Guns 'n Roses

It's been a while, however I feel last Friday night is worth ranting about.

Went to see the new look Guns 'n Roses in Glasgow. Now, I like them...but probably wouldn't have gone to see them were it not for a friend of mine suggesting it. I thought, why not? Anyway, I'd kindof not realised it was so soon sometime in the middle of last week, then got a tad excited.

Anyhow, long story short - two friends of mine and I drove to Weegieland on Friday night, and I saw one of the best gigs I've seen in my life. Despite a truly terrible support band, Guns were amazing.

Honestly, I really wasn't sure what to expect from them. I had visions of it being somewhat past-it jaded rock star not being that bothered and not having much left of his original band anyway...man was I wrong.

Let's go from the start - while there was a really long wait between the really-not-very-good Bullet For My Valentine and GnR, this only really served to get the crowd more into it. When it got to the stage that instead of cheering the gap between the songs on the house sound system, the crowd were booing them...down go the lights, and one of GnR's many new guitarists starts belting out the intro to Welcome to the Jungle...it was superb. And in many years of going to gigs, I've never seen a crowd go as *mental* as they did when they came on. It helped that we were about 15 feet in front of the middle of the stage :)

They came on at about five to ten, and didn't leave 'till after half past midnight - hell of a long show. Every so often there'd be breaks for the band members to drink etc and one guy would stay out and solo for a few minutes (highlight was Dizzy Reed on the piano on his own, before November Rain)

Axl was absolutely unbelievable - his voice is, if anything, better than it used to be. Nobody can sing like that, but it was the energy that he showed that surprised me - he was never standing still. For an older guy, he bounded about the stage like it was 20 years ago. He's a superb frontman, and somebody I had down as a bit of a tool beforehand - came accross as a decent guy, who was clearly in a fantastic mood and enjoying himself.

The new lineup sounds great, much as I didn't expect to say so! 3 guitarists, all of whom sounded fantastic (plus the other mentioned above!), 8 or 9 of them in total (the 9th being Izzy Stradlin, who made a return for a few songs), and they sounded absolutely massive.

Setlist was this -
Welcome to the Jungle, It's So Easy, Mr Brownstone, Live and let die, Better, Robin Solo, Sweet Child o' Mine, Knockin' on Heavens' door, Dizzy Solo, The Blues, You Could be mine, Richard Solo into Beautiful, Out ta get me, Ron Solo(Don't Cry), Blues Jam, November Rain, Think About You, Used To Love Her, Patience and Nightrain all with Izzy.

Madagascar, Robin Solo and Paradise City as an encore.

Particular highlights were Dizzy's piano solo, the solo guitar only version of Don't Cry, with the crowd singing...and pretty much everything else, if I'm honest. Over two and a half hours, it was awesome.



Anyway, that's that rant done - when I get a copy of the photos and videos my friend Lee took then I shall post them. I've seen a few, and they came out really well, including a video of the insanity when Welcome to the Jungle started :)

(But for now, I found a couple of videos on YouTube. Watch them - )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0NPZjekmnM&search=Guns%20Roses - Welcome To The Jungle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inwVvbhFslM - Sweet Child O' Mine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeqH4gVC098&search=Guns%20Roses - November Rain