London, UK Hammersmith Apollo - June 7, 2006

[mlewis]

Here's my review from earlier- I'm still going over what I saw in my head and trying to do justice to it; the video of LALD is great, but might miss a  bit of the intensity of it. When I said earlier that this is what I imaging being at Ritz 88 might have been like, I meant it. This was this band's Ritz show. Was completely insane. Took me 5 hours to get home, but it was so worth it, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Just back from the show- I'll write a proper review after some sleep!

Best show I've ever seen bar none. The crowd were immensely into it- crowd surfing throughout, and the whoe standing section moving as one. Loads knew the new songs too, so they went down well.

Axl sounded fantastic- better than I've ever heard, the shrieks cut powerfully through the mix. The band were clearly really enjoying the response from the crowds too- they were as into it as we were. I can never criticize Axl about the oxygen either- I was out of breath three songs in from the intensity of it, and I was just in the crowd; I was 4 rows from the stage, and it felt like they were playing in my living room.

And honestly, once they hit the stage, nobody cared what time it was. We were rapt in the moment until 1ish, when they finished.

Cool thing I remember- about 6, before the show, bumble was talking to loads of fans outside the show in the queue and around the stage entrance. Fantastic guy.

The BBC were hanging around outside too, recording interviews with fans for the 6Music (rock) radio station.

I'll never see a show as good as this again.

Pics to come- where can I upload them to, if they're any good?

[fishyguy]

Superb show. Saw the bassist from Guns 2 roses there too! he apreciated my Adlers Appetite T Shirt!.
After the gig we waited around and we had a long conversation with Ron Thai. He was cool! he had a Curry he was eating and sharing it around, i got a couple of photos. I asked him 'Will you ever do Doubletalking Jive'? He said 'Is that a GNR song?' ' I just play what they tell me to do'. Cool. I told him he kicks Bucketheads ass but all he said was ' he's my friend man'.
Also grabbed a word with Chris Pitman. As he went to his trailer i said " i love silkworms man!" (all i could think of saying) he said "wait for the studio record!" I asked him if it was on the new album and he walked to his car.
Saw Dizzy reed also, he was super spaced out. His eyes were bulging!
We waited for Tommy to come out and he went straight for his car, no nothing!.
Oh, I asked Ron If Brian May had practiced Catcher In the Rye with them, unfortunatly Ron had no info on that. He didnt know much really!. He had a bloody hot Curry tho. Ill post a pic later.
Last thing to say tho. As i left i said "who's on the HTGTH message board and not one remaining soul was! where were you guys?

I'm interested in the curry.

What was it and what do you mean he was sharing it around???

[Brundle25]

Superb show. Saw the bassist from Guns 2 roses there too! he apreciated my Adlers Appetite T Shirt!.
After the gig we waited around and we had a long conversation with Ron Thai. He was cool! he had a Curry he was eating and sharing it around, i got a couple of photos. I asked him 'Will you ever do Doubletalking Jive'? He said 'Is that a GNR song?' ' I just play what they tell me to do'. Cool. I told him he kicks Bucketheads ass but all he said was ' he's my friend man'.
Also grabbed a word with Chris Pitman. As he went to his trailer i said " i love silkworms man!" (all i could think of saying) he said "wait for the studio record!" I asked him if it was on the new album and he walked to his car.
Saw Dizzy reed also, he was super spaced out. His eyes were bulging!
We waited for Tommy to come out and he went straight for his car, no nothing!.
Oh, I asked Ron If Brian May had practiced Catcher In the Rye with them, unfortunatly Ron had no info on that. He didnt know much really!. He had a bloody hot Curry tho. Ill post a pic later.
Last thing to say tho. As i left i said "who's on the HTGTH message board and not one remaining soul was! where were you guys?

I'm interested in the curry.

What was it and what do you mean he was sharing it around???

Ron came out with a take away curry which he was eating from one of those takeaway aluminium tubs. He offered a bit around so we didnt refuse, so i had a fork full of some very spicy chicken. He spoke with us for ages, cool bloke.
I didnt recognise Dizzy read with his dreds, so just missed getting his autograph......

[fishyguy]

Thats a cool story.

Now you can tell everyone that you shared chicken curry with a GNR member.

How many people can say that.

What did you guys talk about and when can we have the pics?

[whoareyou]

Just read the review if the London Evening Standard, it was awful! They gave it 1 out of 5 stars, said "Axl Rose looked like a Stars in their Eyes Mick Hucknall!"
he described the guitarists at potholers, who were not worthy of tuning Slash's guitars! He said he lost the will to live after Fortus's solo! And finished off by saying that this once great band had surrended everything which was once good about them!!

