what a surprise...

[she bangs the drums]

I've been one of the idiots that have been calling them Axl Rose and Friends 'a tribute to Guns 'n' Roses'. Well I take it all back, they were really good at Leeds, they came on 30 mins late but the atmosphere with the crowd and band was really good, the band were much better than I thought and Axl's voice was as amazing as ever.

I must apologise for all of my stupid posts over the past 6 months, I take it all back and would definitely go and see them again.

Edited August 30, 2010 by she bangs the drums

[luckysalt]

Benn has spoke up on this issue

"I'd definitely book them again but I don't know if they'd come and play. I doubt I'll be getting a Christmas card from them. It's not personal, I think the band are great. Why would I make it personal?"

f**ks sake man, grow some balls and just say they f**ked themselves over by coming on late

[adam1234]

I am not a massive fan but they were really good at leeds

[Chavmeisterdeluxe]

His backing band are brilliant. Glad they got a great response after Axl had stormed off.

[Role Model]

The ending at Reading made it all worthwhile, amazingly shambolic.

The hour wait was a real annoyance, could of seen Phoenix.

[Thrash D Garbage]

After an hour late and consistent booing even when they came on stage the whole band failed to read the crowd at all. That said the actual tightness, sound and performance of the band didn't seem too bad to me. But, on the whole a naive bunch of idiots on stage failing to deliver to such an important crowd as Reading.

[she bangs the drums]

It does seem that there was different performance at Leeds towards Reading looking at the comments ans scores people are giving.

Axl did seem to enjoy himself at Leeds and like I said earlier, the band got a great reaction even though it was the coldest I've ever experienced at a festival.

They turned up 30 mins late but like the above poster said, the roadies etc were working on the stage/screens and they did play for 2 hours.

[FiestaDave]

As much as I like GnR I could only hang around for about 5 songs into the set. Hanging around for what was basically 1 & 1/2 hours after QOTSA was ridiculous.

Luckily they are good enough to be remembered as a great band and not because of Axl's hissy fits.

[sjp_121]

Their performance was great at Leeds, it was just ruined by the atmosphere of the crowd

And it did seem that the show was a distraction, not a help, for the music... in my opinion.

There had been better acts on that stage that day... A bit disappointing tbh.

[tomdsjames]

I've been one of the idiots that have been calling them Axl Rose and Friends 'a tribute to Guns 'n' Roses'. Well I take it all back, they were really good at Leeds, they came on 30 mins late but the atmosphere with the crowd and band was really good, the band were much better than I thought and Axl's voice was as amazing as ever.

I must apologise for all of my stupid posts over the past 6 months, I take it all back and would definitely go and see them again.

[brighteyes]

Oh dear. What an arrogant prick Axl Rose is. And what ignorant tits the crowd who blamed the festival organisers, are.

[thejimbola]

When they were on stage at Reading it was brilliant. It was annoying waiting all that time for them to come on, but Guns n Roses have been notoriously late on stage for 25 years.

The crowd wanted to hate Axl and he gave them an excuse, however the performance more than made up for it. His voice is still unbelievably good, their songs are some of the greatest ever written and he has assembled a brilliant band behind him. DJ Ashba was awesome.

The way I look at it, I got 90 mins of quite brilliant music and a little bit of entertainment at the end with the power being cut and the megaphone action. Yet again combining the bizarre with the sublime! Long live GnR!

[lharris92]

if axl rose hadnt decided to turn up 1hour late then they wouldn't have been cut off - what the reason for that is i do not know. pretty glad the organisers followed through with their threat of cutting them off which they did.

tbh if he had turned up around 30 mins late he would have had a full set and people would have been less pissed off that he came on so late. its his fault not organisers.

[loscfestivals]

Thought his band were impressive, certainly a very talented backing band he has there and the sound was good but just thought it drifted and got very boring really. They can certainly play but just don't think there is anything about them. Axl doesn't have that aura about him, he isn't the bad Rock n Roll singer who you can't take your eyes off like years gone by. Wasn't really any atmosphere but that seems to be the way for a lot of the bands these days, never seems as lively as 4 or 5 years ago.

Was suprised to see the NME article saying they had a huge crowd at Leeds. You could walk right into the front barrier and get into the centre with no problems, we went for a beer when they were late and went back in just behind the barrier as they were coming on with no problems at all. When we left at about 1030 the crowd was very thing on the ground for a headliner and it was no problems walking straight through the crowd and getting out.

[shoptildrop]

They did an amazing set at Leeds and can quite believe it took a while setting up the stage with the screens and pyro, thx god only 30mins late but hell we got nearly a 2hour set and do wonder what was agreed with organisers to allow them to go over curfew by good 20mins - maybe whole thing was a set up although do feel sorry for the Reading crowd to miss out like that.....

