New remaster Bon Jovi 6 January 1989 Osaka 2nd night 🏟️ New Jersey Syndicate Tour 🎛️🎶🎧-> https://youtu.be/5MTusTXujYg?si=inm0aCI21HTXkxh2

Gina brings home what?

👩🏼‍💻 longread+sinterklaas rhyme 6 december 2023

. A 5th December present! This new remaster was uploaded by hAnD90 on 5 December 2023. A night  celebrated in Germany as Sankt Nikolaus and we in the Netherlands call it Sinterklaas or “boxing night” (pakjesavond), because many families celebrate this with presents. The presents are accompanied by a rhyme, opened with a date (usually 5 December) and then “Madrid”, after the city where Sinterklaas is living. The tradition is much older than to celebrate Christmas (Santa Claus) with presents which, in the Netherlands at least, only started one or two decades ago. Bon Jovi | 2nd Night at Osaka-jō Hall | Osaka 1989 The Sinterklaas YouTube upload comes with an extensive description box, written by hAnD90 himself, so if you REALLY want to know what went on in Osaka; What the setlist was and how it compares to others of the era; Which songs were unique, what was remarkable, and exactly how good it was? Then you can read the description box to the video. Which will not disappoint; hAnD90 can analyse a Bon Jovi concert the way others can analyse soccer at the World Cup. And without a team feeding them facts on auto-cue but with his own notes. These uploads are called a reMASTER for a reason! So I, almost as illiterate in Bon Jovi as in sports, will keep it brief (well figuratively, this is a longread!) and focus on the thing I do understand;

The energy, dripping off this debauchery of a show!

You know, in 2023 there are these videos about how to become “THAT girl”? And it would be tempting to say this is THAT show! Or the related; “IT girl”? Then this show was IT! Except- no it isn’t. Because contrary to the modern day Its and Thats, this show is a 20th century relic, which just like (in my opinion) everything else that was “That” or “It” in 1989, came with something we don’t see much anymore; Spontaneity. Sharpness. Boldness. Recklessness. Things were rough. Things were dirty. Things were messing with your head, and above all; Things were very, very unpredictable. And Osaka 1989? Oh it was all of those things, Baby. And that’s just me understanding half of what’s going on there, so let alone if you would actually understand every twist and turn of Jon Bon Jovi’s tongue. (I feel there’s still so much to UNPACK, in Bad Medicine!) .

Lay Your Hands On Me/ Pink Flamingos/ Let It Rock

. The show opens with the New Jersey tour classic “Lay Your Hands On Me”, the song that also opens the 1989 namesake album, and was just DESIGNED to get us in a state of anticipation! Perhaps, just maybe, only topped by 1986’s Slippery When Wet opener Let It Rock, thanks largely to the uncredited, unnamed (for a long time) arrangement that opened the album before Let It Rock even began; The instrumental Pink Flamingos written by keyboard player David Bryan. I have a music book for Slippery When Wet and Pink Flamingos is not even there! That’s how obscure it was in the 80s and, to be honest, I never made an attempt to play anything from the book once I realized its most exciting piece was missing. The intro Pink Flamingos is an integral part to the deeply sexual nature of the song Let it Rock. It is like Sex on Keys and I credit Let it Rock for giving me  a sense of what sex was and what it is to look out for EXACTLY; At a time when I was still a virgin, and none of my peers would have been able to give me something even close. Knowing all this, it must come as absolutely no surprise that BOTH New Jersey’s opener  “Lay Your Hands On Me”, as well as Slippery When Wet’s opener Let It Rock WITH an even extended version of David Bryan’s keyboard intro Pink Flamingos, were staples, on the New Jersey Syndicate Tour setlist. I am sure hAnD90’s notes could tell us, if there were any of the 230-ish shows that did not have both of these songs, but take it from me that Bon Jovi knew exactly how potent these songs were. These songs were on the setlist by design, and not because they had been such big singles that they could not be skipped, because they had not. In Osaka Lay Your Hands On Me opens the show, and Pink Flamingos/Let It Rock, starts at about a third of the concert.

Runaway/ Get Ready/ Tokyo Road

Oh the first two albums! If you want to know the difference between a casual Bon Jovi fan, and a diehard, it is their heartbeat when they hear songs from Bon Jovi’s first two albums, being played live. And I’m not talking about the 21st century cleaned-up version of Runaway either; One of the least-inspired live songs that they should have dropped for no other reason than that it has been sucking the soul right out of them. No I’m talking about Runaway, sung like they meant it with two electric guitars, strong backing vocals and improvisation in the high registers! I’m talking about Get Ready, the song where they started experimenting with musical interplay, improvisation and interaction with the crowd, as early as 1984. They would perfect this routine in the 90s version of Bad Medicine, but in 1989 they were still tooling around with their crowd-playing capabilities playing their oldie Get Ready in Osaka, as if not a day had passed since 1984, the first time they played Japan. Another oldie bound-to-Japanese soil; Tokyo Road! Tokyo Road (1985) was written about the life-changing experience of being in Japan in 1984, where Bon Jovi hit the jackpot as the nation was just going through their “Give us all the ROCK YOU’VE GOT” phase, and rockbands were treated like absolute GODS. As an hommage to the Japanese fans, who have been their strongest supporters from day one, Tokyo Road would remain a staple for Japan concerts, long after it had disappeared from regular setlists. Osaka 1989 was no exception! Played as the closer of the show, at a moment where you no longer expect it- a concert on this long and straining tour typically lasted 90 minutes ; Starting at 1 hour 34 minutes, Tokyo Road closes the show. The recording lasts 1 h 40 minutes, but many many minutes in between were cut! In reality, the show covered beginning to end at least 1 hour 50 minutes. Tokyo Road did not have to be played, but giving it their all of course they were not going to leave this fanservice on the table! .

