pencil was that criticized it.

In the end, the only thing that matters when you do your work, is if it was the fullest expression of whatever it was you had to give.

In the end what matters, is if it had a heartbeat.

.
Therefor 

2 January 1990, London, England🇬🇧
BON JOVI | STUNNING 1ST NIGHT AT WEMBLEY ARENA | LONDON
is the soundtrack for today

.
The show has been added to the playlist 
“Part II: Bon Jovi concerts on this day 6 Dec- and up (before 1997)”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScbVI_oPZcf77OtrO_935JD

on January 2nd.

.
 ~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week 

Sign up for this blog to receive the next story about a 20th century Bon Jovi concert.
The subscription button is somewhere on this page, probably on the top right. 

 

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: performance art
phase 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
phase 2: April 2022 – 

3 YouTube channels
1. English YouTube “Liberation”: Rock Star Yoga + Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs
2. Nederlandse YouTube “de Catacombe” studio voor Rock Star Yoga 
3. YouTube Rock Your Business
De headers from all channels have been changed already, so you know you re in the right spot.

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer 
2. Yoga Blog: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

🌍🌎 📚🛒
online bookshop

NEW: Books!

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

This series has moved into its second playlist of On-this-day Bon Jovi concerts.
Updated with the most recent date at the top.

Let it (2023) rock! Let it (2022) go! | 29 December | Bon Jovi 31 December 1988 | Tokyo, Japan

Thursday 29 December
The soundtrack for today is:

Bon Jovi
31 December 1988
Tokyo Dome (“The Big Egg”)
Tokyo, Japan 
🏟️ New Jersey Syndicate Tour

Full concert in audio, 80% pro-shot video.
Channel Rock Remastered has created the full concert, by slicing in the missing songs from bootleg recordings.

Only want the songs where we have video?
Try this one:
Bon Jovi | Live at Tokyo Dome | Pro Shot | Tokyo 1988/89
A new remastered audio and video production from the hAnD90 channel.

 

Let it (2023)rock! Let it (2022)go!

👩🏼‍💻 the story 29 December

.

“Somebody get a doctor. ‘Cause I need some bad medicine, Baby!”

Oh dearest of dear.
To think that just this summer I thought I had to overtly celebrate my birthday, because otherwise I would forget this year;
I, should not have worried.

My 2022 will be far from forgotten.

It will be known in my personal history as the worst year I had, which is saying something because A.
In June I still believed it would be one of the BEST years.
And B.
Things have been pretty rough (for whom hasn’t it?!) since Covid, but I was already in a process of much needed reinvention and change, since 2018.
The month I knew how I would proceed, Covid hit. Which didn’t just delay what I wanted to do;
It changed the professional game entirely.
2022 was bad, after years that were already disappointing. 

My reasons for things not having panned out second half of 2022 are personal, coincidental, accidental.
And at the same time they seem to have been signs of something systemic and general as well, because I know more lives that were hit by 2022, than those that were helped.
Sometimes I think the year did little more than bringing to the surface what was already there.
It seemed the year of inevitabilities.
Of things falling apart.

Yet for me there still was that first half of 2022;
Six months that solidified my love for rock concerts, as well as brought me the sex life I knew was mine to have for as long as I can remember.
The sex life that called for me from far away, years and years ago. And I gave up everything for, when it was little more than a hunch.
But I feel I got it “nailed”.

The quotation marks should not have been there, because that is definitely the perfect word for the occasion.

And I will stick to it, and reject sex all the times it isn’t at that level, including the times when I, am not at that level.
Just like I don’t listen to any other bands than Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses.
Real deal only.

I m sure there are people with a broader taste in both sex and music, but for me it is really simple:
It only gets better, because every time you learn a little more. You move deeper into the relationship with yourself, with a partner, with music, with the band, every time.
Yet, the PASSION has to be there, from the beginning.

You may get to good sex, putting in the time and effort to know each other. Just like you can make any concert enjoyable if you get to know the artist, their albums, their background.
But neither will give you a great experience, unless there was passion to begin with.

With my writing too, when I wrote in 2022, I have experienced that same passion as with sex and with rock music.
My (creative) writing simply breaks through my to-do lists and my productivity ideals, because I don’t ever make time for writing.
“Write” is never on my list.

And in a way I think it’s a good thing, I let it come like this. It, the lust for writing or the thing, the idea that wants to be written down by me, needs to care enough to gather strength and build momentum to push through!

The writing only comes when it’s powerful enough to push away everything else on my plate.

By now you may wonder where I’m going with this post, why so many words on how poor I did – and without being very specific or catchy-
only to then commemorate everything that went so good in these obscure areas of sex, rock music and writing.
Again, without making it very applicable.

But it has taught me a lesson.

You see, the big difference between the two areas I totally lost in, in 2022 (and I could name them, but I won’t) and the areas of writing, rock music and sex, is really very simply.
Painfully obvious, with regard to what didn’t work.
And liberatingly obvious, in what did.

The things that didn’t work were when I played by other people’s rules. Where I tried to stay in my lane and do what was expected of me. 
There’s different ways to word it, but the most practical way of putting it is that I did not know how to GIVE my best self, my real work, the real ME, in those areas.

And so I gave what I thought what was expected of me, but it wasn’t enough. The puzzle never fit, and now the year has gone by and I have nothing to show for in those areas. And no one to show it to either.
It’s all gone, and I have to rebuild my life, in 2023.

But why?
Because the PASSION, wasn’t there.

If I learned anything this year, it is that there is a staggering difference between how I “do” in the areas I have a wild untamable passion for;
Versus when I don’t.

And that “almost”, “nearly”, “not that bad”, “difficult”, “challenging” , “necessary” or “worth it”? 
Make lousy bed partners.

So in 2023 I’m going to keep doing the things I have a passion for, even though (and in particular) if I have no idea how it will ever amount to anything.
I already have everything I can ask for, when something or someone is a place where I can give my highest work, my true self, the real me.

Where I can give, my passion.

And I m going to leave behind all the parts of my life, where I thought I had to be some lukewarm, half-dead, dried up version of myself.

Or as Jon Bon Jovi said, needing far less words than I did;

“Nothing is as important as passion.
No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.”

.
Therefor 

31 december 1988, Tokyo, Japan🇯🇵
Bon Jovi – Live in Tokyo – 1988 (Full Concert)

is the soundtrack for today

.
The show has been added to the playlist 
“Part II: Bon Jovi concerts on this day 6 Dec- and up (before 1997)”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScbVI_oPZcf77OtrO_935JD

at 31 December.

.
 ~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week 

Sign up for this blog to receive the next story about a 20th century Bon Jovi concert.
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Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: performance art
phase 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
phase 2: April 2022 – 

3 YouTube channels
1. English YouTube “Liberation”: Rock Star Yoga + Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs
2. Nederlandse YouTube “de Catacombe” studio voor Rock Star Yoga 
3. YouTube Rock Your Business
De headers from all channels have been changed already, so you know you re in the right spot.

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer 
2. Yoga Blog: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

🌍🌎 📚🛒
online bookshop

NEW: Books!

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

This series now has a playlist of On-this-day Bon Jovi concerts.
Updated daily with the most recent date at the top.

 

Buckle up baby, it’s a bumpy ride (Legendary. Best Performance) | 9 December | Bon Jovi 6 December 1989 | Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Friday 9 December
The soundtrack for today is:

Bon Jovi
6 December 1989
Ahoy
Rotterdam, The Netherlands🇳🇱 
🏟️ New Jersey Syndicate Tour

Not just a show that was marked as “Legendary”, as recent as this year when hAnD90 made a new remaster of it;
Bon Jovi | Legendary Concert at Sportpaleis van Ahoy | Rotterdam 1989

But also a show that has brought forth two songs labeled as “best performance”, on record.
Meaning two single-song YouTube videos that have the acclaim in the actual title:
Bon Jovi – Born To Be My Baby (Rotterdam 1989) The Best Performance
Bon Jovi | Blood On Blood | Best Performance | Rotterdam 1989

I also have one unofficial recommendation of a third song, also by a fan, saying Rotterdam 1989 had the best, most legendary performance of it.
This third song was Living in Sin.
Bon Jovi – Living in Sin (live from Rotterdam 1989)

And I would personally like to nominate another song, for highest acclaim;
The acoustic, “Unplugged” style, rendition of Never Say Goodbye at 1:10:10.

