And The Tony Goes To...

I know, I know, jumping the gun on this one by a couple days, but SamboraRocks over on YouTube captured the entire Tony "intro" that Jon did at the O2, and it's got me in a Tony kinda place.



David, travel safe, win big. We're all rooting for you!

~ Hath

Check out BJ's Crew's blog!

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From Netherworld to Memphis, Part Two

The second part of Bryan Reesman's interview is up. Here's an excerpt.

How do you think your image has changed from David Bryan the rocker to David Bryan the composer? What have people’s expectations been like?

The best part is that everybody [high up in theater] is about 70 or 80 years old, so they call me “The Kid”. In my world we’re old men, and in this world, I’m a kid, so I like that. With producers in that world, I always said I’m trying to class up the joint in my band by being a Broadway composer. They think it [the music] is raucous. It’s funny what people think the cliché is. Joe DiPietro and I are halfway through writing another one. We made a pact that we’re writing with each other, that we want to be the modern Rodgers and Hammerstein and want to take a partnership because we really enjoy what we do and do it well together. But he really understands the sensibility of what I do. It’s completely not theater, if you will. It’s just different.

You said you were working on another show with Joe.

We’re probably about halfway through it. We’ve been working on for about a year or so and got about eight songs in it already. We found the heartbeat of it. So when Joe and I write when I’m on the road, I’ll call him up while I have a keyboard in my room, we’ll write over the phone. Sometimes if I’m in the city for five days, he’ll fly out and we’ll sit together and write for five days. Time marches on whether I’m on tour were not. We want to get another one out there.

Are there any Bon Jovi songs that you would like to hear come back into the band’s set list?

On the tour we came in with our master list of about 90 songs, just to keep the boredom out. We first learn them, then walk into the sound check and play them. We’ve been playing some old ones from the first record. We’ve played “Roulette” and “The Hardest Part Is The Night”. Songs we haven’t done in forever. It’s fun to do that stuff.

You can read the full (and fantastically long) interview here (first part is here).

~ Hath

Panic (part 2)

You go about your normal routine, because you feel good. No better, no worse than usual, and you figure it's been a few days, no news is good news, right?

Wrong.

Your phone rings while you're managing a tier-1 support emergency for your job on another line.

It's the doctor.

You make your excuses on the conference bridge and switch lines.

Then you hear the receptionist speak words that fuck you up.

"The doctor found something in the scan that he wants a better picture of as soon as possible. Monday at 8am, you'll have an MRI with contrast dye."

The "no news is good news" bubble just burst.

You're blood pressure has shot up to the point that the guy sitting next to you has asked you if you're alright because your face is all red. Your hands are shaking so badly, an email to your closest friends with the news took a good 10 minutes to type, and it was just a few sentences.

You call your husband, who tells you to not freak out, that may be the scan was flawed the first time -- not very helpful.

You call your mother who knows just what to say to help you calm down.

Then you try to call your doctor. You're not doing ANYTHING until you talk to your doctor.

The receptionist doesn't get to make these kinds of decisions for you. You want to know what they found, why you REALLY need a second MRI, and what the real side effects of the dye are.

You want to know this last because you did some research, and the dye scares the shit out of you.

Hives? Burning sensations that don't fade for hours? Dizziness? Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF causes the skin, connective tissues, and sometimes even internal organs to thicken and harden. This can lead to severe debilitation and, in some cases, death. The disease usually takes between several weeks and several months to appear after injection with an MRI dye. However, NSF may also take as long as a year and a half to become apparent -- Like you want to worry about this for 18 months?!?!?)

If it turns out you really HAVE to have it (as in, it's either that or exploratory surgery) you decide you'll do it. There is a child at home who needs his Mama.

But you'll be damned sure to schedule it so you can be drugged up. But does Valium/Xanax have any interactions with the radioactive dye?

But then I see that gadolinium is used at Children's Hospital; they wouldn't give kids things for diagnostic exams that are potentially deadly, would they?

You have lots of questions for your doctor.

