30 years ago Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium

[Free Bird]

13 minutes ago, jamillos said:

The song choice not only wasn't bad, but it was downright ideal. PC as a song with an undisputed status (and a positive vibe in general), and KOHD for obvious reasons... I mean, what else should they have played? SCOM is about a girl, I don't know. Jungle is about the wild street life etc., not sure if that would have been the best choice, would have sounded like pure self-promotion to me under those circumstances. DC too depressing, NR too long and what with the piano and all, Nightrain is about booze, which would have made no sense there, what else, Mr. Brownstone? 

This choice was perfect, and even the sequence, when you think about it - first introduce the band, then pull the main song, which in this case was KOHD, peaking its fame. 

Better than playing OIAM ... 

[Free Bird]

8 hours ago, dontdamnmeuyi2015 said:

Loved the whole drama about will Axl show up? Will Axl come on stage? Axl never rehearses

Well that's a big part why the band fall apart... I think it was a high price.

[mystery]

There's a pretty recent interview Brian May did where he recalls working on Chinese Democracy in 1999. The website I've linked has some excerpts.The most interesting bit in regards to Axl:

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/brian-may-guns-n-roses-chinese-democracy

By that point Axl was pretty much a recluse,” May recalled.

“He was working in his house, and I was working in the studio at the bottom of the hill with his engineer at the time, and he only rarely came down. Now and again he would call in and get all enthusiastic and talk a lot, and then he’d be gone again. I don’t think any of what I played actually got onto the album.”

This matches up to other accounts of Axl in that period where he'd sporadically show up and then disappear for stretches. Dave Navarro recorded on Oh My God and reportedly never met Axl in person. 

The place May describes sounds like where Chris Pitman said he did some work as well. I'm wondering who the engineer would be at that time? There's also an additional bit where May says he has mixes of his work on the Chinese Democracy songs.

[Nice Boy]

A little known aspect of this performance:

At the beginning of PC after the first ‘take me home’ you can see Axl point at some people in the crowd and scream ‘Shove it’!  - Those people were actually the protesters who had been trying to get GnR removed from the lineup because of homophobia on OIAM. They were unsuccessful but still attempted to disturb/provoke Axl with some banner in the crowd. He knew they would be there and hence tells them to shove it.

A bit later on you can see Duff and Axl share a warm handshake. That was Duff saying thank you to Axl for not going on a rant about the protestors. Duff had requested Axl remain calm and not rise to them on this occasion as it would spoil the event. Axl managed to abide by this and hence Duff was thankful. 

[darkside259]

18 hours ago, mystery said:

I'm guessing Earl was the bodyguard that turned Elton away. It's a cool story but kind of a nightmare as Axl pulled that kind of stuff during the UYI tour. It can't be fun not knowing when the lead singer of your band is going to show up.

what s story?

[mystery]

57 minutes ago, darkside259 said:

what s story?

There's a post on the previous page that says Elton John wanted to talk to Axl about rehearsals since the show was in a few hours so he went to his dressing room. He was turned away by Axl's bodyguard who said he was sleeping which pissed off Elton. 

Edited April 22, 2022 by mystery

[Nice Boy]

Tbh sounds more like Elton John being a diva. He was demanding to see Axl and rehearse at that specific time. It could be understandable Axl might’ve been exhausted at that time and needed sleep to pull off the performance he did. I don’t think Axl would have been intentionally blanking his hero. He was probably genuinely not in a state to see anyone at that point, let alone rehearse. And he did eventually rehearse with Elton anyway, as he recounted in the Eddie Trunk interview.

[Ratam]

9 hours ago, mystery said:

There's a pretty recent interview Brian May did where he recalls working on Chinese Democracy in 1999. The website I've linked has some excerpts.The most interesting bit in regards to Axl:

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/brian-may-guns-n-roses-chinese-democracy

By that point Axl was pretty much a recluse,” May recalled.

“He was working in his house, and I was working in the studio at the bottom of the hill with his engineer at the time, and he only rarely came down. Now and again he would call in and get all enthusiastic and talk a lot, and then he’d be gone again. I don’t think any of what I played actually got onto the album.”

This matches up to other accounts of Axl in that period where he'd sporadically show up and then disappear for stretches. Dave Navarro recorded on Oh My God and reportedly never met Axl in person. 

The place May describes sounds like where Chris Pitman said he did some work as well. I'm wondering who the engineer would be at that time? There's also an additional bit where May says he has mixes of his work on the Chinese Democracy songs.

He says not want show his work on CD songs cause he has respect to Axl.

[mystery]

1 minute ago, Ratam said:

He says not want show his work on CD songs cause he has respect to Axl.

