Nice Boy

It's crazy to think, that in the entire 4 year mammoth tour, apart from Download festival they only played 2 UK shows, on two consecutive nights, in only one city, London. Why the hell didn't they do more UK shows?

I remember at Manchester in 2006 they brought Izzy on and went straight into Think About You, to my great surprise.. I thought it was an unexpected choice of song but enjoyed it of course

6 hours ago, Towelie said:

1 and a half billion Youtube views and counting says otherwise.

It has also been claimed that "100 million Bon Jovi fans can't be wrong". But it turns out they were all very, very wrong.

I rest my case lol 

The thing about him coming across as bitter, etc: Slash's book was also full of blame and complaint, but no one finished it and thought oh what an asshole. 

Apart from Axl

30 minutes ago, PatrickS77 said:

Disagree. Estranged has more edge and is less saccharine. Especially if you want to pit it against AFD.

Absolutely. I think November Rain is crap actually.

It's too saccharine.

I don't think the rasp voice suits the intro. Clean voice like Patience would have worked better.

It's too long.

It's way too indulgent on Axl's part, the other band members clearly think it's a drag playing it. Ask probably hates doing it now too.

The Slash 'solo' isn't really a solo, like SCOM. It's just a 4 bar loop repeated.

It's not even catchy. Doesn't have a chorus hook as the other hits do. If you ask the average person about it they might know of the song, but will struggle to recall how it 'goes'. 

Actually having read it, it does have some interesting bits and things I haven't heard before about influences on their sound and early songs. 

Let me guess

"We were the only five guys that could blah blah blah crawling round L.A." 

the end

I never understood the hatred for Matt from some fans, I find him very likeable. His spoken recollections of the GnR era are always interesting and seem pretty candid. Wry sense of humour. At the time he was one of the few people who didn't take Axl's bullshit, probably to his loss in the long term. Drumming wise I prefer Adler really but Matt's Tom sound is awesome, the intro to New Rose and YCBM being good examples.

But either way, if the record company releases a single which they've played on then they would surely be informed of that ?

21 hours ago, Chester 524 said:

Steven should know by now, right?  I mean should he get some money from this if it was him?  surely he saw a paycheck by now??

That's what I was thinking - as far as I recall, Steven said he wasn't sure if it's him on drums - and I thought, well surely it should be clear who's on drums because if it was Steven he would have to be credited and paid for it, so how can it even be a case of uncertainty who it was?

3 hours ago, Atlas19 said:

Sure!!! And that amazing laundry bag!!!!

I found one lying on the street by my house, pretty pleased with that, lol 💪

"We're just a rock n roll band"

"We were the only five guys who could have made up that band"

"All things considered.."

What other interview stock phrases have they endlessly repeated? 😑

I was always amazed (in retrospect) how GnR managed to gain such a secure foothold and presence in the U.K., and I think a lot of it was down to how clever Alan Niven was in manipulating the British press and rock scene. He deserves credit for that.

I don't think Goldstein became an Axl "yes man" simply for his own financial gain (although he did gain) - I think he simply saw that the only way to appease Axl and keep the band together was to become that Yes man. Ultimately though it was a mistake to effectively let Axl believe he could do anything he wanted. That's why Slash and Duff disliked him. 

Didn't one of the managers allegedly get a bit too close to one of Axl's wives?

Tbf all he needs to fly off stage is a black furry jacket. "I'll take it goddammit" etc

On 1/27/2021 at 3:24 AM, rocknroll41 said:

The guy playing him in the live action reenactment of his arrest doesn’t even look like him.

My friend sent me the application form that went out to find 3 actors for this programme, lol. (I have a passing resemblance, red hair etc.) They wanted 3 guys to play young / wilderness / current Axl. Not many speaking parts I think. Glad I didn't go for it ha.

True the circumstances are way different now to the UYI tour era. 

I don't think it's unreasonable to tour for money, not least because as someone pointed out above, in the UYI era bands toured to break even and made money by selling records. Now it's more the reverse, the records make fuck all money so the touring has to be the earner 

Also I think they are actually conscious of legacy, plus actually giving fans what they want. People in this forum have developed and given each other a really cynical attitude since no new music has appeared but I think it will for the same reason, they are very conscious of legacy no matter how much it might appear otherwise. And Axl is slow to release music not because he is 'lazy'. There are numerous reasons, probably including:

Being an obsessive perfectionist

Actually nervous about public reaction to new album (wouldn't you be if you'd spent a zillion dollars and years to produce CD and get that reaction?)

Co-ordinating the band, to agree on musical direction 

A ton of legal issues - that is my guess why a lot of material including leaked stuff hasn't been given an official release.

