Your GN'R highlights?

[jarmo]

Since it seems to be really quiet in the GN'R world at the moment I thought we could do this little thing. It's probably been done a few times already, but I'm old and I forget things.


List your GN'R highlight(s). It could be the first show you saw, the first time you heard a song, the time you bought a GN'R album, the first time you saw a GN'R video or maybe something completely different....


As an example I'll list some personal GN'R highlights:

- Getting Appetite For Destruction on tape after seeing "Paradise City" on MTV. It changed my life.

- August 16th, 1991. My first concert and also my first (and so far only) GN'R show. I remember the houselights during Rocket Queens, hearing Estranged and that there was no review in the paper the day after (GN'R didn't let them take pics so they didn't write a review).

- September 16th, 1991. School ended at 3pm, I went to the record store and bought UYI 1 & 2 on LP. I recognized some of the songs from the show a month earlier.

- April 20th, 1992. Sitting at home watching the The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness.

- January 14th, 2001. Rock In Rio 3. I listened to this on a shitty stream. Got cut off quite a lot but that didn't matter. I was excited to hear some new songs.

- August 24th, 2002. Pukkelpop, I have to mention this because it's kinda special even though I wasn't even there. I thought the first persons who e-mailed me day after had some problems with their hearing....

- August 29th, 2002. GN'R closing the VMAs. I remember talking to Kiki and reading the board before and after GN'R's performance. We had lots of people online that day/night. I didn't care if Axl didn't have his best day, I was just excited to see him back on tv.



/jarmo

[Falcon]

This is a great idea Jarmo!

Seeing GNR on the UYI tour in Oklahoma City.
The Smashing Pumpkins opened and got booed unmercifully
offstage.  GNR went on stage at 11:20 after the tickets said they'd go on "around 9:00" or something to that effect.

The VMA's last year were exciting as well.  Finally seeing what the new band actually looked like as a unit was quite a thrill.  Realizing Robin Finck might quite possibly be the coolest contemporary guitar player out there...

[popcorn]

March ?, 1993- Iowa City, Iowa. Saw Gnr there and it is still the bar by which i judge concerts. The funny thing is, I had somewhat soured on the whole GnR thing at that point just because they seemed to be completely out of touch with the world. U know, Axl wearing sport coats & biker shorts, those crappy TokyoDome videos, Izzy leaving, etc....Hell, even the Brian May band who opened totally sucked & did some horrible bitch fight thing in his set. Then it happened, they stormed on with 'It's So Easy' and rocked a 15,000+ crowd like no other band I've ever seen. No stupid wardrobe changes, an awesome acoustic set in the middle, and a couple of encores. It was unbelievable, it felt like watching cartoon characters on stage, Axl & Slash were larger than life up there. Axl was in top form, a few rants, some acrobatics on the couches & piano & to see a legend like Slash rip through his own material is something i will never, ever forget.

[bill213]

Getting Appetite when I was 8 years old after seeing Welcome To The Jungle on MTV.  
Hearing Oh My God. because I thought the greatest band in teh world was ready to make a comeback
1-1-01 because I stayed up all night till i got a review of how it went.  And when I first heard that Chinese Democracy mp3 how I thought this band fucking rocks
12-6-02 Setting at the First Union Center in Philly kinda laughing at the fact Axl didn't show up.....Even thou I didn't get to see him it was just kinda funny ya know.

[charliedontsurf.]

-Getting my first GnR tape when I was 8. AFD.

-Watching the Tokyo vids. First time I saw them perform live. Watched them with my parents and remember cursing Matt and his half hour drum solo.

-Trying to get tix to see them in Edmonton, 1993. Sold out too fast and I was only in grade three.

-Seeing TSI in store and going nuts.

-Finding OMG on the net and recording it on a tape and listening to it like crazy.

-Skipping school to buy Live Era...in my GnR shirt of course.

-Vegas, Return of the Jedi... waiting up all night like crazy.

-Vancouver, Nov.7/02. My first GnR concert... nevermind... my first GNR RIOT!!!

-Tacoma, Wa, Nov.9/02. Actually my first GnR concert. I took a Greyhound from Vancouver and I arrived 5 minutes before GnR came on. Surreal experience. Paid 110 Canadian dollars for a ticket, and 100 Canadian for a shirt and bandana...

-Philly... na na na na na na na na Hey hey hey, goodbye...

[AdZ]

Watching November Rain for the first time and getting chills up my spine when slash mounted the piano and played those chords....

Getting Live Era and skipping through the piano solo just to hear november rain....

Getting tickets to see GnR in London, Dec 2001.....

Getting tickets to see GnR in London, Aug 2002......

