This is a bit of a different Enough about me, let’s talk about YOU for a minute blog entry. My friend and fashion blogger/multimedia extraordinaire, Cheryl and I went to see Bon Jovi last night (11 December at Etihad Stadium Melbourne). She has written a guest blog below. Before it though, I will tell you about our Bon Jovi experience.

Cheryl has a fantastic fashion blog called Business Chic which showcases the stylish workers on the streets of Melbourne. I’ve been following her blog since I read about it on the Vogue Forums, probably her third blog entry in. She is a talented writer and photographer, and provides me with lots of inspiration for dressing for work.

As Cheryl will tell you in her guest blog, I met her in person when she photographed me for Business Chic. Tonight was the second time we met – and it was lovely to catch up properly. She is such a beautiful, caring person.

It was Cheryl’s childhood dream to go to a Bon Jovi concert. And tonight she wore her Bon Jovi tshirt which she has had since she was in grade five. The jumper comes with funny story – when she was in grade five, she wanted to go to Bon Jovi, and asked her Dad to take her, but he didn’t want to go. So he bought her the jumper as a consolation. Recently when she told her Dad she was finally seeing Jon Bon Jovi in concert, he told her ‘you know he’s an old man now!’.

Our night started with two unfortunate yet funny events. The first was that the Docklands restaurants were all booked out, and we were buffeted from the buffet we wanted to eat at (despite them having many empty tables).

The second was that the fierce wind blew my tickets out of my hand, and I shrieked while Cheryl ran after them. Fortunately they blew on the ground for a few metres, and Cheryl rescued them – clutching them to her heavily beating chest until we entered the stadium!

I am so lucky to have gone with a serious Bon Jovi fan! Cheryl knew all the words to his classic songs. She sang with passion. It was very cute to see her brimming with emotion about seeing Bon Jovi in concert – at one point she said ‘I have no words’. Adorable. Much of the first hour for Cheryl was spent in a state of overwhelming awe:

Bon Jovi were amazing, and it was no wonder Cheryl was in awe after being a fan for so long. Like some of the other bands I’d never thought I’d see but have done recently (U2, Crowded House, Hunters and Collectors), I was so excited to see Bon Jovi, credible leather clad power balladeers.

Bon Jovi played for two and a half hours. The band has such stamina. They were jumping and singing and breaking a sweat. Jon Bon Jovi is 48. With great teeth. And charisma. Jon Bon Jovi made a comment that he is the only one with big hair.

And the band has such an extensive catalogue of hits. Living on a Prayer. Bad Medicine, You Give Love A Bad Name, Dead Or Alive, I’ll be there for You, Always, Someday I’ll be Saturday Night, It’s My Life, Have a Nice Day, Runaway, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, Keep the Faith… The setlist is here. In the middle of Bad Medicine there was a jukebox projected on screen and Bon Jovi inserted a medley of other songs: Roadhouse Blues and Shout. And During I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, the jukebox theme came back and the band sang Start Me Up.

Jon Bon Jovi interacted with the audience and the band, much more than Bono did at U2’s concert last week. The stadium was packed. At one point Jon compared Friday night’s concert at Rod Laver Arena to the Etihad Stadium concert: ‘That was like a club gig compared to this. This is going to be better’.

The band didn’t need special stage effects to hook the audience. Just rock and roll, and interaction did it. The songs are timeless. The audience were so enthused. It was more vibrant than U2. The energy was electric, even in the very back row where we were. Almost everyone sang along to every song even the lesser known ones. A few verses of Wanted Dead or Alive were sung solely by the audience. Jon asked the audience whether we wanted him to sing the song.

Jon Bon Jovi got into the local spirit by wearing a Melbourne Heart soccer jersey during the encore. Apparently he is the club’s number one international ticket holder. Unfortunately Melbourne Heart had lost the game against Melbourne Victory. last night. And Jon couldn’t make it to the game either because he was playing a concert at the same time.

A friend of mine wrote on her Facebook ‘Looking forward to ultimate ‘mass karaoke’ night out – the Bon Jovi Concert!’. This was so true! Cheryl and my voices were sore from singing. We punched the air like the rest of the stadium. We sang our hearts out! Here is an example of my karaoke during my favourite song of the night, Always:

Thanks for the great concert experience Cheryl! I had so much fun letting my inner bogan rock out! And thanks for writing the guest blog!

Guest blog by Cheryl Lin: