Three Concerts in Five Days

Last week, we finally got to experience the girls’ Christmas presents! As we’re trying to move away from excessive ‘stuff’, we decided to get the girls experiences for Christmas instead – in this case, the girls’ first concerts. We had intended to see P!nk on Thursday in Cardiff, and Bon Jovi on the Sunday in Coventry. Unfortunately, DD1’s singing school changed the date of their show, from the week after to that Sunday! Initially we asked DD1 to decide whether she would prefer to do her show, or see the Bon Jovi concert, but after some thinking, we came up with a different solution – seeing Bon Jovi on a different date.

So, on Wednesday, we travelled up to Liverpool to see Bon Jovi at Anfield. It was the first time my husband and I had seen Bon Jovi for 11 years, and the first concerts our girls had ever been to. They loved it. DD2 was slightly tired, but DD1 was in her element. The Manic Street Preachers were the warm-up band (we’d seen them in concert in their own right, previously) and played all the classics. Bon Jovi was as good as ever, and DD1 loved it, up on her feet and dancing the whole night. JBJ himself was great, and even played the guitar a few times. Tico Torres was looking old, but he is late 60s tbf, and his drum playing was still phenomenal. Dave Bryan looked the same as always, but you only ever see his mop of hair anyway, lol. They had 2 other guitarists, one who reminded me of Robert Downee Junior, and the other had long black hair and was absolutely brilliant on the guitar. The concert was great, with a mix of old and new songs as they played at least one song from each album; from Runaway right up to This House Is Not For Sale. The only really famous songs they didn’t play were Always and Blaze of Glory, but they did complete a 30min encore after a 2hr set.

After staying in a hotel overnight, we drove the next day down to Cardiff to see Pink. While, arguably (and obviously) the Bon Jovi concert was mainly for me, both myself and my girls love Pink. Yes she swears a bit, but her music is great and the message she gives out is fantastic. And her lyrics have caused us to have some interesting conversations about slang, and various cultural sexual references that the girls will need to know about as they get older. I’m a big believer that you should be honest with your children, so though I will explain things in an age-appropriate way I will be honest with them if they want to know what a specific word or phrase means. Pink’s concert was great. Again, she did all her big songs – she didn’t sing my favourites, but I’m not surprised as they are the slower/more depressing songs (my favourites are Family Portrait and Misery). And her concert was A. MAZ. ING! All the concerts I’ve been to have been rock concerts, with a band playing their songs. Pink is a true performer, she entered the stage hanging from a chandelier, and did a helluva lot of acrobatics from trapeze, ribbons and ropes, not to mention her finale when she is flying over the crowd. With hindsight, I am really glad my girls saw Bon Jovi first, as I think had they seen Pink first, they would have wrongly thought that all concerts were like that.

As I was missing DD1’s show, on Saturday, I volunteered to chaperone the tech rehearsal, and I was really glad I did because I got to see most of it. It was Seussical Junior, and was really good. Obviously, my daughter was brilliant – she was a Wickersham Brother – but actually, that singing school has a lot of fantastic singers and performers, and the reports I had heard about the shows on the Sunday say what a success it was.

On Sunday, I went to see Bon Jovi again. I was worried about selling the tickets and getting my money back, but I managed to sell 2 tickets to some family members, the third to a friend who we always see Bon Jovi tribute bands together, and I took the 4^th ticket. Again, we stayed in a hotel overnight, so we were reliant on taxis getting to and from the stadium. This wasn’t the first time I had been to two Bon Jovi concerts in the same tour – the last time was in 2001 and they played a different set in each place. This time was no different. Though my seats were better this time (we were opposite the stage, rather than just having a side-view), Bon Jovi did a shorter encore so they played more songs at the first one.  I did have a funny experience - the queues were really long, so my friend and I went to the stall with the shortest queues: cocktails! So I had two blue pina coladas (pina coladas with blue curacao added), as you do.  When walking back to my seat, I overheard a little girl exclaim to her mum: "I told you they do slushies!" before the mum tried to explain that the drinks weren't suitable for children.

Three concerts in five days was great fun, but very tiring. I’m not as young as I used to be!