andy-robertson

Anway, can't wait for the idiots to pull the "lol whatevs, pearl jams music suxx0rs newayzzz" "argument".

Ha!! Surely no such opinions can exist in this version of reality?!?!

No, just be a professional and give it all FOR YOUR FANS, not against some manager or whoever.

Judging by your avatar, I think you'd agree with me that the band that currently most embodies what you've detailed above are the mighty Pearl Jam.

I've been to 4 of their shows, and my first one happened to be at Reading Festival. They came on stage bang on time, made sure the crowd were ok, and the only time they stopped (albeit briefly) was when some people were being carried out over the front barrier, as they knew that if they kicked into the next song (which was Even Flow) then the place would go nuts, and people could quite easily have been hurt. Every other time I've seen them, they've never been more that 10 mins late on stage, and always play a 2 hours+ set, which is 25 SONGS, not 18 songs with a lot of tossing about in between.

All this from a band that are just as big (I'd now say bigger) than GN'R. It seems like everyone other band wants to get on stage as soon as they can and play a show for their fans, whereas one individual thinks otherwise.

If he really has this thing about waiting for ages or taking a long time to prepare, then the solution is quite simple - GET UP EARLIER. If I know I have a load of things to do the next day, or a deadline to meet, I make sure I manage my time and get my priorities straight. I've said it before and I'll say it again: any other line of work and this tardy behaviour would not be accepted.

For the love of fucking Axl himself I hope they hit the stage on time and/or are done by 11:30 or so, because the last train from Reading to London leaves at 0110!

Reading station is at tops 20 mins walk...at most.

Yeah, but you've got to take into account getting out of the arena first, and then the fact that there will be swathes of people all making a b-line for the station, so there will inevitably be congestion. Probably be queues outside the station as well, as the police will try to keep people out of the actual 'station' bit until the trains have actually arrived, for quite understandable safety reasons... If there are hundreds of people trying to cram on to the platform as the train arrives, it's inevitable that there would be someone who fell off the edge, especially seeing as most of the people will have been drinking all day.

So, for everyone's sake, I hope they show up on time!!

i agree with this

He should go for it if it won't derail the rest of the tour

What, so you're happy to see one particular show go down the pan, just so you're beloved singer can be the big 'I am' to a promoter who was quite entitled to remind him of the situation regarding the curfew?

Nevermind the people that are going and might need to get home afterwards...

I'm starting to sound like a broken record of this subject, but then again, so are the fucking idiots who are clamouring for Axl to turn up late. There is absolutely NO reason to think anything good will come of it.

Stop idolising and trying to make excuses for one man's personality disorder that prevents him from starting show on time. I love the man as a singer and musician, but when shows are in jeopardy over the stupidest things, then it really pisses me off. Then to see people HOPING for this to happen makes me realise how sad some people are, that it's got to the stage where they want bad things to happen to other people, because anything else wouldn't be to Axl's liking.

People are fallible. Axl Rose is certainly fallible. Pull your heads out of your arses and wake up to the fact that he doesn't walk on water, and that this going on late thing is not cool, it is in fact very childish. Ask anybody at Reading/Leeds who they would side with: Melvin Benn or Axl Rose... I can pretty much guarantee you that it will Melvin Benn. Why? Because he's doing his best to make sure that the money paying audience get to see a full set, and get a festival again next year.

If any of you retards still think it's 'cool' or 'bad-ass' to go on stage late at Reading/Leeds, then you are either incredibly stupid, selfish, or more than likely both.

Geez.... I hope he's on time, but some people here act like if they were late it would fuck yp everything.

Well, without putting too fine a point on it, it would. The organisers have set their stall out, saying that if they plan to play beyond their curfew due to coming on stage late, then it won't happen. So either you get a shorter set, no set at all, or a riot... with a riot being a very possible by-product of either scenario (late or no-show). You have to realise that there is a world outside of Guns N' Roses. Melvin Benn et al have been running this festival for years before GNR, and hopefully for many years after. They won't be thinking "wow, wouldn't it be great if we told Axl he couldn't play past 11:30pm, but then he DID(!), and it was a real hoot for everyone on MYGNR who wasn't actually there, and then maybe next year, there won't even be a festival AT ALL!!!! That would REALLY cause some controversy!!" [And also bring to an end the greastest festival in the UK - in my opinion]. Sure, it would suck for every other rock fan in the UK, not to mention the hundreds of bands that aspire to play there, but as long as every Axl fan-boy gets to say that he's uber-cool, where's the harm?

So no matter how much you may want to convince yourself that it's fine because it's just the way Axl is, or that he can be forgiven for coming on stage late because he won't change, then you are either a little short of grey-matter, or living in denial. Or maybe even too caught up in the 'aura of Axl' - much like the empathy hostages can feel towards their captors... Stockholm Syndrome I believe it is called.

I, like the majority of fans who attend concerts, will have spent most of their time working hard and saving money, so that when we have a little bit of spare time, we can enjoy ourselves and do something fun with the money that we have earnt. So why is it, that when we pay this money to watch someone else at work, they get to do just as they please? It's all well and good to pull the 'It's Axl'-card, but when people are contracted to be on stage at a certain time, and people will have made other costly arrangements (travel etc) to fit in with those plans, then the person they are essentially employing decides to turn up later than agreed, how do you think that sits with the employer - ie, the audience? When was the last time you went to the cinema, or a sports event, and the start was delayed? Event times are advertised so that the people responsible for financially facilitating the whole thing to go ahead - yep, that'll be those pesky audience members again - are able to go about the rest of their day/night knowing what the score is in terms of making their way home or finding somewhere to stay.

It's great if you've got nothing on the next day and live locally, but the majority of people will have to get up for work the following day, and get back to the monotonous grind of our daily jobs. But if you only got to do half of what you wanted the night before because some arsehole singer didn't come on stage until an hour before the last train or bus, then it does "fuck up everything" as you say.

Couldn't agree more. And, I think it would be awesome if the show went on late and noone said a thing. Then, at the curfew time, the promoter pulled the plug and the stage went silent. That's it, folks..............good night!

Then Axl will just cancel Leeds, 100%

And who will be to blame?

My point exactly... This festival; every concert this band is booked to play; the audience etc. is (or at least should be) bigger than one man's ego and his predisposition to throwing a tantrum if he doesn't get his way. Oh boo-fucking-hoo, you have to go on stage when you're told to. How about the tens of thousands of people who have to adhere to the regulations such as buying extortionately priced alcohol in the arena because they can't bring their own booze in with them. Or the people who live in the surrounding area who have may not necessarily like music or festivals who have to put up with it for the sake of others' enjoyment every year.

Geez.... I hope he's on time, but some people here act like if they were late it would fuck yp everything.

Well, without putting too fine a point on it, it would. The organisers have set their stall out, saying that if they plan to play beyond their curfew due to coming on stage late, then it won't happen. So either you get a shorter set, no set at all, or a riot... with a riot being a very possible by-product of either scenario (late or no-show). You have to realise that there is a world outside of Guns N' Roses. Melvin Benn et al have been running this festival for years before GNR, and hopefully for many years after. They won't be thinking "wow, wouldn't it be great if we told Axl he couldn't play past 11:30pm, but then he DID(!), and it was a real hoot for everyone on MYGNR who wasn't actually there, and then maybe next year, there won't even be a festival AT ALL!!!! That would REALLY cause some controversy!!" [And also bring to an end the greastest festival in the UK - in my opinion]. Sure, it would suck for every other rock fan in the UK, not to mention the hundreds of bands that aspire to play there, but as long as every Axl fan-boy gets to say that he's uber-cool, where's the harm?

So no matter how much you may want to convince yourself that it's fine because it's just the way Axl is, or that he can be forgiven for coming on stage late because he won't change, then you are either a little short of grey-matter, or living in denial. Or maybe even too caught up in the 'aura of Axl' - much like the empathy hostages can feel towards their captors... Stockholm Syndrome I believe it is called.