As someone has already said some people didn't want to like them or give them a chance and were hell bent on classing them as "tribute" band even though its absolutely fine for other bands to have one original member and not get s**t for it, QOSA anyone?!! and then Slash did heavily GnRs set at Glasto with a singer who was trying to look like Axl yet he gets no grief either - its all double standards really..... I know they are not the same as like 20yrs ago but they ain't the s**t band people are having fun labelling them as cos thats the in thing to do as I'm afraid too many sheep opinions on forums these days... this is IMO of course but does seem to be the trend

I don't expect everyone to love them but they did great set at Leeds and wished the BBC gave the set tv coverage as it was great fun and I enjoyed it very much

Edited August 31, 2010 by shoptildrop

[headshrinker1979]

I am still mulling over GNR's set at Reading. The hours lateness cetainly didn't help Axl's case, first tune IMO sounded awful from him, out of breath and stuggling to hit notes, it was such a shame. maybe lack of warm up as to be fair his voice did get better the further through the gig it went.

We all know how temperamental Axl can be but the delay and subsequent need to blame anyone and everyone else for having the plug pulled on the sound apart from him and his own band was embarrassing to watch. Axl you aren't the rock n roll force you once were, the hissy fit and sit down tantrum at the end proves the ego of Axl has massivly overtaken GNR as a name itself, more so than ever before, to a point now where you have to think time to call it a day.

Don't get me wrong tho I do however think the band he has assembled are massivly massivly talented and i really enjoyed the music, they sure can play. Richard Fortis(?) is f**king amazing guitar player, and DJ Ashba really really kicked the ass out of some of those solos, to me as a band they outshone the supposed "star" by a country mile!!!!!

It was just such a shame seeing Axl really f**k up all that was great and good about GNR with his stupid ego, i love GNR, old and new line ups. That to me isn't the issue, Reading's show to me descended into an embarasssing farce, if he carries on like it then what little credibility the name GNR has left through its legacy of some amazing songs is in danger of dissapearing completely, that truly will be a sad day. Finish this world tour Axl and do the honourable thing and leave the classic songs to be classic songs, and just give it up.

I know this sounds like a right slagging but i guess it was a band i hugely loved and i was really looking forward to seeing them friday...it just was such a big big let down. i saw them on their last UK tour around 2005 i think and then it was so much better, Axl seemed to give a shit about it all, clearly at Reading the ego massage for him obviously wasn't big anough, lets hope the pay cheque was!

[she bangs the drums]

I am still mulling over GNR's set at Reading. The hours lateness cetainly didn't help Axl's case, first tune IMO sounded awful from him, out of breath and stuggling to hit notes, it was such a shame. maybe lack of warm up as to be fair his voice did get better the further through the gig it went.

We all know how temperamental Axl can be but the delay and subsequent need to blame anyone and everyone else for having the plug pulled on the sound apart from him and his own band was embarrassing to watch. Axl you aren't the rock n roll force you once were, the hissy fit and sit down tantrum at the end proves the ego of Axl has massivly overtaken GNR as a name itself, more so than ever before, to a point now where you have to think time to call it a day.

Don't get me wrong tho I do however think the band he has assembled are massivly massivly talented and i really enjoyed the music, they sure can play. Richard Fortis(?) is f**king amazing guitar player, and DJ Ashba really really kicked the ass out of some of those solos, to me as a band they outshone the supposed "star" by a country mile!!!!!

It was just such a shame seeing Axl really f**k up all that was great and good about GNR with his stupid ego, i love GNR, old and new line ups. That to me isn't the issue, Reading's show to me descended into an embarasssing farce, if he carries on like it then what little credibility the name GNR has left through its legacy of some amazing songs is in danger of dissapearing completely, that truly will be a sad day. Finish this world tour Axl and do the honourable thing and leave the classic songs to be classic songs, and just give it up.

I know this sounds like a right slagging but i guess it was a band i hugely loved and i was really looking forward to seeing them friday...it just was such a big big let down. i saw them on their last UK tour around 2005 i think and then it was so much better, Axl seemed to give a shit about it all, clearly at Reading the ego massage for him obviously wasn't big anough, lets hope the pay cheque was!

Edited August 30, 2010 by she bangs the drums

[lharris92]

i noticed on the bbc3 show earlier they played welcome to the jungle and it appeared that axl had an autocue for lyrics... whether it was for lyrics i do not know but it seemed so

[Petrucci is Jesus]

I thought GnR were absolutely amazing at Leeds. Bumblefoot was absolutely amazing, and the atmosphere for them was surprisingly good. I went into it expecting them to not do an amazing show but they were definitely the highlight of the festival for me.

As for his little rant at the promoters.. well.

They did play for the full 2 hours at Leeds didn't they?

[shoptildrop]

I think maybe it took him time to warm up as his voice was amazing at Leeds, much better for the Welcome to the Jungle video that I've seen from Reading.