[sweetwater]

Sounds about right!

[Buckle]

Personally I thought it was a brilliant show. An epic performance from every member of the band. Robin finck showed us what it is like to be a real guitarist. Sadly I had to leave before the end because something came up so I needed to get home. But from what I did see, I can say they are on top form and played amazingly.

Everything was great.

Evening Standard can Fuck Off!!

[sweetwater]

Let's get a few things straight.
I love Gn'R and last night was the first time I felt ready to go and see them since the break up. What a mixed bag it was!
Firstly - the waiting around for 2 hours for them to come on stage is just tedious now - when they were at the height of their powers it kind of went with the territory of being the Most Dangerous Band in The World - you're 44 now Axl, clean and sober so no excuses for showing your fans the disrespect of rolling on stage at 2305. Boring!
Opener Welcome to the Jungle rocked and was an exhilerating start. It's so Easy was ok but I heard it done better by f*cking Kid Rock at Brixton a few years ago! And Slash and Co. in VR still play it better than these hired hands. Mr Brownstone was unforgivably poor - mushy sound, lack lustre energy to a GREAT GREAT song. Again VR play this song like their life depends on it and sounds a trillion times better. Live and Let Die was quite fun in a 'sing-along at karaoke' type way.
And then came the first of the tuneless, shred solos - utterly pitiful and as if waiting 2 hours wasn't bad enough we had these interminable intervals of mutual cock stroking that lost any momentum the show was gathering.
The new songs (especially Madagascar) were truly impressive. I'd not heard them before so to hear songs in a live setting for the first time and enjoy them is great credit to Axl.
Axl's voice sounded better than ever - at times truly jaw-dropping. Although he sounds out of tune for most of Knockin' on Heaven Door.
As for the rest of the band. The drummer was a non-entity with headphones on (was he listening to a CD of summat better? ?
And why oh why do we need to have 2 keyboards and 3 guitars to play songs like NightTrain, Paradise City, Out Ta Get Me etc etc???
Oh yeah - Sweet Child O' Mine was fabulous - they really wrung the neck out of that one. You could be Mine was also brilliant and sounded superb.
Ironic really that it takes high wired Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach to come on and wip the sleepy Hammersmith crowd into a frenzy. The duet on My Michelle was good value and deliriously exciting.
So, how did this compare to VR gigs? Well - VR have a far weaker song base but their gigs are pure rock n roll. I'm afraid that for all the technical virtuosity these new boys can't hold a candle to Slash and Izzy. Or Gilby for that matter.
Time will tell if GnR (or 'The Axl Rose Show) can grow into a something better and if a new album does surface it could well ignite new interest. Untill then I'll save my pennies for the next VR tour.

[sweetwater]

Forgot to mention. November Rain sounded like someone was drowning a cat thanks to Richard Fortus. Puuuurleeease!!!

 

[Buckle]

Thanks to Jarmo for organising the meeting at the distillers arms. Although I havn't posted in a year, it was still cool to see so many G'n'R fans in one place and all there for the same reason. And thanks for the references to me being dutch, I should get in with those crazy dutchies.

[St_Jimmyuk]

we decided to queue instead of going to the pub as it was getting long quickly, if id have known i would get stranded in london all night long id have gone for the few extra pints

[Jimmy?]

Hey people got back at 6:00am this mornin' and i had to go to sleep before i posted my review! I missed the last train out of kings cross! IT WAS FUCKIN WORTH IT THOUGH!!

Here we go!

I went with my mate, who's a non- "newGNR" kind of guy! Not into all these new band members, calls bumblefoot a bumbletwat etc.! I knew i had to get him to change his opinion, so as soon as those tix went on sale i got him one!

We arrived in Hammersmith at about 13:30ish and just hung around the local bars and such like until 16:30 when we decided to start queuin'. What a fiasco  they moved the queue twice meaning the poor buggers who'd got to the front of the queue at like 9am where now at the back.

Anyways, saw the GNR photographer George Chin (?) whilst in the queue, some people were chattin' to him, seems like a really cool guy. Some people were doin short interviews with the fans aswell which was also kinda cool! I think they opened the doors at about 8ish, maybe a bit before. What a relief  (thats sweat, not tears!!)

Inside now, bought the cool t-shirt with the new old-school logo and the dates on the back, AWESOME! 

Got a nice little spot about halfway down towards the stage. A7X came on at about 8:15, thought they were actually pretty good, a bit cocky, but still good!  They finished up at about 9, then the wait began......

.....

.....

10:45 (i think!) - lights dimmed, annoyin' intro then those oh so familiar echoes and at long last.....

"Do you know where the fuck you are??"

Crowd went wild.... naturally! 

