Were they actually the biggest band in their prime?

[PatrickS77]

On 2.3.2016 at 2:44 PM, tbaugerud said:

Guns N Roses was the biggest spectacle/event in the rock world back then.

I remember it very well.

That said, GnR wasn't the biggest gig around. That was Michael Jackson. He was almost from a different world.

That said, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the rest of the BIG bands that occupied the vacuum created by GnR's break-up and Metallica's decline, were not even in the same division back in the early 90s.

GnR was on their way to becoming the next Stones, like f.ex. Ozzy O. has said several times.

Personally, I have never fallen for the Whole "grunge took over" thing. I think that what happened, was that when the KING(s), GnR (and perhaps Metallica) fell away, the rock scene took a new direction, or rather; it split.

Aerosmith and Bon Jovi somewhat took over the mainstream rock market again, while several new directions hit the ground running. Nirvana was AS MUCH a product of this, as it was their own brilliance. Punk rock began eating its way into the mainstream, With bands like Greenday and The Offspring. Britpop/Britpop also got its Renaissance, with Oasis at the culprit, followed by f.ex. Blur and Pulp.

Hip hop became more and more mainstream as well, so the whole industry was changing. Gone were the 80s hair bands and synth pop. This was a new beginning.

Nirvana was, indeed, the biggest alternative underground band ever, and became world famous quite quickly when they took off. However, they were mere kings in a portion of a once much larger country, now divided.

Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elvis, Michael Jackson, Madonna(?), and to a degree GnR (and maaaaaybe Metallica) were virtually on top of the world.

IMHO, nobody has been since. 

Pretty much agree. Apart from your underestimation of U2, who certainly play a part in the top as a touring act too. And when we tallk about touring (which really is hype becoming substance) and not look at that certain time frame we have to mention AC/DC, Queen, Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen too. 

 

 

What the hell is wrong with this fucking forum??? Sometimes it's not possible to quote a fucking thing???

 

"GNR was #1, but Metallica took over at some point.  Probably the Montreal incident was the turning point." 

Nah.... Metallica (and Bon Jovi) only took over when they continued to release albums and tour, while GNR fell off.

Edited March 6, 2016 by PatrickS77

[mikeman5150]

I just watched a YouTube video from an awards show in 93' where Guns won the award for the most album sales in 92. Against them were u2, Metallica and nirvana. Wasn't 92' the peak of grunge? 

[stella]

5 hours ago, mikeman5150 said:

I just watched a YouTube video from an awards show in 93' where Guns won the award for the most album sales in 92. Against them were u2, Metallica and nirvana. Wasn't 92' the peak of grunge? 

I'd put it more 1993 - 1994 ish. Ten and Nevermind were both out at the end of 1991, but they took a while to take off, and some of the others, like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains' albums, weren't until slightly later.

[JEEP11]

Yes.  I'd say that in general, the years from the Sweet Child O Mine video release up through the November Rain release, and it was not close.  Metallica's black album in 91 put them up there over the following years. Pearl Jam's Ten was played everywhere when it came out, I was in college BTW so maybe that's why, but they were not playing arenas yet.  Even after their second album in 1993 (I saw them at a theater on that tour). Nirvana the same.

GNR had a mystique plus with no internet, info was harder to get. Tom Brokaw even talked about them on NBC.  I remember wearing a UYI tour t-shirt in the summer of 91 back home after the Dallas show. This was before the albums release.  If I wore that shirt anywhere, even the grocery store, complete strangers would ask me about the concert, what happened, etc. It actually got annoying  to wear it ha. 

Edited March 6, 2016 by JEEP11

[Bono]

On 3/2/2016 at 5:17 PM, yourcrazy said:

 

No idea why that ^ is there and no idea why I can't quote anyone, but the following quote below by tbaugerud  is quite possibly the most ridicuous thing I have ever read.

Quote

That said, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the rest of the BIG bands that occupied the vacuum created by GnR's break-up and Metallica's decline, were not even in the same division back in the early 90s.

You do understand that U2 was playing stadiums before GnR even broke out with AFD right? You do realize they played staidums all over the world including North America on their own during Zoo TV right? To suggest U2 owes their mass popularity to the vaccum created by GnR's disappearance from the music scene and Metallica's decline is so unbelievably ignorant I don't even know where to begin. Neither one of those bands ever had any impact on U2's mass fanbase whatsoever. This is what happens when people live in a bubble and refuse to look outside of it.  I mean even suggesting RHCP were anywhere near U2 in the early 90s is........ do you know anything about the early 90s scene at all? 

[action]

19 minutes ago, Bono said:

No idea why that ^ is there and no idea why I can't quote anyone, but the following quote below by tbaugerud  is quite possibly the most ridicuous thing I have ever read.

You do understand that U2 was playing stadiums before GnR even broke out with AFD right? You do realize they played staidums all over the world including North America on their own during Zoo TV right? To suggest U2 owes their mass popularity to the vaccum created by GnR's disappearance from the music scene and Metallica's decline is so unbelievably ignorant I don't even know where to begin. Neither one of those bands ever had any impact on U2's mass fanbase whatsoever. This is what happens when people live in a bubble and refuse to look outside of it.  I mean even suggesting RHCP were anywhere near U2 in the early 90s is........ do you know anything about the early 90s scene at all? 

U2, it has to be said, is shite though...

[sonofnazareth]

again, this band was as big as Led Zeppelin was in the 1970's.

[tsinindy]

1 hour ago, Bono said:

No idea why that ^ is there and no idea why I can't quote anyone, but the following quote below by tbaugerud  is quite possibly the most ridicuous thing I have ever read.

You do understand that U2 was playing stadiums before GnR even broke out with AFD right? You do realize they played staidums all over the world including North America on their own during Zoo TV right? To suggest U2 owes their mass popularity to the vaccum created by GnR's disappearance from the music scene and Metallica's decline is so unbelievably ignorant I don't even know where to begin. Neither one of those bands ever had any impact on U2's mass fanbase whatsoever. This is what happens when people live in a bubble and refuse to look outside of it.  I mean even suggesting RHCP were anywhere near U2 in the early 90s is........ do you know anything about the early 90s scene at all? 

I'm sorry, but this is simply factually inaccurate.  In the US U2 did not start headlining stadiums until the PopMart tour in 1997.  Please do some fact checking.  They did play the Silverdome and multiple dates in bigger arenas in the same city in 1987.  But, your statement that they were playing stadiums before AFD broke out isn't really true.   They did not play any stadiums during Zoo Tv in the US in 1992.  Feel free to go look up the actual facts.

 

[PatrickS77]

Please. Someone fix this fucking board. Quoting is not working.

To tsindy,
do some fact checking yourself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Joshua_Tree_Tour From the second leg on they did stadiums and arenas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_TV_Tour The Outdoor Broadcast from the third leg on was all stadium.

 

 

Edited March 6, 2016 by PatrickS77

[tsinindy]

18 minutes ago, PatrickS77 said:

Please. Someone fix this fucking board. Quoting is not working.

To tsindy,
do some fact checking yourself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Joshua_Tree_Tour From the second leg on they did stadiums and arenas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_TV_Tour The Outdoor Broadcast from the third leg on was all stadium.

 

 

Well damn, that is right and how can I forget that.  Oh well, U2 still sucks.  I agree about the quoting too.  

[RussTCB]

1 hour ago, tsinindy said:

I'm sorry, but this is simply factually inaccurate.  In the US U2 did not start headlining stadiums until the PopMart tour in 1997.  Please do some fact checking.  They did play the Silverdome and multiple dates in bigger arenas in the same city in 1987.  But, your statement that they were playing stadiums before AFD broke out isn't really true.   They did not play any stadiums during Zoo Tv in the US in 1992.  Feel free to go look up the actual facts.

 

Do what now?

Having attended this show, I can confirm that it happened.

[PatrickS77]

1 hour ago, RussTCB said:

Do what now?

Having attended this show, I can confirm that it happened.

And how cool it was. I wish I'd seen that tour too. The first time I saw them was on the Elevation tour.

[Robert39]

Axl is a big fan of Bono, they met on a UYI concert in Germany .

[PatrickS77]

4 minutes ago, Robert39 said:

Axl is a big fan of Bono, they met on a UYI concert in Germany .

Austria. Gnr played on the Donauinsel in Vienna on saturday, U2 on sunday and Axl joined them for "Knocking on heaven's door".

 

 

[mikeman5150]

On a&e's GNR bio, it said that the use your illision broke attendance records across the globe. So if they had the superior attendance, album sales, controversy, etc. how could they not be the biggest band during that time?

[Robert39]

this was in Munich ,i believe

 

Edited March 6, 2016 by Robert39

[iceman51999]

Gnr were as big as any of the legends before them - The Led Zeppelin of my era- everybody accepted the band - metalheads- punk rockers and everything in between -the band of a generation - The band created more buzz than any band before them and any band that has come after them 

[PatrickS77]

8 minutes ago, Robert39 said:

this was in Munich ,i believe

 

Uhm. No. GNR weren't in Munich in '92 and in '93, the day they were in Munich, U2 were in Paris. Like I said, they played the same venue in Austria at the same weekend, 1 day apart. So most likely Bono visited them too the day before, but didn't get on stage with them.

[Ace Nova]

On 3/3/2016 at 8:07 PM, Apollo said:

 

 

Not sure why I'm quoting Apollo.  Please ignore, won't let me delete it. (Can we get this glitch fixed admin team?) 

 

I'm also not sure where all these U2 comparisons are coming from.  U2 were bigger than Guns before Guns' peaked, not as big as Guns when Guns peaked, but eventually gained more popularity (again) after Guns peaked.  Pretty simple, really.   When G N' R peaked they took away from everyone else, no one was bigger.

 

 

 

[PatrickS77]

13 minutes ago, Kasanova King said:

I'm also not sure where all these U2 comparisons are coming from.  U2 were bigger than Guns before Guns' peaked, not as big as Guns when Guns peaked, but eventually gained more popularity (again) after Guns peaked.  Pretty simple, really.   When G N' R peaked they took away from everyone else, no one was bigger.

I'm not so sure if that's really true. In the media and public perception I would say GNR were bigger, but if we look at touring stats and album sales, they were at least as big if not bigger in those years. I guess depending on the time of year and territory. A bit of going back and forth.

Edited March 6, 2016 by PatrickS77

[Ace Nova]

5 minutes ago, PatrickS77 said:

I'm not so sure if that's really true. In the media and public perception I would say GNR were bigger, but if we look at touring stats and album sales, they were at least as big if not bigger in those years. I guess depending on the time of year and territory.

IMO, G N' R peaked during the Illusions tour.  Shortly before Illusions was out & up until the last legs of the tour.  Illusions was the biggest rock tour in history at the time.  194 Shows in 27 countries in just over 2 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_Your_Illusion_Tour

Edited March 6, 2016 by Kasanova King

[GNR-girl]

They were the best looking band! Ever!

[PatrickS77]

19 minutes ago, Kasanova King said:

IMO, G N' R peaked during the Illusions tour.  Shortly before Illusions was out & up until the last legs of the tour.  Illusions was the biggest rock tour in history at the time.  194 Shows in 27 countries in just over 2 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_Your_Illusion_Tour

vs. 157 shows in 20 countries in less than two years with 3 legs full of stadium shows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_TV_Tour

 

LOL Like I said, I guess it's a toss up between the 2.

[Ace Nova]

11 minutes ago, PatrickS77 said:

vs. 157 shows in 20 countries in less than two years with 3 legs full of stadium shows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_TV_Tour

 

LOL Like I said, I guess it's a toss up between the 2.

Not really.  U2 never really lost a ton of popularity, they just weren't as big as G N' R for about a year or so...maybe 2.  Like I said, they were bigger before & after, but not as big as when G N ' R peaked.  You couldn't turn on MTV an watch it for over an hour without seeing something about G N' R when they peaked....that was never the case for U2 at the time.

[RussTCB]

2 hours ago, PatrickS77 said:

And how cool it was. I wish I'd seen that tour too. The first time I saw them was on the Elevation tour.

Yessir. That show was the one and only time I've seen U2. I've passed on seeing them every single time since because I just don't think there's anyway I'll see them do another show that awesome. I don't mean they've fallen off or whatever, but you get what I'm saying.