I immediately noticed something was missing when I clicked on what looked like a YouTube upload of the dvd Live From London.
At 1 hour and 24 minutes, it was about right, although I remembered the dvd to be 90 minutes.
But hey!
Why would someone sneakily cut six minutes out of a Bon Jovi concert right?

And yet, the moment I watched the intro I knew Jon taking the stage was missing.

That you don’t start a dvd with Jon having magically appeared out of thin air at the mike, in his stone washed New Jersey jacket, black blouse with white stripes, chest hair luscious in a way we would never see again after it was taken off less than a year later for his movie role in The Leading Man;
Wearing his black bandana with white design tied around the head in the wide yet sturdy fold and wrap technique, only he and Axl Rose ever seemed to have mastered;
And the first words of this Magically Appearing Front Man being;
“Tommy used to work on the docks!”

That’s now how it works.
There is a “before”.
There is a leading up to.
There is anticipation.

In the previous chapter I referred to the long audience shots clapping in “We Will Rock You”-style.
And you don’t let the viewer wait, watching a sea of clapping hands, only to then cut to-
Oh.
Wait.
He’s already there.

So I knew the 1 hour 24 minute concert version I had found on YouTube was not the real dvd; It had been tampered with.
And I was right.
Both a YouTube clip of “Livin’ On A Prayer” from that concert, which I have included at the top of this post,
as well as the full 90 minute show Live In London which is available on Vimeo, and which I have included at the bottom of this post,
show the full intro of Livin’ On A Prayer.

We see Tico Torres standing behind his drums in a white vest, clapping with the crowd.
And then the camera shot from over the crowd, retreats back into the darkness of the side of the stage, we’re looking into the sun.
We see the silhouette of a tall, rangy man, walking up to the edge of the stage.
Sharp cut to a close shot at eye level:
It’s Ritchie Sambora!

He takes a bow, rising back up, his small round sunglasses mirror the Wembley stadium and the clear blue sky.
Long dark mane, and long black coat adding to a rough cowboy-like look.  
He gives the crowd a battle cry; “Yeah!”
Fist pumping in the air.

There is tangible concentration when the musicians set up the almost monotone, slow moving base sound with Tico Torres using a mark tree, a percussion instrument that consists of a set of hanging metal-like pipes.
Until after a few seconds that moment we have all been waiting for when Richie folds his mouth over the talk box, and gives us the signature sound that will become Livin’ On A Prayer.
Richie’s almost synthesizer like tones join the auspicious baseline that the other instruments have set up.
The sounds from the talk box moves fluently up and down, as if gently caressing us.

Until we here the thin sound of a drumstick to the cymbals:
“Tick tick tick”

[….]

“Tick tick tick”

The Livin’ On A Prayer drums take over, a  drum roll if ever there was any!

And a sound that I can only describe in a way that does not do justice to what many consider the best song of the best rock n roll band since the 80s:
– in my defense; English is not my first language! – but here we go:

Oompa oompa oomp!
(repeat endlessly)
(keep it going)
(trust me on this)

And it is there! On the sounds of Oompa oompa oomp! that the man of the hour, the rock legend Jon Bon Jovi takes the stage with a run that goes into an energetic jumping up and down, legs wide, two feet jumping in the air again and again.
A wide grin over-viewing the stadium and just like Richie he has his fist in the air!

He stands with the microphone and in his talking voice, he delivers us the intro that we all know from the thousands and thousands of times we’ve heard this song:
“Once upon a time.
Not so long ago.”

All this (I m now pointing and waving at the past paragraphs describing the epic rock star beginnings of this show ) was not included in the dvd upload I found on YouTube, and with that one of the biggest takeaways from this show was lost;
How to make an entrance.
How to consciously, and conscientiously, show up. 

I once attended a yoga workshop from an internationally acclaimed yoga star slash yoga guru, which I ended up hating and considered a waste of my time and money. And yet the lesson he taught in his first five minutes is one I will never forget:
What is the basis for every relationship?

The answer was: You show up.

It is THAT choice, where you make the first commitment.
Either you give away your power, if you show up for things you don’t want.
Or you use it to show up for the things that you do want.

Show up for your yoga, was what this teacher hinted at.
But it goes for every area of life; Are you showing up for it?
Are you even THERE for the thing or the person or the hobby or the business or the audience or the 80.000 fans, to have a relationship with you?

And then, if you ve got that, if you know and decide that from now on “Hell Yes! I m gonna show the f up for my art, for my family, for my dreams, for my fans, for my LIFE!”
Then this opening sequence of Bon Jovi in Wembley 1995 uplevels that for you.

Make your showing up as deliberate, as epic, as full of intent;
As layered, as exciting, as full of bouncing, pounding energy, as Bon Jovi starting their Wembley show, and you really are living aright.

You’re living with Oompa oompa oomp. 

Repeat endlessly.

Keep it going.

Trust me on this.

.
~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer