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UYI boxset will be released 11/11/22. In Slash We Trust. * Now available *

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Towelie
Towelie

That's 2022's excuse for no new material sorted.

Coma16
Coma16

Cool that they're releasing Ritz 91 since it's not only a great show but has a very unusual setlist with Mr Brownstone not being the second song, PC being early in the set and Jungle being the closer.

GNRfanJen
GNRfanJen

Edit: Box set released 11/11/22. Can now pre order. Different combinations available. UK https://uk.gnrmerch.com https://uk.gnrmerch.com/*/*/Use-Your-Illusion-Super-Deluxe-12LP-Blu-Ray-

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StrangerInThisTown OH MY GOD

StrangerInThisTown

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2 hours ago, SilverMachine said:

I'm with others on this thread that this was in so many ways, GNR's imperial era - pre-Izzy departure, pre-Nirvana.

As disappointing as it is that there's no proper unrealised songs, outtakes, demos, etc in the boxset, I'm really stoked for the New York film as I can see it capturing the band at arguably its peak. A proper counterpart to the Ritz MTV special from 1988.

For those who weren't there, it's very hard to describe the anticipation in the lead up months to the release of the Use Your Illusion albums.

There was so much mystery surrounding the band during the down time of 89-90. Reading the rumours of it being a double album in the music press and being drip fed song titles and and warm up gig reports on MTV - it's very hard to convey the excitement during the summer of '91.

You Could Be Mine drops on radio and it absolutely lives up to expectations. Then the video drops and you have the association with one of the most anticipated and coolest films of the year. Civil War as a B side also hits the spot and points to a more expansive outlook for the band both musically and lyrically.

The day YCBM debuted on the radio I had a pretty important maths GSCE exam. I was 16. There was a big build up to the song being played for the first time on Radio One in the UK. This was a big deal in itself as rock music rarely got a look in on mainstream radio in the UK at that time in a world of Stock, Aitken and Waterman manufactured pop.

I was late making it to the exam as I had to hear the song and record it. I must have worn out the tape with all the repeat plays of the song over the course of that week on my Sony Mega Bass Walkman, all with the DJ's (I think it was either Simon Mayo or Simon Bates) flabbergasted response to Axl's wail at the end of the song - something that's still engrained in my consciousness when I hear this song to this day.

I was lucky enough to be at the Wembley '91 gig in the August of that year (I won tickets from a local cable TV operator - I could never have afforded them at the time).

I've been at a number of gigs that are now regarded as seminal - Nirvana at Reading '92, Oasis at the Marquee, The White Stripes at the 100 Club, The Strokes at Heaven, Bowie at Glastonbury, the Stone Roses reunion gigs. As special as all of those gigs were - GNR at Wembley in '91 really stands out for me.

There was a palpable sense of danger - it's easy to forget that this was their first gig in the UK since the Donnington tragedy and the UK was still coming to terms with the fallout of football stadium disasters like Hillsborough and Heysel. It was a hot, late August day, the crowd were hyped, drunk and there was an air of genial, anti-authority sentiment and lawlessness with all the boob flashing and human pyramids that was going on. It felt like it could all kick off.

Skid Row and Sebastian, for better or worse helped stoke up the crowd (NIN had been on earlier as first support - contrary to what was said at the time and since, my recollection is that they got a good reception, despite being stylistically different to what many at the gig would have been expecting of a support band for the headliners) and the tension and excitement for the headline act was nothing like I can remember - just off the scale.

Instead of starting with a familiar Its So Easy or Jungle, Guns started off with Perfect Crime - pure cocaine whiplash stuff with Axl singing at a million miles an hour with a fucking kilt on. Hearing all these new songs live was kind of mind-blowing, as was just seeing the band up on stage - there were strong rumours in the press of the band being on the brink of falling apart in the run up to the show and not turning up.

Seeing Matt play for the first time (the perception now of him is that he's a bit dorky, but back then, even with his perm, he was pretty cool - fresh out of The Cult and hearing THAT drum solo for the first time was pretty rad), seeing Slash take the Godfather solo and become a bona fide guitar god, Axl's mad outfit changes and rants, the general looseness and almost punk energy. All of this was amazing, but my abiding memory was the buzz of hearing the new songs - Estranged and November Rain were the two that understandably stood out and were the ones I was left thinking about after my ears finished ringing days later.

