Bon Jovi resumes the Forever Tour in Edinburgh

After a month off, Bon Jovi headed to Scotland to kick off the next leg of the Forever Tour. (I say next leg, but it could well be the final leg, given no further shows have been confirmed after Wembley in September.) There were plenty of questions, like:

• did the break do Jon's voice any good? (Hopefully, yes.)
• will Europe get better sets than the US? (Reasonably likely and I'd love to see it, but that also sucks for American fans who were paying a pretty penny for these concerts.)
• will they do something crappy like "save themselves" for Wembley? (Hopefully not.)

Anyway, the first show of this leg was in Edinburgh, and here's what unfolded. 

Edinburgh, Scotland - Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium - 28 August 2026

1. With a Little Help from My Friends - The Beatles cover
2. Beautiful Drug
3. We Weren't Born to Follow
4. Lost Highway
5. You Give Love a Bad Name
6. Born to Be My Baby
7. Legendary
8. Whole Lot of Leavin'
9. Bed of Roses
10. In These Arms
11. These Days
12. This House Is Not For Sale
13. It's My Life
14. Livin' on a Prayer
15. Raise Your Hands
16. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
17. Hey God
18. Keep the Faith
    
    Encore:
19. I'll Be There for You
20. Wanted Dead or Alive
21. Bad Medicine - featuring Everett Bradley
22. Always

Legit couldn't believe we got freaking "Hey God" and "These Days" for the first time since 2013 and 2019, respectively. Phil X rocking the kilt was a fun touch, too. 

Selected videos from Edinburgh

These Days - Let's not pretend this is the greatest performance ever, but vocally, I'd say Jon's roughly on par with when I saw them do this song live in Melbourne in 2013. 

Hey God - Now this sounded better than I was expecting... and it's a killer track. But perhaps more to the point, Jon was using the stage, getting into the song, showing some passion... and that can make the world of difference to a performance when your vocals aren't the best, because being rooted to the spot and clinging to the microphone only highlights any weaknesses. So yeah, good on you, JBJ.

 

In These Arms - Arguably the best performance of this song on the tour so far. But why can't Phil X play the solo instead of John Shanks? Like c'mon, dude.

Thinkin' on a prayer

The first half of the main set, as it was in New York, seems to be mostly "get Jon settled in with something that's not too challenging" time... but there are better songs you could use for that. Hell, maybe even something from the album you're meant to be promoting, like "Waves", "Walls of Jericho", "Seeds", or that neglected single "Living Proof"?

 

But overall, a decent start to the UK/European leg. Dublin's up next, and hopefully they get a good show.

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Looking back on shows 4, 5, 6 & 7 of the Forever tour

Back to my official unofficial catch-up of Bon Jovi's Madison Square Garden residency, and we're looking at shows 4 to 7 -- leading up to the infamous shortened show 8, for which ticket-holders have reportedly started receiving refunds for.

New York City, NY, USA - Madison Square Garden #4 - 14 July 2026

1. With a Little Help from My Friends - The Beatles cover
2. Beautiful Drug
3. We Weren't Born to Follow
4. Lost Highway
5. Who Says You Can't Go Home
6. You Give Love a Bad Name
7. Born to Be My Baby
8. Legendary
9. Whole Lot of Leavin'
10. Bed of Roses
11. Have a Nice Day
12. It's My Life
13. Livin' on a Prayer
14. Lay Your Hands on Me
15. Living Proof
16. This House Is Not for Sale
17. Keep the Faith
    
    Encore:
18. I'll Be There for You
19. Red, White and Jersey
20. Wanted Dead or Alive
21. Bad Medicine
22. Always

Literally the same set from the previous show, lol. But he probably sounded better on those songs overall.

Videos from #4:

Shout out to Tully Blanchard who recorded the whole show. Legend!

New York City, NY, USA - Madison Square Garden #5 - 16 July 2026

1. With a Little Help from My Friends - The Beatles cover
2. Beautiful Drug
3. We Weren't Born to Follow
4. Lost Highway
5. Who Says You Can't Go Home
6. You Give Love a Bad Name
7. Born to Be My Baby
8. Legendary
9. Let it Rain
10. Whole Lot of Leavin'
11. Bed of Roses
12. Have a Nice Day
13. It's My Life
14. Livin' on a Prayer
15. Lay Your Hands on Me
16. Limitless
17. This House Is Not for Sale
18. Keep the Faith
    
    Encore:
19. I'll Be There for You
20. Red, White and Jersey
21. Wanted Dead or Alive
22. Bad Medicine
23. Always

A couple of changes, with "Let It Rain" and "Limitless" make their Forever Tour debuts. 

