OMG! My first ‘real’ gig! My posse and I (Jamie and Dan) excitedly bussed our way into Leeds several months before the show to buy tickets from the (probably) long gone Cavendish Travel. We exchanged cold hard cash to assure passage and entrance to The Event of the Decade, and I litch felt like THE man as we made our way home.
The weeks seemed to drag, but eventually 25th June arrived. I looked absolutely SMOKIN’ in my black jeans, black boots and black shirt as I waved my parents goodbye, left the house and began The Journey to Adulthood. I’d even added a cheeky over-large crucifix to my garb, as if to say “BEHOLD! I AM THE ROCK!” Of course it was the height of summer so I spent most of the afternoon slowly melting into a pool of my own berkdom…
The coach dropped us off in Sheffield super early, so we got to Don Valley miles before the first band came on. Even so we naively pegged it to the gates to ensure we weren’t turned away because the place was too full (!)
After what seemed like hours, Crown of Thorns arrived and laboured through some generic rock. Hmm… I was gutted that they, and not Ugly Kid Joe (who had been opening act on other shows on the tour), were playing, and moaned solidly to my friends for a good hour or so. My friends seemed to really appreciate this and looked genuinely upset when Thunder came on-stage and I could no longer be heard above their bluesy pub rock.
I thought Thunder were amazeballs, and was gutted to find that you couldn’t buy their albums at the merch stand. In the following weeks a fair amount of my pocket money went into buying their back catalogue and I even attempted to organise a trip to see them in Manchester the following summer but Cavendish weren’t putting on a coach and we didn’t know how else to get there (“like, have you tried the train dude?!!”)
Van Halen were fun but these were The Sammy Hagar years and I never really dug super widdly guitar anyway, even as a kid. Their set seemed to just fill up space that The Jovi could be using to play b-sides and 25 minute long versions of Dry County which is surely what the, by now capacity crowd, wanted. Although “Jump” was good. Natch.
I was SUPA-PSYCHED when Bon Jovi came on around 8pm and proceeded to wheel out All The Hits. Unfortunately they also wheeled out lots of God awful medleys, seguing their Soft Rock Juggernauts into inappropriate fare such as “Shout” by The Lulu. They also covered “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Rockin’ In The Free World” in a bombastic stadium style (obvs), that dragged the very life out of the originals and replaced it with polystyrene and parcel tape. Even as a RAMPANT fan I remember feeling pretty bored after the first two hours. But hell I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t enjoy it. There were fireworks, a big inflatable women with her knockers out, and the aforementioned Hits. At the very least it made me think that I should see more pop concerts, and over the next few years dear reader, that is exactly what I did…
I was there too dude, my first proper concert as a 16 year old. Ticket was bought to me as a gift from the parents who presumed cos I was into rock that Bon Jovi would be just up my street. Thank god Thunder and Van Halen were on the bill, I liked the early Bon Jovi stuff but never really took to anything post slippery when wet. Still enjoyed the day though, If I remember rightly we also get there early too, on a prebooked bus from Pontefract and had hours to kill, It was a great day weather wise, sun beamed down all day and I remember moaning about paying £2 a pint for undermeasured flat warm beer in plastic cups lol. Thunder failed to play Back Street Symphony which was one of my favorite songs of theirs, and would have really made day complete, bah ! Nice to hear your account of the day, glad I found your blog with reference to this concern, as there is not mucgh about it online. Would love to drop on a video of the event.
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