Hot on the heels of their sell out shows last week in Las Vegas, San Francisco and KROQ's Inland Invasion in Los Angeles Guns N' Roses announce the first leg of their "Chinese Democracy" North American Tour.

The tour which will kick off on the 20th of October in Jacksonville, Florida finds the band in top form having spent the summer in Europe playing to 700,000 plus people over 32 shows in 18 countries, making it one of the biggest tours of the year on the continent and in the UK. Concert goers were not let down as Axl Rose and his band mates Dizzy Reed, Robin Finck, Richard Fortus, Tommy Stinson, Chris Pitman, Brain and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal burned through classics such as "Welcome to the Jungle," "Paradise City," "Nightrain," "Mr. Brownstone," "November Rain" and "Sweet Child O' Mine" as well as highlighting soon to be favourites from the forthcoming "Chinese Democracy" album.

Just this week, the Hollywood Reporter's concert review of KROQ's Inland Invasion observed, "when headliner Guns N' Roses took the stage everything old became new again - and everything new on the bill, just couldn't hold a candle in comparison... the night belonged to Guns N' Roses!"

Axl Rose commented, "We had an amazing tour in Europe this summer and last week’s shows here in the US were great. It's been a long time getting here but we look forward to coming to your town and having a lot of fun."

Sebastian Bach who has been guesting with Guns N' Roses on "My Michelle" will open the entire tour with the Special Guest slot going to a number of great bands starting with Papa Roach for the dates through the 3rd of November. The shows have been planned to cater to a Guns N' Roses rock n' roll party atmosphere with Sebastian hitting the stage every night at 8 pm followed by the Special Guest at 9 pm and Guns N' Roses shortly after 10 pm and lots of great music in between.

Guns N' Roses are also delighted to announce that they have partnered with Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLB.COM) to provide their fans with premium ticketing opportunities and up to the minute information on the tour and the band's other activities via gunsnroses.com which will be launched as of tomorrow.

As for Guns N' Roses forthcoming "Chinese Democracy" album the only comment at this time is that there are 13 Tuesdays left between now and the end of the year.

The itinerary for the "Chinese Democracy" North American Tour is as follows. Tickets for most dates go on sale on the 30th of September with up to the minute information and pre-sales available now at gunsnroses.com.

October

10/20/06 Jacksonville, FL Vets Memorial Arena
10/22/06 Nashville, TN Gaylord Entertainment Center
10/24/06 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center
10/25/06 St. Petersburg, FL St. Pete Times Forum
10/27/06 Estero, FL Germain Arena
10/29/06 San Juan, Puerto Rico Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum

November

11/2/06 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum
11/3/06 Huntington, WV Big Sandy Superstore Arena
11/5/06 East Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena
11/6/06 Portland, ME Cumber County Civic Center
11/8/06 Worcester, MA Worcester Centrum
11/10/06 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
11/13/06 Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner
11/15/06 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
11/17/06 Ottawa, ON Scotiabank
11/18/06 Quebec Colisee Pepsi
11/20/06 Halifax, NS Halifax Metro Centre
11/24/06 Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena
11/25/06 Auburn Hills, MI The Palace of Auburn Hills
11/27/06 Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
11/29/06 Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center

December

12/1/06 Ames, IA Hilton Coliseum
12/2/06 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
12/4/06 Winnipeg, MB MTS Centre
12/6/06 Calgary, AB Pengrowth Saddledome
12/7/06 Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
12/10/06 Everett, WA Everett Events Center
12/11/06 Portland, OR Rose Garden
12/13/06 Fresno, CA Save Mart Center
12/15/06 Oakland, CA Oakland Coliseum
12/17/06 Universal City, CA Gibson Amphitheatre
12/19/06 Universal City, CA Gibson Amphitheatre

January

1/10/07 Sacramento, CA ARCO Arena
1/11/07 Bakersfield, CA Rabobank Arena
1/13/07 Reno, NV Reno Events Ctr
1/16/07 San Diego, CA iPayOne Center