W. Axl Kev

I'm not sure they'll "tour" this year. Maybe the odd show here and there but nothing like the last 2 years. These things are logistical difficulties and they've recently announced their tours with more notice, presumably to enhance ticket sales. You can't expect to announce a stadium show 3 months from now and sell it out.

Maybe next year is more likely.

22 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

Sure. You are looking at a temporary chapter from my A4D section on the history of GN\R that details some of the people that were involved with the band in the period 1995-2000. In this chapter I try to collect all quote-based information I have on these guys. 

Thank you - when I opened it I did so without context and wasn't sure what I was looking at.

21 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

Here's my chapter on some of the guys who worked with Axl in the period 1995-2000, in various capacities: (19) 21. SEPTEMBER 1997-NOVEMBER 1999: JOSH AND TOMMY JOINS, ROBIN LEAVES, LIVE ERA IS RELEASED - Page 2 (a-4-d.com)

This includes Sean Paden, Gary Sunshine, Billy Howerdel and Rob Holliday. I will likely split this chapter into four new chapters and put them more chronologically in the story, but for now I will just keep it like this.

Hi - can you clarify what I'm looking at here? It's clearly a number of quotes from individuals who were there but I'm not quite sure what the sequence of events are.

Really cool story and photo. Another tick in the box of Axl being a decent guy, which after seeing him live for 17 years now, I'm totally convinced of. Hope one day he documents that part of his life but if he doesn't that's just fine too. Guy is a complete legend. Other guy seems really cool too.

15 hours ago, mystery said:

For people who have gone to concerts in recent years I'm curious at what the general perception of the Chinese Democracy songs are and if the people there are generally aware of them?

I tend to think they're received quite well because they're quite impressive musically and visually when performed live. I remember back in the day The Blues/Street of Dreams used to be the bathroom break song.

I saw the band 3 times in 2021 and they were just amazing. Metlife, Chicago and Florida (night 1). Florida stood out because of the intimate size of the venue but I was beaming hearing casual fans around me marvel at how Axl's "still got it". And he did/does. He was magical that night. I was also one of those unfortunate suckers standing at the stage at Welcome to Rockville before the rain and lightning came.

What surprises me about 2023 is that their first port of call is to head back to London where their shows were all but disastrous. Hyde Park attracted circa 100,000 fans over 2 nights for Liam Gallagher. I'd be staggered if they got a quarter of that. That said, when the Summer rolls around and the weather is good people might head along. Glastonbury however is the mecca of UK headline acts and is televised live. Unless Axl has musters the 1992 version of himself they'll never sell a ticket in England again. When you're there singing along it's so great. On TV, less so.

When MetLife 2021 had 40,000 fans I was staggered but then again that was the first big gig in NY/NJ post Covid-19. They haven't been back since but I just cannot gauge what sort of audience they'd draw now. Maybe MSG for 10,000? Can't see another stadium tour.

3 hours ago, allwaystired said:

Glastonbury could be terrible for them. 

If they don't REALLY perform well they'll get torn to shreds by people as it goes out live on TV here and Brits are notoriously brutal with this sort of thing! 

For many people this will be the first time they've seen proper footage of the band in years and years, and I can't see them being kind. 

 

 

 

Couldn't agree more. I think this is a bad idea. If you're it's great but Axl would have to deliver on a 1993/2010 scale to get a fair turn by the British press. I'm surprised they're racing back to London after last Summer's catastrophe.

On 11/19/2022 at 1:18 AM, Gibson87 said:

I'm beating a dead horse here (pun intended) but it's still baffling to me that they chose to play 5 covers and only 4 UYI songs a week after the boxset comes out. 

Mate, who taught you math?

Edit: I apologize. I’ve since read your comment on the charts on setlistfm. I’m not deleting my original remark so I can own the fact I was a prick about it. Sorry!

Glad everyone at the show had a good time. Axl struggling on some songs has been included in every review for 21 years now.

I haven’t listened to much of it yet so I need to reserve judgement. I put it on my Sonos (via Spotify) today and it shuffled it so I didn’t get straight live stuff.

I encountered the remastered Breakdown and I wouldn’t have been able to tell any difference. The Vegas stuff sounded excellent, the Ritz stuff less so.
 

It’s cool to have official live GN’R music out but the frustrated fan in me (which is 10% max) sees little difference between releasing live material that has been, largely, available for 30 years and renaming Silkworms and telling us it’s a brand new single.