Selected videos from #5:

Let It Rain - One of my favourites from 2020, an album I genuinely still rate today. The acoustic intro/harmonica outro is kinda cool.

Limitless - One of my not-so-favourites from the aforementioned 2020, lol. But it's okay. Has its moments and probably works better in a stadium than most of the better songs from that album. At least they didn't decide to do "Unbroken" or something. 😜

 

New York City, NY, USA - Madison Square Garden #6 - 19 July 2026

1. With a Little Help from My Friends - The Beatles cover
2. Beautiful Drug
3. We Weren't Born to Follow
4. Lost Highway
5. Who Says You Can't Go Home
6. You Give Love a Bad Name
7. Born to Be My Baby
8. Legendary
9. Let it Rain
10. Whole Lot of Leavin'
11. Bed of Roses
12. Have a Nice Day
13. It's My Life
14. Livin' on a Prayer
15. Lay Your Hands on Me
16. Limitless
17. This House Is Not for Sale
18. Keep the Faith
    
    Encore:
19. I'll Be There for You
20. Bad Medicine

Show was shortened, with "Wanted Dead or Alive", "Always", and "Red, White and Jersey" cut from the planned set list.

Selected videos from #6:

Bad Medicine - Look, let's be real here. Jon sounds rough. I mean, the fans he high-fived and fist-bumped probably didn't notice or care in the moment, but I'd guess his voice on the night is why the show was cut.

New York City, NY, USA - Madison Square Garden #7 - 21 July 2026

1. With a Little Help from My Friends - The Beatles cover
2. Beautiful Drug
3. We Weren't Born to Follow
4. Lost Highway
5. Who Says You Can't Go Home
6. You Give Love a Bad Name
7. Born to Be My Baby
8. Legendary
9. Let it Rain
10. Whole Lot of Leavin'
11. Bed of Roses
12. Have a Nice Day
13. It's My Life
14. Livin' on a Prayer
15. Raise Your Hands
16. Limitless
17. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
18. Keep the Faith
    
    Encore:
19. I'll Be There for You
20. Red, White and Jersey
21. Wanted Dead or Alive
22. Bad Medicine
23. Always

Selected videos from #7:

Raise Your Hands - First time since before COVID. Apart from that voice crack at the end, it was a decent-sounding performance.

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - This used to feel a teensy bit overdone on earlier tours, but I'm enjoying it here. Works fairly well live and this is its Forever Tour debut.

Thinkin' on a prayer

Bit up and down, with sets being pretty stagnant bar one or two swaps here and there, but I suspect that's par for the course going forward.

 

With this post, I've now caught up on all the MSG shows and you can see the others at the links below: 

• Show #1 (7 July)
• Shows #2 & 3 (9 & 12 July) 
• Show #8 (23 July)
• Show #9 (26 July)

After a month's break, the tour resumes in the UK this week. I hope the fans there get some consistently quality shows, no matter which one(s) they're attending, but we'll soon see if the rest has done Jon some good.

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Looking back on shows 2 & 3 of the Forever tour

As previously mentioned, Bon Jovi's Madison Square Garden shows coincided with my overseas training camp, so I wasn't blogging in real time. And I'm going to share a few retrospective thoughts in the next few posts, before shows resume in the UK.

New York City, NY, USA - Madison Square Garden #2 - 9 July 2026

1. With a Little Help from My Friends - The Beatles cover
2. Beautiful Drug
3. We Weren't Born to Follow
4. Lost Highway
5. Who Says You Can't Go Home
6. You Give Love a Bad Name
7. Born to Be My Baby
8. Legendary
9. Whole Lot of Leavin'
10. In These Arms
11. Have a Nice Day
12. It's My Life
13. Livin' on a Prayer
14. Lay Your Hands on Me
15. Blood on Blood
16. Living Proof
17. This House Is Not for Sale
18. Keep the Faith
    
    Encore:
19. I'll Be There for You
20. Red, White and Jersey
21. Wanted Dead or Alive
22. Bad Medicine 

Selected videos from #2 

I'll Be There For You - generally a communal singalong moment, and the piano-only accompaniment for the first verse and chorus was quite nice.

Red, White and Jersey - technically the live debut of the song, though it was part of a rather tepid performance for the Tony Robbins special. I think this one turned out a bit better.

  

New York City, NY, USA - Madison Square Garden #3 - 12 July 2026

1. With a Little Help from My Friends - The Beatles cover
2. Beautiful Drug
3. We Weren't Born to Follow
4. Lost Highway
5. Who Says You Can't Go Home
6. You Give Love a Bad Name
7. Born to Be My Baby
8. Legendary
9. Whole Lot of Leavin'
10. Bed of Roses
11. Have a Nice Day
12. It's My Life
13. Livin' on a Prayer
14. Lay Your Hands on Me
15. Living Proof
16. This House Is Not for Sale
17. Keep the Faith
    
    Encore:
18. I'll Be There for You
19. Red, White and Jersey
20. Wanted Dead or Alive
21. Bad Medicine
22. Always

Selected videos from #3 

Bed of Roses - We've had a global pandemic since this song was last played, so it was good to get it back in the set. Is it perfect? No, but funnily enough, the big ballads Jon seems to want to avoid when he's lacking confidence in his voice, are probably more forgiving of some imperfections (they can sound more emotional if you sell the performance).

Always - Honestly, even if you have to noticeably drop the key, this should be a set list staple for Bon Jovi; it's their biggest worldwide hit. And if they ever had to lower it so much that it fell off the bottom of Jon's vocal range, they obviously shouldn't even entertain performing anymore. TLDR: Play the songs people go to your concert to hear.

 

Thinkin' on a prayer

A solid couple of gigs within the nine-show MSG residency. Pretty samey sets, but with a couple of good inclusions as I alluded to above. 

 

I've already posted about:

• Show #1 (7 July)
• Show #8 (23 July)
• Show #9 (26 July)

with 4 to 7 on the way before the resumption of the tour at the end of the month. The order got all topsy-turvy due to my schedule, but I fully intend for the shows in Scotland, Ireland, and England to be blogged about chronologically. 😉 

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Bon Jovi wraps up MSG residency

With show 8's early end making the news, there was plenty of attention on show 9... which did in fact go ahead without a hitch. Or even really any mention of what happened, so no idea if the promised redo of show 8 will actually go ahead at any point... especially since it's something Jon just brought up without running it by anyone else. I suspect it will get put in the "we're not obligated/too hard" basket and forgotten, but I hope I'm wrong.

New York City, NY, USA - Madison Square Garden #9 - 26 July 2026

There were at couple of (actually planned) collaborations, but "Wanted Dead or Alive" was notably dropped again (it happened on a couple of the other shows on this run). 

Set list #9: 

1. Beautiful Drug
2. We Weren't Born to Follow
3. Lost Highway
4. You Give Love a Bad Name
5. Born to Be My Baby
6. Legendary
7. Whole Lot of Leavin'
8. In These Arms
9. The People's House - featuring The War and Treaty
10. It's My Life
11. Livin' on a Prayer
12. Raise Your Hands
13. This House Is Not for Sale
14. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
15. Keep the Faith
    
    Encore:
16. I'll Be There for You
17. Bad Medicine - featuring Everett Bradley
18. Who Says You Can't Go Home - featuring Bruce Springsteen
19. The Promised Land - Bruce Springsteen cover featuring Bruce Springsteen

Selected videos from #9:

Who Says You Can't Go Home / The Promised Land - Jon had some technical difficulties with his harmonica on the Bruce song, but I love that song and it was great to see two Jersey boys perform it together:

Shout out to Harry Ward who has blessed us with videos from all the shows on this MSG residency, including the full show 9 with timestamps. I'm forever grateful to people like Harry:

Thinkin' on a prayer

Jon said before the encore that this isn't the end, and I hope the month-long rest before he heads over to the UK does him some good. Shania Twain had similar surgery on her vocal cords and seems pretty at peace with the fact that her voice will never be the same but she's able to work with what she now has. I don't know where Jon's head is at, but his voice is... okay. Maybe it gets better, maybe this is as good as it can be now, but I never stop hoping for the best.

The next show is scheduled for 28 August in Scotland, so I'd better catch up on blogging about shows 2 to 7 before then, haha. 

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