Thursday, February 27, 2014

Richie Sambora Sydney set list 26/2/14 + Purple Rain & Don't Change videos

Richie Sambora's headlining solo gig in Sydney last night brought some nice surprises. INXS drummer Jon Farriss joined him and the band on stage for "Don't Change", Orianthi sang "You Don't Wanna Know" from her latest album Heaven In This Hell, and the show finished with a huge cover of "Purple Rain".

Were you at the show?

Sydney, NSW, Australia - Enmore Theatre - February 26, 2014
  1. Burn That Candle Down
  2. Every Road Leads Home to You
  3. Taking a Chance on the Wind
  4. Bridge Over Troubled Water [Simon & Garfunkel cover] / I'll Be There For You
  5. You Don't Wanna Know - Orianthi vox
  6. Wanted Dead or Alive
  7. Voodoo Child [Jimi Hendrix Experience cover]
  8. Stranger In This Town
  9. Lay Your Hands On Me
  10. Seven Years Gone
  11. Livin' on a Prayer

  12. encore:
  13. Don't Change [INXS cover] - ft Jon Farriss
  14. It's My Life
  15. These Days
  16. Purple Rain [Prince cover]

Richie Sambora - INXS Jon Farriss - Orianthi - Don't Change (with a drum cameo from Today entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins before Jon enters the stage)


Richie Sambora and Orianthi - Purple Rain - Enmore Theatre Sydney 26-2-14


An evening with Jon Bon Jovi Las Vegas set list 25/2/14

Jon Bon Jovi played an acoustic "storytellers" gig as part of a Runaway Tours fan club trip to Las Vegas on February 25. I'm not sure if any videos will pop up as it was a private gig, but here's what was played:

Las Vegas, NV, USA - Hard Rock Cafe - February 25, 2014
  1. Every Word Was a Piece of My Heart
  2. Superman Tonight
  3. With These Two Hands
  4. It's My Life
  5. When We Were Beautiful
  6. Open All Night
  7. Can't Help Falling in Love [Elvis Presley cover]
  8. Amen
  9. Thick as Thieves
  10. (You Want To) Make a Memory
  11. The Fighter

Jon reportedly said during a Q&A that he had been, as we all suspected, the one who pushed for a new album and tour in 2013, but that all the guys committed to it before they went ahead. He also apparently said even if this was the end of the band, it's been a good 30 years, which is not to say it is the end. But it might be a much longer break this time.

Were you at the show?

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Music Feeds LIVE: Richie Sambora + Orianthi

After a delayed start, Richie Sambora and Orianthi, with Luke Ebbin on percussion, had a jam in the studio for Music Feeds Live today. You can watch the stream in full via YouTube.

Music Feeds LIVE: Richie Sambora + Orianthi


Here's what they played:
  • Norwegian Wood [The Beatles cover]
  • You Don't Wanna Know - Orianthi
  • Seven Years Gone

Richie Sambora adds Melbourne sidewave + interviews

A last-minute show has been added to Richie Sambora's Australian tour. He and his band, including Orianthi, will perform at The Espy in Melbourne this Thursday, February 27. All profits will be donated to the Starlight Children's Foundation. Tickets are on sale now from Oztix.

Richie's other previously-announced sidewave is tomorrow, February 26 at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney. Tickets are available from Ticketek.

Richie and Orianthi began this morning on TODAY, before crossing over to The Morning Show.

Richie Sambora Orianthi Interview Today Show Australia


TODAY: Richie Sambora performs 'Seven Years Gone'


Richie Sambora Interview on The Morning Show


They'll be streaming live from Music Feeds today at 5pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Richie Sambora Soundwave Sydney set list 23/2/14

Richie Sambora performed at Sydney Olympic Park for the Soundwave Festival. Here's what was played:

Sydney, NSW, Australia - Olympic Park - February 23, 2014
  1. Burn That Candle Down
  2. Nowadays
  3. Every Road Leads Home to You
  4. Don't Change [INXS cover]
  5. Wanted Dead or Alive
  6. Voodoo Child [Jimi Hendrix Experience cover]
  7. Livin' on a Prayer

Were you at Soundwave in Sydney?

Richie will play at Sydney's Enmore Theatre on February 26 before more Soundwave dates in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth to finish his Australian tour. Music Feeds will also be broadcasting a live set by Richie and Orianthi on February 25 at 5pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time.

Richie Sambora Soundwave Brisbane set list 22/2/14

Richie Sambora kicked off his first Soundwave Festival in Brisbane. Here's what was played:

Brisbane, QLD, Australia - RNA Showgrounds - February 22, 2014
  1. Burn that Candle Down
  2. Nowadays
  3. Lay Your Hands On Me
  4. Every Road Leads Home to You
  5. Learning How To Fly With A Broken Wing
  6. Wanted Dead or Alive
  7. Beds Are Burning [Midnight Oil cover] / Livin' on a Prayer

Were you at Soundwave in Brisbane?

