A CLEARLY besotted young woman stormed the stage midway through Bon Jovi's In These Armsat Punchestown Racecourse on Saturday night and puckered up to lead singer Jon Bon Jovi.
Neither he nor the 50,000 fans knew quite what to make of the dramatic interlude, though it took a security guard to separate the woman from her passionate clinch. "Jeez, you Irish women are crazy," said Jon Bon Jovi (46), wiping his mouth.
"I'm married to one of you crazy sons of bitches."
His wife, Dorothea Hurley, is from an Irish-American family.
It's a long time since Bon Jovi, in their earlier incarnation, shared a stage at the Monsters of Rock festival with the likes of Metallica, Anthrax and Dio. Now they're better known for power ballads and blue-collar tales of Tommy who works on the dock and Gina who works in a diner all the day.
And women, who made up the majority of the audience on Saturday night, love them.
"What's not to love?," said Sarah Anderson from Leixlip, Co Kildare, who attended her first Bon Jovi concert in the 1980s and won tickets to get right up to the front of the stage. "He's [ Jon Bon Jovi] gorgeous, he can sing, he can rock out. They are the best live band in the world," she said.
"You can't touch them, you can't have them, they're perfect," said Allison Lambert (30) from Ballinteer, Dublin. "There are people who waited all day to see them and the band are brilliant. They really care. Mind you, my husband can't stand them."
There were a few other men with sour countenances who had been dragged to the concert by their female partners. "
Westlife for grown-ups," was how one anonymous punter put it, but Mick Doyle (29), from Kildare town, wasn't among the doubters. He has seen the band seven times in three countries.
"They're a brilliant live band. I'd rather pay to see them live than buy their records," he said. "They appeal to all ages, men and women."
The band arrived on stage bang on time at 8.30pm on a perfect summer's evening with a pale crescent moon in the sky behind them.
They proceeded with a 2½-hour set, beginning with the title track of their new album, Lost Highway.
The crowd knew every line of standards such as Always, It's my Life, Born to be my Baby, Someday I'll be Saturday Night, You give Love a Bad Nameand I'll be There for You(sung by guitarist Richie Sambora).
Livin' on a Prayerproved to be the proverbial showstopper with the crowd taking the lead in the chorus.
There was also a fair sprinkling of covers. They did a medley of Duffy's Mercy, the Rolling Stones's Start Me Upand, for the encore, Status Quo's Rockin' all over the Worldand Lulu's Shout.
Jon Bon Jovi also sang a version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujahaccompanied only by piano.
The real Cohen plays three nights at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham this weekend.
Bon Jovi once released a box set called 100,000,000 Bon Jovi fans can't be wrong, partially as a salute their fans and partially as a riposte to the critics who have never taken to their bombastic style of stadium rock'n'roll.
It is a testimony to Bon Jovi's appeal that tens of thousands of fans turned out to see them - and endured horrendous traffic jams getting home.
The love is mutual. "This is my favourite place in the whole world," Jon Bon Jovi said.
I bet he says that to all the girls.
