The famous Anfield roar has a new melody. “WHOAHH! We’re halfway there. WHOAAHH! Livin’ on a prayer!” bellow a stadium full of voices, emitting an eardrum-tickling racket at least as loud as when Liverpool FC recently became Champions League winners. Singer Jon Bon Jovi hasn’t been Livin’ on a Prayer himself for a very long time – the band’s tours gross upwards of $100m – but the 1986 smash is typical of the way the rockers turned blue collar sentiments into wedding disco ubiquities. Thirty-five years since Bon Jovi blazed out of New Jersey, they continue to inspire tribute bands such as the marvellously named By Jovi and have joined the small elite – U2 and the Rolling Stones among them – who tour stadiums, not arenas.
Indeed, there is a bit of Sir Mick Jagger about the way the band’s 57-year-old frontman bounds on – all designer rocker clobber, glistening dental work and Theresa May thatch – and immediately launches into aerobic moves and camera-friendly air punches.
JBJ sings Raise Your Hands and everyone does: an entire football pitch and three stands’ worth. Playing in Liverpool for the first time in 29 years, the singer purrs about the “sacred ground of Anfield” and there’s another mighty roar, albeit peppered with comedy boos from Evertonians and non-believers.
Visually, it’s an impressive spectacle; musically, less so. JBJ’s gravel tones are not quite what they were. He spends much of the gig rooted at the microphone stand, concentrating to hit notes he once did with one arm around (now departed) guitarist and fellow poodle hair criminal Richie Sambora. At times, the sound is truly dreadful, which isn’t a problem when You Give Love a Bad Name is bellowed by the crowd, but the lesser known Born to Be My Baby and Have a Nice Day are lost in Anfield’s natural bass and echo.
Like the Stones, though, Bon Jovi understand that while audiences will tolerate new material, they’re really here for those copper-bottomed smashes, so the setlist is packed with holler-friendly choices from benchmark 80s albums Slippery When Wet and New Jersey. JBJ may joke about their hair-metal period (“When I had hair down here and tighter jeans”) although big chorused debut single Runaway – about an unloved girl who falls into prostitution – suggests that Bon Jovi were always more pop-rock than metal.
As darkness descends, the sound improves and JBJ draws on years of experience and a formidable force of will to gradually provide the expected stadium rock experience. When I’ll Be There for You swaggers like vintage Faces, the singer seizes on the moment, conducting a vast crowd a capella chorus that just keeps going.
Listening to a 57-year-old man sing “I’m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride” (presumably not the No 6 bus from Bootle) involves a certain suspension of disbelief, but pop always offered an escape from reality. There’s no Always or Blaze of Glory, but Bad Medicine is still stupidly anthemic and Lay Your Hands on Me seems to attempt the world record number of “Whoah whoah”s. A Beatles medley – Birthday and Twist and Shout – provides the kind of surprise, ragged, loose-limbed fun you don’t often get in stadium gigs and that cathartic eruption for Livin’ on a Prayer ensures that even some distance from their heyday, Bon Jovi will never walk alone.
• At Wembley Stadium, London, 21 June. Ricoh Arena, Coventry, 23 June. Details bonjovi.com