Unfortunately, the admin at your doctor's office can't figure out how to get the phones off of answering service.

The queue for your attention extends 10 people deep outside your office.

Three "urgent phone calls" are demanding your attention.

And it isn't even noon yet.

Meet The Photographer

David Bergman, the photog who is providing the great shots-for-sale from the Bon Jovi shows, has a blog that's a really interesting read. He's got cameras mounted all of the place, and has some pretty slick toys to capture all the yummy goodness of the Jovi Machine in action.

Here's a taste:

There’s nothing better than having an all-access pass to photograph one of the biggest rock concert tours in the world.

Since March, I have been covering shows and selling prints for Bon Jovi through my company TourPhotographer.com.

Jon Bon Jovi has granted me unprecedented access to shoot from the stage and put remote cameras around the arena. I’ve been mounting a Nikon D3 and 24-70 lens in front of Tico Torres’ drum set and triggering it wirelessly throughout the show using Pocket Wizard transceivers.

Go poke around his blog/site. He's traveling with the band, so will have lots of goodies up for sale as the tour progresses.

~ Hath

From Netherworld to Memphis, Part One

Found this great article on Bryan Reesman's Blog. It's the first part of a David Bryan interview that talks about the composing he did for Netherworld, his Broadway and off-Broadway shows, and more.

Bon Jovi is going strong after more than 25 years. It’s great to have that longevity, isn’t it?
You kidding me? Jon’s cousin and I went to high school together, so in 10th grade when I was 16 I got my permit, and that’s when we drove over the bridge and joined the band, as they say. Just a little band from Jersey.

Speaking of people who were there at the start, do you guys ever stay in touch with Aldo Nova?
Yeah, he’ll be at the show tonight. Aldo’s a good guy. He was living in Ireland, but I think he’s back here now.

I went to the Memphis hundredth performance, and at the afterparty I mentioned the film Netherworld to you, and you seem surprised.
It’s bad.

A lot of the Full Moon stuff is a guilty pleasure for me.
It was bad, and it was supposed to be bad. You could see the flying hand of Satan coming in and see the strings on the hand a little bit, and it was pretty much a music video because I remember I had done that around 1990 when the band took a break. That’s when I was throwing everything up on the wall. I wanted to do a solo record, so I wrote songs on that, then I did an instrumental version of it. I tried to do soundtracks, and you have to start somewhere. There wasn’t the Internet at the time, so you had to live in California. I live in Jersey, and I didn’t want to move to California to do this. I like to do it, I thought I was good at it. I took classical piano for 15 years. You can play Beethoven and there’s no lyric, and you can have every emotion in the emotional palette, more because lyrics limit you. The emotion of happy and sad and getting happy and sad and being pensive and every word that is in the dictionary can be played out with music as an emotion, so that was such a huge instructional for me. When do a movie like that, you see someone getting scared or happy or whatever, when you look at what the emotion is you match the underscore, and in a musical you’re kind of doing the same thing except you’re matching the emotion with the song.

The full article can be found here.

~ Hath

O2 Interview ~ Full Video

OK, so I need to take YT Trolling lessons from Catte/Wills

Here's a full video of the interview, rather than clips :)



~ Hath

O2 Interview Clips

MrJameseyBoo has put up a series of clips from the O2 press conferences. Most are very, very brief, but very cap-worthy :)

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13  

This one was a FB message JB recorded whilst floating down the Thames (do they have to say "in London"?)

Also, the team is working on the videos for the first two O2 shows -- most of what we're finding are brief clips.  Still, we'll get those linked up so you can see SOMETHING, but are holding out for full videos of the songs.


~ Hath

David: Unplugged

The embed shows an "error" but click the play icon -- it should work (dumb work computer).



You can go here to see the video as well.

Very cool, David playing/singing Memphis Lives in Me. A Tony's promo. Thanks, LeeAnn, for the post!!

~ Hath

Washington Post Highlight Reel

From the roof-top show yesterday.

