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Re: Leeds, United Kingdom - August 29, 2010 (Leeds Festival)
Guns N' Roses criticise organisers at Leeds Festival
Many artists critical of Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose claimed his "war" with Reading and Leeds' bosses "wasn't over yet" as they headlined the final night of this year's festival.
The singer directed a string of expletives at organisers as his group ran over their allotted performance for the second time.
They came on stage 30 minutes late after being an hour late at Reading.
They played half an hour over their time before being told to stop.
Afterwards festival boss Melvin Benn said he would book the band again but "wasn't sure they'd play for me".
Up until the final half an hour Guns N' Roses' set had been largely straightforward with a show which included songs like Welcome To The Jungle, Sweet Child o' Mine and November Rain.
They were due to finish at 2300 [BST] but continued to play. At 2320 they left the stage and returned for a one song encore of Paradise City and then began criticising organisers.
Speaking to Newsbeat after the band came off stage festival boss Melvin Benn said: "You have to put on a show and every band is focussed on only their aspect of what a festival is - that a band comes off unhappy is something I'll have to live with."
He described the booking of the band for the bank holiday weekender as a "good decision for the festival" adding that it had "paid great dividends".
The scenes followed their appearance at Reading festival on Friday where the band had their set cut short by organisers after breaking a newly-extended curfew.
They protested by continuing to play without amplification with Axl Rose singing along through a megaphone.
In between their performances Axl Rose had demanded the bosses of Reading and Leeds festival say sorry to fans at Reading for cutting their set short.
Speaking on Tweeter he said: "At the very least the fans deserve an apology from those responsible for the nonsense."
Meanwhile, touring guitarist with the band DJ Ashba described organisers as "cocky" and "money grabbing".
It's the latest in a prolonged drama involving Guns N' Roses and the festival.
In the run-up to this year's event organisers said they would have to pull the plug on the band's set if they ran over their schedule.
That's after Guns N' Roses took to the stage late at Leeds festival 2002.
Artist backlash
However, many artists were critical of Guns N' Roses' actions over the weekend.
Lostprophets' guitarist Mike Lewis said: "It was so predictable that he was going to be late that nobody bothered questioning why. It's so predictable, it's boring.
"I don't see it as him being a rock star or rock 'n' roll. I just see it as being disrespectful.
"It's disrespectful to all the other bands. It's disrespectful to all the people who've bought tickets. I think the guy is a joke and I think his band is a joke."
Marina and The Diamonds' Marina Diamandis said: "I just think it's juvenile. It's really selfish to keep people waiting.
"Actually they did it because they [the organisers] said if you're an hour late you won't get paid so they were 58 minutes late in Reading."
"It's like, 'Grow up'. You're not king of the world."
Elsewhere, the final day of this year's Leeds festival saw performances from Queens Of The Stone Age, LCD Soundsystem and Mumford And Sons who drew a huge crowd at the NME/Radio 1 stage.
Reading festival was brought to a close with shows from Blink-182, Paramore and Klaxons.
Re: Leeds, United Kingdom - August 29, 2010 (Leeds Festival)
Yes, we probably all like some DL and Poison, but GNR where never in their group touring wise, they were a much, much bigger act. And its the fact that younger generation is missing out on Guns N Roses, unlike the Rolling Stones who after all these years are still a huge stadium and draw... AC/DC too.. GNR could have been like them, but we all know what happened.
Def Leppard used to be quite large. Hysteria anyone? I see what you're saying, but this is obviously nothing new and you know that. GNR's legacy was tarnished in the mid 90's. No reason to get all upset about it NOW.
Re: Leeds, United Kingdom - August 29, 2010 (Leeds Festival)
Here's the kicker and the quandary....
"He described the booking of the band for the bank holiday weekender as a "good decision for the festival" adding that it had "paid great dividends". '
until promoters stop making money off Gnr and stop booking Gnr, NOTHING will change with Axl.
You guys need to accept that....for good and bad.
Re: Leeds, United Kingdom - August 29, 2010 (Leeds Festival)
Here's the kicker and the quandry....
"He described the booking of the band for the bank holiday weekender as a "good decision for the festival" adding that it had "paid great dividends". '
until promoters stop making money off Gnr and stop booking Gnr, NOTHING will change with Axl.
You guys need to accept that.
You got that 100% right.
Re: Leeds, United Kingdom - August 29, 2010 (Leeds Festival)
Another short article. I actually thought the promoter handled things VERY well, in the end. I still don't agree with his actions leading up to the event, but he's being the bigger man here and not getting into a war of words with Axl. That's not a battle worth fighting.
http://undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=11748
Axl Rose Wars With UK Festival Promoters
by Andrew Tijs - August 30 2010
photo by Ros O'Gorman
Axl Rose sneers at promoters as Guns N Roses'™ Leeds Festival set is cut short.
At the Reading Festival, Guns N Roses came on an hour late and had their set curtailed by the UK'™s noise restriction laws which prevent festivals from carrying on after midnight.
The band returned to play their Leeds Festival headliner with the same snarky attitude, Rose claiming that the promoters were cutting them off again.
NME reports that Rose said from the stage at 11:20pm, "We would like to play a few more songs for you tonight. But someone is telling us the show's over. This war ain't over yet."
He claimed that the band were told earlier that they could perform until 11:58pm, but the Leeds and Reading festival boss Melvin Benn refuted the claim.
Following the outburst, the Gunners did an encore of '˜Paradise City'™ and left, Rose telling the audience 'Be safe getting out of here. And for the problems with the promoters: fuck you.
Despite Axl'™s combative statements, Benn said that he would 'definitely� book the band again but doubts he'll "be getting a Christmas card from them, which is a shame because tonight was great".
Re: Leeds, United Kingdom - August 29, 2010 (Leeds Festival)
Another short article. I actually thought the promoter handled things VERY well, in the end.
he's a double talkin jive motherfucker.
Re: Leeds, United Kingdom - August 29, 2010 (Leeds Festival)
Re: Leeds, United Kingdom - August 29, 2010 (Leeds Festival)
...Of course let's not mention the good things people had to say about "Leeds" last night or the fact that all the youtube videos or BBC videos don't seem to suggest the crowd was that sparse or overly negative to the band at "Reading".