But what has made Rotterdam 1989 legendary is actually not even the performance. Or “not just” the performance, because that was actually standard at that time!
As hAnD90 notes in his 2022 remaster, Rotterdam being of average quality for the time; “just highlights how insanely good they ignored the exhaustion to put on a stunning rock show!”
Night after night.
In December 1989 the tour was in its 16th month.

No, the reason Rotterdam 1989 stood out was because bootlegs of that show surfaced almost right away, and both video and audio are available.
At a much later phase, the soundboard recordings were also released. These are usually incomplete, edited and enhanced recordings the band made, and intended for a live album.

At 16:30 you can first hear Jon greet Rotterdam, and thank them for selling it out for the second time within a year.
“Who’d ever thought we’d be back so soon.”
The New Jersey Syndicate Tour had played Rotterdam November 1988 as well. 

And after greeting the Rotterdam audience, Jon informs them they are recording this for a live album. 
And it is those recordings, that have surfaced I think in the 21st century, that are called Soundboard recordings and in general they are preferred over bootlegs.

Rotterdam has got both;
Solid 20th century bootlegs, multiple audio ones as well as a video.
And Rotterdam has 80% available in Soundboard recordings as well.

This is the reason Rotterdam 1989 has become a legendary and well-known performance.

Buckle up baby, it’s a bumpy ride (Legendary. Best Performance)

👩🏼‍💻 the story 9 December

.

“Buckle up baby, it’s a bumpy ride” at 23:11 in Born to be my Baby

I remember placing a last minute advertisement for a ticket, in 1989. And facing what would much later be called a “negative Graigslist experience”!
😅
I don’t even remember the details, just that I ended up not getting a ticket  at all, because the first person calling was someone who just wanted to fool a little girl.
Or who wanted a girl or woman talking to him, something he was in all likeliness not getting very far with in real life. Depending on how favorable you are prepared to look at the prankster.
Result is the same: I didn’t get a ticket.

But there were more reasons than just one, that I did not make it. Did not succeed, where one year prior I had. 
Just that I didn’t fully understand them yet.
But I did notice that after not getting the ticket I felt relief, not disappointment. I was happy that I did not have to go through trying to get a ride, and where to sleep, and all that.
And underneath that dread of the hassle, was something deeper, lurking. And that something was that I had stopped caring.
Or to be more precise, I had shut myself off from caring.

And for exactly the same reasons that if Guns N’ Roses would tour Europe again, just like this year;
Or even if Bon Jovi would tour in 2023 or 2024, just like in 2019;
There is a chance I will do a half-assed attempt to get a ticket – half-assed not compared to the 2019 and 2021 shows, but compared to the amount of commitment, savviness and willingness to pay, Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing system requires to get exactly the same result – only to be relieved when I don’t get it.

For the same reason as in 1989; Because I stopped caring.
Because I had to, stop caring.
You can’t shut your emotions off for one person, protect your heart because it was so brutally hurt the only thing bringing relief is to just shut it down, without paying the price of not giving a flying fuck about all the things you used to move heaven and earth for.

Between the concert in November 1988 and December 1989, my heart was broken by a boyfriend, and Bon Jovi had been our love language.
Although I had not known him until after the concert, and had been a Bon Jovi fan for years without him;
The moment he left, I could not listen to Bon Jovi without thinking of him.

Post New Jersey (1988), I would buy Keep the Faith (1992), Bounce (2002) and Have a Nice Day (2005), but from that final one I’m not even sure if I bought the original or if it was a copy. As that was the height of the disc-burning era.

And then I didn’t pick up being a Bon Jovi fan until basically 30 years after the break up, when Bon Jovi was to play Nijmegen, where I was then living.
I bought all the albums I had missed, and wrote a book A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi.  
And I am more than grateful to that boyfriend. He may have broken my heart, but thanks to him I moved to Guns N’ Roses in 1989, who make a much smoother match to my antagonistic character, than Bon Jovi ever will.

And now it’s 2022, and I’m a fan of both Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses. And a master at my relationships with men.
The times they left and my whole music library became useless, is definitely behind me.

Sadly though, this mastership over romantic relationship has proved to be of little to no use in friendships, family relations and business relationships.
I understand why I have not been good at those relationships, or at least nowhere near as good as with romantic ones. But that understanding has not made it less frustrating every time they implode or explode.
Every time I lose one of those, is incredibly frustrating because I know for a fact that I have it in me to rock it.
And yet I failed.

The loss I had in November was the saddest of them all. By far.
I have shut my heart off to the level I did when I was 16 and my boyfriend broke up with me, and that one took 30 years to let go.
I’m expecting this lockdown to be a permanent one, and so far not having given a fuck about anything for the past few weeks, has been a remarkable comfy ride.
It’s probably why I love Guns N’ Roses so much; I never feel I need to energetically clean up, before I’m worthy of their music.
Fuck you, is not just good enough for them.
Fuck you, is great.

So here I am, the woman who once loved.
To woman who once had a heart, and can feel it coming alive just a bit, when Richie Sambora opens Dead or Alive on a triple (!) neck guitar.
And Jon Bon Jovi sings his heart out for us, in the following Wanted Dead or Alive.
But for now, I can get that lid back on.

Rotterdam 1989 comes with a video. A decent one, I should add, because there are also videos that are shot from afar, and add limited value.
But this is a good one, and I didn’t give it enough attention. I only watched a few of the songs, but it was already enough to realize how much I was missing out on.
It was like every ten seconds something interesting happened.

One part was in Born To Be My Baby, where Jon is at the front of the stage singing directly at the audience and pushing his hips forward.
In Michael Jackson style, that was not uncommon at the time, he grabs his crotch singing:
“Buckle up baby, it’s a bumpy ride.”

And judging from that book I wrote, and my mastership in romance;
A bumpy ride that can ultimately, 30 years later, lead to your most legendary and best performance.

Therefor 

6 december 1989, Rotterdam, The Netherlands🇳🇱
Bon Jovi | Legendary Concert at Sportpaleis van Ahoy | Rotterdam 1989

is the soundtrack for today

.
The show has been added to the playlist 
“Bon Jovi concerts on this day”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScAo9UN4GyhtQWYfl3d6jMT
at 6 December.

.
 ~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week 

Sign up for this blog to receive the next story about a 20th century Bon Jovi concert.
The subscription button is somewhere on this page, probably on the top right. 

 

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: performance art
phase 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
phase 2: April 2022 – 

3 YouTube channels
1. English YouTube “Liberation”: Rock Star Yoga + Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs
2. Nederlandse YouTube “de Catacombe” studio voor Rock Star Yoga 
3. YouTube Rock Your Business
De headers from all channels have been changed already, so you know you re in the right spot.

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer 
2. Yoga Blog: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

🌍🌎 📚🛒
online bookshop

NEW: Books!

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

This series now has a playlist of On-this-day Bon Jovi concerts.
Updated daily with the most recent date at the top.

 

Hit ‘m hard. Fire away. Dankjewel. | 3 December | Bon Jovi 3 December 1986 | Hannover, Germany

credit photo to 80s Bon Jovi specialist, FighterBJ (also on YouTube), who posted them on the Dry County forum

Saturday 3 December
The soundtrack for today is:

Bon Jovi
3 December 1986
Eilenriedehalle
Hannover, Germany 🇩🇪
🏟️ Slippery When Wet Tour

If you do your research on this concert, of even if you don’t, because truth be told there are few sources on it
– in particular if you are someone who is not willing to go deep into the fan forums for what is a daily habit of posting a Bon Jovi concert “On this day”-
even then!
You will have a high chance of finding praise for Hannover 1986 for being an amazing recording, being hailed for having Livin’ on a Prayer with the original key change, and just in general for being of a beyond-Bon Jovi fandom -recollection quality, even for that time.