~ Hath

David's having FUN in London

Flying around the globe, performing in front of thousands every night, releasing their 11th studio album - how do Bon Jovi find the energy to do it?

Easy, it's fun.

That's the secret according to David Bryan, one of the founding members, who took time out from the band's world tour to chat with us [Docklands24].

David has been playing keyboard with the band since they formed in 1983 and he says still gets a thrill from performing with them.

David said: "I still just can't wait to get in front of the crowd and start performing.

"It's the fun that keeps us going. Fun with a capital F."

Their return to the O2 is one of the highlights of The Circle globe tour. The band opened the arena and now they're keen to return.

David, 48, said: "We've been touring the planet for months now and it will be great to come back to London - it's special for us. It always has a great crowd, great fans and it's a great place to play - we opened the O2 up!"

In between world tours and releasing their 11th studio album, David somehow finds time to write musicals. He has penned music and lyrics for the rock musical The Toxic Avenger and Memphis which has scored eight Tony nominations, with David in the running for two awards - Best Musical and Best Score.

And during the O2 residency David is flying back to New York for the awards ceremony.

He said: "I haven't been off for about three years! It's basically two shows and then a day off and I'll be flying back for the awards and hopefully come back with one of those little awards."

Despite his solo success though, David says his heart will always be with Bon Jovi.

He said: "Bon Jovi has always been the mothership. I've been playing with Jon Bon Jovi since I was 16, that's 32 years and I'm still having fun. I think I've got another 50 years and then maybe I'll stop, maybe when I'm 100."

source

Dave, I hope you come back with ALL of the little trophies for which you're nominated.  Do you have to go through customs like everyone else?  Watch out they don't set off the detectors.  Nothing a strip search to bring your spirits down :)

Travel safe, and keep having fun! And I promise, if you're still doing this when you're 100, I'll be there at a mere, spry, 90.

~ Hath

Richie talks about the Rooftop Show

The ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ rockers – who kicked off their 12-date residency at London’s 02 Arena on Monday night – said when they first started out they were willing to "do anything". Guitarist Richie Sambora told BANG Showbiz: “We used to joke around when we were a young band before we actually started headlining that we would even play in toilets. We would play anywhere and do anything.” The band’s willingness was on show yesterday when they became the first group ever to play on the 02 Arena's roof. Richie explained: “We like to do stuff that has an impact because people remember those things as big events. A part of rocklore, a part of history, a part of rock culture."

source

Wonder how much a toilet ticket would cost....

~ Hath

Panic

Yeah, I know, not Bon Jovi-related.

I needed to have an MRI last night to help diagnose what's causing my headaches and "brain itch" that I've been experiencing the last eight months. I had a whole series of blood work done, and have an EEG scheduled for later this month, but last night was the MRI. If you don't know, I'm claustrophobic. The scene in Online, where Jen has an MRI done on her knee, and all the feelings that went along with it actually were mine own.

For this test, I didn't have anyone with me last night to drive me home, so I had to do the test "clean and sober".

Never again.

The first thing you notice is the machine. The frigid temperature of the room doesn't register for a solid minute. It's the machine that commands your attention. It looks innocuous enough; white and beige with softly glowing buttons on one side. As you get closer, you see the machine is more like a "sandwich" than the standard "donut"; the room's ambient light does come in through the back and sides.

That doesn't really matter though. Not to you.

The tech helps you get up onto the table, because you're shaking so hard, you're not sure you can do it yourself. He tells you to get comfortable on the narrow sliding platform, which is next to impossible, but you try. The molded plastic headrest is akin to what a coroner would use to prop up the head of a corpse, and as your head touches it, that's when the panic begins to bloom.

The tech places a rubber wedge pillow under your knees, trying to make you more comfortable. He hands you a panic button, explaining that he'll stop the test if you press it. What he doesn't say is that it will take longer to get the testing done if you do that, but hey, it's up to you. All you know is that you want it to be over as soon as possible. You swear to yourself that you won't press the button. No matter how tempting, no matter how scared you get, you'll see it through. Still, you clench the device in your hands, and hold it close on your chest. You're holding it so tightly that when the tech finally takes it away, your hands will take a few minutes to un-cramp, but for now, it's what you need to do.

