When Michael Jackson kicked the bucket and moonwalked off to the big Neverland Ranch in the sky, there was much wringing of hands and furrowing of brows at the O2 Arena as to what to do with the bazillion or so open dates now Jacko’s shows were were cancelled. Well, we heard a very interesting rumour today that a fair old chunk of them are about to be claimed by Bon Jovi.

True, it’s only whispered rumours at present, but there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence backing them up.

1. Bon Jovi’s new album, The Circle, is out on November 10.
2. At present, there have been no tour dates announced in support of this release. Strange, no?
3. Bon Jovi have played the O2 Arena before – in fact, they played the first public concert there back in June 2007.
4. Bon Jovi sold out two shows at Twickenham easily on their Lost Highway tour. That’s 160,000 tickets sold, or seven sold-out nights at the O2 – that’s a third of the rumoured residency right there.
5. At present there is a big ol’ gap in the O2 Arena’s calender from 29 December to 19 January 2010. Not to mention most of the rest of 2010 at this point.

Hmmmm….very interesting. Very interesting indeed. If Thrash Hits hears anything else, we’ll let you know.