Last night was a night for nostalgia. A night for letting whatever hair I’ve got left down and enjoying a great night out listening to songs that got me into rock music in the first place. Guns N’ Roses came to Glasgow last night for what I understand was their first ever gig on Scottish soil. My best mate, Peter, and I went along to see if Axl and the new band that he had created under the GNR banner would be able to even remotely match the band that we grew up listening to – and that Peter had seen live in Gateshead however many years ago.
They blew the place apart!
The 2 support acts – Towers Of London and Bullet For My Valentine were, ahem, competent. Towers did a great metal cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s classic “Freebird” (the only track we were in the arena to hear them play) while BFMV basically sounded like it was just one long session of screaming into microphones.
I had read the reports on the internet about Axl apparently not going on stage before 10pm on this tour. BFMV left the stage at 8:30pm and the stage crew set to work getting the stage ready for GNR. They were done by 9 and the crowd stood there waiting. And waiting. And waiting. After about half-an-hour of waiting, the booing and jeering started between the songs that were being played over the PA system. Another 15 minutes and the paper cups that people’s drinks were in were starting to get thrown. At 10:04pm, the house lights went off and the place went mental and cheered the opening notes to “Welcome To The Jungle” as each member of the band walked on stage. With everyone on stage and Axl at his microphone, he shouted “you know where the f*** you are?” and we were off on a trip down rock memory lane as the first 2 tracks on “Appetite For Destruction” – GNR’s first album – “Welcome To The Jungle” and “It’s So Easy” were played – brilliantly. Peter and I felt like we were 15 again!
Personal highlight tracks during the concert were “Live And Let Die” (during which I realised the drummer sitting in with them was Abe Laboriel Jr. who I last saw drumming with Paul McCartney – coincidence? Actually, it was as he was sitting in for the regular drummer), “You Could Be Mine”, “Nightrain” and “Paradise City”. Here’s the setlist:-
Welcome To The Jungle
It’s So Easy
Mr. Brownstone
Live And Let Die
Better
Robin Finck Guitar Solo
Sweet Child O’ Mine
You Could Be Mine
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Jam Session
Dizzy Reed Piano Solo
The Blues
Richard Fortus And Robin Finck Guitar Duet (Christina Agulera’s Beautiful)
Out Ta Get Me
Jam Session (with Axl on piano)
November Rain
Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal Guitar Solo (instrumental version of Don’t Cry)
Think About You (with Izzy Stradlin)
Patience (with Izzy Stradlin)
Used to Love her (With Izzy Stradlin)
Nightrain (with Izzy Stradlin)
Encore
Madagascar
Robin Finck Solo (Over The Rainbow)
Paradise City (With Izzy Stradlin)
Right, I’m off to try to recover! I hurt in places I forgot that I would hurt in after a rock concert like that!!!
The Cardman 🙂