The-Jungle83

It's so difficult to pin it down to one thing, so I'm not going to, I'm just gonna flat out roll and see what comes out, here goes...

He's a complete one-off... as they say, often imitated but never duplicated, say what you want about him but he has never been boring or dull (either in good or bad ways). I can imagine Axl still being here in his 70s, still doing what he does with whatever voice he still has, and you know what? I'll still love him. He, his band and their music have soundtracked some of the most amazing times in my life, and inspired me through the not so amazing ones.

I told a story here last year about my first live GNR experience in 2006, the weeks, days, and hours  leading up to that first time seeing GNR live - it was a hell of a time in my life, and Axl inspired that whirlwind of emotions - as far down as completely replaying GTA San Andreas with K-DST constantly on loop (If you know, you know right? 😁)... that's how emotionally invested I was in the whole Axl/GNR package back then.

the aforementioned story - 

I'm going to see them again on the 5th of next month, and you know what...? I'm still invested. I for one am going to dedicate a day or 2 before the gig, to reliving those halcyon days back in summer '06, I'll walk the same streets with Paradise City blaring in my ears, I'll drink in the same bars, I'll visit all the same places, I'll do my damn best to recapture the feelings I had back then... why? because I want to, because Axl inspires me to do so, and I cannot say that of any other artist I've ever been to see in my life. All the criticism of Axl's voice is all background noise to me at this stage, I heard all the same criticisms  on MyGNR when I was here in 06 too, but my thinking now is as it was then - the physical entity that is W. Axl Rose comes down to so much more than rasp or mickey, we still have Axl, so try your best to enjoy him for who he is, and who he continues to be, while you still can... because nothing lasts forever, even cold November rain.

This is what Axl is to me, I'm sorry it was so long - but it was never gonna be a couple of sentences was it? 😁

Hope you all have an awesome day, peace n' love.

- Maybe tonight's the night for HS!

- Nevermind, maybe next time.

- Maybe TONIGHT'S the night? maybe?

- Ah no, not tonight either.

(Release of song) Ah this doesn't count, it was recorded back in the Cretaceous period with Axl bellowing through a Viking horn and the drums being hammered with a caveman club by a strung-out Genghis Khan dressed like Marie Antoinette.

- OK, tonight's DEFINITELY the night, please Axl!! HS live!!!

(opening to HS plays)

- OHMYGOOOOODDDDDDD!!!

MyGNR the following day:

- Mehhhh Axl's voice bla bla, Mickey bla bla bla, no rasp bla bla frickin bla.

This place sometimes mannnn, this place. 

OK, so first I will introduce myself, I was a member of this very forum many years ago... having joined out of sheer excitement that I was about to see the band for the first time ever having been a fan for so many years prior, yet never having the chance to see them - at last it was finally happening, and I'd found a forum to vent that excitement on! I lost access to that account (under a similar name) in the following years, so here I am with a new one, to vent my excitement at seeing the band again... next year.

My apologies, but this will be a long post, as I'm in a reminiscent mood and I would just like to revisit my feelings and memories of that first live experience with GNR, and what it means to me, even all these years later.

The year is 2006.
I am 22 years of age.
Long-haired and carefree.

I have just managed to secure tickets for the Chinese Democracy World Tour, the closest location to me was then known as the Metro Radio Arena, in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. I secured 2 seated tickets, to the right of the stage, roughly 10 seats back, 6 rows up... the gig was months away, on the 19th July, and I could not have been any more impatient for that date to arrive. During that time in my life, I lived and breathed GNR, I listened to little else on my Sony Ericsson W810i phone, as well as on my new-fangled 8 CD hi-fi, I could regularly be found earphones in, with some kind of GNR related reading material in hand on the bus to work every morning, so to say my acquisition of tickets to actually see them was mind-alteringly exciting for me would be a huge understatement.

I went to collect the physical tickets (which I still have) from the arena's box office not long before the gig, they were black tickets, featuring the GNR CD-era logo, and that of their support act, Bullet For My Valentine ,(Sebastian Bach also supported that night, as well as joining GNR on stage if memory serves), I felt like I had a priceless artefact in my hand - I was going, finally, I WAS GOING. I met a couple of friends at a bar near the arena after picking up the tickets, and I sat there the whole night with the tickets on the table while everyone drank their drinks - in hindsight a bit OTT, but I did not want to take my eyes off the tickets, and wanted everyone to know I had them too.

Time passed, slowly... slowly... slowly...

Days felt like months, hours felt like weeks, but finally the day came.

July 19th 2006.

I was in the prime of my life, I had no worries to speak of, I had a job that I loved, and I set off for work that morning knowing I had an early finish booked in that day in order to prepare for the night's festivities... as much as I enjoyed my job, and bizarrely, the commute to it every morning, the GNR fanboy ruled that day - I was immersed in what was to come, to me nothing else mattered in the world.

I was booked in for a 3pm finish, for a gig with a door opening time of 6:00 (if I remember correctly)... and I'd forfeited my lunch break as well as exercising some flexi-time in order to get said early finish, and believe me - I was counting the hours. And then, the time came...

I logged out of my workstation, said goodbye for the day to my workmates (one of whom was also going to the night's gig) and I swaggered out of the door, into the almost blistering heat of the mid afternoon (that day would go on to become the hottest on record at the time for where I lived). I put my earphones in, and leisurely wandered through the village in which I worked, without a care in the world... and all the hope in the universe, on my way for the bus home. It was hours before, but it was time... the sun was blazing, and the song in my ears - Paradise City, never before or since has a song fitted a moment in my life so seamlessly and perfectly.

The bus moved too slowly, but at the same time just at the right speed for my relaxed mood, I was soaking up the scenery, absorbing every note and lyric in my ears, drinking everything in, and using it to fuel my excitement for everything that lay ahead that night.

The gig that went down in history as the night Axl kept us waiting for hours on end, inside an arena, on the hottest day on record in Newcastle, only to end up being bottled (or pound-coined) off stage by some moronic idiot in the middle of Nightrain... "we came here to do the show, and one of you is a f**king c*nt...".

Newcastle was deprived of Paradise City that night, but I have nothing but amazing memories of that show, and the days and hours leading up to it. I still have the tickets, the tour shirts I bought, as well as a printed card featuring a braided Axl alongside the words 'I Was There - Guns N' Roses, Metro Radio Arena 2006, these were given to us all as we filed under the bridge towards the arena stairs, I still have it all, even the red paisley bandana I wore that night.

I returned to see GNR when they played the same venue in 2012, where we got our Paradise City at the end of an epic show, and I will be at Glasgow Green next year, but I will always carry memories of that summer's day in 2006, when I felt as if, in my life... nothing else mattered.

❤ Always GNR, the soundtrack to some of the greatest times in my life. ❤