He was smiling and really enjoying himself at Leeds.

[headshrinker1979]

i noticed on the bbc3 show earlier they played welcome to the jungle and it appeared that axl had an autocue for lyrics... whether it was for lyrics i do not know but it seemed so

[Vieuphoria]

My views on the event...

1. Axl showed utter disrespect to the fans by showing up so late.

2. A large portion of the crowd were thick as pig shit. Shouting for Slash yet not knwoing a single word to Nightrain or It's so Easy. Works both ways. Why should he play for ungrateful c**ts.

3. There were far too many technical faults with the gig. Broken pyro, broken screen, and damaged back screen... etc.

4. The gig was too full of guitar/piano solos. All the time given to solo's could have been given to playing the 2 songs i was most looking forward to.... Madagascar and Paradise City.

5. The gig itself was f**king incredible.... Axl's voice was on form. The band were tight. The songs sounded fantastic, now and old. It was an utterly amazing set, from a legendary band.

6. Cutting them short in my song was a bad f**king idea. Cut them off after the song.

7. Tell the crowds what is going on to avoid confusion. The morons in the crowd starting jipping up again at this point.

8. Props to Axl from sitting out on stage with the band to meet the fans, and do the mini acoustic Paradise City.

Round it up.

Amazing headline set, but setlist could have been fine tuned. Too many moronic c**ts in the crowd, but Axl is also to blame for being so disrespectful. Which ever way i look at it, i still got a good near 2-hour set from one of the best bands of all time.... so f**k it.

[theramm]

Here goes….

Performance wise I can only speak for Leeds but I can’t help but think the whole fiasco was 90% expected & FR will be pretty happy with the outcome. FR have booked GnR before & knew full well the associated risks of booking such a volatile act. People are talking like their tendency to go on stage late is a new problem? They’ve been doing this kind of sh!t for over 20 years, we all knew that they wouldn’t turn up on time, Melvin Benn knew they wouldn’t turn up on time so why not make preparation for this or if no allowance can be made why not simply book someone else?

I promote stand-up comedy & am well aware, as are other comedy promoters that there are certain acts on the circuit that are more reliable than others, more risqué than others & more unpredictable than others. I know if I book a certain act for a certain gig then a good chunk of the responsibility is on my shoulders. If I take a punt on an act that has a higher risk of cancellation but will shift tickets then I know I need a decent back-up plan in case I’ve got an audience who bought tickets in good faith to see an act that’s agent may ring me the morning of the gig & say ‘Sorry, he’s really tired & wont be playing’.

This weekend GnR have dominated music headlines & Melvin Benn/FR have had a shedload of free publicity. MB came out on the music press a couple of times in the run up to the weekend claiming ‘They will not go on stage late!’, he knew they would but was cementing his position in the public eye so when the inevitable happened he wouldn’t be the bad guy. Axl & Co are not without blame, it’s unprofessional, diva like behaviour that sucks. This isn’t uncommon, Andy Copping posted on the Download forums earlier this year when the whole AC/DC fiasco was kicking off & they were trying to get more than 3 acts allowed on the main stage for the Friday. He put a list of bands that had headlined Donington & said they all had their own ridiculous demands & concessions that had to be made for them. It’s just most of this stuff is backstage & the audience is oblivious to it. This year the actions of AC/DC & GnR had an effect on the end product.

For me & our group GnR put on the headline performance of the weekend. Blink 182 sounded shoddy & the ‘banter’ was plain embarrassing, a 3 star performance at best from an act that’s only headlining because they split up. From reading other threads the Blink feedback seems to be along the lines of ‘I’m just glad I got see them’ as opposed to the actual performance. Arcade Fire sounded fantastic but had a tiny crowd & lack the ‘hits’ that will appeal to a casual audience. From watching it seems obvious that The Libertines should’ve headlined that day but would’ve been too risky. GnR were tight, played a setlist that packed in the anthems & a stage show that actually felt like it was a headline performance. There were plenty of w*nkers in the crowd booing the band & shouting for Slash but that’s down to the Leeds audience rather than anything the band have done. They were 30 minutes late but the roadies & tech guys were working away rather than everything being seemingly ready & the band holding things up (RATM were 20 minutes late in 08’). I’d class it as a good headline performance. Not mind blowing but definitely accomplished & felt like a special occasion.

[moz4pm]

As someone has already said some people didn't want to like them or give them a chance and were hell bent on classing them as "tribute" band even though its absolutely fine for other bands to have one original member and not get s**t for it, QOSA anyone?!! and then Slash did heavily GnRs set at Glasto with a singer who was trying to look like Axel yet he gets no grief either

[Cardboard Box City]

yeah i was at leeds 2002 and they didnt make it on stage til nearly 11pm, we stayed for a couple of songs then went elsewhere.