Hammersmith Odeon 10/01/90

Did you see it in person? If so, you're the luckiest fan on this board! Please, give a first hand account!

Yes I was there, and I'm showing my age now!
It was awesome, I had seen the band the previous summer at Milton Keynes then again in the first week of Jan when they played 3 nights at Wembley arena, I went to two of those shows and was surprised when they suddenly announced a charity gig at the Hammersmith Odeon as it was called back then. I got my mum to get four tickets and was surprised she got them as they took a few days to completly sell out!

Anyway I mainly got them to see what kind of show they would put on in an average size theater without all the pyro and catwalks, I think at the time the Hammersmith held about 3,000, we were about ten rows back in the side stalls. I sat in the pub next door with my mate and we joked about them having special guest that would blow them off stage as the Milton Keynes gig had the famous Steven Tyler and Joe Perry Walk This Way appearance which was amazing. Little did we know what to expect would happen later that evening.

On the way in I noticed a huge BBC Radio 1 van parked in the alleyway next to the venue so I was expecting a live broadcast at some point in the future, the bar was buzzing and packed with lots of Jovi t shirts and girls trying to wear very little despite the fact it was below freezing outside!

An announcement said they would be on stage at I think 7.30 which was a good sign, early start must mean a long show. We found our seats and I noticed the pub stage they had was borrowed from The Quireboys who played there recently and had supported Aerosmith the previous month with the same set.

When Jon appeared from a behind a curtain the crowd went mad and kind of wondered what was happening when he started to sing Goin' Back,  a song most of us had never heard of. The section on the Access All Areas video sums it up nicely, he was nervous and we knew we were in for something special. I loved Jon's "We are in for a long night, I'm going to be playing everything you have ever heard for the next three hours!" What surprised me was that they then brought Richie out and sang Never Say Goodbye and a brilliant cover of Shooting Star then their two biggest hits, I couldn't work out what they were going to do for an encore now they had done Wanted and Prayer! Next a very raw Love For Sale which was awesome followed by the curtains being pulled back to reveal the rest of the band.

The first few songs had cameramen with massive 80's video cameras on their shoulders which must have been for the Access video. I don't remember them being there for the whole show which is a shame because I would love to see a video of the full show in a deluxe edition at some point.

The crowd were loving it, me being so young at the time wanted to hear more Jovi songs so the covers was throwing me a bit (now I love them) the crowd went nuts when Jon said they were going to try out a new song Cadillac Man I liked it and it really did feel like a special moment hearing a new song. I was convinced I would own a studio version of it by the summer!

Three more Jovi songs followed I'd Die For You, Wild in the Streets and Blood on Blood then a beer break. 

Everyone was buzzing in the bar and its true there were people that you wouldn't usually see at a Jovi gig, upstairs seemed to have a few older charity members of the Nordoff Robbins Trust who the evening was raising money for.

The curtain was pulled back and the band launched straight into The Boys are Back in Town, if you listen to the bootleg you can hear Jon's "Alright" at the beginning, I love that as I can remember the excitement he had as he was jumping all over the front of the stage.

Bad Medicine and an awesome You Keep Me Hangin' On followed I remember that one got some big cheers at the end. Silent Night was next and then my favourite Jovi cover Travellin' Band was next, I wish they still played that old Fogerty song these days.

Next up was Fever (more big cheers) and then Jon introduced a London horn section that had joined them at Wembley Arena the week before, they started playing a brilliant version of Social Disease. The horn section left and I think Jon left the stage for a minute or so, there was a good tension in the air that something special was going to happen and it did! Thats when the "this man and this band" quote happened and out comes Jimmy Page, my mate from the pub almost fainted, he was and still is a massive Led Zep fan. You could almost feel the music critics in the audience writing about it and trying to slag it off but you coudn't it was such a fun moment seeing Jimmy with the band jamming and loving it. After that Jimmy left the stage to massive roars of the crowd why Jon started to wrap it up with Good Golly Miss Molly then as a double whammy they brought Jimmy out again for the last track With A Little Help From My Friends, crowd go nuts again! Then they took their bows and left.

Everyone went home with big smiles on their face and knew they had seen something special, I have seen the band many times since including Astoria in 92 and Shepherds Bush in 02 but none was as good as that night in Hammersmith Odeon.

I checked the BBC Radio listings every week for months afterwards but don't think the live broadcast ever happened, a couple of years later I picked up the whole show on a crappy audio tape, then more recently a download from a bootleg site. I would love a proper soundboard official release but would imagine it would be a joint venture with the BBC if it did happen and maybe thats why it hasn't happened. I was hoping that the Goin' Back track on the Miracle cd single was the start of a series of B-sides from the show but it was just that one track.

I still have the ticket stub from the show which I will scan in another night. Think it was £12! 

Sorry its a long post but that is about all I can remember and its quite a lot!

P.S. It was just one show, I have seen posts elsewhere saying they did multiple nights but it was just one show then they flew home.

Great write up... Thanks!!!

I'll provide the same one day with the '90 and '91 Red Bank shows.

I still think there is a full audio of this show somewhere in the Bon Jovi vault.... There is enough evidence out there to prove that.

That would be great to see. Im hoping for a box set of this show one day a bit like Bryan Adams did with Breathless last year. They must know we all want this show.

In the mid 90's a friend of mine was working at the BBC cataloging their live shows and he looked it up in their database and it was in the archives. Not that he had access to the actual tapes, shame! Im sure the band have that recording or another one from the soundboard, I remember Jon saying around that time that they were taping a lot of shows for a future live album which never happened.

Not many photos have surfaced from the show either, I used to have a great shot that Kerrang had the following week, full page of the band jamming with Jimmy Page.

And here is the ticket, bit faded now and it was £17.50!