I haven’t formed my thoughts yet so I need to think this through and listen to it more. Glad everyone is enjoying it though. That’s what matters.

57 minutes ago, Rovim said:

the professiomal media was extremely biased against Axl so taking what they said about the '06 Download show seriously doesn't make sense. They gave great reviews for less than stellar NITL shows as well imo. Some reviews seems honest but there's a lot of agenda driven shit out there when it comes to reviews I think.

From the media's point of view his behavior was bizarre and open to interpretation. They'd emerge with new band members on tour with zero dialogue with fans or the media and an album which he hardly even acknowledged the existence of (albeit I accept he did some interviews in 06 which suggested it'd come out at some point). He'd also come on stage 2/3 hours late still 14/15 years later and people just weren't having it any more. At the Hammersmith show in London in 06 it was getting so late that people were booing non-stop between songs over the PA. They eventually came on at 11:30pm and loads of people had to leave less than an hour later to make the last train. I didn't care because that didn't apply to me but shit like that didn't sit well with people when he re-emerged.

We're officially at rock bottom when Guns N' Roses new single is 'November Rain'.

Sorry I don't think DJ Ashba is on Axl's radar whatsoever. He's very much an also-ran member of the band's history. Just last year DJ was on Eddie Trunk's show non-stop talking about Guns N' Roses. Non-entity for me. Surprised he wasn't picked as the Motley Crue replaced for Mick Mars but that's probably a reflection of Nikki Sixx' opinion of the guy.

On 10/29/2022 at 2:50 PM, Tom2112 said:

They "bombed" at Download because there was a very vocal part of the crowd booing and bringing a complete negative vibe to the set.

There was absolutely no reason for the crowd to boo GNR at this time as they arrived on stage at their designated time. They were also in the middle of heavy hitters like WTTJ, ISE, Brownstone, LALD they hadn't even got to the Chinese songs... Axl sounded incredible as did the band. Problem was the audience went in expecting GNR to be fuck acting, instead they got the opposite where GNR were ready to go and were delivering... but the crowd were all riled up and ready for the opposite, so it took until about half way through the 2nd half of the gig for the band and crowd to come together.

They played Dublin the day before and even with the 3 unknown songs the crowd loved it... same set list, came on stage on time, sang/played their asses off. 

So... did GNR stink up the stage or did the crowd just fuck up what would have been a great gig? I think the crowd are to blame. Public perception of GNR/Axl at the time was pretty fucking negative (somewhat fair, somewhat unfair) and that created the bedrock for their Download 2006 set.

This is a fair response but written from a very pro-GN'R point of view. The professional media reviews at the time weren't glowing about the show which they found disjointed and a bit weird. There was no love for Axl from the general public back then but that has definitely changed over the years.

On 10/21/2022 at 5:25 AM, Stay.Of.Execution said:

So as we've already heard, GNR apparently are heavily rumoured to play glastonbury next year (https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife/glastonbury-2023-line-up-headliners-7697791)

The ticket sales for the festival start on nov 3rd. Surely they will be announcing at least some of their headliners by then, right? 

Ugh, I hate this idea. I'm old enough to remember them bombing at Download 2006 (I was at their warm-up show at Hammersmith '06). A tedious, overly-long, obscure setlist featuring like 4/5 (CD) songs that they'd never released + 3 guitar solos from members the audience had never heard of. The UK media is brutal. Their 2 night stint in London this Summer didn't go well due to Axl's vocal problems (you pay to see GN'R and see Carrie Underwood singing SCOM instead you have a right to be annoyed) and they then canceled the show in Scotland which is yet to be re-arranged. Their overall perception in the UK isn't great at the minute.

Glastonbury headline acts are broadcast live on UK TV to the general public and are watched by millions. If they play that, Axl will have to find his inner 1993 because, if not, they'll be slaughtered and will never book an arena or stadium in the UK again. Mistake for me.

It's pretty much impossible to know what this thread is about anymore given it's grown into a million different conversations. I imagine no one cares but given the thread is about a "new" album, I'll share my thoughts:

GN'R don't need a new album nor should they release one. For me, 75% of the mystique of Guns N' Roses (in any of your preferred line ups) is the unfulfilled potential. Wondering how great it could've been, in my opinion, is the wonder that will far surpass any meek record the band release in their 60's with overproduced, generic Slash music with Axl buried in the mix. They'd literally have to release the record Axl refused to record in the mid 90's. He's still right about that now!