I, like the majority of fans who attend concerts, will have spent most of their time working hard and saving money, so that when we have a little bit of spare time, we can enjoy ourselves and do something fun with the money that we have earnt. So why is it, that when we pay this money to watch someone else at work, they get to do just as they please? It's all well and good to pull the 'It's Axl'-card, but when people are contracted to be on stage at a certain time, and people will have made other costly arrangements (travel etc) to fit in with those plans, then the person they are essentially employing decides to turn up later than agreed, how do you think that sits with the employer - ie, the audience? When was the last time you went to the cinema, or a sports event, and the start was delayed? Event times are advertised so that the people responsible for financially facilitating the whole thing to go ahead - yep, that'll be those pesky audience members again - are able to go about the rest of their day/night knowing what the score is in terms of making their way home or finding somewhere to stay.

It's great if you've got nothing on the next day and live locally, but the majority of people will have to get up for work the following day, and get back to the monotonous grind of our daily jobs. But if you only got to do half of what you wanted the night before because some arsehole singer didn't come on stage until an hour before the last train or bus, then it does "fuck up everything" as you say.

I went into a fair bit of detail on another thread with my thoughts on this matter... But here they are again, as some people still have this incomprehensible desire to see read about [with no regard for those attend] a shorter, if not, cancelled show.

"Ooooh, isn't Axl such a badass for f**king up a whole load of peoples' weekends which they spent a lot of money on. I'm so glad he's my favourite singer ...."

I think not.

I honest to God cannot see why people think it would be really cool and 'rock-star-like' for Axl to pitch up late.

I just do not understand where the logic is in that. Nothing positive whatsoever can come from him taking the stage a short time before the curfew. It's not 'cool', it's not 'bad-ass', it's just piss-poor showmanship. The only thing it will achieve, is denying the fans (like myself) who have paid their money to see a band at a festival, the chance to see a full headline set, and more than likely jeopardise the future of this great festival.

All the idiots in cloud-cuckoo-land who think that the only possible reason people may have bought a ticket is to see GN'R need their heads examined. This is the UK's most renowned and well known rock festival, with a plethora of stages and bands to see. Given that there are going to be another 4/5 bands playing at the same time, they'll probably have about a 60% share of the audience. I appreciate they are the headliner, but you buy a 'Reading Festival' ticket, not a 'Guns N' Roses with 3 days worth of support bands' ticket. Not everyone will be there to watch GN'R.

Even worse in some respects, is that people will choose to see Guns over another band, and there's the possibility that they could easily have watched the other band's whole set, long before Axl decides to set foot on the stage.

Bear in mind also, that every other band on the planet manages to get themselves on stage on time. And in the grand scheme of things, the people with closed minds that lurk on fan forums and worship Axl's every move think that it would be a really good statement to come on stage two hours late, will make up a startlingly small proportion of the crowd. Almost everyone else in attendance will think it unprofessional and discourteous to arrive any later than is reasonably acceptable - by that I mean 15-20 minutes, given the inevitable complications involved with a festival stage turnaround. After all, since he is a professional musician, and he is being paid to be there, he is technically at work. If anyone else in the real world were to turn up to work 2 hours late, not do what they were paid to do, and then give the excuse "I just didn't feel like it", we'd be fired on the spot. I do not understand why people think this is acceptable, let alone applaud it, when this sort of behaviour is prepetrated by a rock singer.

He's being paid to sing at a predetermined time, the promoter has read him the riot act to say that they won't take any of his crap, and I for one applaud Melvin Benn for that.

End of rant!!

And thank you... I know where the door is.

I honest to God cannot see why people think it would be really cool and 'rock-star-like' for Axl to pitch up late.

I just do not understand where the logic is in that. Nothing positive whatsoever can come from him taking the stage a short time before the curfew. It's not 'cool', it's not 'bad-ass', it's just piss-poor showmanship. The only thing it will achieve, is denying the fans (like myself) who have paid their money to see a band at a festival, the chance to see a full headline set, and more than likely jeopardise the future of this great festival.

All the idiots in cloud-cuckoo-land who think that the only possible reason people may have bought a ticket is to see GN'R need their heads examined. This is the UK's most renowned and well known rock festival, with a plethora of stages and bands to see. Given that there are going to be another 4/5 bands playing at the same time, they'll probably have about a 60% share of the audience. I appreciate they are the headliner, but you buy a 'Reading Festival' ticket, not a 'Guns N' Roses with 3 days worth of support bands' ticket. Not everyone will be there to watch GN'R.

Even worse in some respects, is that people will choose to see Guns over another band, and there's the possibility that they could easily have watched the other band's whole set, long before Axl decides to set foot on the stage.

Bear in mind also, that every other band on the planet manages to get themselves on stage on time. And in the grand scheme of things, the people with closed minds that lurk on fan forums and worship Axl's every move think that it would be a really good statement to come on stage two hours late, will make up a startlingly small proportion of the crowd. Almost everyone else in attendance will think it unprofessional and discourteous to arrive any later than is reasonably acceptable - by that I mean 15-20 minutes, given the inevitable complications involved with a festival stage turnaround. After all, since he is a professional musician, and he is being paid to be there, he is technically at work. If anyone else in the real world were to turn up to work 2 hours late, not do what they were paid to do, and then give the excuse "I just didn't feel like it", we'd be fired on the spot. I do not understand why people think this is acceptable, let alone applaud it, when this sort of behaviour is prepetrated by a rock singer.

He's being paid to sing at a predetermined time, the promoter has read him the riot act to say that they won't take any of his crap, and I for one applaud Melvin Benn for that.

End of rant!!

I REALLY hope they don't pull the plug on GN'R, if they do I'll be really mad. Them and Queens Of The Stone Age are the only two bands I'm interested in seeing.

It's insane how strict timings are here in England for rock festivals. I think Graspop in Belgium goes on until about 1am. If they do try and pull tne plug Axl could always repeat his awsome Leeds 2002 speech:

"Well, it appears that we're gonna have an interesting evening. You see the, city council and the promoters say we have to like end the show. And they'll say that I'm... they could say maybe I'm enciting a riot. Now I'm not 'cause I don't want anyone to get arrested or anyone to get in trouble or anything like that. But I think we got a good 7 or 8 fucking songs left at least to play for you. And I didn't fucking come all the way to fucking England to be told to go back fucking home by some fucking asshole! All I've got for the last 8 years is shit after shit after shit in the fucking press and Axl's this, Axl's that - I'm here to play a fucking show and I wanna play!"

Haha!!

And then he played a bit of Prostitute... Nice.

This does sound a little worrying... But then again, at Download in 2006, they actually came on stage a few minutes EARLIER than scheduled! So fingers crossed I don't get very angry on Friday night!! ;-)

I think Palladia rebroadcasts festival concerts. They've had Glastonbury and Hard Rock Calling on.. not sure about Reading or Leeds.

It would be cool if GNR did put out a "Live at Leeds" legal bootleg.

If you ask me that would be a terrible idea...

... but if they did a "Live at READING" legal bootleg, it would be much better!!! (No prizes for guessing which show I'M going too )

Going back to what someone was saying re: 2006 tour, and Australian news only being allowed to show the first 30 seconds or so, when they played at Download, they had Paradise City and Nightrain on the Scuzz highlights, so I'm not sure about that. Then again, I believe Scuzz are affiliated with Download, so it was probably written into the contract of every band that played that there was a possibility their performances may be broadcast at a later date. Although a clause about unreleased material being in most of these contracts wouldn't surprise me, given the speed at which these things move now what with file sharing etc, and I'm sure the organisers and broadcasters would be sensitive to this fact.

But, as with most peoples' posts on this forum, the above is purely conjecture, don't take it as gospel.

Hope we'll get a good pro shot performance of the followin songs:

- Better

- Chinese Democracy

- Estranged lol

- Madagascar

- Shackler's, Scraped, IRS or Catcher

I have a feeling that if it is indeed only highlights of GN'R's set, it will be songs that the majority of the TV audience will know, eg:

WTTJ, SCOM, LALD, PC, NR, with maybe a couple of songs from the new album like CD and Better.

And in my opinion, the BBC would be very foolish to be trying to show the whole thing live. This isn't a dig at Axl or the band (well, it is in some resepcts, as I think it to be very inconsiderate and unprofessional), but there is always the chance that they'll take to the stage much later than advertised, and you never really know what will happen, like at Download in 2006, where Axl went off stage for 15 mins at a time etc. If you (the BBC) have been saying that you're going to show something at a predetermined time, your audience are going to get rather pissed at the fact that some arsehole singer can't be arsed to get himself on stage and do what he's essentially being payed to do.

