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[ArtTavana]

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Edited February 26, 2019 by ArtTavana

[dally]

I got it on cassete many years before i bought the CD version. And i still have it.

Also got the rape cover and the cross cover on vinyl, bought a few years ago?

[Sosso]

I have an audio cassette from UYI I. 

Edited May 24, 2017 by Sosso

[soon]

I think I still have somewhere Appetite, Lies, and UYI 1 on cassette tape.  A friend gave them to me when UYI came out and he deemed them sellouts!  

Id be in grade school.  It was a routine part of my paper route to stop, take a knee, and use my pinky finger to re-thread the tape after my cheap walkman ate it!  

Ahh, summer nights 

[axlweave]

I bought the cassette back in 87 just graduated high school, it had the cross cover and in reverse had the rape seen

[Sunset Gardner]

the first time i ever heard guns n' roses was in the early evening and a friend and i were in front of the tv, mtv was on and the video for sweet child of mine started… something fascinated me about them… the look… something dangerous that felt far outside of my little town.  then slash started the intro (that shot of him leaning back) and it was one of those moments you never forget.  the video and the song and THE FIVE of them were all magic to all of us, they were instant heroes.  i was really young, i think i was eight.  we glued ourselves to the tv waiting for the video to play again and actually ended up seeing the "wttj" video in the same night.  

a older kid down the street bought the album on cassette and i went down to his house everyday after school to listen to it over and over and over.  i wasn't tallowed to have it because of the cursing and drug/alcohol themes.   my mother and i laugh about it now.  she'd figured it out because i'd convinced her to get me the SCOM single and the B side was "it's so easy".

good times.  we all wanted to be izzy.   which is why this tour is kind of bullshit.  if keith richards isn't there… then it ain't The Stones.  if izzy ain't there… well then...

 

 

Edited May 24, 2017 by Sunset Gardner

[KeyserSoze]

I have it on cassette. Bought it on ebay when i thought cassette boxes were cool. Ive played it all the way through once 

[Tom-Ass]

I got them all the way through TSI on Cassette. Some multiple times... Sttill have a few.  Hardcore...

[Fitha_whiskey]

I had 3 AFD cassettes- my buddy borrowed one & his tape deck on his AMC Gremlin ate it, got another & it was stolen at a party, then #3 lasted until it wore out.

Also had Lies on cassette. Also some bootleg my best buddy brought me home from Iraq- Desert Storm in 92 or thereabouts. It was a mashup of AFD & Lies...

Upgraded to CD at home in 1988, but still had tapes for vehicular purposes...

[Whiskey Rose]

I bought the cassette back in the day too. It had the cross on front, but inside when you opened it up, it had the original artwork. I remember being quite shocked about it, but intrigued too...i was a teen girl living at home, but my parents never saw that leaflet you can be sure of that ... (although they never said anything about Rocket Queen when I was blasting it?) I have no idea what happened to that tape unfortunately.

[bigpoop]

I originally bought it on cassette in probably late August or early September of '87 and it was the cross cover. I never saw it anywhere with the other cover, although I did see the original vinyl in a few stores, and at this time LLAS was easy to find too btw.  So, I think the Williams cover was never on the cassette. Not certain of that though.  

 

The first time I heard Guns N' Roses was at a club called Narcissus in Kenmore Square, Boston. It wasn't really a rock club but they had rock nights once a week or something. Saw Extreme there before they were signed, incidentally.

So at this club they used to play videos on a  big screen in between bands, and this was back when you could get in a club if you were under 21...which I still was.  So since I couldn't  get a  drink I would just stand there and stare at that screen while I waited for the next band.

Anyway, one night they played Welcome to the Jungle and it was just a 'holy shit what it that'  sort of moment.  Luckily it said who it was at the end just like on MTV, so I went out the very next day and got that cassette at the Record World or whatever it was at the Copley Place mall. 

Took a few listens for it to really click for me but when it did I became sort of obsessed. I listened to that tape several times a day for at least a year, probably more. Often I would put on something else and be like, no that's not cutting it, and take whatever it was out and put AFD back on. I went all over to every record store I could get to, hunting for imports, bootlegs, etc...whatever I could find.

[triad]

8 hours ago, ArtTavana said:

Hi Guys,

I'm wondering how many of us purchased AFD on cassette as opposed to vinyl or CD when it hit record stores in 87? Also, does anyone know if the tape was released with the original Robert Williams art? I've found the vinyl with the art, but not the cassette -- as only the crucifix seems to appear with the tapes. 

Beyond that, I want to use this thread to share stories about first purchasing AFD, how you got a hold of it, the format, and any story you have behind your first listen of GNR ASSUMING you're a first gen fan from 1986-1990, or around that time. 

 

I still have the cassette dated 1987.  It has the cross on the cover and the robot artwork on the inside.  I'm sure I saw videos on MTV, but I recall buying it in 1988 after watching The Dead Pool.  (Although that Jim Carey lip-synch is .)  My husband wasn't a fan of Axl's voice, so all the more reason to buy the whole album and blast it.    Later that summer I had it on loop while I was repainting my parents' garage door.  Always skipped OTGM, though.  A few too many F-bombs for their neighborhood, lol.  Later I bought the CD, too.  

[Sydney Fan]

11 hours ago, Sunset Gardner said:

the first time i ever heard guns n' roses was in the early evening and a friend and i were in front of the tv, mtv was on and the video for sweet child of mine started… something fascinated me about them… the look… something dangerous that felt far outside of my little town.  then slash started the intro (that shot of him leaning back) and it was one of those moments you never forget.  the video and the song and THE FIVE of them were all magic to all of us, they were instant heroes.  i was really young, i think i was eight.  we glued ourselves to the tv waiting for the video to play again and actually ended up seeing the "wttj" video in the same night.  

a older kid down the street bought the album on cassette and i went down to his house everyday after school to listen to it over and over and over.  i wasn't tallowed to have it because of the cursing and drug/alcohol themes.   my mother and i laugh about it now.  she'd figured it out because i'd convinced her to get me the SCOM single and the B side was "it's so easy".

good times.  we all wanted to be izzy.   which is why this tour is kind of bullshit.  if keith richards isn't there… then it ain't The Stones.  if izzy ain't there… well then...

 

 

Right - fuckin -on !!!!!. I first heard guns back in the first of 88 when I was 13 on a music programme here is Australia called "Rage" (kind of an MTV equivalent). The first time I saw SCOM I was stunned, who the fuck was these badass looking guys wearing leather pants and smoking cigarettes in the clip with long hair and the huge Guns symbol behind Steven?, who the fuck was the guy with the top hat that couldn't see past his hair. There are some moments in ones life that changes you forever and that moment changed me. I then went and bought Appetite on cassette some days later, and was mesmerised. I listed to the each song and wondered about the recording process, where they all recording in the same room and looking at each other while playing. I knew then GNR were "MY" band - they were my heroes and as long as this band would inexistence I wanted to know all about them. And every magazine at the music stands, metal hammer, metal edge, even an Australian heavy metal magazine called "hot metal" had any interviews with the band I would read them. I still also have Use your illusion 1 and 2 on cassette and bought lies on vinyl when it first came out. Good fuckin times to be a teenager. I had the pl;easure of meeting steven adler back in 2007 or 2008 at a drum clinic in Sydney and said to him "thankyou".  He looked at me and I said thankyou for being part of an album that completely changed my life as a 13 year old back in 88 when I first heard appetite, because my life was never the same after that.

Edited May 25, 2017 by Sydney Fan

[JustanUrchin]

Now THIS is a badass thread.  It's like entering a secret world that only real/original fans know.

When I was 13, my big bro was pumping AFD on cassette BEFORE WTTJ hit MTV.  I didn't get it.  At all.  Those guitars and the vocals...I was accustomed to Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Aerosmith, John Mellencamp and the like.  The guitars were the dirtiest thing I ever heard.  They spoke.

Later, when WTTJ hit the 19" t.v. in the room I shared with my big bro, I was definitely OUT.  WTF were all these tattoos? Are these guys sailors?  WTF is with that singer with teased hair like a girl?  But...the guitars were hitting me.  That singer, though, and the teased hair and screeching....ugh...it didn't fit the guitars...