A show so good, that even the other fans of late 1986 shows- which I think we can all safely agree on was the absolute best and most epic time to see Bon Jovi live- 
that even those other fans would envy the lucky ones who got to see Hannover 1986, because the quality was even higher than the rest of the European leg of the tour.
Stunning show of stunning musical quality.

But I will remember this show for it’s highly erotic nature.
And a language twist.

Hit ‘m hard. Fire away. Dankjewel.

👩🏼‍💻 the story 3 December

.

credit photo to 80s Bon Jovi specialist, FighterBJ (also on YouTube), who posted them on the Dry County forum

Language twist first!
And I heard them at least two times, but it’s possible the 10 year old (!) upload sans timestamps in the description box (these are all signs something is antique on YouTube!) carries more Dankjewels, to be excavated by future generations.

But I heard the first Dankjewel at 23:00, closing Bad Name and the other one at 1:31:45 closing Get Ready and the concert.

The rest of this post will take a deep dive into two songs in particular, and Get Ready is one of them.
So more on that song in a moment.

But first, for those not German or Dutch, context to why Dankjewel is such a remarkable thing to say for Jon Bon Jovi!
The Dutch or German will know, because dankjewel is not German!
It is Dutch.

Logically speaking, dankjewel should have been in the 27th of November Arnhem show. But not in the French, Swiss or German shows after.
But from Arnhem we only have Livin’ on a Prayer YouTube, and that one doesn’t contain any dankjewels.
In all probability, the whole Dutch Arnhem show didn’t contain any Dutch.

A concert I should have written about, in the three weeks between my last post here and this one, is Rotterdam 21 November 1988;
Also a Dutch show, two years later.

I would have told you many things about it, but what I want to refer to here is that Rotterdam 1988 is interesting because there is so much story telling going on.
Jon clearly whitelisted The Netherlands as a country where people spoke English, and he didn’t need to hold back.
I don’t recall if he threw in a Dutch word here and there, but I can imagine he didn’t and that he wouldn’t have used Dutch in Arnhem 1986 either.

If he had used dankjewel in The Netherlands at the Arnhem concert 27 November 1986, he would probably not have thought dankjewel was German, on 3 December 1986 in Hannover.

Dankjewel is a Dutch way to say “thank you”. I say a Dutch way, because there are multiple ways to do it.
You can say “dank je”, which is the literal translation of “thank you”.
You can say “dank u”, which is a very polite way of saying it.
And then there is the third option, “dankjewel” which is informal, but also a disarming, almost childlike way. 
When you say “dankjewel” there is nothing standing between you and the person receiving, it’s a very intimate way of acknowledging the other person.

Unless that other person is German!
Then your dankjewel just pulled up a tremendous language barrier.

But I am certain that in 1986 no one noticed, because next to the impeccable renditions of songs all sung in their original key or even higher, there was simply so much full-on Bon Jovi magic going on, that this show will be remembered for its high energy!

And it’s difficult to grasp into words. A lot more difficult than knowing what thank you is in German (Danke).
But I’m going to try.

Because Hannover 1986 is electrifying.
It’s layered, it’s conflicting, it’s like a lover who makes little scratches in  your flesh, because he needs the challenge of making you forget the pain.
And remembering only sweet surrender.

It’s as if Jon Bon Jovi chose Hannover 1986 to unleash his full sexual power, and teased, shocked, pushed, pulled and stretched, a hell of a lot more than his vocal cords.

The Hannover show opens with Slippery When Wet’s (unnamed) intro Pink Flamingos, followed by the B-side of the album’s opener Raise Your Hands;
Immediately confusing the audience from the get go, because they would have been expecting the A-side opener Let it Rock, at this point.
With Raise Your Hands the concert makes a steamroll-entry, running all the way up to its first dramatic full stop.
The first of many!
And smacking down into a final “Raise Your Haaaaaaaands!!!”

Without missing a beat, the electric guitar opens Breakout; 
A song from the first album that was removed from the setlist in future years, just like all other songs from the first two albums (bar Runaway).
And it is here Jon starts playing with our hearts.
The music slows down to a beat where the audience is just dying for some singalong! 
Which is often granted, but not tonight! 
(“No, no not tonight
You gotta let me go”!) 
And instead of “Whoo-hoo Breakout!”-ing with the audience, he does not respond in any way to their singing, and instead uses the intermezzo for a creative interpretation no one can predict.

Guttentag Hannover Germany how are you?!”
Finally! Jon Bon Jovi greets the audience and promises a long and sweaty night. 
After asking the audience for permission for the musical debauchery this night is going to be, and them of course yelling “Yes!!!!”, he concludes that this thing is then settled;
“Okay then! Take me back to Tokyo Road!”

And no slow Japanese folk song/ music box intro either; Tokyo Road hits it off, straight from the bat.
And the bridge, the talking bit, is cut short too. No frills, keeping the Jovi train , Hannover steamroller, whatever they have moving forward here, firmly up to speed.

“You guys sound like you’re ready to have a good time tonight, is that true?”
Jon takes a moment to inform the audience the next song is from the new album, and that they probably know this song because it is the first single in Germany.
“Tico give me the beat!”
You Give Love a Bad Name, commences.
And closing with the aforementioned dankjewel, while in the background drummer Tico Torres has already picked up the beat to Wild in the Streets.

After Wild in the Streets we hear a melancholic tune on the electric guitar,  that resembles Prince’s Purple Rain intro.
It will move into Silent Night, where Jon Bon Jovi always uses the same story as an introduction. A moment where I (and I imagine others) always hope he has decided to change it, but he never does.
But Hannover does get a slightly toned down version…. Fans of the 1986 period know we’ve had worse.

And so on a melancholic, Purple Rain like foot, and with an audience that has just had any ideas of being gently handled effectively slapped out of them;
Silent Night sets off.
Starting slowly, yes, but in the finale Jon’s singing reaches a crying your eyeballs -out intensity!
And Richie Sambora takes over the “lead”, when Jon has sung his final deeply emotional words;
With a few chords, guitar only, the song ends.
Leaving you emotional, unsteady, but also wanting more.
And you have totally forgotten, you were hurt by that same man, just 10 minutes ago.

“Thank you!” the man says.
“This one is for Gina, wherever she is. This is called Livin’on a Prayer.”
And in the final months where this song could technically still be omitted because it was not the staple song it would very soon become!
Livin’ on a Prayer begins.
With fireworks after the first chorus.

In the break between songs, we hear Jon making little screams (quite sexy to be honest!) which together with other 80s experiments will evolve into the Keep the Faith “jungle” noises, which will be added to the live renditions of the song.
Some of the 80s tours have early examples of these future Keep the Fiath intermezzos, but I’m not familiar enough with the tours to say exactly which one.
It may be just the 1986 concerts, I don’t know.

“God damn, you guys are good tonight, good tonight, good tonight!
Let me hear you make a little noise!”
* yeah! * 
“A little more than that!”
* yeah! * 
“A little more than that!”
* yeah! * 
“A little more than that!”
* yeah! * 

“Alright!
This is something of the Slippery album, and I’m going to need. your. help.”

After the crowd solemnly swears to help, Let it Rock begins. 
“I’ve got a story to tell.”
Jon Bon Jovi adds, just before the first verse.

Let it Rock sounds strong, convincing, there is an extra scream, a “huh!”, a “yeah!”. A whole array of sounds added in and invented on the spot.
And then we go!
The question, answer, Jon playing the audience-game, to the BEAT! of Let it Rock.
To the BREATH!
Of Let it Rock.
To the very FIRE!
Of perhaps the most underrated Bon Jovi song in the history of Bon Jovi, and under the threat of Jon Bon Jovi losing 100 Deutschmark to Ritchie if they don’t sing louder;
The crowd is forged into an allegiance, with Bon Jovi.

