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Re: Reading, United Kingdom - August 27, 2010 (Reading Festival)
Reading has its darkest hour
It has been a topsy-turvy summer. Glastonbury, the perennial mudbath, basked in sunshine, while practically every subsequent UK festival has been a washout.
With its roots in Seventies heavy metal, Reading '“ young, hip and hardy, unlike crèche-and-coriander weekenders such as Latitude '“ is certainly not to be perturbed by a few spots of rain: it was messy underfoot, but really nothing to frighten the horses. Come early evening, the site revelled in an exquisite, if chilly, sundown, and Queens of the Stone Age could quite plausibly burst on stage with a song called Feelgood Hit of the Summer.
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Axl Rose launches tirade in Leeds Fronted by the ginger-coiffed Josh Homme, Queens looked every inch the future Reading bill-toppers, but advance opinion had been sceptical of this year'™s headliners and their astronomical fees.
Second last on Saturday night, the Libertines, who had re'‘formed especially '“ for a mint '“ were sorely lacking in their old chaos, until they were ushered off the stage mid-song, due to overcrowding (returning later to complete their set).
They were eclipsed by Dizzee Rascal, who preceded them and had a mind-bogglingly vast gathering of Reading'™s diverse musical tribes bopping as one.
That night, rookie headliners, Arcade Fire, also triumphed. 'I don'™t know what we'™re doing here; we'™ve never even had a hit,' joked their lanky singer, Win Butler. If the Canadian septet were suffering from the
we-are-not-worthy'™s, they simply played their way out of it. Their epic, stadium-filling anthems rang out with subtlety, eccentricity and, on their big tunes from 2005'™s Funeral album, heart-bursting joy.
For all such thrills, Reading 2010 will go down in history for Friday'™s headliners, Guns N'™ Roses. As many feared, Axl Rose and his unpopular, Slash-less GN'™R showed up on stage an hour late (a lifetime in festival scheduling) to a half-empty field, and volleys of jeering.
Rose was bloated, Botox-featured and unable to complete more than a couple of screeched verses without recourse to the oxygen tank he keeps in the wings. For long periods, his anonymous henchmen held the fort without him. Consequently, even Sweet Child o'™ Mine drew barely a ripple of applause.
It was excruciating, malign, yet compulsive to watch. Midway through Nighttrain, Rose suddenly barked, 'I don'™t even know why we bothered coming here' , tossed his microphone in the air and stormed off.
Incredibly, it got worse '“ like Spinal Tap re-written by Ricky Gervais. Having now passed the midnight curfew, Rose returned alone, pointing and sneering at the audience, through a microphone now disconnected from the PA. To chants of 'We want Slash' , the band reappeared and started playing Paradise City, also inaudibly. Rose staged a sit-in, singing through a megaphone, until security shooed him off, and GN'™R departed, making obscene gestures.
It was, officially, Reading'™s darkest hour.
Re: Reading, United Kingdom - August 27, 2010 (Reading Festival)
If you squint Guns N' Roses can deliver the goods of old
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/re … z0y5iXbdPi
An hour we waited. Cheers turned to boos and as darkness fell and Guns n'™ Roses still hadn'™t appeared. Legs weary from standing in the mud all day had left the crowd restless.
Opening song Chinese Democracy silenced the crowd, but didn'™t win them over and cries of '˜You'™re not Slash'™ rang out when new guitarist DJ Ashba came onstage in a top hat '“ the trademark of the former guitarist.
It was the first goosebump-inducing bars of the second song Welcome to the Jungle that did the trick '“ this is what people wanted to hear '“ rapidly followed up by crowd-pleasers It'™s So Easy and Mr Brownstone.
A little bit older but still making the same trademark moves of old, Axl Rose belted out many of his classic songs at Reading
As Axl and guitarists Ashba and Richard Fortus tore up and down the stage memories of the original line-up surfaced.
But for those of us who saw the original line-up all those years ago, when Axl was an athletic, botox-free young man '“ there was a tinge of sadness watching him try so hard to recreate the stadium glory he once enjoyed.
That'™s not to say the oldies can'™t still be goodies. With a set-list containing Live and Let Die, Rocket Queen, November Rain and Sweet Child O'™ Mine, the band played their hearts out and the audience responded with rapture (despite most of them being no more than a glint in their parents'™ eyes when Appetite For Destruction was released).
For us veterans, however, the only way to capture the essence of the original band was to squint at the stage in an attempt to blur out the new faces.
And the set-list had something to be desired. For the easily bored crowd at Reading even the hippest of new bands wouldn'™t get away with extended guitar and piano solos.
New Gunners' guitarist DJ Ashba (left) was booed by the Reading crowd who chanted 'You're not Slash', after helping himself to the former guitarist's trademark look
What we wanted was more songs and less waffle. Absent classics include Patience, Out Ta Get Me and of course Paradise City '“ cut out of the set after organisers pulled the plug as the midnight curfew was reached.
As the gig ended with the plug being pulled - leaving Axl to lead a Paradise City singalong from the stage with a loudhailer - reviewers were already queuing up to Axl-bash.
While, admittedly, it is a little sad, seeing a man of advancing years (and weight) performing the same snake-hipped dance moves as he carried out with ease when he was selling out stadiums around the world in his mid 20s, there is something about his performances it'™s hard not to admire.
Like or loathe Axl and his whims (and the loathers are never shrinking violets) at Reading he put on a good, but not great, show and has penned some classic crowd-pleasers.
Oh sit down: Axl leads a singalong of Paradise City after Reading Festival organisers pull the plug on the sound system as the clock strikes midnight
And he'™s hardly alone in carrying on and selling out stadium tours well past his sell-by date '“ the names of ageing rock stars still trotting out their trademark tunes can trip off the tongue without a moment'™s thought.
Seeing Guns '˜N'™ Roses could be magical again. The extra weight, the lateness and the tantrums could all be forgotten '“ if only Axl and Slash could do a Take That, patch up their differences and get on stage together again. Then we wouldn'™t have to squint any more.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/re … z0y5iOyENE
Re: Reading, United Kingdom - August 27, 2010 (Reading Festival)
Its been a bit of a bloodbath in the media to be honest. Its not just the papers, I heard Axl being bashed on TV, and a couple of radio stations this morning and listeners were being invited to join in. Nothing much positive whatsoever came out of those gigs, what a waste 
I actually agree with DJ to an extent, its unfair Axl gets all the criticism thrown at him directly, especially after this fiasco. All of those jokers in the band are guilty.
Its suddenly dawned on me after watching this unfold, that at the root of the never ending nonsence that surrounds GNR might just be caused because none of them are in fact, too bright.
Re: Reading, United Kingdom - August 27, 2010 (Reading Festival)
of course it's been a bloodbath. if it wasn't you wouldn't have heard anything about the gigs. they'd have got zero credit or goodwill from the press if they'd had done a 'normal' gig like everyone else, or even an epic 3 hour one. it doesn't excuse what happened but it was the only way they were going to get so much press coverage. every time there's a UK tour & it's a disaster (which is most times) they get shit on, if it's good it gets ignored & someone else will be slated during that time. axl's the villain of the week, they don't do heroes of the week.
whenever they come back for their arena shows there'll be a lot more attn was on them than before these shows. (& how much attn would these shows have had were it not for twittergate..)
i think they're reasonably intelligent. axl's a smart guy, bumble's a teacher i believe & tommy's pretty sharp. you could be right tho, a lot of the beggars n hangers on are really stoopid there's no doubt about that.
they are jokers tho, in a bad way..
TiL @ Reading: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRlvzF0Xobs
sounds pretty good imo..
Re: Reading, United Kingdom - August 27, 2010 (Reading Festival)
They lack common sense. They live in an unrealistic world and have unrealistic expectations. They also lack business intelligence. It's not totally their fault, but when your leader is paranoid and slightly crazy, unstable at the very least, and is the poster child for napoleon syndrome, things are bound to go wrong.
Re: Reading, United Kingdom - August 27, 2010 (Reading Festival)
i think that's a fair assessment of things.
Re: Reading, United Kingdom - August 27, 2010 (Reading Festival)
Dizzy Reed's you tube? here is pro shot Jungle NR and TIL & street of dreams
http://www.youtube.com/user/DizzyReed#p/u
AXL TWEET (i think he said sorry... kinda )
Axl Rose
On Monday 30th August 2010, @axlrose said:
reply
Don't know what it is w/us or these last 2 shows. Takes the fun out it 4 everyone fans, band n' crew alike but whatever. So u know, we allegedly had a deal in place pre show w/the city at least at Leeds to do a bit longer performance that was either miscommunication, someone wasn't informed, changed their mind, didn't care or was a con. Regardless the nonsense just seems so unnecessary but w/out real management or industry presence is unfortunately beyond r control. We hope the fans feel they got at least what they could from us under the circumstances as 4 us all things considered that's the main thing. The rest is filler. Anyway, enough rambling. Peace, thanks 4 understanding n' what we did manage to get done out there was a blast! The crowds n' fans were amazing!! And in r opinion (not that apparently it means much) u deserved better!! Thanks again!! Axl-
Jungle
TIL
NR+ Axl solo
Street of dreams
(I Would have waited an hr in the rain to see this ! the only things i could find to "bitch about" would be if i ran out of Beer before the show was over 
)
Re: Reading, United Kingdom - August 27, 2010 (Reading Festival)
Well for all the BS I got to say. Guns N Roses never looked as tight knit and close a band since '87 as they did in Reading and Leeds.
that band shot of them all sitting on stage. 4tus breaking his legendary silence and even Dj's seeming fondness for his band mates really shone through. They looked like a family up there
Also I gotta say, with his amazing guitar work live, and the absolute brilliance of his songwritting with Motley Crue and Sixx A.M. its a shame that Axl didn't find Ashba back in '99.
If Ashba had brought the "Life is beautiful" riff to guns n roses, I have no doubt Axl could have turned that into one amazing song for CD
Re: Reading, United Kingdom - August 27, 2010 (Reading Festival)
Well for all the BS I got to say. Guns N Roses never looked as tight knit and close a band since '87 as they did in Reading and Leeds.
that band shot of them all sitting on stage. 4tus breaking his legendary silence and even Dj's seeming fondness for his band mates really shone through. They looked like a family up there
Shhh. Don't say that too loudly. Everybody's supposed to be AGAINST Axl. Didn't you get the memo?
