Review of Nottingham gig in local paper

[Rudolph]

Sounds about right to me

MORE POSES THAN ROSES?

12:00 - 28 July 2006

My lords, ladies and gentlemen, they have been around for a long, long time ... and on last night's showing they could be around for some time yet, if their many fans have anything to do with it.

There were more mature rockers in the audience than in a Dickensian old curiosity shop, with tight-fitting T-shirts and tattoos to the fore. And that was just the ladies.

The late start seemed a ploy to make the audience drink more of the warm beer, and sadly many of us fell for it.

The searchlights came on at 10.15pm, way past my bedtime, and Welcome To The Jungle began with a thunderous bang and was admirably blasted out.

Live And Let Die must be one of the worst songs ever inflicted on humanity, whoever it's performed by, but Axl Rose managed to increase his influence over the converted, of which there were many.

But there were far too many guitar solos to make matters flow and Rose's voice was too often drowned out by the backing musicians.

A large piano was produced on stage, but did the audience really want to see the finger movements projected on to a large screen?

I suspect they wanted non-stop rock and this did not happen, with too many "interludes" as band members played individually.

Nevertheless, the show bounced along well enough in parts, but only reached fever pitch when the classics such as Sweet Child O' Mine and Paradise City boomed out.

November Rain was one of the highlights, naturally, giving Rose the opportunity to exhibit his versatility.

But far too often his voice disappeared without registering an impact as the four guitarists dominated proceedings, backed by cartoon moves learned from the Book of Classic Guitarist Poses.

At least Rose stayed the course without wilting and there were few examples of the temper tantrums recorded at earlier shows and in Stockholm.

[6lake sa66ath]

Bit of a useless review really.