There were highs for the band afterwards for sure, but for me that gig marked a point the band would never be able to return to and stands out as the most memorable gig I have ever attended.

I saw G'n'R less than 12 months later at the same venue and the difference was stark. The high profile coverage of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert earlier in 1992 meant the band were very much household names in the UK. The show was well reviewed and went down well with the crowd. 

But for me as a young fan it now felt like something had been lost.

An edge had gone and the additional musicians aimed at fleshing out the sound had only served to diminish things as a whole - they just didn't seem cool to me. More than anything, the loss of Izzy and his effortless, detached cool and loose playing (despite how low in the mix he was) had left a void. His departure felt like a change in sensibility for the band - everything now seemed overblown, caricature and a bit showbiz - something that had been reinforced by the big budget videos. 

They were now also falling out of step. Just in those short few months the sands had really shifted. It seems a cliche now to say everything changed once Smells Like Teen Spirit came out in the autumn of '91, but from my vantage point it absolutely changed the landscape.

If you bought into Nirvana and its worldview, seeing someone walking around East London rather than Sunset strip wearing leather trousers and a Harley Davidson t-shirt immediately felt ridiculous, while songs like Back off Bitch and Get In the Ring now came across as juvenile and embarrassing rather than edgy or anti establishment.

While they didn't fare as badly in the fall out as the other cock rock, hair metal bands, G'n'R were now a band of their time. 

I'm rambling and I feel like I'm on my way to writing a novel (congratulations if you've got this far). Reading back the last few paragraphs, it feels like my sentiments towards the band are somewhat negative, but that wasn't my intention for this post. 

I guess what I was trying to convey, was that around the time of the NY filming, G'n'R had lightning in a bottle.

The high point of a band is usually fleeting - that's the beauty and inherent sadness of passing time, ageing, chance, and changing culture. Life basically. 

This footage will likely capture an era when the band were absolutely on top of the world. It's been in a vault for decades and may change some of the conversations around the band and make naysayers realise just how great they really were.

I absolutely can't wait to watch it.

Must be the best post of this thread, you took me back and I wasn't even alive haha. As far as I know, there is one other show from 1991 that was definitely shot on film, Pantages Theater (which was also a warm up show), and it was just a few days before the Ritz, and it's unique because that was the last ever time they played Bad Apples.

Some person said here recently that Paris 92 and Wembley were the other gigs shot on film other than Tokyo, but I'm not sure about that. Hopefully one day we get to see all gigs from the UYI tour no matter if it's just standard pro shot quality or film. They're definitely not rushing to get everything out of the vault, probably for future anniversaries.

Edited by StrangerInThisTown
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Axl_morris FRONTMAN

Axl_morris

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17 hours ago, Voodoochild said:

This. Why would they not release it in 4K now? 

I hope it turns out to get a release in some streaming service. 

Assume cost. Working to a boxset budget.

More than likely it'll steam in 4K down the line. Hopefully a physical.

Most important at this stage is that it has an Atmos track.

 

 

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Voodoochild SUPER GOD

Voodoochild

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11 minutes ago, Axl_morris said:

Assume cost. Working to a boxset budget.

More than likely it'll steam in 4K down the line. Hopefully a physical.

Most important at this stage is that it has an Atmos track.

There's really no difference if they already mastered in 4K. Most likely, the downscale to Full HD is only because there's a lot more people with regular Bluray players than 4K. At the end of the day, the streaming would be a far more suitable mean - and with more revenue too.

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UncleJosh Full

UncleJosh

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26 minutes ago, nikosgnr said:

That's the spirit! Coming up next:

"gIVe uS ThE sPagHeTTi inCiDent BOXSeT & LeFToveRS!"

No. More live material from 86-93 especially.  That is the only thing this band can put out that interests me.  New material or studio leftovers are of no value to me.

Edited by UncleJosh
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Eric Cantona SUPER GOD

Eric Cantona

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Had to turn that shit off 2 minutes in. It’s just a bunch of montages edited together with no sense of flow or logic, wonder what kind of moron approved of that headache inducing edit.

It’ll be so typical GNR if the whole BluRay is like that hahaha, at least it’s cool to see the band in that video quality

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