Bon Jovi to rock Gold Coast AFL stadium on 2018 Australian tour

BON Jovi will answer Gold Coast music fans’ prayers next year when they bring their 2018 Australian tour to Metricon Stadium.

Bon Jovi on stage at ANZ Stadium, in Sydney. Picture: Attila Szilvasi.

BON Jovi are set to answer Gold Coast music fans’ prayers next year when they bring their 2018 Australian tour to Metricon Stadium.

Leading promoter Paul Dainty, president and CEO of TEG Dainty, said he had been working to deliver local music fans a stadium show at the home of the Gold Coast Suns AFL team.

“When Bon Jovi tours next year, I’ll bring them to Metricon,” he said.

“We had something for February next year but we couldn’t get it in there with the Commonwealth Games but we’ve got Bon Jovi coming in 2018/2019.”

Fans raise their hands during Tenacious D’s show with the Foo Fighters at Metricon Stadium in 2011.

IT’S OFFICIAL: COAST AN EVENTS MECCA

The “something” is believed to have been The Queen tour featuring Adam Lambert.

Mr Dainty’s local partner Billy Cross, from Cross Promotions, said a Bon Jovi show at Metricon followed by the two-day SandTunes festival at Coolangatta would help put the Gold Coast back on the summer live music map.

“We had the Big Day Out back in the day and we knew how good that was for the local economy,” Mr Cross said.

Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters at Metricon Stadium in 2011.

“Having something like this and HangOut takes it to another level. It’s exactly what we need.

“We need something to fill that void in summer.”

The stadium show would be the first concert at Metricon since the Gold Coast Big Day Out in 2014 — the year of the touring festival’s last stand.

Cross Promotions' Billy Cross, TEG Dainty president and CEO Paul Dainty and SandTunes production manager Colin Skals. Picture: Suzanne Simonot.

The city was left with a gaping $60 million hole on its summer events calendar in the wake of the demise of the Big Day Out and dance music festival Summafieldayze.

“We need to entice promoters to come to the Coast and use Metricon,” Mr Cross said.

“It’s the best stadium in the country but we need to do more to entice them.”

TEG Dainty was formed last year after TEG, the Ticketek owners formerly known as Nine Live, bought Mr Dainty’s company Dainty Group.

Fans crammed into Metricon Stadium for the last ever Gold Coast Big Day Out in 2014. Picture: Luke Marsden.

Economic Development and Major Projects Committee chair and Division 11 councillor

Hermann Vorster said yesterday Mr Dainty and his SandTunes festival partners had attracted acts such as Queen, Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, Guns N Roses, Eminem, Bon Jovi, The Jersey Boys and the Rolling Stones to various locations around the world.

“It would be my hope that they would do precisely the same on the Gold Coast, seeing as they’ve got this particular festival up off the ground,” he said.

Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder performs at the 2014 Big Day Out at Metricon Stadium. Picture: Brendan Radke.

METRICON’S BIG GIGS

1. The stadium welcomed its first major rock concert in 2001 when KISS brought their Farewell Tour to the venue, known then as Carrara Stadium. Alice Cooper played the venue the following night before it was redeveloped and renamed Metricon Stadium.

2. Ten years later, the Foo Fighters rocked Metricon’s socks off in December 2011, setting the all-time attendance record for any event there with a sold-out crowd of 37,000 people. The show — and the stadium — later featured in the Foo Fighters film clip for These Days.

3. On January 19, 2014, the venue welcomed acts including Pearl Jam, Blur and Arcade Fire when it hosted the Big Day Out for the first time — a show that sadly turned out to be the last ever Big Day Out held on the Coast.