Suffice it to say, there was a time for this to be capitalized on but that was 6 years ago when they had everyone's attention. Now I'm happy to see them live when I can knowing that no one will ever know how great they could've truly been. And by the way, I realize how sad a statement that is but its an occupational hazard of being a fan, right?

28 minutes ago, cineater said:

Short encore

How many songs?

Do we have no idea on set-list? I was intending to go to this show but left it too late and the flight prices from New York were nuts. 

1 hour ago, cineater said:

Really?  The ones I was at we never sat down and we had chairs.

I’m perhaps biased because I’m from the UK originally so I’ve seen them there and here. Here I always thought the crowd were fairly stationery. Having a chair and standing doesn’t mean the roof is coming off.

I’m flying down for the Mexico City show in a few weeks and I’m expecting a great crowd at that.

Actually - I will say the 2017 Miami crowd was awesome.

Crowd looked incredible. South American & European audiences give life to bands like GN’R. Every US show I’ve been to the crowd have sat the whole show. They don’t get it.

3 hours ago, DTJ80 said:

For anyone criticising GNR/Axls vocals…..I saw footage of Ian Brown (Stone Roses) at a gig last night. WOW. 🤣

£50….just ‘sang’ over a backing tape so didn’t even bother bringing a band…..played no Stone Roses songs….horrifically off-key.

Dunno if he is struggling with stuff which would be a shame but…..wow. 😬

You couldn't pay me to see a fully fit, non-struggling Ian Brown. He's never been able to sing. I don't get the reverence of him.

Miami 2017 at the Marlins' Ball Park was my favorite show of the NITL tour and my favorite shirt/litho. I regret to this day not buying one.

1 hour ago, Pedrolg said:

Wow, something about Axl was different today. That lost mid range rasp found its way into some of the songs and it seemed almost by accident. Civil War, Jungle and even NR and SCOM. 

Also some of the range that seemed lost from 18-21 is back. Back in Black might not sound like it did with AC/DC but he is hitting those notes. If he keeps improving like that we might get an unexpected second wind here.

That’s great to hear. I saw them 3 times on the We’re F’n Back tour last year and he improved every time but by the last one I saw (Florida night 1) he sounded powerful and in control.

What I will say is the wonderful voice he found in 2016-2018 seems to be gone and that’s absolutely okay. He’s 60 now but I reckon he’ll go out on top. He (and they) look and sound great.

Likely alone in this, but I thought he sounded really good and the performance was good fun. Looking forward to Daytona in a couple of weeks.

I'm coming in off-topic in this thread but I've done that thing (you all do) when I've had a couple of glasses of wine and went YouTube surfing the very finest GN'R videos. I saw them 3 times last year and swore every time that they were utterly tremendous. To the extent I'm flying down to Daytona Beach from New York next month to do it once more time.

But I noticed something. I have been a long time defender of Axl's live singing voice because I swear, when you're there, he sounds like does on the records. But watching back the videos, the enormous regression between 2019 and 2021 is startling. I'm basing this mainly on Live and Let Die because as recently as 2016-2019 he sounded incredible doing that scream. Now? He skips the start, and gives a version of it that is what you'd expect as a nostalgia play from a classic rock band. But yet he looks healthier than he has done in years.

The obvious point is, clearly, they are an ageing rock band and maybe it's hard to let it go. But Axl turned it on so hard in the big moments live in recent years, I'll be sad if that's something that is fading. I don't really have a real point here worth further debate but if I can't share it here then what's the point, right?

On 2/2/2022 at 8:32 PM, Tom-Ass said:

They have to be from the reunion line up.. The only thing that was weird is that they announced it only a couple shows into the last tour..  The performances of You're Crazy definitely weren't good enough to release at that point.  Axl still sounded like he was in band rehearsals trying to remember how to sing the song..  

While both live tracks are more appealing to me than Hardschool and Absurd are, it's not enough for me to want it.. I already own superior versions of these songs. Will give them both a listen on youtube though.. Would be cool if they made a video to go with one of the live tracks too.. But they won't...

His "You're Crazy" at the Hard Rock in Florida was unreal. I remember being blown away. Of course, Youtube always tells a different story but it wont affect my memory.