Music Feeds will also be streaming a set from Richie and Orianthi on Tuesday, February 25.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Richie Sambora Brisbane set list 20/2/14

Richie Sambora kicked off his Australian tour at The Tivoli in Brisbane last night. Aussie guitarist Orianthi, who has played with Michael Jackson and Alice Cooper in addition to her own solo material, joined Richie's band and sang lead vocals on part of Livin' on a Prayer.

Were you at the show?

Brisbane, QLD, Australia - The Tivoli - February 20, 2014
  1. Burn that Candle Down
  2. Every Road Leads Home to You
  3. Taking a Chance on the Wind
  4. Bridge Over Troubled Water [Simon & Garfunkel cover] / I'll Be There For You
  5. Nowadays
  6. Don't Change [INXS cover]
  7. Who Says You Can't Go Home
  8. Sugar Daddy
  9. Weathering the Storm
  10. Learning How to Fly with a Broken Wing
  11. These Days
  12. Beds are Burning [Midnight Oil] / Livin' on a Prayer - Orianthi vox
  13. encore:
  14. The Answer
  15. Seven Years Gone
  16. Voodoo Child [Jimi Hendrix Experience cover]
  17. Wanted Dead or Alive
  18. Stranger in this Town

Richie's next intimate "sidewave" show is at Sydney's Enmore Theatre on Wednesday, February 26. Soundwave Festival begins this weekend:
  • Saturday, February 22 - Brisbane - RNA Showgrounds
  • Sunday, February 23 - Sydney - Olympic Park
  • Friday, March 1 - Melbourne - Flemington Racecourse
  • Saturday, March 2 - Adelaide - Bonython Park
  • Monday, March 4 - Perth - Arena Joondalup

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Richie Sambora Australian interview

Richie Sambora was interviewed by the Courier-Mail ahead of tonight's solo show at the Tivoli in Brisbane. He spoke about leaving the Bon Jovi tour and what fans can expect from his shows in Australia.

You can listen to the interview here:


If you're heading to the Tivoli tonight, you will also have the chance to enter a lottery to meet Richie Sambora after the show:

Hello, BRISBANE!! Psyched for tonight’s RICHIE SAMBORA show at THE TIVOLI? We know you are.
But how would you like to MEET RICHIE SAMBORA?
Here’s the deal in 8 easy steps…

1) Head over to The Tivoli. Doors open at 7:30pm.

2) Present your ticket.

3) Once you’re inside the venue, head over to the MERCHANDISE BOOTH where you’ll grab a LOTTERY TICKET (first come, first served.) And hey, grab a t-shirt or two while you’re at it!

4) Enjoy the show (remember — no opening act so you need to get there on time because it’s all Richie from about 8:15 onwards!)

5) After the show, RETURN TO THE MERCHANDISE BOOTH.
The WINNING LOTTERY NUMBERS WILL BE POSTED.

6) IF YOU’RE HOLDING A WINNING TICKET, REMAIN AT THE BOOTH.
The winners (4 in total, plus their guests) will be greeted by a representative from RICHIE SAMBORA’s TOUR STAFF.

7) WINNERS (and their guests) will be escorted by this TOUR STAFFER backstage.

8) WINNERS meet RICHIE SAMBORA! And hell yes! You can take a photo with him! (Tweet it, post it, share it…)

So, to recap the plan: get to The Tivoli early, head to the merch stand, grab a lottery ticket, enjoy a kickass rock ‘n’ roll show, then return to the merch booth after the show to see if you’re holding on of the winning lottery tickets to meet The King Of Swing!

Good Luck & Enjoy The Show!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Sambora set for Soundwave Festival

Richie Sambora's Australian tour kicks off this week in Brisbane. Meanwhile, the timetables for Soundwave 2014 have been released, with Richie playing at 1:15pm on Stage 1.

Richie has indicated that some Aussie covers could be in his set:
RICHIE Sambora is listening to a lot of Aussie music at the moment.

Before he plays the Soundwave festival in the mainland capitals and his own shows in Sydney and Brisbane, Sambora says he's been listening to INXS and Midnight Oil with a view to playing a few covers while he's here.

"I think it's great INXS have been recognised there with a [television] show," Sambora says.

"I was always a huge fan and I'm going through some of their songs to pick out something to play.

"I don't want to play anything too obvious though."

He has an idea for a Midnight Oil cover that he's keeping close to his chest before deciding to blend it in to a set list of tracks from his three solo albums and a string of hits he penned as part of Bon Jovi.
Read the full article here.