And of course there is other scheduled programming that needs to air afterwards. It's not quite the same as Wimbledon for example, where a match has started at the scheduled time, yet through no fault of the players nor organisers, the game has lasted a lot longer than expected (Isner match that lasted THREE DAYS this year for example). People will have tuned in to watch a game and obviously see the result of said game, whereas a rock band is contracted to play a show of a finite length, and if they negate on this contract, it has no bearing on a 'result' per se.

At Download I saw a 'Camp Loner' group with people who went on their own and just all camped together.

Check the Reading forums and see if they have anything like that?

Just out of interest, and this is probably an obvious question - Will GN'R use full pyro at the festival gigs?

Presuming the answer is yes, but a lot of headliners seem to have much lower-key stage shows.

Usually headliners can bring their own set up at festivals.

Eg AC/DC at Download who brought their own frigging STAGE!! Haha...

But yes, I'd expect the works from GN'R seeing as Metallica have always had their pyro and stuff whenever I've seen them at Reading, so no compliance issues there. Whether or not Axl decides to show up however, is a different matter entirely!!!

Yeah, mine arrived the other day. I think they're all being sent out by lots of different courier firms, as the guy who delivered mine wasn't from Royal Mail or anything like that, but I still had to sign for it on the gizmo thing, and it was all the usual Ticketmaster stuff inside the envelope.

So what I'm saying is, DON'T PANIC!!!

They probably get sent out in batches to different courier firms, and obviously done by geographic region and delivery radius, so you should be fine.

Now, back on topic! Anyone got room for an extra person at their campsite?!

rock1

You're both going alone- why don't you both go together?

Not a bad shout... Just depends on my 'compatability' criteria above! Nice sig BTW, pretty much my favourite band, ever!

go on your own dude, meet people there. that's my plan. and you're gonna have to choose between arcade fire & pendulum

Yeah, I was thinking that since I've already seen Arcade Fire twice, I might watch bit, then pop to see a bit of Pendulum.

So you're going on your own too? I could just go on my own and meet people wherever I end up camping, but it's always better if you've got at least someone you know there.

Hi all,

I know this probably doesn't really belong here, but I need lots of people to see this in a short time period. (MODS - please just give this a day or two so that enough people can see it and hopefully help me out!)

Pretty much what it says in the topic title, I have a ticket, but none of my friends could afford it/were around this year.

If any of you people that are going have room for another person in your group I am need of a 'rent-a-crowd'. If you think you could tolerate someone else coming to party, here's a little bit about me so you can get an idea if I'll fit in:

Single Male, 24 years old.

Seasoned festival goer, (Reading 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/10; Download 2006/10; Hard Rock Calling 2006/7/8/10)

Like to party quite hard, but I'm not intending on doing anything particularly naughty in terms of chemicals, though I don't mind if others do.... but to be honest, once you get there, most rules go out the window!

Some of the bands I'd like to see:

GN'R (duh!)

QOTSA

Biffy Clyro

Lost Prophets

Arcade Fire/Pendulum

Gaslight Anthem

Serj Tankian

Weezer

Cypress Hill

Limp Bizkit

etc etc

So if you want to be a good samaritan and give a GN'R fan a home for the weekend, please PM me and we can do the whole phone number/facebook thing.

Oh, and I'll be driving from Farnham in Surrey, so if you need a lift from somewhere within a reasonable radius on the Thursday I'm sure that could be arranged.

Many thanks.

Yeah, the Pearl Jam site is a great example of what a band (or their management) can do to give their fans information and other cool things. It has a great set of forums, and encyclopaedic collection of information about their music - from every song they've ever played live (including covers), to how many times a certain song has been played live inc. where and when, and also setlists from every show they've played. Their merch is always up to date on the site, and one of the best features which I haven't heard of many bands doing, is the fact that you can download pretty much any of their concerts (within a recent timeframe of when it was played). Of course this costs money, but not a great deal. After all, they've got to pay someone to mix and master each one, and that equates to a 30 track double live album. Recent example was that I saw them on 25th June at Hyde Park, and yesterday I had in my hand a high quality CD of that show with a cool collectors' cardboard case. Loads of other cool things as well that FB and MS can't offer.