But...there I was...sneaking the cross tape into the deck late at night at like 2 or 3 volume.  And then, there I was, thumbtacking up pages from the ole rock magazines of Gn'R to our walls.

The rest is history.  That following summer, all MTV played was SCOM and 'Pour Some Sugar on Me.'  Great times.  The best of times.  I saw Gn'R that summer and again in '91 before UYI.

I have the "cross" tape--the only tape.  My bro's tape went as did my friend's on his boom box--there's only so many times you can wind that tape back in there before it snaps.

I've got my cross tape, though.

[Italian girl]

bought mine in the early 90s..

still got it!

[no1gooner]

Yeah had it along with the UYI ones. Also had YCBM single on tape, if I remember rightly it had civil war as a b side. Sadly l can't find them in my mothers house now.

[Gracii Guns]

I did have the cassette with the cross cover on. But it was a charity shop purchase in the early 2000s. Don't have it now, I think I swapped it for a bootleg DVD.

[Stoymatic]

if only i was into gnr when i was 1-5 years old hahahaha

i will say that when i was a kid, a lot of people from my hometown jammed to gnr all the time. never got into them enough to buy an album until i was much older

[madmardigan]

I first got the album on cassette in maybe 88 or 89, 4th or 5th grade sometime around there. I still have it along with Lies, UYI 1 & UYI 2 in an old cassette case back at my parent's house. Basically that cassette case is a time capsule of late 80's - early 90s metal bands: GnR, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Motley Crue, Cinderella, etc

Thinking some more about my AFD cassette, I'm trying to remember if its the original one I got or if I replaced it later on because the original got eaten or melted Anyway, I miss that smell of opening a new cassette package, especially the clear cartridge cassettes. I don't know why but they smelled different when you opened the packaging.

Edited May 25, 2017 by madmardigan

[Izzymacbeth]

Still have all my cassettes including singles. AFD was my first followed by Illusion 1. Had to hide them from my parents as I was only a kid, I was 9 and didn't have a big hi-fi in my room and wasn't going to use my parents, just a cassette Walkman and I'd listen in bed all night and at school all day. As loud as it could go. 

[gnfnrs1972]

I have a friend at work that has the cassette with the original artwork. He says he bought it before wttj took off on the advice of one of the guys working at the store. I have something myself that might be rare, I have Live Era on cassette.

Edited May 25, 2017 by gnfnrs1972

[SoundOfAGun]

First GN'R tape I owned! I wanted the You Could Be Mine single which I think was back in 1991 and this guy on a market stall said he didn't have it, but that if I liked Guns N' Roses, I should buy AFD. He also said that if I didn't like it, I could bring it back and get a refund, so it was win win! I never went back and played that tape until it snapped, amazing album.

Edited May 25, 2017 by SoundOfAGun

[Nice Boy]

I first came across AFD on cassette in the UK in 89/90, my older brother had a copy. It was issued by a company called 'Thompson Original', who at the time were publishing what seemed to be unauthorised / unlicensed copies of popular albums (I saw a New Kids on the Block one too.)

The artwork was totally different, so neither the cross or Robert Williams painting. It was just a glam-era picture of the band with the name superimposed. I always wondered how this 'Thompson Original' company got away with it and where they were actually sold.

Another curiosity for me was how GnR managed to be so big in 89 that they even had a big presence in rural areas of the UK like where I lived, considering they hadn't really done that many shows in this country. Their merchandise was everywhere, and I latched onto them despite being only 9 years old, living in rural UK far from a city or any rock scene, never having seen them in a video etc.. I guess the music just really was that good. - To be fair I reckon Alan Niven must have done an especially good job of promoting them here as he knew how the press worked here, being a former native Brit.  

[Bad Attitude]

I don't have the official release of AFD on cassette but I have a copy of it. I got it from a school mate.

Here is my cassette collection of GNR and related:

Edited May 30, 2017 by Bad Attitude
added more images

[minnow]

Similar to others, I saw SCOM video in early summer '88 and it blew my mind. Sometime that summer i got AFD on cassette and I played that thing out. By the end of the summer MTV had WTTJ and (I believe) Paradise City in heavy rotation. Each video showed a different side of the band, and to me there was nothing cooler than them, especially Axl.