At just after 10pm the lights went off and the place erupted.
I was suddenly a little concerned by the heat and aware of the fact that I had drunk nothing but whisky for hours.
Welcome to the jungle ripped out and forgot my fear and was swept up in the roar of euphoria and thunderous chords of Jungle, the moment I had been waiting 20 years for, since I first put in my big brothers Appetite For Destruction cassette into my little hifi, when I was all of 7 years old.
It was just insane!! Magical! It was hard to keep your feet in the crowd because we were swaying all over the place and jumping up and down as one.
I?m a big guy so I?m better suited to it than others, must be really scary for smaller folk, especially kids, of which there was a few!
Its So Easy came crashing out the second Jungle finished and we just tore the roof off the place and continued our frenzy. Ron looked a little concerned at one point.
After its so easy, Axl asked for some lights and asked us to calm down because people were passing out, being hurt and getting carried out.
He asked everyone to take a few steps back, to try and ease the pressure at the front, and to my relief, everyone did so with no fuss whatsoever.
Mr Brownstone then blasted out and it was good to have a slightly slower song on, so I could catch my breath. Still rocked, just not as hard.
Live and Let Die came on and I went fucking nuts again, so did everyone else and it was damn sweet.
I think Better came on next and I just flipped, its not even my favorite song but the fact that Scotland was getting a far superior performance from the band compared to what I had read about the previous 2 uk shows, there was no doubt ? this band was firing on full cylinders and genuinely seemed to be having a ball. Ron looked extremely happy and energized. He had his hair in kind of braids or something, he was wearing a white vest which was soaked with sweat halfway through jungle.
Ron?s skin colour looked so pasty white he could have passed for a Scotsman!
Axl was just out of this world, truly mesmerizing. I really mean that, I barely glanced at the big screens behind the stage, I kept forgetting they were there, I could not take my eyes off of Axl. He was spellbinding, his energy levels were through the roof, vocals were searing and perfect and he was in a fantastic mood, infact he barely left the stage.
He pretended to put on a bra that was thrown on stage, and said something about being able to eat his breakfast cereal out of the cups.
He heard someone making a snidey remark, and basically said ?Why don?t you fuck off then? Nobody is stopping you, you can go out and catch a bus.?
There was lots of comments about Whisky, which I particularly enjoyed.
There was also a few things thrown at the stage, something that looked like a parcel which placed at the back of the stage.
Some idiot took it upon themselves to throw a miniature whisky bottle at the stage, which Axl only remarked ?Oh wow, miniatures, thank you?
He talked about Sweden, cant really remember what he said though.
He had a Scottish flag wrapped around him at one point also, and Beta was at the side of the stage much of the night, she really looked happy and into it. There was really such a feel good vibe coming from the band, it must have been that famous Scottish Hospitality.
Axl also said some thing like, "This band isn't McDonalds, and it isn't Burger King. This isn't have it your way". He was smiling though.
I better wrap up actually, this has become a bit of a monster of a report.
Izzy came on and had a blast, he looked like he had never been happier.
We got used to love her, which was awesome.
A stunning Patience with the crowd making they?re own percussion, stomping and clapping in time and singing, it was magical ? Frank loved it, and Big Frank kicked ass all night, he was great!!
I thought the jams were really cool, and yet another chance for me to catch my breath and rest. I had so much water pouring off me I could not have been any wetter if I was in the shower.
Rons solo was good, don?t cry was fun, I held my phone up for my friend at home who loves that song.
Ron was great all night.
Richard was great all night too(he is tiny!) but I don?t even really remember his solo much. That thing he does with Robin, the Christina song, I don?t know the song in question but I don?t think they played it very well last night, cause it sounded crap.
Robin was good when playing the songs but his solos were excruciatingly bad. They were awful. It was painful on the ears and I really don?t know what they were supposed to sound like. It was embarrassing.
I never really noticed tommy much; I was more over to the left side of the stage. I couldn?t help but notice he had a bra on his head at one point.
Dizzy was busy all night, cant believe the weight he has lost ? its like looking at a different person from the Illusion videos.
Chris was there looking busy as well, he got a good cheer when he was introduced.
Nightrain was the fucking shit!!! Amazing!! It was a non stop rock out from the people at the front, I didn?t give a fuck about heat or exhaustion by this point, I knew the show was almost over, so I just went for it.
The encore.
I seen Dizzy taking his place first and I was like pleeeeeeeeeaaase Madagascar, and low and behold the organ kicked in. I nearly fucking jumped out of my shoes!! It was amazing to hear it live, so powerful, so good to wave your hands to.
I really miss bucketheads lead guitar in the middle though, its just not the same anymore.
Paradise City ended the evenings festivities, and it was a storming rendition, everyone going bezerk and the band just feeding off it.
The show ended in a deafening roar of approval as the band took their bows, they all looked like they had had the best night ever and Axl thanked us and wished us all a safe journey home and good night! And then it was over.
The greatest musical experience of my life, thank you Guns N? Roses.
When we were walking out I was feeling really woozy from the heat and fluid loss, I was ok at first but as we were waiting to get out the hall, I was feeling really woozy, my friend was practically holding me up. I was so hot and so thirsty I cant describe it.
I asked a member of staff where I could go to get some water, and she was like ?oh the toilets are down there? and walked away.
So I found the toilets but the fuckers were locked up!!!
I was ready to kick in the door, when my friend took me outside saying there was foodstalls out there and he would go and get some bottled water.
I waited on him and noticed that my trousers were just completely drenched and I had puddles of sweat in my pockets.
My friend returned and had a couple of cans of fizzy juice for us each, saying they don?t have any water there either and they wont sell me more than 4 cans of juice!!
Bastards!!
Thank you SECC.
I drank the 2 cans of juice and felt a little better so we got in the car of the person who was taking us home, spent about and hour trying to get out of the car park.
We went to a 24 hour garage and got some bottles of water which was like liquid life, so good. But on the journey home I started shaking and feeling really cold, damn cold. By the time I got to the flat I was shivering uncontrollably and was freezing cold.
They ended up wrapping me up in loads of layers of blankets and feeding me hot drinks for an hour or so until I managed to heat up again and stay warm.
It was so surreal, boiling hot one minute, freezing the next.
After a couple of hours I felt completely normal again and crawled into bed, marking the end of the Best Friday Night Out in Glasgow Ever!!
Wow.
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