This is the point of No Return, where Jon knows he can now do with them whatever he wants, and they’ll not just say yes;
They’ll be begging for it.

So naturally, he gives them time to cool off.
He breaks the connection, and introduces Richie Sambora, for a guitar solo that moves into a guitar and drum solo- but without singing.
Without a recognizable melody.
Until the guitar-drum combo brushes against a predicable beat, where the crowd enthusiastically starts to clap “Hey! Hey! Hey!”.
Only to be cut off within seconds.
Silence.
Drum solo.
Guitar joining.
But still…no predictable tune. Nothing, to hold onto. Until?

“In and out of love.”
In long wails, and on repeat, the title of this second album song is sung on top of the incomprehensible music. 
Four times total, before the music adapts to the words, and we recognize In and Out of Love.

“Everybody put your hands up in the air!”
Jon addresses the audience again, with In and Out of Love dropping back to give him space to play with the audience. 
Or so you think! Because a few second later he says something like:
“Come on players. Let’s take them out.”
Leaving the audience unsatisfied and sidelined.
“Bang bang baby,” Jon adds later.
Which is also a reference to the song Bang, Bang, which he sung in harmony in 1984 and 1985– as a wonderful intro to Shot Through The Heart.
And if you have never heard that, you will not regret clicking that link.

But in 1986 the casual “Bang bang” was nothing like the thoughtful cover of earlier tours;
It was a spoken word Bang Bang, that was a push, not a pull!
Followed by a powerful improvised verse, and another invitation to “Sing!”;
But without giving the audience a chance to do so.

In and Out of Love is constricting the audience, giving them so little room to “move”, that they have no choice but to hold back their love, their appreciation;
Their desire to join and become one.
They have no other choice, but to hold themselves back.  
They do get a chance to sing along, 6, 8 times “In and Out of Love”; But it’s not in a question/answer fashion, and the crowd seems to miss the window of opportunity.
And then Richie’s solo begins, the starting sign of the song’s closing sequence.

“Well, well well. Hannover I’m afraid we’ve only got time for one more song tonight.”
Jon says at a little over an hour.
The crowd lets out whistles and screams, to express their disappointment.
“Well,” Jon says. “I mean it sounds like you guys are getting a little bit tired tonight.” 
Crowd is having mixed emotions…
“Are you getting tired out there?” Jon now shouts.
“Noooooo!!!!”  the crowd answers! 

“Are you sure?!”
“Yess!!!!” 

“Well alright! Runaway!”
Runaway it is. And at one point you can hear Jon laugh! Something that I have not heard anywhere else in the shows.
So he’s having a good time, or is surprised by something happening.

On the outro of Runaway, Jon thanks the crowd and closes the show.
“Auf wiedersehen! See you again real soon!”
Fireworks + the crowd sings, claps, whistles we want more.

The sound of wind is already audible, meaning that Wanted Dead or Alive will be played, but the crowd doesn’t seem to hear and keeps screaming until Richie has appeared on stage and he starts playing guitar.
A sign their prayers are answered and there will be more.

To be honest, the intro to Wanted Dead or Alive almost sounds too polished, too produced, in comparison to the rest of the show.
Maybe a tape was used.
Wanted Dead or Alive is played to resemble the album, but Jon’s vocals are live, and raw!

After the Emmy worthy power ballad Wanted Dead or Alive, Jon addresses the audience in a very laid back fashion.
Thanking them for being a great audience and announcing a cover song; 
A care-free rock n’ roll song Boys are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy. 
And yes!
Finally.
In question-answer style, with “a little louder!” and “I can’t hear you!” the crowd is invited to singalong.
“Thank you, goodnight!” Jon closes.
With the crowd clapping, yelling and whistling: “We want more!” and “Bon Jo Vi!” all over again.

After inquiring if the crowd is sure they haven’t got enough yet, and are sure they want some more, which of course they do, Jon asks David to give him “some of that sweet soul music”.
A cover song, with piano and sung in harmony again; Drift Away.
With one verse with Richie Sambora on lead vocals as well.

And although the crowd probably has no idea what this song is, Jon gives them some hooks to sing along.
Before announcing what will prove to be a ten minute long, closing song.
“Get Ready!!”

“Put your hands together.”
“When I say Come On Come One, I need you to say “Get Ready”. Can you do that Hannover?!”
After 90 minutes of being teased and pushed and pulled, Hannover is more than willing!

Wait a minute. Hold it! 
Wait a minute. Hold it! 
Wait a minute. Hold it! 
Stop!
Stop!
Stop!
Stop!
Stoooooop!

In an exhausted husky voice:
“Get your hands together!”

*crowd starts clapping rhythmically* 

Suspenseful:
“Come on, come on… Come on come on…. Come on come on…”

Shouting:
“One more time! Hannover! As loud as you can!”

To Tico Torres:
“Hey Animal! Give it to me! Hit ‘m hard! Fire away!”

To us:
“Let me see Hannover Germany. One more time. As loud as you can, yeah! Here we go!
Say: Come on, come on.”

CROWD: “GET READY!!!!!!”

Jon: “Alright! Dankjewel!”

Therefor 

3 december 1986, Hannover, Germany🇩🇪
BON JOVI LIVE FROM HANNOVER, GERMANY 1986 (FULL SHOW)
3 December 1986

is the soundtrack for today

.
The show has been added to the playlist 
“Bon Jovi concerts on this day”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScAo9UN4GyhtQWYfl3d6jMT
at 3 December.

.
 ~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week 

 

 

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: performance art
phase 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
phase 2: April 2022 – 

3 YouTube channels
1. English YouTube “Liberation”: Rock Star Yoga + Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs
2. Nederlandse YouTube “de Catacombe” studio voor Rock Star Yoga 
3. YouTube Rock Your Business
De headers from all channels have been changed already, so you know you re in the right spot.

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer 
2. Yoga Blog: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

🌍🌎 📚🛒
online bookshop

NEW: Books!

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

This series now has a playlist of On-this-day Bon Jovi concerts.
Updated daily with the most recent date at the top.

 

Just plant the damn flag, already. | 10 November | Bon Jovi 10 November 1986 | 1st European leg SWW Tour | Sheffield, England

“They say that to really free the body, you gotta free the mind.” So far I seem to be the only one hearing the word “that” ….. But I’m going for it! The spoken word opening of Lay Your Hands On Me is now the tagline of this blog.

Thursday 10 November
The soundtrack for today is:

Bon Jovi
10 November 1986
City Hall
Sheffield, England 🇬🇧
🏟️ Slippery When Wet Tour

One of the few recordings that has a video as well.
A bootlegger filmed it with a camera in 1986, and I’m guessing it took generations of Bon Jovi bootleggers coming after it, to straighten (the audio)  out. 
So although it is a far cry from a pro-shot video, it does mean we can see the dark stage, the indoor venue, the band members, all of Jon’s costume changes and a fan storming on stage. 
“it was common during those days back. ” the uploader Joey Keys dryly ads!
😉 
I don’t know, was it? 
Security was definitely loose, compared to nowadays. So it was possible then to storm on stage, and it is definitely no longer possible now.

I would say you were as likely to be able to storm the stage and hug Jon Bon Jovi in the 80s, as it is for your tweet to get mentioned by the official Bon Jovi account in 2022!
An honor which was unexpectedly bestowed upon me, and that has inspired today’s story.

Just plant the damn flag, already.

👩🏼‍💻 the story 10 November 

.

After Japan and North America, the band hit Europe November. It started with an extensive tour of the UK, and then had about half a dozen shows across the continent.

The Slippery When Wet tour had been around the block, or more accurately, around Japan and North America, by the time the Jovi train hit Europe.
And with the album’s first single You Give Love A Bad Name high up in the charts, and the follow-up single Livin’ On A Prayer storming the charts, Bon Jovi had thrown the world the massive two-puncher that put them in pole position for years to come.

Together with their 1988 album New Jersey, and the complementary, massive, way-beyond-breaking point touring, the band would be able to hold on to the success until early 1990, when the Jovi train finally stopped. The band would temporarily fall apart, with band members undertaking different solo projects, and be born anew late 1992 with Keep the Faith.

In that timeline, November 1986 was the moment the mark was made. That the Job of becoming super successful was done. There really was no going back now.  Not that anyone would have wanted to back down because the band had been working their asses off for this since 1983. 
No one was going home now, and no one would be going home for a very, very long time.

But when you look at the setlists of those 1986 shows, they still included many of the first two albums.
Albums which would ultimately be lost in time and indeed, many did assume 1986′ success of You Give Love A Bad Name, Livin’ On A Prayer, and the success of the album Slippery When Wet were the success of a band’s first album.
But it wasn’t.

And the 1986 shows, with their setlists rich in first and second album songs, prove that.
Maybe that is what gives these shows their special charm..

Songs from the first two albums played at Sheffield 1986:
Tokyo Road [6:00]
Silent Night [27:40]
In And Out Of Love [51:00]
Runaway [58:11]
Get Ready [1:21:10]

By the time the decade was over, only Runaway had made the cut.

Fan on stage Sheffield 1986

In the video a fan gets on stage mid-Runaway. They make their way up, hug Jon, before being hurried off the stage by security.

In the Sheffield venue, the crowd is packed directly against the stage.
There is no pathway with security between the stage and the crowd, which made it far more likely to be able to get on stage in Sheffield 1986, than it would be in the years after.

So far this blogpost has been about the 1986 third leg  of the Slippery When Wet Tour (Europe);
About the Bon Jovi account tweeting one of my tweets;
And I opened this post with the Lay Your Hands video. And using the opening lines (to free the body/ free the mind) as the tagline of this blog.

But to bring this baby home, I need to refer to my previous post.
One that seems to have been written a lifetime ago, but it was the 25th of October. A little over 2 weeks.
It spoke of my intense struggle, in the three years that have passed since the 2019 Bon Jovi concert:
About Rock Star Yoga, becoming Rock Star Writer. About #dailybonjoviyoga. About YouTube channels that have been abandoned even though I have made the resolution a zillion times to finally get my weight behind them.

And in that blog I talked about the months before the first Bon Jovi album (1983)), in which the band was formed, and John Francis Bongiovi changed his name to Jon Bon Jovi.
And how he is owning that name, and the JBJ initials ever since.

The blog spoke about how I had things still marinating for a new business. That no domains names had been claimed, no decisions taken. Because I want to do it right this time.

But instead of making any improvements in any of those areas, the past weeks were occupied with two major shifts happening in my personal life, between then and now.
They caused such a big landslide in my sense of identity, in who I am, that I am seriously considering a name change to give myself a fresh start but also for career purposes!
Just like Farrokh Bulsara became Freddie Mercury,  David Robert Jones became David Bowie and John Francis Bongiovi became Jon Bon Jovi, I too, would take on a new name by which I would be known from now on.

Because on social media and on YouTube, your birthname says you are a professional. That you are transparent about who you are. But a new name? A new international sounding name?
That says you rock!

It says you are in control of who you are, and in my case it would also break the line with the past and with having had a profession (yoga teacher) that never quite fit.
It would have put an end to 20 years in which I have not moved forward;
I have moved backwards.
I have not acquired, I have lost.
I have not learned, I have UNlearned the things that used to come natural to me.

In one day two bombs dropped, and I was left feeling not just devastated over the events themselves, but also without understanding of who I was. But I was certain that I was not who I had pretended to be for the last 20 years. A name change seemed to be in order.
The more I thought about it, the more I was certain I would change my name  before the end of the week.

And you know what happened after.
The official Bon Jovi account on Twitter, used one of my October tweets and shared it with their millions of followers.
“After years of being wishy washy about it, I boldly claimed LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME as my favorite Bon Jovi song.
It was on a live chat. There were witnesses.”
I, @SLBeenackers, tweeted on the 26th of October.

“Agreed!”
Bon Jovi, @BonJovi, replied on Wednesday November 9.

Bon Jovi had answered to SLBeenackers- 
if I change my name now, it feels like I lose that.

But then again, Jon Bon Jovi already had a hit Runaway as John Bongiovi, and he changed his name too….
So should I too?

I don’t know.

The first sentences of Lay Your Hands On Me are according to many:
They say to really free your body, you gotta free your mind.
I always thought that would make a helluva tagline for Rock Star Yoga, but because the sentence is  left out on the record sleeve, and it was never spoken again, aside from that recording for the album-
I was hesitant to claim it.

And in particular because I always heard a THAT:
They say THAT to really free your body, you gotta free your mind.

Today, composing this post, I decided that although I am still up in the air about the name change, this “What is Jon saying?” had lasted long enough!
That it is time to start backing myself on that one.

So yeah, my business name, name as a working artist?
All still up in the air. *) 

But the tagline of this blog, and any new yoga endeavors is clear:

They say that to really free the body, you gotta free the mind.
JBJ

Just plant the damn flag already.

Therefor 

10 November 1986, Sheffield, England 🇬🇧
Bon Jovi – Live in Sheffield, UK 1986 [FULL]

is the soundtrack for today

.
The show has been added to the playlist 
“Bon Jovi concerts on this day”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScAo9UN4GyhtQWYfl3d6jMT
at 10 November.

.
 ~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week 

*) post script 11 November
I’m keeping my own name!!! 😊
For many practical reasons, but also because I’ve lost enough over the past few decades.
Keeping my own name, is something I can hold onto.

I still think that for all artists, in particular of immaterial art, having a chosen name is preferred though. 
Choosing your identity, your name, is your first fundamental creation, on which all else is built.
So that I’m not choosing a new name, does not mean I don’t still support the idea.

 

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: performance art
phase 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
phase 2: April 2022 – 

3 YouTube channels
1. English YouTube “Liberation”: Rock Star Yoga + Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs
2. Nederlandse YouTube “de Catacombe” studio voor Rock Star Yoga 
3. YouTube Rock Your Business
De headers from all channels have been changed already, so you know you re in the right spot.

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer 
2. Yoga Blog: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

🌍🌎 📚🛒
online bookshop

NEW: Books!

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

This series now has a playlist of On-this-day Bon Jovi concerts.
Updated daily with the most recent date at the top.

 

You can’t unf. what’s been f. | 25 October | Bon Jovi 14 November 1988 | Rome, Italy

Photo by Theodore Liassi source: https://twitter.com/teodiomio/status/1498223154472398848

Tuesday 25 October 
The soundtrack for today is:

Bon Jovi
14 November 1988
Palazzo dello Sport
Rome, Italy 🇮🇹
🏟️ New Jersey Syndicate Tour

YouTube channel hAnD90 sternly warned us in the description box;
His new Bon Jovi concert upload and the accompanying live premiere (where fans can chat on YouTube) was only going to be palpable “for the true diehard fans who jump into the experience regardless of the recording’s quality”.
We didn’t just feel seen;
We felt called!

 

You can’t unf. what’s been f.

👩🏼‍💻 the story October 25

.

Photo those same months, to illustrate Jon’s beautiful mane. London, 8 December, 1988. 📸 by Duncan Raban/Popperfoto via Getty Images

There is a quote from the movie Atomic Blonde that comes to mind today, that is applicable both to the (according to hAnD90) deplorable state of this recording (not-audio-technicians would shrug it off with “We’ve had worse”);
As well as applicable to the according to me deplorable state of my blogs, YouTube channels, and yoga practice. 
And in particular the state of disarray of my #dailybonjoviyoga practice…

The quote from the movie Atomic Blonde that I am referring to, is:
“A beautiful Italian girl once told me:
“David, you can’t unfuck, what’s been fucked.””

hAnD90 couldn’t unf. it, when he warned us that he had been unable to get this rough recording of Bon Jovi Rome 1988 to a quality that was even halfway decent.
And I can’t either.

There is no way I am going to put together the pieces from summer 2019 when I started a blog called Rock Star Yoga, via renaming it Rock Star Writer pretty soon afterwards;
To starting this Daily Bon Jovi Yoga blog this year;
To renaming it to Daily Bon Jovi Live a little over a week ago;

To realizing the mess this time is even bigger than in 2019 with the Rock Star Yoga blog.
Because of things that changed at WordPress.
Because of things that changed in me.
And because of The Universe stepping in and preventing me from taking on a colossal amount of work, if I had actually pursued this yoga to live name change.

So.
Knowing very well that I cannot unfuck what’s been fucked, I ll give you a recap of what happened. And although I cannot unfuck it, I/we can be as thrilled with the result, as an entire Bon Jovi YouTube community was with last Sunday’s upload of Rome 1988.

Recap to what happened almost two weeks ago now:
I decided to rename this Daily Bon Jovi Yoga blog to Daily Bon Jovi Live, because I wrote 99.9% about “On this day”-Bon Jovi live concerts, and 0.01 % about yoga.
A percentage that could painlessly be dialed down to zero.

After having claimed the new domain name, I initially explained my inability to change the primary address of this blog to the new url (dailybonjovilive) to there being a 3 day waiting period. Something I had encountered somewhere deep in the WordPress help pages.
But when after a week or so I still couldn’t find the “change primary address” button, and none of the “three dots in the top right corner” led to an option to change those setting either;
I contacted WordPress.

Turns out, it is no longer possible to use this feature for free.
Even if I had considered it worth the €4 a month for the rest of my life, to change the url to dailybonjovilive (which I don’t);
I would still have been too angry and disgruntled about having spent days clicking around my WordPress dashboard and not encountering this information, to make that investment.

I should have seen a Change Your Primary Address button, and then it should have led to a page that said I had to pick a paid plan.
But now?
There was simple no way I was going to pay after having invested days into finding this feature that I had used many times in the past and that a ton of blogs were still telling me should be easily found.
No way in hell I was going to spend money on a url change I used to be able to make for free.

So after having wasted €18 on my domain name dailybonjovilive, which for the remaining 350-ish days will link to our page here-
and after having wasted a few days searching for a functionality that you apparently have to pay for to even be visible as an option;
I was angry, frustrated, and hellbent not to change anything about any blog or YouTube ever again.

All my blogs, channels and Facebook pages too, would from now on just be named whatever I had thought on day one it was gonna be about. 
This would not only ensure all links would stay functional, and save me a ton of work updating website links in YouTube description boxes and so on;
But it was also very likely that in the end, I WOULD come around!
And that the site would be about the very thing, I had first set out to cover.

A few days after finding out WordPress had been keeping me out of the loop, I was called to set up a new business.
Called! Like Bon Jovi fans to a hAnD90 premiere.

But instead of immediately claiming the domain name, registering with the Chamber of Commerce, setting up a new YouTube channel for my business, designing new business cards and renting a space here in Nijmegen;
I have not committed to anything.

I had to sit on my hands and creditcard at times, NOT to do those things, but low and behold, am I happy I didn’t! 
I may not have dotted all the i’s and crossed no t’s for my new business.
But I have also not fucked up anything that is then going to cost me € 18, two days and € 4 a month to unfuck.
I’m still free and I intend to keep it that way for as long as I can.

And I HAVE come around…
Good gracious me.

My initial plans turned out to be so extremely not-me, that I’ve just sent the business model straight back to the drawing board!
Any offered services are to be zone-of-genius only.
I want my work to be such a Hell yes!, I would pay people to let me do that!

Just like Jon Bon Jovi said in the mid 80s:
He loved playing live so much he would have paid people to come see them. 

That’s how much I want to love my work.

And in the process, after I had catapulted my conservative business plan back to the drawing board, I realized how much I love writing, doing yoga and teaching yoga. How much I love all my abandoned blogs, and rejected YouTube channels, that are all in such a deplorable state.
And how much I love the idea of picking up #dailybonjoviyoga, exactly as I intended to, at the beginning of this year.

And I was so happy I had not changed the name of this site, and thanked it to WordPress having changed the feature.
Or had it been the Universe preventing me from making a mistake I would soon regret?

The YouTube premiere of 1988 Rome, was a great one. First off, because there was video as well, which is rare with those old recordings.
You can see the band on a relatively small stage, and there is something raw, and sweaty, a realness to the show.

It opens with Lay Your Hands on Me, including the (recorded) intro where Jon says something that no one, not even Jon, remembers what was said, but it was along the lines of:
They say to free the body
You ‘ve got to free your mind
So come on.

They played Get Ready (from the first album!) and a chilling Homebound Train;
And David Bryan plays a passionate Pink Flamingos and someone in the audience yells “Woo, hoo, hoo!”, indicating he knows it will lead into “Let it Rock”!
And then it really does lead into Let It Rock!
How satisfying.
Bon Jovi does not follow up Flamingos with Raise Your Hands, as they used to do at some point.

Jon declares the Palazzo dello Sport is not small but “intimate”!
And he has that gorgeous extra long hair, all the way down, to halfway his back.

And it is also a show that is Alec John Such’ birthday.
He was a decade older than Jon and David, but no one was supposed to know.
Jon commemorates his birthday saying:
“He’s 21 years old, and he’s almost old enough to drink.”

And not just Alec John Such, the age of Tico Torres who was a similar age to Alec, was also lowered to bring it more into line with Richie and in particular with Jon Bon Jovi and David Bryan, who almost have the same age.

At the same time Alec and Tico’s ages were reduced, John Francis Bongiovi changed his name to Jon Bon Jovi;
A change although pressed upon him, he was very much involved in. He rejected other proposals for a name change.
But ultimately this one was one he stood behind, and he has been using his new initials JBJ ever since, so that was a positive and identity affirming change.
However, to have your age, your year of birth, taken away from you?
That can easily have felt disempowering.

Jon Bon Jovi putting up a fight, and Tico and Alec allowing their age to be tampered with, is a great life lesson;
Don’t go for something you’re okay with.
Go for something you want to fight for!

Because that is the thing you are here to do.
That, is your destiny.

Therefor 

Alec’s 37th birthday concert
14 November 1988, Rome, Italy 🇮🇹
Bon Jovi | Live at Palazzo dello Sport | Rome 1988

is the soundtrack for today

.
The show will be added to the playlist 
“Bon Jovi concerts on this day”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScAo9UN4GyhtQWYfl3d6jMT
in the upcoming weeks, at 14 November.

.
 ~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week 

 

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: performance art
phase 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
phase 2: April 2022 – 

3 YouTube channels
1. English YouTube “Liberation”: Rock Star Yoga + Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs
2. Nederlandse YouTube “de Catacombe” studio voor Rock Star Yoga 
3. YouTube Rock Your Business
De headers from all channels have been changed already, so you know you re in the right spot.

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer 
2. Yoga Blog: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

🌍🌎 📚🛒
online bookshop

NEW: Books!

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

This series now has a playlist of On-this-day Bon Jovi concerts.
Updated daily with the most recent date at the top.

 

Not sure what to play | 12 October | Bon Jovi 12 October 1992 | Fast Lane, Asbury Park, New Jersey, first promo concert Keep the Faith

At 12:00 and 12:50 you can hear someone yell”Welcome home!”

Wednesday 12 October 
The soundtrack for today is:

Bon Jovi
12 October 1992
Fast Lane, Asbury Park
New Jersey 🇺🇸
🏟️ first promo concert Keep the Faith

If it had not been for the continuous female screaming during the opener “With a little help from my friends”, one may indeed have mistaken Bon Jovi’s debut performance to promote their Keep the Faith album, for a run-of-the-New-Jersey-mill bar band.
As several newspapers implied.

But as much as that might have been true, musically speaking, there was one aspect to Bon Jovi playing there, at the Fast Lane venue in Asbury Park, New Jersey’s holy ground for anyone who is anything in the New Jersey music scene, an aspect that was the theme of the whole night, and that aspect was;
They had been away.

Unlike local bands, Bon Jovi had been from New Jersey, not in New Jersey.

The audience to this under-cover club gig, consisted largely of family, friends, people from the music industry, and then there were the few lucky fans who managed to get a ticket.
None of them knew what to expect.

The upcoming album Keep the Faith, had not been released yet.
And what Bon Jovi knew, was that they had a big acoustic production in the wings, coming up in two weeks time; An Evening With Bon Jovi for MTV.
Bon Jovi needed to get their head around their set, including the 60s covers they intended to blend in.
But they didn’t want to lose the connection with the audience either.

To make matters one could say “worse”;
The band were not just transitioning into a new musical style, but they were out of practice and even out of touch, of playing together live.
When in the first months of 1990, touring had finally come to a stop –
Bon Jovi needed to clean house.
For a while they were literally out of touch, and did not even speak to each other. Many, including the band, did not know if there was a future for Bon Jovi.

In October 1992, that was all put behind them and the band had been on the west and in Canada for over half a year, recording Keep the Faith, before they came back to New Jersey and played Asbury Park.

What do you play when after all that time, you are finally home?

 

Not sure what to play

👩🏼‍💻 the story October 12

.

In the second half of 1986, Bon Jovi went from being a struggling band, who had been fighting to make their mark in music with two albums whose biggest achievement had been that the record company had allowed them to make another one.
Another one, that would be big.

In 1986, Bon Jovi’s third album needed to go big- or the band needed to go home. It was released in August, and before the year was over, Bon Jovi had attained super stardom.

Yet up until the late 80s, few music journalists bothered to pay attention to any hardrock band who carried Elnett hairspray. There were so many bands behind the veil of MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball and Europe’s music festivals for hardrock and heavy metal, that the hardrock bands who did manage to get their songs played on radio, and who did have hits (such as Scorpions, Europe and Whitesnake, and of course Bon Jovi) were still not given attention.
As if they could drop back in line with the other dime-in-a-dozen bands, at any moment.

In particular in The Netherlands, and I believe Europe at large, few hardrock bands were known, and Bon Jovi was scrutinized and made fun of.
In particular after their 1986 breakthrough.
I never dug into it, but I can imagine someone who had seen them opening for KISS, who had been in Tilburg in 1985, and even the November 1986 concert in Arnhem, with Bad Name and Prayer both high up in he charts-the newspaper press would have been positive.

But the music press, the journalists who wrote long articles about bands?
That was a different story.
To this day, I have not found or read or seen, even one interviewer or journalist, who in the 80s was able to hear that Bon Jovi’s albums and their live performances, contained a depth, complexity, and musical richness, that made it blatantly obvious this band was here to stay.

That Bon Jovi would survive not just the decades, not just all the other bands, but that like the Stones before them;
Bon Jovi would go down in history as the biggest band of their generation.

Listening to Bon Jovi albums, and even to their earliest recordings, it is impossible to not know the difference between Bon Jovi playing Asbury Park’s Fast Lane in 1992, cracking jokes with the audience, reminiscing about the past, and all those times the band played there and there was almost no one in the audience-
and a professional local bar band.

So did Bon Jovi struggle, to come up with a proper setlist?
They did.
Were they unsure what to play?
Probably, yes.

But after opening with an XL rendition of Joe Cocker’s version of “Little help from my friends”; 
Cutting straight into a staccato drum intro – 
“Are you ready? Are you willing? Are you able to rock n roll?”
blasting into Wild in the Streets.

Jon Bon Jovi greeting the audience with a “Good evening Asbury Park, New Jersey”, that is satisfying at an almost visceral level, and turning the audience on and the mood up, with casual conversation about reasons to celebrate today.
The crowd, understandably, goes wild! 

They make momentum with a string of three hits, back to back:
You Give Love a Bad Name, Born to be my Baby, and I’d Die For You, which indeed does sound like a bar band has taken the stage!
In the most wonderful, we-all-wish-we-there kind of way.

Jon cracks open the memory box, giving a lively description of New Jersey 1978, the music scene and how he met Tico Torres.
And how Jon played the Stone Pony every Wednesday and almost nobody showed up!

Brave attempt to decide on what to play next through a democratic process with a yelling crowd.
A “New?” “Old?” poll, leads to a cut-short version of Runaway, with Jon saying it’s “not bad for guys who haven’t played together all year” and excusing himself he’s probably more excited about the new stuff.

“You too?” 

Three new songs from the Keep the Faith album, possibly the first time they are played;
Sleep When I m Dead with Jon effectively playing the dance-on-my-bar barman role from intro to outro!
A confession-filled introduction to Bed of Roses;
Going all in with Keep the Faith, and we can already hear the hallmark maracas!

Giving the people what they want, with Lay Your Hands On Me, plugging in anything electric within reach and providing ample sing along time;
The story of how Jon “fooled” David Bryan into playing in Bon Jovi instead of becoming a doctor;
Good Lovin’, best known in the 1966 version from The Young Rascals;  
An upbeat and prolonged Bad Medicine that will seldom have been belted along more enthusiastically; 

An acoustic set with Livin’ on a Prayer and a dressed-down version of the Allman Brothers “Midnight Rider”,  leading into “Wanted Dead or Alive”;
“Kansas City” with New Jersey icon Lance Larson, who gets thanked for letting Jon Bon Jovi play the clubs when he was still underage;
And closing with what was then their most recent hit, Jon Bon Jovi’s solo song, Blaze of Glory.

With all these things in place, everybody left knowing the difference between Bon Jovi and a New Jersey bar band.
Even a professional one.

Looking back, it is unmistakable that 1992 Bon Jovi had not just gone way further than all the New Jersey bands before them; 
And had not just survived an entire decade of hardrock bands, globally, that would get lost in history and never make it back on their feet again;
Had not just proved the critics wrong.

But that the state of New Jersey, a state they had brought into the light by naming their 1988 album after it;
That the state had become synonymous with Bon Jovi.

That yes, all those years touring from August 1986 to early 1990;
The silent years ’90-91 when Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora both made their highly acclaimed solo records, both recorded in California;
And in 1992, with the resurrection of Bon Jovi, and recording their new album Keep the Faith in Vancouver, Canada;
That although all that time, Bon Jovi the band, had indeed not been in New Jersey -Jon tells how he has not been home for eight months, before the show.

But that by that time, Bon Jovi had become synonymous with New Jersey.
And New Jersey would be known, worldwide, because Bon Jovi was from there.
Bon Jovi and New Jersey, had become inseparable. 

And when you’re that big brother that comes home from his travels, to a house filled with family, delighted to see you;
Then it really doesn’t really matter, what you play.

What matters, is you’re there.

Therefor

12 october 1992, New Jersey 🇺🇸
Bon Jovi – Live at Fast Lane | Audience Recording | Full Concert In Audio | Asbury Park 1992
is the soundtrack for today

.
The show is added to the playlist 
“Bon Jovi concerts on this day”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScAo9UN4GyhtQWYfl3d6jMT
at October 12.

 ~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week 

Exciting news!
As already announced last Monday, this blog #dailybonjoviyoga has been renamed to

#dailybonjovilive
Bon Jovi history, for the world of today 

Where I will share these stories inspired by Bon Jovi concerts.
I really love that tag line! I hope you do too.

On Monday 10 October 2022 – and for reasons that do not have anything to do with how much I love you! – I cancelled all things yoga and business related. 
That is why I had to change the name of this site, to one without yoga.

This also means that Rock Star phase 2, as outlined below, has moved into phase 3. But there are so many moving parts!
I have to set it up in phases.

