From Horsens to Bristol

Rike is guest blogging again today; this time about her recent concert experiences from, well, Horsens to Bristol :)

Thanks Rike!

~ Hath

From Horsens to Bristol - on the Road with friends

Actually I wanted to write a review for each show. But since I didn't had the time I decided to write a review of our road trip in general. Not only the shows, but all the fun we had together

So let me begin.

After I came back from a week at my son's (incl. the trip to Munich); I only had one day to do laundry and packing for the next trip.

On Friday, June 17th I took the train to Horsens, Denmark. There is a great connection, so I only had to change the train in Berlin. Then I could stay in the train for the next 6 hours. I was killing the time with reading, tweeting and sleeping. I arrived at 5:30pm and took a cab to the camp ground where we want to stay the next 3 days. In the meantime I got the information that my tour buddies had some trouble with the car. The brakes were broken. Luckily Sandy's boss is a nice guy and they could take the company car for the weekend.

Since the girls were some hours behind our timetable I enjoyed the sunny and warm evening on the Horsens Fjord. I was sitting on a bench and had a delicious ice crème cone.

When the girls finally arrived we putted up our tents and then we had a nice BBQ. It was around midsummer, so the daylight was still there at 11pm, but you could also see the almost full moon.

Next morning the sound of raindrops on the tent waked us up. Fine! Why is it always bad weather when the guys are coming to Europe?

Fortunately there was a warm and dry TV/Breakfast room, so we spent the entire morning there. I had my laptop with me, so we checked the setlist and news from the Helsinki show - what a shock!! Jon injured his knee, what will happen with the upcoming shows????

At 3pm, it was still raining, we went to the stadium to have a look how much fans would be there already. There were 23; a few of them camped out since Friday. From Munich we knew that the DC isn't that big, so no reason to camp out, too.

So we went to a mall and bought some food and something to drink and went back to the camp ground. And there, the sun came out. So we could sit outside and grill our sausages. Later we had a walk on the beach and enjoyed the sunset.

The next morning saw us up pretty early. The sun was shining; you could hear the birds and watch pheasants and hares. Peaceful.

We putted our food, a thermos bottle with hot water and what we also needed for the show day, in the car and headed to the stadium. We got our numbers, (45-49) and also a good parking space. We took our stuff and sat down on the lawn to have breakfast.

About midday we got our tickets and wristbands and we could enter the area in front of the stadium. There was something like a pre-show party, you could buy food and drinks and on a small stage played some local bands. We were sitting and saving our strength for later. At 4:30 we had to line up and then we were waiting in the sun almost one hour before they let us into the stadium.

While I had in Munich Golden Circle tickets with a great view to the stage, Horsens was the 1st show in the Diamond Circle. And I have to say that stage is damned high. I'm not a tiny person, but I could barely see David keyboards or Ticos drum kit from the front row. So we decided to stay at the side, direct on the circle ramp. It would have be a perfect place when Jon would go to the circle. But with his injured knee we didn't even know what kind of show we could expect. When the 2nd support act was onstage, the sky opened suddenly the flood gates and within seconds the guys there were drenched. Luckily we had our raincoats ready on hand. 15 minutes later the rain was over and the crew started preparing the stage. The white mic came out, and a stool and there were two handrails on the stairs to the stage - ohhh.

Then the intro was played and our boys were onstage, expect for Jon. But then he came - leaned on a cane, a brace around his leg and a big grin on his face. The setlist is well known, but the best moment for me was when Richie sang a solo song for the first time since his come back. He was on fire this night; I think he liked his role as support for Jon. The setlist was shorter than usual, but especially at the last half hour of the show you could see that Jon was in pain. Another highlight was playing "10th Avenue freeze out" in Honor of Clarence Clemons, who died a day before. The Danish audience was absolutely great, but why had they go so often to buy more beer? It was a constantly come and go and pretty annoying.

After the show we could luckily leave our parking space pretty fast, and we had a very late dinner at our campsite.

The next morning saw us up pretty early. Beate had to catch a train home at 8am and we had to take down the tents and to pack our stuff. It didn't take that long, so we could leave around 9am. The 1st Monday traffic was over already, so we could drive without obstructions. Until we reached Hamburg. Between Hamburg and Bremen the traffic was horrible. Parts of the expressway were under construction, so only one lane was available. And then we heard on the radio station that there were some accidents, so there would be a huge traffic jam ahead of us. We took the next exit, but we weren't alone with this idea. So we needed more time for the short distance from Hamburg to Bremen than from Horsens to Hamburg. Finally around 3pm we arrived, Steffi picked up her car from the garage and then we unloaded all our stuff from Sandy’s company car, went to a car wash and brought it back to her boss.

Back at Sandy's we re-packed for the next week, saved our photos on an extern HD and after dinner and a bottle of beer we went to bed a bit earlier than usual.

On Tuesday morning at 4:30 we were on our way to the airport in Dusseldorf. Why we flew from there had to do with our originally tour schedule.

It was raining the whole way, our flight was in time and we arrived in Edinburgh around noon and were greeted with - rain!!

We picked up our rental car and a little while later we arrived at a very nice bed&breakfast hotel. A bus station in front of the door and much better, the stadium only 15 minutes walk away. There were already a few people who camped out. It may be fun when it is warm and sunny, but not in the cold Scottish rain.

We couldn't even do a bit sightseeing because of the rain. After a bit shopping we went to the Hardrock Cafe instead and enjoyed a yummy dinner and met some other BJ fans.

Back to our hotel Steffi went to bed since we got up at 3.30am and she had to drive to Dusseldorf. Sandy and I went to the airport by bus to pick up our lovely friend from NYC - Bigapplejen. She was happy to see us after her long flight. Back at the hotel we chit-chat a bit, but then exhaustion kicked in and we fell asleep.

Wednesday - showday! And it wasn't raining anymore - should we get lucky? But first coffee was more important. They served a very good english/scottish breakfast and finally our 5th tour-buddy arrived - Iris. She will only stay with us for the Edinburgh and Hydepark show. It was after 10am when we went to the stadium. To our surprise there weren't that much people. We got number 32-35. Whoow. And the sun came out. I had to wait for a Scottish guy, who bought my GC tix, which I bought first, before I could get DC. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't recognize him, but he sent me a txt message and said I should look for a man in a kilt and a BonJovi jersey. He would arrive in a black BMW. And few minutes later he was there, exactly looking how he described it. He was happy to get the tix; he was there with his 2 daughters. And we took a photo together, when would I get the opportunity again to hold a real Scottish man in a kilt in my arm *rofl*.

We went back to the hotel for a short time, to change clothes and something to eat. Back at the stadium the usually waiting began. I think it was close to 5pm when they let us go into the venue. Despite our low numbers, we refused to go front row. Instead we choose the spot on the circle, this time in the middle. There, were Jon usually would stay when he is doing the acoustic set. But we had only a slight hope that they would go on the circle.

This time the DC wasn't that full, so we had a great view to the stage and the screens. And we had so much fun with the fans close to us.

The 1st support act was a local band who won a contest, they were not that bad. Next band was Vintage Trouble, I like them. And it started to rain again. So we pulled on our raincoats again. But it was more drizzling, not really raining - thanks god.

He guys opened with Blood on Blood, in my opinion a better opener than Lost Highway. Then the usual songs, expect from "whole lot of leavin". And no solo song for Richie, I wonder why? Then in the acoustic set we got "Wild is the wind", I so love this song. And as the encore started I couldn't believe my ears - but the "Hey hey hey hey" you can't miss. "Something to believe in" is a great song for a stadium. And "These days" we got because of our screaming. Even the rainclouds went away for a while.

Leisurely we walked back to our hotel; we grabbed some food on our way there and enjoyed the fresh air. Back in our room we looked through our pics and I already posted some.

The next morning after another good breakfast we checked out of the hotel. Sandy and Steffi went to Manchester by car; Jen, Iris and me left the baggage at the hotel and we did a bit sightseeing, because our flight to London was later in the evening. We went to the Castle and had a real good coffee at the "Scottish Whisky Experience" and we shared a very smooth and tasty glass of Blair Athol whiskey. After taking some pictures of the castle and the historic city center we went back to the hotel, picked up our luggage and headed to the airport.

Our plane was a bit late and so we were at our hotel around 11pm. Jen felt sick and we were tired, so we fell in our beds immediately.

On Friday, after we ate a large breakfast, Jen left for visiting Wimbledon and Iris and me did a bit shopping. There are really great shops in London and since we both have grandkids, we bought a lot of kids clothes. We also bought some food and drinks for the next day, because we had to go to the Fanclub line at Hydepark pretty early.

The evening we spent in a nice pub with yummy dinner and some glasses of beer. We talked a lot and Sandy texted the setlist from Manchester, so we had truly a nice evening.

Back at the hotel we checked emails, saved pictures and went to bed around midnight.

Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30 am and I was worried because I didn't hear something from Sandy and Steffi for hours. The last message was that they got stuck at the parking lot after the show. So I sent a text message and they said they had to drive one more hour. I decided to pick up their room key at the night reception and then I went looking for a parking spot since it wasn't allowed to park on the street in front of our hotel. I found a place just around the corner and around 6:30 the girls finally arrived - exhausted and tired with Vicky (Totallysambora) in tow. They fell in bed immediately and I went back to my room to take a shower and to pack my concert stuff. We had breakfast and then I woke up the girls. We took a cab to the Fanclub meeting point, it was 10:30am already and our numbers were much above 300. So we didn't expect too much, but the entry was a bit chaotic. It wasn't the fault of the fanclub staff - the local security didn't really care about this all. And the ground was really muddy and slippery from the rain the night before, so we were relieved when we arrived in the pit without any accident. Jen ended 3rd or 4th row in the middle and we tried first a spot in the back of the pit, but decided then to stay front row on the left side. When you look at a picture of the Festival stage, we were near the left screen. It was noon and it was supposed to be a very long day. We sat down and relaxed a bit.

The concert started around 1pm with The Breakers. We knew them already from Munich and Denmark and most of the people in the pit didn't even stand up. The next bands were not really bad, but also not absolutely great. From time to time we went to the (absolutely clean) toilets or bought something to eat or drink or merchandise. The sun came out and it became pretty warm. It was maybe 6pm when Ray Davis came onstage and at this time the pit was pretty full and no one was sitting anymore. Precise 8pm Bon Jovi entered the stage. Since I knew there was a live broadcast at the radio I could concentrate to the show and doesn't have to tweet the setlist. The guys were in an absolutely great mood right from the begin. And you could feel and see the difference to the regular Bon Jovi shows with the Diamond Circle half full of VIP package holder. In London the pit were filled with 1800 fanclub members and a few people who got their tix from promoters and so. There was a palpable positive energy, it was amazing. And it was loud; sometimes you couldn't hear the band. Next to me was a little girl, maybe 8 or 9 years old; she was dancing and singing every song from the begin. Unbelievable!!! I think I don't need to rewrite the setlist here, you all know the songs already. London is in my all-time Top 5 shows. A highlight of the show was Hallelujah, Dry County and Hey God. I never get tired to hear those songs. Almost at the end of the show Jon pointed to a sign in the crowd and let the camera show it on the screens - "Fu*k the curfew" and he added "I love this town". It's not my favorite song, but it was a perfect song to end the show. With no voice, hurting backs and feet, but with a happy smile on our faces we went back to the hotel, ate a bite and fell in our beds. It was really a long day.

Sunday - Day off. Iris left early, because she had to go home. We slept a bit longer and after a shower and a late breakfast we took the tube and went to the Tower Bridge. It was the 1st visit in London for Jen, so we had to do a little sightseeing. It was a hot and sunny day, so we took it slow. We strolled a bit on the bank of Thames, then we got on a bus and looked at the city from there. Near Liverpool Street we stopped at a small pub for a little refreshment and went later to our favourite pub near Hydepark. There we sat around, had a delicious dinner and a couple glasses of beer and let the day come to an end.

Unfortunately we forgot that there was another show at Hydepark, so as we left the pub we stuck in a swarm of people who left the park. Some roads were closed so our regular bus was cancelled. It took a while and a little detour, but finally we reached our hotel.

As we planed to go to Bristol the next morning, it was supposed to be a short night. The clock was ringing at 3:30am, so we could leave London before the Monday morning rush hour would start.

All went well and we arrived at the Ashton Gate Stadium at 7:30am and we got pretty low numbers (around 25 for us 4). After we got our numbers, we went to the hotel and checked in. Back at the stadium we laid our blankets on the lawn and enjoyed the sun. Later some local radio and TV teams showed up and they took pictures, videos and interviews. It was funny. A bit later it started to rain, but not too long - thanks god. The ticket hand out was pretty late this time and we had to line up behind the entrance, but before the stadium. And we waited and waited and waited. After 5pm finally the local security let us go inside. Despite my low number I ended in the 2nd row right in front of Richies microphone. But it was my own fault, because I couldn't decide which spot I should choose. But it wasn't a tragedy; I'm tall and in front of me was Shari (Blackvelvet) and she is at least a head shorter than me. ;)

The setlist was shorter than in London, but with "Treat her right" and "It's hard letting you go" we got 2 other rarities. And I like "Happy now" as opener. And the crowd was amazing again, the "Richie fanbase" around me was incredible, we had so much fun.

For me it was the last show for the moment, so I felt a bit sad.

Back at our hotel we ordered pizza and packed our stuff. The next morning we had to go separate ways. I had to go home and Jen, Sandy Steffi and Beate went to Dublin. I so wanted to go with them, but I couldn't get more days off because the summer school holidays started in my part of Germany. But I had 11 great and funny days with my friends and 4 fantastic Bon Jovi shows and the prospect to another show almost 3 weeks later. But that will be written in another review.