Bon Jovi Slippery When Wet

Bon Jovi 'Slippery When Wet' (Vertigo, 1986)

I am not ashamed to admit that 'Slippery When Wet' was the gateway album for 90% of the records in my collection. Things moved so quickly in the six months after I bought Bon Jovi's third album; Europe's 'The Final Countdown', Iron Maiden's 'Powerslave' and 'Somewhere In Time', Anthrax's 'Among the Living', Slayer's 'Reign in Blood', Metallica's 'Master of Puppets', Testament's 'The Legacy' and Megadeth's 'Peace Sells....but who's Buying?'. It was a momentous time in my life which shaped almost every aspect of who I am. Venom's 'The Singles' was also an important release, but I only had a copy of that thanks to a classmate, Chris I think.

People mock Bon Jovi often because it's the done thing. They are not my favourite band by any stretch of the imagination, but there is no denying the blue collar, Bruce Springsteen on ecstasy, pop genius of 'Livin' on a Prayer' or the seminal Western styled rock ballad 'Wanted Dead or Alive'.

Scattered around those two bona fide classics and the equally well known 'You Give Love a Bad Name', are rock anthems like 'Let it Rock', 'Social Disease' (sounding sleazier than Motley Crue), 'I'd Die for You' and 'Wild in the Streets'. My favourite has always been the properly heavy 'Raise your Hands' which I would headbang along to on the back seat of the bus on school trips.

I first saw them at Hampden in 2001 when my sister had nobody else to go with. I too had gone through over a decade of Jovi mocking and had no intention of going to see them unless my hand was forced by my mum, who generously paid for me to escort Kay. We had a ball, from drinking Reef in the street to sharing Buckie with some lads inside, it was a brilliant gig with an atmosphere like the AC/DC gig I would see many years later; rockers mixing with grannies mixing with kids mixing with neds mixing with glammed up girls and everybody knew every single song.

What a band as well, Tico Torres is an absolute monster on the drums, Richie Sambora is an undisputed guitar god (just listen to the tone and solos throughout this album) and Mr Bon Jovi is as good a frontman as I have ever seen.

I may have ruined it slightly for Kay by route marching her all the way back to Danny's flat in Maryhill because I decided it was only a short walk, but I'm sure she's forgiven me as we've seen them twice since with an ever growing posse.

Look past your prejudices and put this album on loud; it ROCKS!

Peace