Today I bought a new domain name, dailybonjovilive.com, and it already refers to this site, the one you’re currently on.
But there is a 96 hour waiting period before I can make that url the main one, to this site.
Which is why you may still see dailybonjoviyoga.com, in the address bar.

All blogs and YouTube channels will be addressed personally, and redesigned or put on hold. 

Old yoga videos on YouTube will stay available, and the videos I still have on private (since a tech problem in 2020) will be updated and unlocked as was planned.
In general, old yoga content will not be removed, just no new ones created.

updated project list soon, this one was Phase 2:

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: performance art
phase 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
phase 2: April 2022 – 

3 YouTube channels
1. English YouTube “Liberation”: Rock Star Yoga + Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs
2. Nederlandse YouTube “de Catacombe” studio voor Rock Star Yoga 
3. YouTube Rock Your Business
De headers from all channels have been changed already, so you know you re in the right spot.

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer 
2. Yoga Blog: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

🌍🌎 📚🛒
online bookshop

NEW: Books!

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

This series now has a playlist of On-this-day Bon Jovi concerts.
Updated daily with the most recent date at the top.

 

After 20 years, I’m removing all yoga and business from my public life | 10 October | Bon Jovi 24 September 1983 | First Bon Jovi concert ever 

Monday 10 October 
The soundtrack for today is:

Bon Jovi
24 September 1983
Madison Square Garden
New York 🇺🇸
🏟️ supporting ZZ Top

The correct date of this recording is unclear. Different sources give different ones. But what is agreed upon, is that around 24 and 25 september 1983, Bon Jovi played a big venue for the first time.
As support act for ZZ Top.

There were a lot of technical difficulties, most notably Richie’s guitar amplifier falling out. And the ZZ Top crowd was a tough one, you can even heer the boo-ing at the beginning.
But with the adlibs (improvised lyrics), acapella cover-intros and stunning performances of songs, that had not even been pressed to vinyl yet – their debut album would be released 4 months later- 
A remarkable, and stunning performance for a band who were so new they didn’t even have a record out on the shelves to support them.

And an omen, of great things to come.

A fate my career in yoga did not share!

After 20 years, I’m removing all yoga and business from my public life

👩🏼‍💻 the story October 10

This is not a Bon Jovi story. In fact, it’s not even a story at all. More like a tragedy, a horror story or a dark and twisted comedy.

And there is a short version, a long version, and a version where I change my mind every few months and think that I CAN and possibly even SHOULD teach yoga, write about yoga, coach yoga;
Invent yoga, reform yoga, connect over yoga, revolutionize yoga;

And possibly even save yoga, or save you with help of yoga.
Who knows what I thought!

And replace the word yoga with “doing business”, and an equally true and equally agonizing pathway, will appear.

But those versions of the story would be the historically correct one.

A version where someone who had the best papers, the clearest VISION, and someone who was called to yoga when she heard Madonna say she did yoga, in 1998.
The story of someone who was called to the world of yoga by reading Yoga Journal.
And then called AGAIN, when Madonna played a yoga teacher in the movie The Next Best Thing, and she saw that big hall with 40 or so practitioners who in the reality would have been unlimited-yoga pass holders to the yoga studio (no doubt).
When she saw the incense burning in front of a big Shiva statue, and Madonna talking to students from behind a reception counter (I always believed a good yoga studio couldn’t do without a reception), and knew:
“That’s me. That’s what I want to do.”

When that someone did not fulfil her vision, lost 20 years, and then another three days from Friday 7 October 2022 to Sunday night 9 October 2022, because someone had asked her the week prior if she would continue a yoga video series she had started earlier that year, and she remembered how passionate she had been over it!
Yes, of course she would get on her mat, and film the rest of this yoga series!
Thank you for bringing it up, I m on it!

And then there she was, more than twenty years after Madonna’s call, and a helluvalot of years as a business and studio owner later, and quitting her profession a zillion times already, but instead committing to getting back to shooting yoga videos.
There she was,
paralyzed instead.

Not in a dramatic way, but she did not do anything.
It was a run-of-the-mill, just throwing her life away one day at a time- type of paralyzed.

Days went by watching series, and in secret she wondered if she could just delete all her YouTube channels, social media accounts, and all her blogs and pretend she had never existed.
Get a full-time job in the service industry, or get back to that firm recruiting for technical staff, and own the fact that she had not made anything out of her life.
That it had all been one big mistake.

It was an appealing thought, as in the background Friday’s Rings of Power episode moved into a first season of the Exorcist with Geena Davis. 
And I compared yoga to being the demon I had been carrying around for 20+ years, being unsuccessful to expel it.
Every time I let it back in.

But I think the reason even today, writing this blogpost and announcing this blog will no longer be about yoga in the future – 
I think the reason yoga has been difficult for me to let go, is not the Madonna induced visions I had for yoga, nor all the extra business and marketing training I took and understanding I know how to make ANY service profession hugely successful!
No, the reason it is difficult, is because in 2019, I had a vision of what I called Rock Star Yoga.

A vision to reform yoga, or the way we do yoga. It would transcend yoga into an expression of personal freedom and individuality, where the practitioner would be able to transform their lives, through yoga.

It was that vision, that kept me going.
It was the understanding that Rock Star Yoga was what I had always been looking for. That the 2019 vision would be the yoga I had always wanted to teach, develop, the thing I would be able to talk about and write about, passionately. And for the rest of my life.

Until three days of inertia later, I realized I needed to let go.
I needed to finally acknowledge that I didn’t want to be a yoga teacher, in any way shape or form.
Not write about it.
And never speak of it again.

That being a yoga teacher had turned into my personal version of hell, where all it did was confront me with everything I had failed at.
Late 90s Madonna’s version, 2019 the Rock Star Version, and there is even a 15 year long pathway in between where I had failed the White Tigress version. Because although I had turned it into a book;
The thought of having to teach it, threw me into day long inertia.
Last weekend was proof of that, and there have been entire weeks when I had “commit” to filming yoga for my Dutch or English channel, and instead had done nothing.

If I start counting from the moment Madonna came out as a yoga practitioner, to now;
Then over the 24 years I have turned yoga into my own personal version of hell.

And the short version is;
I am a writer and a speaker, not a yoga teacher. Which is why this blog #dailybonjoviyoga will be rebaptized (we need some cleansing here!) to

#dailybonjovilive

Where I will share stories inspired by Bon Jovi concerts.

Just like Bon Jovi opening for ZZ Top, in 1983 –
this post, is just a start.

Therefor

24 September 1983, Madison Square Garden 🇺🇸
Bon Jovi – Madison Square Garden 1983 (FULL SHOW)

is the soundtrack for today

.
The show was already added to the playlist 
“Bon Jovi concerts on this day”
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScAo9UN4GyhtQWYfl3d6jMT
at September 24.

 ~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
🇳🇱Tikkie van de week 

.
This Daily Bon Jovi Yoga blog will soon be renamed Daily Bon Jovi Live.
The cancellation of all things yoga and business related, means that Rock Star phase 2, as outlined below, has moved into phase 3. 
Which I will setup to last for a very long time!

All blogs and YouTube channels will be addressed personally, and redesigned or put on hold. 

Old yoga videos on YouTube will stay available, and the videos I still have on private (since a tech problem in 2020) will be updated and unlocked as was planned.
In general, old yoga content will not be removed, just no new ones created.

updated project list soon, this one was Phase 2:

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: performance art
phase 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
phase 2: April 2022 – 

3 YouTube channels
1. English YouTube “Liberation”: Rock Star Yoga + Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs
2. Nederlandse YouTube “de Catacombe” studio voor Rock Star Yoga 
3. YouTube Rock Your Business
De headers from all channels have been changed already, so you know you re in the right spot.

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer 
2. Yoga Blog: Daily Bon Jovi Yoga
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

🌍🌎 📚🛒
online bookshop

NEW: Books!

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

This series now has a playlist of On-this-day Bon Jovi concerts.
Updated daily with the most recent date at the top.