You get headphones, piping in a local radio station, to try to keep your mind off what is about to happen. By now, the cold has permeated most of your body, and the shivering is involuntary. The tech notices, and covers you with a sterile, white blanket. The blanket covers you to your waist, and when he takes the time to tuck it around and under your bare feet, your heart swells with gratitude.

Then he slides the cage over your face, and all gratitude evaporates.

The cage is to give the machine something to focus its sites on while it spins around your head.

To you, it looks like an ancient torture device; something straight out of the Count of Monte Christo. As the tech slides rubber wedges between your head and the cage to ensure you don't move, the panic that was blooming now rushes closer to the surface.

When he leaves the room, and the table starts to slide, it explodes.

Your thumb shakes with the exertion is takes to keep it from pressing that button. In fact, you move it slightly away from the button, just so you don't press it by accident. You know, rationally, that you need to have the testing. You need to know if there is something physiologically wrong or if it is just "in your head". And once you've slammed your eyes shut, you're okay for the first few seconds of the slow ride into the belly of the machine.

Feeling a moment of braveness, you open your eyes, wanting to see if the "open" sides help the scared feeling go away. It doesn't. The fact that the sides are open doesn't help you -- you can't turn your head to see anything, and when you opened your eyes, all you saw was the cage and the top half of the machine-sandwich.

Best to shut them tightly. Very tightly.

God help you, you're still sliding. The further you slide, the tighter the neck on your oversized t-shirt feels. The further you slide, the less air there is in the room. You KNOW it's all in your head, that the room isn't really filling with earth, that you aren't really being buried alive, but you can't talk yourself out of the feeling, and now you can smell the rich, thick, cloying scent of soil all around you.

A tear escapes from the corner of your right eye, and snakes down to your ear. You can't dash it away because the slightest motion of your fingers could dislodge the panic button. And besides you've now completed your slide, in the machine up to your waist, and the top of the machine-sandwich is now a micron away from your clenched fingers. You couldn't move them if you wanted to, and you certainly don't want to feel the cold hard plastic of the machine.

Not again.

A voice in your earphones tells you "One minute for this first test".

As the machine whirs and clanks and beats all around you, you try to hold perfectly still. You know any blurred images will mean re-scanning, and if that happens, surely you will suffocate to death. Still, there is a pounding in your head that is matched perfectly to the noise of the machine, and you count each throb.

143 throbs later, the machine goes eerily quiet. That wasn't so bad, you think. Then the voice in your head comes again. "OK, you're doing great. Next series is two minutes".

You've just discovered that 143 throbs is the absolute maximum you can stand. You squeeze your eyes shut even tighter, until circles and swirls start to dance. Tears are streaming freely now, though you do not make a sound. Your t-shirt has now shrunk to toddler size, and even your arms are starting to tingle. You don't realize it's because your whole body is tense. You know for sure it's because the machine is slowly crushing you to death.

"Next series, two and a half minutes."

"Next series, one and a half minutes."

"Next series, two minutes."

"Next series, two and a half minutes."

"This is the next to last one; one minute. This is the really loud one though."

One minute. You know you can do one minute. You try to take a deep breath, but the amazingly loud whooping noise of the machine-sandwich startles you, and you forget to breathe. Still, it's only one minute. 143 throbs. You can do that. You can survive this. It's almost over, and the earth hasn't covered your face yet. There's still time.

"Last series, four minutes. Hang in there."

Four minutes. That's enough time for an elite runner to go one mile. That's how long it takes for your popcorn machine to turn out perfectly happy popcorn. That's a standard commercial break during your favorite prime-time television show.

That's also enough time to suffocate.