What do you get from GN'R? A token live album with some average performances of certain songs that they only put out because they had contractual obligations to release an record, and the odd clip on the site which is generally in th public domain anyway (Download 2006 clips that were on Kerrang etc).

So the point I'm making, is that website offer much more than myspace/facebook, and if you're a fan of the band you're more likely to go to their website... as long at it's up to scratch!!

Second to Pearl Jam. Maybe third.

This man speaketh the truth.

Recently my friend and I set up a distribution company in the UK for guitars and basses, as well as some floor effects and stuff. We are called Blackhawk Music Limited and we are the UK distributors for Flaxwood guitars from Finland which are really innovative, and blow any PRS out of the water.

Flaxwood Voima in Kivi oiled rock finish:

The one above has a really versatile sound given the two humbuckers and the single coil between them, but what's really cool is the 'blender' pot next to the tone. This blends in the neck pick up as much as you turn it, so you can really craft the sound you want. Most other models have this feature but not all of them.

All of the guitars are hollow, and made by mould injected wood. *NO, THEY'RE NOT MADE OF MDF!!* The clever Finns at Flaxwood take a load of spruce, pulp it down and add an acoustic resin to make it set once injected into the mould, and because of this there are no grains or knots to make the sound waves move through the guitar in an unorthodox direction. They come out of the mould hollow, and very light. The neck is made in the same way, so there are no dead spots given that the neck is of a uniform density throughout, and there is no fretboard either, so the sustain is maximised. All guitars are hand finished by the master luthiers once the body is out of the mould.

I could go on about the manufacturing and positives etc, but above is essentially the condensed version of what I was telling people at the London International Music Show where we were launching these guitars and the other products on behalf of the manufacturers.

So please take a moment to check out the stuff we are trying to get into the shops, and let me know what you think of the stuff we're distibuting, and if you have any ideas please let me know.

One last thing for all guitarists who get frustrated with their wah-pedals - check out the Wah-Pad from G-Lab and watch this video of the new endorsee explaining how it works and why it's awesome!!

Thanks for reading.

Andy.

maybe Ted Nugent too.

Favourite Nuge quote has to be from that VH1 programme Supergroup, when the producers get in stylists for the band members...

"I need a fashion stylist like a dairy farmer needs a milkman..."

Ted Nugent, what a hero!!

Tool (2 hours), hour break to get pissed/high, Pearl Jam (3 1/2 hours), hour and a half to absorb the majesty of PJ, get a couple more beers, have another smoke or two, some more illegal substances, then Illusion Era GN'R (Izzy and Sorum) tear through a 4 hour set playing pretty much every thing, with special guests (new guys) joining in for the new songs.

This would be at an outdoor event, ideally a tailor made Reading Festival, where Tool come on at 2000, leaving Paradise City being rung out at about 0750am, to the morning sunshine of glorious England, leaving me feeling absolutely musically satisfied, and then i turn around and there is my bed, full of naked women holding ice cold beers, a packet of Marlboros and a rather large spliff.

Yeah, that would probably be my ultimate gig...

No, I couldn't get Golden Circle either. Do you know if there's another band to be announced at all? Cos last year I went to pretty much the same thing at Hyde Park when the Foo Fighters were playing and there were five bands playing all day then.

The student loan had been in my bank account for less than an hour this morning, then a sizeable chunk was dished out on what I think is a VERY justifiable purchase!! Bought a load of tickets for me and my mates to see Aerosmith at Hyde Park on June 24th. Was just wondering if anyone else is going to this concert? Should be a wicked day, plenty of time for a little MyGnr meet-up if anyone else on here is gonna be going to this one??

Post here if you're going.

Andy.

Howdy folks,

Just a little thread on the off-chance that someone may have a spare ticket or 2 to this sold out gig? I've been scouring ebay and they're quite pricey, but that doesn't mean that I won't be prepared more than face value on here if anyone can hook me up!!

Look forward to hearing from someone! Just reply here or PM me.

Cheers,

Andy.