In an interview with Brisbane talkback radio station 4BC, Richie talked about teaching himself guitar at 13, playing with "one of the best guitar players on the planet" in Orianthi, getting to be a lead singer/front man at his solo shows, his unpopular "break" from Bon Jovi (he doesn't know if he'll go back or not).
You can listen to the interview here.

Richie also spoke to Hot FM Central Queensland about his daughter Ava, needing to be away from Bon Jovi, plastic surgery, how he'll never get sick of playing songs like Livin' on a Prayer in front of an audience, and his excitement about the upcoming Aussie tour.
Listen to the interview here.


Richie also joined Orianthi on stage at the Troubadour in West Hollywood on February 14 for a performance of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child".

Orianthi & Richie Sambora - Troubadour - 2-14-14 / Voodoo Child


Will you be at Soundwave or any of Richie's solo shows?

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

WORK: Bon Jovi photo book


Bon Jovi is releasing a new coffee table photo book entitled WORK, which is currently available for pre-order.

Here's what the Bon Jovi Facebook page had to say about it:
We are releasing an incredible Bon Jovi photo book titled WORK. The oversized, hardcover art book - weighing nearly five pounds - contains 208 pages of images by Bon Jovi’s official tour photographer David Bergman and shows the band members on stage, backstage, and inside their own homes. A special section features never-before-seen private photos taken by Jon Bon Jovi himself. Pre-order and reserve your copy today at http://BonJovi.com/Work

And what David Bergman himself said:
It’s finally here! I’m so excited to announce my new Bon Jovi coffee table book entitled WORK. It's the culmination of my ‘work’ on two world tours with the band and I’m so proud of it. #BonJoviWORK www.BonJovi.com/Work

The book is HUGE - it weighs nearly five pounds and is 14.4 inches tall and 21.6 inches wide when opened up. It contains 208 pages of big images from my time with the band so far - spanning back to 2010. There is a lot of never-before-seen material in there including photos from inside the hospital when Jon had knee surgery in 2011 (I never thought we would release those!). I also documented quiet moments with the band members backstage and at their homes along with energetic, powerful images on stages around the world.

** Since I’ve been teaching Jon about photography, there’s a very special section of private photos that he took himself!

You can pre-order the first copies of WORK right now at . In addition, we have a very limited number of my 2013 VIP photo books available that you can get along with your WORK pre-order. These have never been for sale and we’re not printing any more. They will sell out fast. Lastly, you can get a very special copy of WORK that will be signed and numbered by Jon Bon Jovi but there are only 350 of those so you’d better order quickly.

Huge thanks to my agent Warren Winter and our designer Greta Yvonne Harding for making the book happen.

I hope you enjoy the book and show it off on your coffee table for many years to come.

Will you be ordering a copy?

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Have a Nice Day and the evolution of Bon Jovi

This is a guest post by Shannon about the evolution (or devolution as some would argue) of Bon Jovi's music. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below!

I was cruising down the streets of my hometown this morning on the way to work, when the song “Novocaine” shuffled up on my iPod. I started singing along and tapping the steering wheel in time to the beat and realized that I had forgotten how much I liked the song. It’s not that I don’t listen to the Have a Nice Day record, but, well, maybe sometimes I don’t really listen to it.



Recently while driving I have been running through my favorite Jovi tunes in my head, trying to pick out which songs are my favorites from which records – I find it impossible to pick just ONE favorite out of the entire Bon Jovi catalogue, so I have to go album by album. Every time I get to Have a Nice Day, however, I can’t pick just one song. Or even two. That’s when I realize that I like the whole record. I mean, I really, really like it.

I like the rockin’ anthemic beat of “Have a Nice Day”. I like the message of “Welcome to Wherever You Are”. I sing along with “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”. And it’s possible I was dancing in my chair at work today while blasting “Story of my Life”, but there were no witnesses and you can’t prove anything! *grin* I truly enjoy every song. When it was first released, I remember thinking, “THIS is the Bon Jovi that I know and love!” I am, sadly it seems, in the minority.



Over the years I’ve seen many comments in cyberspace from folks about how Slippery When Wet is the greatest Bon Jovi record of all time and they wish the band would start making music like that again. I don’t disagree that it’s a great record, but the guys were in their 20s when they made that. If they were still writing songs declaring that love is a social disease, I think I’d worry about them. Artists have to grow and develop and change. I still feel that there is a through line in all the Jovi records that lets me know it’s still my favorite band, but each record also changes and I think that’s great.

Initially I planned to write this piece as a defense of the HAND record since I know there are quite mixed feelings about it, but the writing process of this guest blog post changed my mind. I don’t think this record – or any other – has to be or needs to be defended (ok, ok, maybe I need someone to defend This Left Feels Right to me because I pretty much hate that record). Music is so subjective. It’s based so totally on personal taste. Just because I like or dislike something doesn’t mean it is good or that it’s bad. It simply means that my taste and preferences lean in one direction while someone else’s may lean in another.