You can feel the weight on your legs, as the earth closes in. The dirt covers your pelvis, and is momentarily distracted by the machine. It finds a way to fill that micron of space between the hard plastic and your tense body, and the gritty feel of it is on your arms, in your hands. You're fully crying now, as the crumbles of decayed plant and animal matter tickle your throat. The level is rising now -- up almost to your ears. A few moments more and it will totally encompass you, and start the long, laborious process of making you one with it.

Your thumb flexes just a millimeter closer to the stop button.

Then the noise stops.

The machine is done.

The voice in your head tells you you've done great. You hear it tell you that the tech will be in to take you out of the earth -- though he said "out of the machine". You feel a hand on your ankle, squeezing it for reassurance for just a moment. How did he get his hand through the dirt? With a slight jerk, the machine starts expelling you from its grasp. Though your eyes are closed, you can sense the room getting brighter, so you know you're not really buried anymore, but you're still petrified of the cage.

You feel the tech touch your hands, wanting to take the panic button away from you. He has to gently peel your fingers away from it, and pulls the blanket up over them to try to warm them a little.

The rubber stoppers come out from against your head, and finally, FINALLY, the cage is slid away. You want to bolt from the table, from the room, but you can't move. Your body is so tightly coiled that it can't do anything but lie there. The tech takes your hand and tucks your arm under his, pressing your hand against the back of his shoulder.

"Here we go," he says, and helps you sit up. For a moment, the room is spinning, and you look around you to make sure that there are no more crumbles of earth on you. You see the pristine blanket, the clean room, and realize that you are not being pulled from a box in the ground.

The few tears that slide down your cheeks now are of relief.

Wordlessly, the tech hands you a Kleenex, and helps you out of the room, back to the locker room, where you've stowed all your gear. You rush to grab your things, needing to be outside in the air -- needing to see the endless expanse of sky. A few minutes later, you're out the door, just standing there, looking up in to the vast blue-turning-gray sky. Your t-shirt has expanded back to normal size, and you can finally breathe again.

Another ten minutes later, you're able to drive home, though remembering the fright, the panic, will make you cry the whole way.

Once you’re home, in the company of your family, you take comfort in their hugs, in their reassurances that you are in fact alright, and nothing can hurt you now.

For now they're right.

You're home, and you're safe.

FOUR new songs on the Greatest Hits

From this article on Billboard:

"To actually remain contemporary after all these years is cool, man," says a buoyant Sambora. "Let's face it, there's not that many bands doing it anymore," he goes on to say before revealing that retirement for the veteran rock band is still a long way off yet.

"Absolutely man," he enthusiastically tells Billboard.biz. "This ain't stopping. We're having too much fun. We're going to come and do a proper stadium tour of the European continent next summer and we're going to release a greatest hits around fall with some new tracks on it."

He continues, "About three weeks ago Jon calls me up and says, 'let's write a couple more songs just for fun.' So we wrote a couple of songs and they turned out real good... so there's now four new songs on the greatest hits. We haven't released a greatest hits since 1995 so that will give us product through to the summer of 2011."

FOUR songs! Maybe if they do a few more we'll get another all-new-material album :)

~ Hath

O2: Night One Photos

These and more, including the set list and videos (as they come in) are up on the BJCT blog.

~ Hath

Bon Jovi Open BME Exhibition

Richie Sambora, David Bryan, Jon Bon Jovi and Tico Torres of Bon Jovi attended a photocall on June 7, 2010 to open an exhibition celebrating 25 years of Bon Jovi in London, England.





Jon has his fake smile on, and poor Tico looks exhausted! I hope they can find some time to relax and regroup during the O2 residency.

~ Hath

Rooftop Video

More Rooftop Pics

Thanks, Q, for pulling these down from Wire Image :)

~ Hath

Up On The Roof...

Here's the set information (from Docklands24):

AMERICAN rockers Bon Jovi launched their O2 residency today with the first ever concert on the famous dome.

Ahead of their 12-date stay at the North Greenwich arena, they played a special gig this afternoon 58 metres above the ground.