I'm just wondering if most of it has already been leaked from the 2019 leaks. 

[Ratam]

1 minute ago, mystery said:

I'm just wondering if most of it has already been leaked from the 2019 leaks. 

Good question.

[ssiscool]

3 hours ago, Nice Boy said:

 

A bit later on you can see Duff and Axl share a warm handshake. That was Duff saying thank you to Axl for not going on a rant about the protestors. Duff had requested Axl remain calm and not rise to them on this occasion as it would spoil the event. Axl managed to abide by this and hence Duff was thankful. 

Is that the moment at the end of only women bleed?

[Walapino]

I read somewhere that SCOM was to be the 3rd song to be played but for time constraints it wasnt. Not sure if it was real but read it somewhere. 

[Sausagebrain]

I recall that the presenter of the live coverage of the concert on the BBC - Tony Wilson* - saying something about GnR running late because their brass section wasn't ready. 

So what song could that have been for? Live And Let Die, perhaps? (Well, that perhaps wouldn't have been a good song to play at an AIDS benefit).

*Better known as the impresario of legendary record label Factory. (New Order, Joy Division, Happy Mondays etc).

 

[GNRmello77]

On 4/21/2022 at 6:06 PM, Free Bird said:

My favorite GNR song is Nightrain, so I'd be ok with that but considering the event I think Civil War would fit. 

Interesting suggestion, Civil War would've made a statement 

[dontdamnmeuyi2015]

Watched the video of Axl and Queen performing "We will rock you" freaking amazing.

All that worrying about if Axl would show up and perform, went away once Axl hit the stage.  And Axl admitting to not sounding good for "Tie your mother down" didn't matter either.

I have to admit since reading Slash and Duff's book and the part about how fucked up they were at the AIDS event, you'd never know by the way GNR played. 

My mom told me about some bands that were actually drinking on stage and still rocked their concerts. lol

[EvH]

Whatever one's thoughts about the UYI tour line up might be, the band was on fire that day. I would have loved a third song but the ones they chose were perfect for the day. Great PC despite a bit of mic issues/feedback at the beginning, and KOHD is the best version of that era. The remixed version on Live Era is even better.

Slash on Tie Your Mother down was cool, and damn was Axl perfect on Bohemian. He's very commanding on WWRY but it has always bugged me that he misses his cue at the beginning. It even looks like Roger notices Axl starts on the wrong beat.

 

That said, to me the best performances of the night were Extreme with their perfect medley, George Michael which was simply amazing on Somebody to Love, Bowie and Annie Lennox obviously.

[IrishgunnerII]

An amazing version of KOHD from this concert. I may be reading too much into it but considering how the narrative of how the UYI tour was a mess, I have to say I love the interaction between Duff and Axl before the song starts. It’s almost a “let’s blow the heads off this crowd.” Anyway yeah two good songs played.

[metallex78]

On 4/23/2022 at 4:21 AM, Walapino said:

I read somewhere that SCOM was to be the 3rd song to be played but for time constraints it wasnt. Not sure if it was real but read it somewhere. 

I heard that too. Could you imagine having a pro shot of SCOM from that show too? As it is, KOHD and PC are two of the bands finest performances, it would’ve been great to have SCOM too

[mystery]

I don't know if this has been answered before but who broadcasted this in the U.S.?

[RussTCB]

17 minutes ago, mystery said:

I don't know if this has been answered before but who broadcasted this in the U.S.?

I watched the whole concert on MTV as it happened. Not sure if any other networks broadcast it at the time. 

[mystery]

11 minutes ago, RussTCB said:

I watched the whole concert on MTV as it happened. Not sure if any other networks broadcast it at the time. 

I'm guessing they broadcasted everything with limited interruptions. I remember Live 8 in 2005 was a disaster as the performances seemed secondary. It was so bad that they aired a proper broadcast a week later.

[DTV88]

1 hour ago, mystery said:

I'm guessing they broadcasted everything with limited interruptions. I remember Live 8 in 2005 was a disaster as the performances seemed secondary. It was so bad that they aired a proper broadcast a week later.

I’m almost positive they did broadcast the entire concert on MTV. 

[mystery]

11 minutes ago, DTV88 said:

I’m almost positive they did broadcast the entire concert on MTV. 

They did a week later but the live broadcast constantly cut to the VJs and other stuff.

[jamillos]

Some work must have been done on the videos, since we have the 2-cam mixes (I vividly remember different angles in KOHD, Axl showing someone the victory sign etc.). 

[Nintari]

Axl exploding from the side of the stage for Bohemian Rhapsody, and then his We Will Rock You performance was, in retrospect, the absolute high-water mark of his career; it was his peak.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Nintari