I don’t expect to ever change someone’s opinion of the band and their music and its evolution; I can only share mine.

I’m a Jovi lifer. I’ve been at the party since the summer of 1984 when one of my two favorite songs was “She Don’t Know Me” (which is a whole other discussion since that’s the only song they’ve put on a record that they didn’t write and I know they don’t have good feelings about it, but I still love it). I’ve always been in it for the long haul and I personally love how their records change.

Would I want them doing all the way country? Of course not! But I enjoyed Lost Highway as something different. (Yes, I freely admit to liking the Lost Highway record and have no shame in that admission.) I also love cranking up Bounce and some of the hard cranking guitar on that record. Slippery flashes me back to the summer of 1986 when I waited soooo impatiently for its release and couldn’t understand why everyone else in the world didn’t feel the same way. 7800 Fahrenheit makes me think of a conversation with my older brother when I bought it in the summer of 1985. He heard the cassette (you know, those things we had before CDs?) playing in my bedroom and came in and stared at me saying, “Do you know what you bought?” Uh… he was not enthused (and I stopped trying to convert him into a fan years ago). But I sure was!

Do I love very song the band has ever recorded? Of course not! If I never hear “Joey” again it will be too soon. There are others, by why dwell on the negative? Someone out there loves the songs I don’t and hates the songs I love.

Circling back around to Have a Nice Day… I am sitting here typing and listening to the record and keep dancing around in my chair, wanting to sing along, but since I’m writing this blog on my lunch hour at work, I have the feeling full on belting out of tunes is likely frowned upon in the workplace. I’ll keep listening and loving though. That’s how I am with this band. I listen to every song and every record and while I might not love it all, I try to appreciate it. I try to enjoy it and if something isn’t my favorite, well, I have plenty of other tunes to jam to.

In the end, I’m simply grateful that the band keeps releasing new records. What About Now isn’t my favorite (another discussion for another day) and I was sick over the situation with Richie (not a discussion I even want to have anymore), but I still found tunes to enjoy on the new record. And if they release things that don’t thrill me on every track, well, I can always go back to Have a Nice Day and crank it up and have a listen.

What do you think of Have a Nice Day or the band's more recent output? What's your favourite Bon Jovi album?

About the Blogger:
Shannon works in higher education in South Carolina and is currently studying conversational French in an attempt not to shame herself greatly when she one day runs away to live in Paris. She has been a Bon Jovi fan since the summer of 1984 when she first discovered the band via MTV and the video for "She Don't Know Me". She first saw the band live in October 1985 in Columbia, SC when they were opening for the band Ratt in support of the 7800° Fahrenheit record after begging her parents for tickets for her 14th birthday. She's seen the band live 7 times (2 times in Columbia, SC - 1985 and 1989; Atlanta, GA in 2003; Charlotte, NC in 2006, 2010 and 2013; and Greenville, SC in 2006) and still gets a little giddy that David Bryan saw her "Happy Birthday" sign in 2006. Another proud moment is that she attended all but the 2013 show with her father, who started going with his teenager daughter to shows to keep her safe, but eventually turned into a big fan who never wanted to miss a gig! Shannon blogs about this and that (though admittedly not a lot about Bon Jovi) at Blonde Ambition (www.bonjovigrrrl.blogspot.com) and you can follow her on Twitter (@bonjovigrrrl), though she makes no promises about the nonsense she might tweet!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Phil X interview at NAMM 2014

Frankie DiVita from radio station 96.7 KCAL Rocks interviewed Phil X at the NAMM Show this year. Phil talked about his signature Yamaha guitar, getting the call from Jon Bon Jovi, the response from Bon Jovi fans, his session work, and his band The Drills.

Frankie DiVita chats with guitarist Phil X at NAMM 2014

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Richie Sambora announces sidewaves in Sydney and Brisbane

Richie Sambora, who will be performing at the Soundwave in Australia has added two additional shows in Sydney and Brisbane:


Tickets go on sale this Thursday, February 6 at 9am AEDT.

Check out the event page on Facebook.

The Soundwave Festival dates are as follows (Tickets still available from the Soundwave website):
  • Saturday, 22nd February 2014 - RNA Showgrounds, Brisbane
  • Sunday, 23rd February 2014 - Olympic Park, Sydney
  • Friday, 28th February 2014 - Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne
  • Saturday, 1st March 2014 - Arena Joondalup, Perth

Sunday, February 2, 2014

JBJ & Pat Monahan perform Wanted Dead or Alive (Howard Stern's birthday)

Jon Bon Jovi performed at Howard Stern's birthday bash at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom on January 31.

He was joined by Pat Monahan from Train on this performance of "Wanted Dead or Alive". You can listen to the audio from the SiriusXM stream below:

Jon Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive (Howard Stern's Birthday Bash 2014)