26.08.02 GUNS N' FUCKING ROSES!!! Seeing Axl 15 feet away from me!! [wow] BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE

VMA's.... stayed up till 4AM on the offchance they might show.... dancing round my living room..... turning up the TV..... didn't even notice until people pointed it out later axl was out of breath......

[Laura]

seein them on the VMA's maybe axl sounded bad but it made me realise the new band isnt so bad and that they're acually doing stuff

travellin 6h to see them in toronto live november 29 2002... it was awsome... also made me realise that the new band isnt so shabby

[AxlsPiano]

didn't even notice until people pointed it out later axl was out of breath......

lol, im with you there. I was so fucking excited that I wouldnt have cared if he didnt sing in the right key. anyway...

The thing that just got me into GNR was when my brother and me were riding to work and he had borrowed UYI 1 off of a friend and he only really liked  3 tracks from it and he played them the whole way. Don't Cry, then Bad Obsession, then November Rain. I fucking loved it.

That, and the VMAs. Now im waiting for an album

[nuzreq]

I showed up, Axl didnt  [rant]

 

[unoturbo]

When we went to leeds last year. There was 5 of us but only me and 1 other dude stayed at the front for GNR, which I was dissapointed at.  We'd been jumping around for the last 4 hours to other shite bands and anyone that was there will tell u how hot and crowded it was, I thought my kidneys were going to explode through dehydration.  it was ace!

[Sukie]

Well, since I live in a shitty, little no-where town and have strict parents, I never got to see GN'R live.  All of you who have are sooooo lucky!  Hopefully, GN'R will continue and I'll get to see them sometime soon (since I'm old as the hills and don't have to worry about parental permission anymore).

Anyway, GN'R highlights...riding around with my boyfriend listening to AFD, singing along at the top of our voices, and getting really drunk!  Seemed to go hand-in-hand at the time.  

Next...skipping my 8:00 class to get the Illusions.  I was so excited!  Then skipping my next two classes to listen to as much as I could.

[kujo722]

October, 1991: Getting UYI 1&2 in the mail, finally, in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The tapes were worn out by the time I came home in January.

September, 1992: Columbia, S.C. Faith No More, Metallica, and GnR. A good night.

May 1993: Raleigh, N.C. Blind Melon and GnR. Best Concert I've ever seen. Axl was in a good mood that night and was cracking jokes the whole show. Of course it's one of the few shows that cant be found on bootleg.

2002 VMA's My favorite thing about that whole night was that it wasn't a typical GnR crowd. People were there to see Eminem and all the other groups that are popular now, but the place just went apeshit when the curtains came up and there was Axl.

[CokeAddict]

Many highlights over 15 years, but I'm going to use this opportunity to tell my VMA story...

Prior to August, I had been checking in on GNR news like once every 4 months or so on Jarmo's news page.  Never looked at message boards or anything.  So I had no clue about the VMAs, but I had a vague idea that GNR was in Europe that week.

So I happened to be visiting my parents for a long weekend and thought, "what the hell, I'll watch the VMAs, I like Jimmy Fallon and I'll catch up on the MTV scene."  So I'm watching, and Jimmy says his "tell your friends there is a big surprise coming..." and in the back of my head, I think, maybe it's GNR!  They are probably just coming back from Europe, perfect time to stop off in NYC on the way to LA, etc.  And I actually got butterflies in my stomach and all excited, wanting to jump up and down.  So I wait up, and then time is running out, and I thought the big surprise was fucking Justin Timberlake.  After that and the next award, I thought "I'm such a moron, I sat through this whole fucking show, all excited, only to watch Timberlake, on the  off chance it could be GNR."  AND I TURNED THE TV OFF THERE and went to bed sullen.  Literally, I turned it off 5 seconds before they cut back to Jimmy wearing the Tshirt and whistling Patience.  

So the next morning I'm at breakfast and my mom is reading the NY Times, and she mentions the Michael Jackson moment she's reading about and happens to mention GNR.  I did a double take and ripped the paper out of her hands, and literally had to read the thing 3 times before comprehending.  So excited, upset, and happy with my intuition all at once.  Thank God MTV replays those shows like 3 times the following weekend, so I saw it that day.

Anyway, I was just excited to see it then.  And it kicked off Phase 2 of my GNR obsession (alright, I admit you can call it that).  I saw 2 shows this past tour, have listened to all the CDs again, bought Buckethead CDs, and come here almost everyday to quick see if there's news.  So the VMAs were definitely a highlight.

Sorry this post got so long...

[BIGj]

Skipping junior high the day the Illusion albums came out.
Skipping high school the day The Spaghetti Incident came out.
Skipping University classes when Live Era and the End of Days soundtrack came out.