Homebound Train/Livin’ in sin/ Blood on Blood

. Oh dear baby Jesus, mother of God, or was it sheer sorcery or just that enchanting harmonica play, that made Bon Jovi so otherworldly captivating,  in 1989? I have no idea, but I do know that these three songs, played together in one relatively short concert; It is what made the mark, my friends…… Three songs rich in storytelling, all dragged out until twice the length of their album versions, and there’s just something happening here that (I’m gonna say it) (some of you won’t like it) (gonna do it anyway) It was something 90s Bon Jovi lost. There was a darkness Bon Jovi possessed (probably literally) that is probably linked to being on a long excruciating tour that confirms the old adage that from great pain comes great art. A stage from which you either grow over it and become the professionals Bon Jovi became in the 90s, OR you quit, which sure looked like it was gonna be the case early 90s; Or you die. Which thankfully did not happen. But listen and soak up Bon Jovi’s late 80s heartfelt pain, suffering, nostalgia, and despair. And know Bon Jovi had not just given it their all, making it to where they were now; They were borderline breaking point and still no one could have stopped them.  

wild in the streets / I’d die for you

. Two Slippery When Wet Songs, neither one of them singles or at least not their biggies, of which Wild In The Streets would survive the cull and serve as a regular of being one of the first three songs, pretty much the same as in Osaka. Although both upbeat and fast-paced, Wild In The Streets is very much a party song, and I’d Die For You is a more intense guitar song. I’d Die For You is played in the second encore in Osaka; The second to last song, right before Tokyo Road. .

Livin’on a prayer/ ride cowboy ride/ wanted dead or alive

. This is where 80s Bon Jovi is showing themselves in all their glory! I kind of gave it away in the title, but improvisation, although present throughout this whole show, is rampant in Livin’ on a Prayer as well as Ride Cowboy Ride; And Wanted Dead or Alive, also becomes more alive played in tandem after the acoustic Ride Cowboy Ride, a New Jersey album “filler” that hardly ever gets played. From what I remember, Ride Cowboy Ride surfaced as a fan-favorite, at a listening of dozens of Bon Jovi demos that were considered for the New Jersey album. And it was based on that preference it ended up on the album, but it stayed in a rough version, deliberately sounding like an old vinyl record. But in Osaka, Ride Cowboy Ride really gets to shine, and serves as a wonderful intro to Wanted Dead or Alive. Livin’on a Prayer closes the main set, and it opens with an acapella chorus, sung by Jon and then by the crowd, who know it word by word. As we hear the ominous music opening the track, begin, Jon introduces the song saying: “This is for Tommie and Gina. They’ll probably go to prison somewhere. On prostitution charges.” Okay, I have NO IDEA, what that means! But it definitely sounds like something you in itself risk going to prison for in the 21st century.

🎶Once upon a time, on a Friday night🎶

Nice touch! And yes, it was indeed a Friday.

🎶Gina works the diner all day🎶 🎶Working for her man she brings home her * .. * for love🎶

Scraps? Spreads? What is Gina bringing home? Is this in any way related to the prostitution charges? I have no idea.

You give love a bad name

. Something that would also become part of the Bon Jovi-setlist recipe, is to greet the crowd after the third song. “How many of you folks came to see us here last night?” Jon asks. Quickly followed by: “How many of you folks this is your first Bon Jovi concert?” And then, with well-acted disappointment in his voice:

Where the hell have you been for the last 5 years? You give love….

And without finishing the sentence the opening lyrics of Bon Jovi’s 1986 breakthrough hit are shouted from ten thousand Japanese fans and one Jon Bon Jovi:

🎶Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame🎶 🎶Baby, you give love, a bad name🎶

Madrid, 6 December 2023 Once upon a time, decades long ago, Bon Jovi gave a stunning, provoking hardrock show Taking risks and bringing it, they hit it where they could For better or for worse; Jonny was not good Yet 34 years later, and 11 months to the date Osaka 89, would still fascinate The value of this story, is not to be of shock But to learn that fortune, favors those who rock. the Sint This was the Sinterklaas rhyme to accompany the present of hAnD90’s remaster of Bon Jovi, Osaka 6 January 1989 Bon Jovi Osaka, 6 January 1989 has been added to my playlist: New in Bon Jovi concerts before 1997 And to the playlist: “Part II: Bon Jovi concerts on this day 6 Dec-9 June (before 1997) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGoDE3C06ScbVI_oPZcf77OtrO_935JD” at 6 January.

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 

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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

.

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.
The subscription button is somewhere on this page, probably on the top right. 

 

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

.

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 

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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

.

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