Some highlights during the show......

Amazing renditions of the AFD songs

Playing some of the newer songs (didn't have the same impact as the AFD songs, but still awesome  )

Robin crowdsurfing during OTGM + Robin's facial expressions during his solo's 

Ron is so much better seeing him live than what he seems to be on the recording's - Rock on dude 

Axl's voice in fine form 

Axl: "The ribbed condom of guitarist's - Mr Robin Finck!"

Seeing Merck rockin out to Nightrain + PC at the side of the stage 

Axl's pink shirt 

YCBM sounded incredible, one of the best of the evening!

+ so much more, i can't really be bothered to type it all at the moment! To sum it all up... WHAT A SHOW! 

The show finished at 1 and after an eternity of trying to squeeze out the doors we hurridely made our way to the station only to discover that there was no train's running to Kings Cross. so....... waht did me and my mate do? we WALKED all the way from Hammersmith to Kings Cross!!!!! Got there at gone half 3 in the mornin', we were so pumped, we just didn't give a shit! What a night!

Got the 5:21 train back home and had a nice kip when i got in. Was fuckin exhausted to say the least!

Oh... my mate HAS changed his opinion now. On the way back, he says to me "Dude, GNR are back man!!"

Sums it all up really!

Roll on July 30th 

[iloozion]

The show was fuckin awesome!

a few bad points:

Avenge Sevenfold were shit - please get a better, more appropriate ROCK band to support next time, not some nu-metal shit!

The mix was a bit muddy some times - hard to pick out some of the guitar/vocals at times, drums were nice and loud though! probably the result of putting a staduim sound system into a smaller venue.

GN'R not coming on until 11, and London transport stopping at midnight. Like alot of people we had to leave during 'Nightrain'. That put a downer on the end of an otherwise great night.

GN'R were great though - good to hear Madagascar again, shame they didn't play CD.....and Estranged, Don't Cry etc, etc, etc!

Did you guys see all the cameras filming queue and the leaflets about the filming? The must be planning to release something, unless all that is just for Axl's private collection?!

oh yeah, and there was a seperate entrance for people with mobile tickets, with absolutely no queue - i'm doing that next time as the queue for standard tickets went right round the block.

[BA]

one thing i will say about hammersmith is that the souind is always shit there.vocals are never clear unless its maynard singing that is.i could still hear that axls voice sounded incredible though.

[mlewis]

The sound was actually pretty clear though- the reason you might have had trouble hearing is because the crowd was so loud!

[Brundle25]

Ahh just remembered. When I met Ron at the end of the show, I asked him if he is rerecording Bucketheads parts for the album.
He said , no he isnt and that he wont feature on the album at all.

So there you go.

[DeN]

Ahh just remembered. When I met Ron at the end of the show, I asked him if he is rerecording Bucketheads parts for the album.
He said , no he isnt and that he wont feature on the album at all.

So there you go.

major information, thx. so buckethead's work will stay on CD, or robin will rerecording it (or richard).

[michaelvincent]

Great. 

I pray it's Richard.

[pitmunky]

well....i worked in the pit at Hammersmith, apart from the twat we pulled over the barrier and lobbed out and the idiots who demand on pushing their way to the front, not caring who they whack in the face on the way thru, i had a fookin blast, well worth the wait in between Avenged Sevenfold and Guns.

There were only 350 people sent tickets thru their phones, and it was a 100% success as all were passed thru without any technical fubars! so good news for the real fans, crappy news for the touts!!.

Just wanted to say thanks for a great nite, you lot were nutty as expected but great, mr rose hasnt lost any of his appeal for me personally, and i look forward to seeing some of u either this weekend at Donnington, or at Wembley next month, say hi!!(specially if you were the scouse girl, in black with ur m8 with the USA bandanna, ssccchhhaaaaawingggggg).

Take care guys,

Stay safe

Munky

[Mutherfunker]

No matter how good they were, I'm NOT going to see them again : I have a wife, a child, a job, and waiting for Axl to pull his head out of 'Axltime' to the real world causes frictions and costs money when it finishes that late.

Axl may have 'Fuck You Money', but someone needs to pull Axl to one side and tell him how seriously he's fucking off the fans.

Agreed, those were exactly my thoughts as I was struggling to get a nightbus back to my hostel! As I had to leave at 4:15 to catch my plane I had 1 hour sleep! The fucker has no idea what people go through to see his chauffeur-driven ass! But I will see them once more again (but then I will have my car)!

Oh, and the show was cool!

I'm not being funny but I planned my whole trip around the fact that Axl would be late.

We all know it - why not plan with that in mind?

How can markreed complain about something he new was going to happen when he bought the tickets?

@#$%Funker