I'm not totally apologetic of the band. I just don't get the constant negative narrative from some in here that goes "I hate this band / they are just greedy / were never going to get an album." We might not but probably will is my guess. 

Personally I'd prefer a band to have a small, decent catalogue than release a dozen mediocre albums for the sake of it. If it takes time, so be it. 

Also. Regarding all the tacky merchandise that gets released. That is not happening "instead" of a new album. You gotta remember, the GnR franchise is a huge enterprise run by corporate men who are coining it in by selling crap yes, but  -  that doesn't mean it's the actual band sitting around saying "I know, let's sell a toy truck."

In fact we know that they have been opposed to the selling of tacky crap. One example being from when I met the designer guy from Universal who told me the band were against the inclusion of all that junk in the AFD boxset. But the record company insisted on it.

People saying "money" and insinuating it is simply down to greed, that's not a clever answer, too simplistic. If his only motivation was greed he wouldn't have spent most of the UYI tour only breaking even. 

I would speculate a lot of his post CD touring was necessary to cover huge debts for studio time etc. On that Kimmel interview he half joked about not making any money. I would also guess that he has since continued to tour to accumulate a retirement fund and just maybe because he's actually enjoying it.

Tbh if I had to sing the same ten minute soppy love song about a woman I fell out of love with over 20 years ago a million times, I would not do it with enthusiasm either

I think he would have a better chance of pulling it off at the Superbowl though, singing a couple of songs is not as demanding as doing a three hour set, he could go all out for 15 minutes and it might sound ok

On 12/31/2020 at 1:35 AM, Gunner55 said:

Where/when did Axl say that? 

But yeah I chalked up a good chunk of Slash's book as lies. I remember he talked about St. Louis in it, said after Axl walked off they kept playing the riff for a while, all the while he was conversing with a tech or something asking where Axl went and if he was coming back (I'm paraphrasing, I haven't read that book in a good 10 years). But like, it's on YouTube. That didn't happen lol. 

I noticed that discrepancy too, but it's clearly not "lies", it's just that he was recalling the sequence off the top of his head and it's slightly different to what the footage shows. There's no reason for him to try to deliberately mislead the reader, especially when the actual sequence of events can be seen on the video. It's a very minor discrepancies anyway, doesn't detract from the story.

11 hours ago, Nodnarb901 said:

I remembered hearing that Axl/GNR recorded something with either NWA or just Easy-E. 

I believe it was called yellow brick road to Compton. 

Would love to hear that.

 

I've always been fascinated by the GnR/NWA thing too. I don't think there is any track with Axl and Easy on though. I think Slash said there was some demo, that was more GnR than NWA.

Any new 1987/1988 proshots or just decent video and audio of full shows from then. They do exist. I found a snippet of one that no one had seen in the middle of an old TV feature a while ago, posted it up here and no one had seen it before or knew of the full video.

I think the conclusion was that the TV producers must have the full show in their archive, the snippet had its logo on it. Axl was singing KOHD with the teased hair, haha

Matt, good: reliable, professional, and amazing low tom sound (e.g. New Rose)

Matt, bad: shit snare sound, bit ploddy tempo overall sometimes

I think his personality is fine, can be a funny storyteller. 

The thing about ego etc isn't an issue for me. I think he was basically the one band member who wasn't shy to get in Axl's face and tell him to get the fuck back on stage when he was flouncing. The others would just hide and drink. 

I'm not bothered about Frank, if the band's happy with him then I am, I don't get the excessive hatred he receives, half the time it doesn't even seem to be based on anything musical, just some lame feeling that he's a new guy who doesn't deserve to be in the lineup, doesn't have the right hairstyle, crap like that. 

There is an Axl biopic in the works. My friend sent me the application link that the production company put out to find their actors to play 3 Axls of various ages. (Because I'm a pasty white guy with red hair.)

I don't believe Gilby and a horn section 'caused' the band to implode, not at all. Ok it happened around that era but don't confuse correlation for causation.

If anything, Gilby's addition enabled them to continue. And they still did the Skin n Bones tour after they'd dropped the backings section. 

On 12/5/2020 at 11:29 AM, JimiRose said:

 

The answer is - Get fit, look at jagger, look at tyler. they still song close to their peak voice and they're in fantastic shape.

You cannot point to Tyler and say that Axl should be able to sing with a strong high rasp because Tyler still manages to. It's not a fair comparison at all. Tyler's natural speaking voice his high and raspy - It's way easier for him to sing a few hours like that. Axl's natural speaking voice is way, way lower, and his high rasp was always forced (yet well controlled), but it's not natural for him. It's a considerable effort for him to force it for hours at his age. A much more difficult task than Tyler's.