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MUSIC FEATURE

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FOREVER BON JOVI Hair rock’s greatest survivors make it to album number 16. And Jon Bon Jovi explains why it might be their sweetest album yet, with the title reflecting how long they’re gonna be around: Forever .

CLASSIC STACK STORY The late-great music man Michael Gudinski loved life on the road. And one of his favourite rock stories was about Bon Jovi’s 1989 tour. “The band wanted to re-enact the old ‘Riot House’, which was the name for the infamous Hyatt Hotel on the Sunset Strip. We spent five days at the newly opened Mirage Resort in Port Douglas. I remember the first night we walked into dinner, the hotel manager came up to me and said, ‘Mr Gudinski, can you please ask the girls to go and get dressed?’”

W hen Nirvana arrived in the ’90s, the jig was up for the hair rock bands that had dominated the music scene in the late ’80s. They were left, as Henry Rollins remarked, like rusty tanks in the desert with no more gas. But one band is still motoring: Bon Jovi. Though they have had a few small repairs along the way. Jon Bon

Jovi cut his hair in the ’90s – a move so momentous

Bon Jovi have had ten number one albums in Australia – a record for an American band, leading Foo Fighters on eight, and Pearl Jam and Metallica (seven each). CHART FACT

it ended up as a news story on CNN. More

significantly, the singer survived serious vocal cord surgery. The release of Forever coincides with the 40th anniversary of Bon Jovi’s self-titled debut. Bon Jovi is surprised he’s still making Forever by Bon Jovi is out June 7 via Universal music at the age of 62. “When I started out, the year 2000 was as far ahead as I ever dreamt – there was something magical and sci-fi about that number. But I never dreamed of 2024 and a 40th anniversary.” Most of all, he’s grateful he can still sing. JBJ says he never wants to become “The Fat Elvis”. “I love what I do, and the audience deserve the best of me. I’m not interested in just going through the motions.” Jeff Jenkins

Bon Jovi: David Bryan, Everett Bradley, Hugh McDonald, John Shanks, Phil X, Jon Bon Jovi, and Tico Torres.

Michael Gudinski

THE BRAT IS BACK Charli XCX hits the clubs for her nostalgic new album, which also feels like the sound of right now.

Q uite frankly, other pop acts will be green with envy when they hear Charli XCX’s new album, Brat . Green is the colour du jour of Charli’s sixth studio set, with the artist’s minimalist approach extending to the album’s artwork. When the cover copped criticism online, she hit back, calling it “misogynistic and boring” and wondering why fans “feel ownership over female artists”, demanding that a female’s face be featured on the front cover. Yep, this is an artist very much in charge, though some heavy hitters are part of the Brat pack, including Charli’s fiancé George Daniel (drummer in The 1975),

Omer Fedi (who co-wrote The Kid LAROI’s Stay ), and long-time collaborator EASYFUN (real name Finn Keane). Brat ’s “loud and bold” sound was inspired by London’s club scene – “illegal warehouse raves in Hackney”, where Charli got her start when she was just 14 and was still better known as Charlotte Aitchison. “This album is very direct,” the 31-year-old told Billboard in the lead-up to the release. “This record is all the things I would talk about with my friends, said exactly how I would say them. “It’s in ways very aggressive and confrontational, but also very conversational and personal... to me it feels like

Brat by Charli XCX is out June 7 via Atlantic Records

AUSSIE CONNECTION As well as working with Troye Sivan, Charli XCX’s first US number one was her Fancy collab with Aussie rapper Iggy Azalea in 2014. And it was in Australia, playing at the 2020 Laneway Festival, that she realised the chemistry with The 1975’s George Daniel. They got engaged in November 2023.

listening to a conversation with a friend.” Charli XCX says she’s torn between caring “more about being the biggest artist I can be commercially or being critically sound”. It looks like Brat is going to deliver the best of both worlds. Jeff Jenkins

26 JUNE 2024

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