Helped up there by trained mountaineers, the New Jersey boys blasted out tracks We Weren't Born To Follow and Superman Tonight from latest smash hit album The Circle, then all time classics It's My Life and You Give Love A Bad Name.

The boys play their opening O2 gig tonight, having been the first ever band to play there back in June 2007.

There are a few pictures up (courtesy of Zimbio)...

      

And this is probably what it looked like from the parking lot (suppose these are the $750 seats?)

      

~ Hath

O2 Opening Acts

Bon Jovi has announced the five bands that have won a place up there on the big stage as their opening act.

Bon Jovi opened the competition two weeks ago and since then thousands of hopeful bands entered for this opportunity of a lifetime.

A blue ribbon panel from Bon Jovi management, goNORTH, Kerrang Radio, Wave FM and AEG Live picked the ultimate winners:


June 7 - Young Guns: A fast rising High Wycombe based quintet, combining big riffs and solid rhythms with melodic hook laden vocals.

June 8 – The Side: A four piece from the highlands of Scotland, the band have steadily built up a following and been tipped by industry insiders as one’s to watch. They describe themselves as “Ben Folds Five via The Stone Roses - a Janglesome, Tanglesome pop gem”

June 10 – Last Republic: The latest band to emerge from South Wales UK with hearts pinned firmly to sleeve, The Last Republic are making a name for themselves as purveyors of soaring epic anthems.

June 11 – Velvet Hearts: The ballsy rock edged sound of The Hearts certainly pays homage to rootsy rock'n'roll, but they are more than just a blues-rock band, their songs are stooped in emotion and offer the listener something more than your token ‘rock band’.

June 13 – New Device: New Device are a hard rock band from South East England, UK. Influenced by the stadium rock giants of the late 80's and early 90's such as Guns N' Roses and Aerosmith, New Device manage to achieve a sound where so many others fail; authentic, solid, blues based hard rock, written by real rock fans.

Bon Jovi has also announced special guests for a selection of O2 concerts:
One Republic on 17th, 19th and 20th June
Kid Rock on 22nd, 23rd, 25th and 26th June.

~ Hath

source

Rooftop Show ~ Streamed Live

OK, I promise, after this, I'll go work on my reports.

SkyNews has said they will be streaming the rooftop show. Click the link, then click on "Watch Sky News TV Live". There's a disclaimer that says the full version is only available in the UK and Ireland. Not quite sure what that means, but I'm going to try to tune in any way :)

Hopefully someone out there in UK/Ireland land can record/share this with the rest of us!!

~ Hath

Preparations...

OK, so they're getting ready for the rooftop show (thanks Catte for sending me this ~ she knows I can't get to Facebook from work).

This makes me wonder stuff ~ mostly because I'm weird.

Frist.  To me, this looks like Richie's mic.  The stand is black, it's angled the "right way"... but I don't know.  Does the rooftop "show" count as a one-off where they use the house equipment?  'Cause then this could be Jon's mic.

Second, how windy must it be up there?  I saw a YouTube of someone else performing from the rooftop, and his clothes were blowing all over the place.

Finally, who has the job of cleaning the bird poop off the roof before the set?  Can you imagine that duty delegation at the morning scrum?

Crew Chief: "Ok, Smitty, you have the shit duty today."

Smitty, sighs, resigned to his fate: "Yeah, chief, ok.  What is it?"

Crew Chief, smirking like a certain HRH: "Literally, the shit duty.  Get up on the roof and start scraping."

Smitty, muttering to himself: "I love my job, I love my job, I love my job..."

Yeah, ok, so I apparently have a little too much time on my hands.  Not my fault my 9am meeting got canceled... I should be using this time to write up my reports from some disaster drills we ran last week, but I just don't wanna.

BUT, as I keep telling Hathlet, sometimes you have to do things you don't wanna do, so I guess I'd better hop to it.

We'll be keeping our collective eye out for videos for the BJCT on this; check that blog in a couple days to see what we've come up with :)

~ Hath