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REVIEW: Guns N Roses In London

The band played their first UK headline show of their current tour last night and we were there to see it

Guns N Roses kicked off their brief UK jaunt in London last night and Planet Rock was there to see what happened.

These days it’s impossible to go to a Guns N Roses concert without considering a number of factors – whether the gig will happen, whether some moron will throw something at Axl prompting an immediate walk-off. Your main concern, though, is simply how you get home if you’re using public transport and the gig doesn’t finish until really, really late. So it was with some concern that upon arriving at the O2 Arena for GNR’s first UK date on this four date jaunt we are greeted with a sign saying that the gig is due to finish at midnight but if you want to catch the last tube home you have to leave the gig at 11.30pm (this, incidentally, turned out not to be true. TFL ran extra trains but didn’t tell anyone which meant thousands of people left early unnecessarily).

GNR took to the stage at 9.40pm to the title track from their latest album, and it was immediately apparent that Axl Rose still has THAT voice. His absolutely unique wail is as recognisable and strong as it always has been. Unfortunately the voice now has to compete with two keyboard players, a drummer, a bassist and three guitarists all seemingly fighting for supremacy in what occasionally descended into a muddy mess of noise.

That being said, an awesome 1-2-3 of ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, ‘It’s So Easy’ and ‘Mr Browstone’ prompted the sold out, and slightly irritated crowd to let loose a little. This classic Appetite trio is followed by an inspired ‘Sorry’ from the new album, but it’s at this point that things started to get a little wonky.

A pretty bad ‘Shackler’s Revenge’ is followed by an extended guitar solo cover of the James Bond theme tune. A cracking ‘Live And Let Die’ is then followed by one of the more amazing momentum-stopping set choices ever seen - a version of one of Chinese Democracy’s weaker moments, the piano ballad ‘This I Love’.

The sudden lull continues via another instrumental jam and another new album song. Classic singles such as ‘You Could Be Mine’, ‘Sweet Child O Mine’ and ‘November Rain’ are interspersed with elongated instrumental jams before the oddest moment of the night – an unnecessarily long (about 3 minutes) cover of the Pink Panther theme tune throughout which 18000 fans have one simple thought running through their minds "We have to leave this gig early in a few minutes time and instead of being played music we actually want to hear we get some pointless noodling”.

By the time the band have rattled through another Chinese Democracy number and a Rose Tattoo cover it’s time to leave to catch the last tube home and we haven’t even reached the encore. We manage to catch ‘Knockin On Heaven’s Door’ on the way out but, alas, we are forced to join the masses of people already heading for the exit door.

So what are a 21st Century Guns N Roses like? Well, they’re fine. They have a propensity for both genius and the mundane. They play the songs that you love with the proficiency that you would expect from a bunch of well seasoned musicians. And Axl still has the voice. If you close your eyes you will occasionally be fooled that it’s 1988 all over again.

The sound at the O2 was, however, very ropey for the whole show with large segments a muddy mess of noise which forced Axl Roses’ voice into the background at times when it should have soared. There were way too many breaks, too many instrumental jams and too many songs from the new album which disrupted the flow of the set. There was also a noticeable lack of spontaneity from the band giving it as much edge as a rubber dinghy.

The thing that really irks, though, and the thing that really spoiled GNR’s return to the UK is the lack of respect to the fans. Allowing a gig to start at a time which meant that roughly a third of the audience thought that they had to miss the end of the show is, to put it mildly, annoying. To put on extra trains and not tell anyone? Absolutely ridiculous. Either the venue, the promoter, the band or London transport – or whoever was responsible for the transport shambles at the end of the evening - should apologise and, in a just world, reimburse fans that missed 30 minutes of a set just so that they could get home without having to walk through east London at 1am.

Axl can still redeem himself and his band’s reputation, and has every chance of being brilliant once again. There are glimpses of this throughout the show as he really hits his stride and the band are fantastic. But fans are losing patience with the nonsense that seems to follow Guns N Roses around, and it’s so disappointing that once again something other than the music has spoiled the occasion for so many people.

Here’s the tracklist:

  1. Chinese Democracy
  2. Welcome To The Jungle
  3. It’s So Easy
  4. Mr. Brownstone
  5. Sorry
  6. Shackler’s Revenge
  7. Richard Fortus Guitar Solo (James Bond Theme)
  8. Live And Let Die (Paul McCartney cover)
  9. Instrumental Jam
  10. This I Love
  11. Better
  12. Rocket Queen
  13. Dizzy Reed Piano Solo (Ziggy Stardust)
  14. Street Of Dreams
  15. You Could Be Mine
  16. DJ Ashba Guitar Solo (Ballad Of Death)
  17. Sweet Child O' Mine
  18. Instrumental Jam (Another Brick In The Wall Part 2)
  19. Axl Rose Piano Solo (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road/ Someone Saved My Life Tonight)
  20. November Rain
  21. Bumblefoot Guitar Solo (Pink Panther Theme)
  22. I.R.S.
  23. Nice Boys (Rose Tattoo cover)
  24. Knockin’ On Heaven's Door
    (Bob Dylan cover)
  25. Nightrain

Encore:
26. Instrumental Jam (Bumblefoot Improvised Guitar Solo)
27. Don’t Cry
28. Instrumental Jam
29. Madagascar
30. Whole Lotta Rosie (AC/DC cover)
31. Instrumental Jam
32. Paradise City

If anyone else went to the gig last night and had a different experience then please let us know below: