“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 

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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.

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

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

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 ~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.