[tonya_ytzerman]

-when i was 11, i put in AFD to impress my friend (i thought it sucked but wanted to play the cool gal), and was a gn'r fan after 2 chords of WTTJ

-my first expirience with the internet at the age of 17. my dad showed me yahoo (the only decent search engine back at the time), and then he said "well now you gotta type in what you're lookin for". well the part of me that's a gn'r-freak had been sort of asleep for about 2 years by then, but made a violent comeback that very moment. i was astonished how many people were out there that were as crazy as me (and even crazier maybe hehe). that got me back on "the right track" . i'd thought i was the only gn'r fan left in the whole world - note to axl: without the internet, i think most fans would've left by now, sort of (and i'd never known about the leeds thing)

-LEEDS - flew to london on thursday night, spent the night on a bench in front of mme. tussaud's cause i'd literally missed the train to leeds by 2 min. took the first train to leeds, met a bunch of sottish gn'r fans. slept on the soil in front of the stage the whole day. got first row on the left side. my mind went into another world when i heard the WTTJ, so i don't even remember half the fuckin show.... but i've seen axl - slept in leeds train station, took first train back to london, was bang on time to catch the plane back to zurich, went home, showered, and went to the goodbye-game of my fav. hockey player. the people there were all like "oh this is so beautiful" and "i've been waiting all summer to see this" and blah and how this was the best thing they'd ever seen n' i was just like WTF i've seen axl i don't *fuckin* care, what a lame game LOL.

[bolton]

good topic
-1991 my friend gave a tape wirh lot of different artist,and then i heard "paradise city" first tape
-after couple days bought appetite for destruction
-then few days ago i bought "gnr lies" and use your illusion 1,2
-my first gnr video was "you could be mine"
-22.5.1992 i saw gnr in budapest,that was amazing evening
-in june 1992 my public tv station represented gnr show in paris
-1992 gnr was the biggest bend in the world
-1993 i bought "the spaghety incident"
-1994-2001 i didn't hear anything about gnr,i listened old songs and watched two video shows "in tokyo and in paris"
-2001 i taped "gunsnroses" in google and found this site
-then i downloaded madagascar from rio
-2001-2003 i have waited for chinese democracy

[Mal Brossard]

Some time in 1994 (age 10): Heard November Rain and Paradise City for the first time on MTV.  Thought it was cool.

Some time in 1997: Heard "Welcome To The Jungle" at a hockey game.  Didn't know what it was, but liked it.

Summer of 1999: Started listening to the radio a lot, heard a lot of GNR stuff for the first time.

September 1999: Saw video for WTTJ from Live Era.  Started really getting into GNR.

January 15, 2000, 7 pm: Bought Live Era, my first GNR album.

June 20, 2000, 10 am: Broke up with girlfriend.  Locked myself in my room and listened to "Estranged" from Live Era for the next three days, emerging only to eat and go to the can.

June 27, 2000, 12:23 pm: Finally bought AFD.  Listened to it 5 times over on my way to Michigan.

Some time in Fall 2000: Started reading HTGTH every so often.  Bought UYI 1 and 2, and GNR Lies.  Wore out one Discman listening to them.

March 2002: Bought The Spaghetti Incident?  Lost some faith in GNR.

September 2002: Started college, joined HTGTH.

December 2, 2002: My first concert EVER-- GNR in Boston!!

January 7, 2003: Bought a guitar, started learning GNR stuff.

April 20, 2003, 5:15 am EST: I post this list at HTGTH.

[echrisl]

I have to say that the biggest memory is seeing GNR last year in Tacoma.  I remember waking up and my friend telling me that the show in Vancouver had turned into a riot.  I was like, oh no, I can't believe that they started the tour with a riot.  I was anxious that the show would be canceled and that I'd never see GNR.  But, long story short, the concert happened and it blew me away.

[Christos AG]

1988- Paradise City video clip on Super Channel

1993- All of their albums in my collection (plus some collector's items) but I couldn't go to Athens cause I was to young to travel 560 km.

1999- End Of Days soundtrack and a new song!!!

2001- I broke up with a girl I was with for 3 years / I rediscover Estranged and Guns N'Roses / I find out about this site and board.

2002- July: I watched the RIR3 video which I hated (cause the quality sucked) / August: I'm travelling to England to see them at Leeds and London. In London I have a sign that says "GREECE LOVES GNR" which Axl notices and comments on it. He waved at me twice...

2003- I started www.gunsnroses.gr ? ? / ? ? ? Chinese Democracy is coming...

[electra]

1988 - Seeing Sweet Child O Mine video and buying AFD on tape. Walking to and from high school listening to AFD nearly every day in my walkman.

1992 - Buying Illusions I & II on CD. Watching the Freddie Mercury tribute on TV with friends at my university dorm.

fast forward to 2002 - Being upset that I wasn't going to be home in Vancouver to see the GnR concert because I was travelling, but then after hearing about the riots, I was glad and relieved that I wasn't able to be there after all.