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Bon Jovi at Wembley Tonight: The Setlist From Edinburgh and Dublin, and What Time It All Starts
We covered this tour on 18 August, back when the three Wembley nights were still ahead of everyone and the only setlist evidence came from Madison Square Garden in July. Two shows have happened on this side of the Atlantic since then, so most of the guesswork from that piece can now be replaced with facts.
Bon Jovi play the first of three Wembley Stadium nights tonight, Friday 4 September, with James Bay supporting. The other two follow on Sunday 6 and Wednesday 9 September.
Doors open at 17:00. Curfew is 22:30 tonight and on the Wednesday. Sunday is half an hour earlier at 22:00.
Two shows have already happened on this side of the Atlantic, so unlike the guesswork of a fortnight ago, we now know almost exactly what tonight looks like.
What They Played at Murrayfield and Croke Park
Edinburgh on 28 August ran to 25 items including two encores. Dublin on 30 August came in slightly shorter at 21.
The openers were identical at both. A cover of The Beatles’ With a Little Help From My Friends, closer to Joe Cocker’s version than the original, then Beautiful Drug, We Weren’t Born to Follow, Lost Highway, and You Give Love a Bad Name in fifth position.
That last one matters if you were planning a leisurely pint beforehand. One of the biggest songs in the catalogue lands roughly twenty minutes in.
The Dublin running order in full:
- With a Little Help From My Friends
- Beautiful Drug
- We Weren’t Born to Follow
- Lost Highway
- You Give Love a Bad Name
- Born to Be My Baby
- Legendary
- Whole Lot of Leavin’
- Bed of Roses
- In These Arms
- These Days
- This House Is Not for Sale
- It’s My Life
- Livin’ on a Prayer
- Raise Your Hands
- I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
- Hey God
- Keep the Faith
Encore: I’ll Be There for You and Wanted Dead or Alive.
Edinburgh added Bad Medicine, with Everett Bradley taking the second verse, and a second encore of Always. Whether London gets those extras is the open question of the night.
Two Songs Came Back After Years Away
Murrayfield produced two genuine tour debuts.
These Days had not been played since 2019. Hey God had not been played since 2013. Both stayed in the set for Dublin, which suggests they are fixtures for the London run rather than a one-off for Scotland.
Edinburgh also opened with Join Together by The Who playing from tape before the band appeared.
How Jon’s Voice Held Up
This is the tour where that question is not a formality. Jon Bon Jovi had vocal cord medialization surgery after the muscles atrophied, and the band had not toured properly since April 2022.
The Irish Times gave Croke Park four stars and reported no sign of vocal trouble on the night, noting that while his singing is not as effortless as it once was, he hit everything the set asked of him. The review also mentions an autocue on stage for lyrics, and observed dryly that none of us are as young as we were.
Its criticism was of pacing rather than performance, calling the set list prone to lulls while the choruses land hard.
Getting There and Getting Home
Wembley Park on the Jubilee and Metropolitan lines is the main route, about ten minutes down Olympic Way.
The quicker option almost nobody uses: Marylebone to Wembley Stadium station takes nine minutes on a mainline train.
Coming out is the part that catches people. Queues at Wembley Park after a stadium event have run anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour. Walking to Wembley Central, roughly twenty minutes, or North Wembley, about thirty four, is the standard local escape.
Driving is awkward. Parking around Wembley Park starts near £40, and National Express run coaches from 56 destinations with adult returns from £30, arriving by 15:00 and departing 23:15.
Tickets and What They Cost
Resale is where the remaining stock sits. Current listings put Wembley entry from around $112 for tonight and Sunday, and $126 for the 9 September show.
Use Ticketmaster or Twickets only. Wembley enforces a six ticket limit per person and cancels tickets bought through unauthorised sites, which you discover at the turnstile rather than at home.
Hospitality is still available directly through the stadium at £549 for the Gold package, £699 for Diamond, and £749 per person for a private box in groups of eight, twelve or twenty.
The Rules That Turn People Away
- One bag per person, maximum 297mm by 210mm by 210mm. That is A4 size, so a normal rucksack fails.
- The stadium is fully cashless. Card or phone only.
- Empty crushable plastic bottles are allowed, glass is not, and there are free water points inside.
- Merchandise bought outside must stay sealed in its clear bag until you are through the gates.
Why Wednesday Might Be the One
The 9 September show is currently the final announced date of the entire Forever Tour.
Nine nights at Madison Square Garden in July, then Edinburgh, then Dublin, then three at Wembley and that is the schedule. Last nights tend to run long, and both of Edinburgh’s extra songs suggest the band are willing to stretch when the room earns it.
Tonight is the opener of the London run though, and on the evidence of Murrayfield, that is where they threw everything.
