Who
Guns 'N' Roses
Support
The Kills
Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown
Where
London Stadium
When
16th June 2017
Price
£85.00
Who with
No-one
Position
In the middle
Comments
Just three days after the earth-shattering Kraftwerk show I was down in London for the War Of The Roses, with Guns 'N' Roses and The Stone Roses on consecutive nights! G 'N' R are so big that they only deigned to play London before wandering off to the rest of the continent, and the tour had been named Not In This Lifetime after Axl's pretty resounding assertion that it would never be happening! But Slash and Duff had rejoined the group in 2016, and unusually Izzy Stradlin hadn't joined the party despite having played with Axl a few times, apparently because he wasn't offered enough cash. Even original drummer Steven Adler had briefly joined the party in 2016 too, and it's a real shame that they couldn't find a way to get the five of them together again at the same time. However, given the reported animosity between Axl and everyone else perhaps it's a miracle that they got 3 out of 5 back! Luckily they were playing Friday and Saturday night at the London Olympic Stadium so I could choose the Friday and not clash with The Stone Roses, and the combination of these two great bands certainly made a trip to London worthwhile, even if unusually Matt didn't want to go with me. He had kindly offered me his place to stay at though, although as he was going to China to get married my offer of accommodation nearly fell through, but luckily he went the week beforehand so I had a roof over my head - and we also had plenty to talk about! I presume that G 'N' R wanted Wembley but were stuck with the measly 80,000 a night concert capacity of London Stadium, which is a bit less than Wembley can offer. Apparently Adele The Fat One attracted 98,000 on one of the Wembley nights before she pulled out, desecrating the stage that The Stone Roses would also be gracing! I believe that the capacity in East London had been reduced since the Olympics, and it was great to be back after climbing the Orbit Tower literally the day after the Olympic Flame was rudely moved away from the spot where I'd had been able to see it, and also after revisiting the Olympic Park shortly after it had reopened as the Queen Elizabeth Park.

It was interesting to note that I'd had zero interest in seeing Guns 'N' Roses back at Leeds 2002, having not quite yet gotten into their music, and not having much respect for the Axl and random guys line-up. Also the band had such a terrible reputation for tardiness and I was already exhausted after a busy festival, so upon hearing that they were pathetically late onstage I didn't regret at the time not seeing them. And now I'm not quite sure, on one hand it was great to be crossing the real thing off my list, on the other it wouldn't have detracted from this moment to have given the karaoke version of G 'N' R a chance the first time around. Upon buying The Greatest Hits in 2003 I'd quickly became an admirer though, finding something thrilling in what should be a generic mix of music, but which earns kudos as they did it with more style and quality than their peers, with a great image, fantastic guitar solos and also the originality of taking metal, adding hair and melody and just taking the genre to a level that few of their knuckle-headed contemporaries could come close to. Tickets were rather pricey - £20 more than The Stone Roses - but it felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity and a chance to cross some true legends off my list, and on the 30th anniversary of Appetite For Destruction as well! Given the price I knew that persuading anyone else was a waste of time, although I was shocked that no-one I knew had independently decided to attend either. I also had been worried about getting back from the gig but had been relentlessly optimistic that it would work out, although ultimately my faith was very much misplaced! Apart from the standing allocation I'm not aware that the show actually sold out that fast, although once I bagged my ticket after some serious clicking and worry that I'd missed out I must admit I stopped checking! I also have no recollection of any Golden Circle or pricing tiers, which was strange considering what turned out to be!

I decided that I should add to the Greatest Hits and Appetite For Destruction by purchasing Use Your Illusion I and II and Chinese Democracy, although I must admit that I barely heard the latter and it sounded horribly over-produced and just not offering any motivation to make me listen, knowing that the full band hadn't been on board. I had heard Use Your Illusion a good few times though, and applauded how the band could follow such a famous debut with two albums that sounded huger and, taking the biggest hits of Welcome To The Jungle and Paradise City out of the equation, you could say that they fully measured up! Tunes I didn't already know like Back Off Bitch, Coma and Estranged stood out, but I was generally pleased with the quality and glad to add two such legendary albums to my collection. I did wonder if Axl was still being pathetically late all the time or if the misfortune of breaking his leg and then having to broaden his appeal by filling in with AC/DC despite the injury had toughened him up and given him some much-needed humility? Or perhaps the presence of other personalities like Slash and Duff meant that people were willing to stand up to his selfish behaviour and ensure that he kept on schedule? To be fair looking at Google it seems that he has put his bad ways behind him, and as I will explain later in the review, Axl smashed all the negative stereotypes associated with him, either indicating that he has been unfairly maligned or that he has completed a truly remarkable process of self-improvement. I felt glad that I hadn't had to arrive a day earlier to see Have I Got News For You, so I could instead enjoy a fairly chilled-out day in London, and to no loss as the HIGNFY line-up had been poor anyway. I'd wanted to attend a protest against Theresa May and had made my Saturday plans around it, but then they rudely moved the protest to 2pm and I could no longer attend, and as it turned out far fewer people than expected could be arsed to speak out against this political shambles of the coalition of chaos with the DUP.

I resisted the urge to fully photograph the National Gallery after the shambles of my Amazon order of new memory cards being stolen, and just to rub it in further I was also still waiting for new camera batteries to appear so I had to ration myself further. However, given the absolute fucking disaster that was to follow perhaps it's for the best that I didn't have a busier sightseeing day. After meeting Matt and his new wife the night before, we'd enjoyed a meal in before he'd kindly lent me some house keys for the weekend so I could let myself in after the shows without disturbing him. I had the day to myself so headed to Holland Park to try and find the Kyoto Garden, which was very poorly signposted but I got there in the end. It was a fairly hot day but I'd still chosen to wear a coat, providing room for the small bottle of water that I carried with me all day. I then went into the Design Museum, which had been on my to do list since around 2006 but it had been closed for years due to a massive relocation, plus there'd always been more interesting things to see and do. However the museum didn't disappoint, with a wonderful open modern building and enough exhibits to keep me happy while being small enough to not be overwhelming on what I wanted to be a fairly relaxing day. I then walked down to the Science Museum to see Tim Peake's space capsule, which was infested with school children and frighteningly low tech, although the fact that people are still going into space on such old technology is also pretty amazing! I stopped via two Catholic churches, taking advantage of the fact that many London churches are only open in midweek, and also tried St Mary Abbots Church, which was beautiful but annoyingly there was a concert on. I had no interest in checking out the Grenfell Tower fire nearby as it seemed a bit morbid and my route didn't naturally take me there anyway, and apart from a few posters Kensington seemed surprisingly unaffected by the disaster.

I then walked back to St Mary Abbots Church so I could have a proper wander around, continuing to be amazed that after so many visits that London still had so much interesting stuff I'd not discovered before to offer. This drew my sightseeing element of the day to a close and I located a wonderful Nicholson's pub nearby, where I enjoyed a lunch of hunter's chicken and two fantastic pints in beautiful glasses. I was so mesmerised by the Meantime and Camden Brewery selections that I almost forgot to pay, after joking that I'd love to steal the glasses (like other customers apparently had been doing), but I was going out tonight! I resisted more sightseeing and photos as I didn't want to use space on my memory card, and in fact out of extreme consideration for ensuring that I had enough space I'd taken two with me, and at this point I strongly considered heading back to Matt's for a shower and to drop the spare off. I could also have done with a recharge for one of the batteries and some internet time after blowing most of my monthly phone allowance, but I ultimately decided that heading back was ridiculous and unnecessary, and that I should crack on with the gig. How wrong I was, and how misplaced my positive attitude proved to be. I picked up two small cans of Coke from a nearby Boots to ensure that I was very well hydrated for the gig. It was a relief that the show would be in the evening and that a stadium isn't as exposed to the sunshine either, and so the moderate heat wasn't bothering me too much. I got a train to Stratford from Kensington, spotting a fast route via Mile End and the Central Line. I joined a crowd in taking the long walk down closed-off roads amid a heavy security presence due to all the shit that had been happening in London recently. The queues for the rip-off official t-shirts were insane, but for me a G 'N' R t-shirt is much like The Rolling Stones in that it has become far too ubiquitous to be of interest to me, although I did feel a little out of place amid the thousands of band t-shirts and me just wearing a Godzilla top!

I walked past the Aquatic Centre and Orbit Tower, reminding myself that I had to revisit both at some point, and especially the Orbit for the slide to the bottom! Getting onto the Stadium Island wasn't an issue as my water bottle in my inside pocket wasn't spotted, and although it did indicate on the ticket that water wasn't allowed I must say that the website was astonishingly vague about what was and wasn't acceptable to bring, or indeed in providing the running times. However it was gratifying that the focus seemed to be on finding weapons and explosives, and perhaps recent disaster meant that security guards realised that they had to shift attention to searching for real danger rather than boosting their profits by stealing our food and drink. I was given a wristband that grew tatty very quickly, and I was relieved that I didn't receive a proper one for the Roses as it meant I lost nothing by removing it after the show! About the only times publicised were that the island around the stadium was opening at 3pm and the main gates themselves at 5pm, and I was happy to get a seat on a ledge near the 2012 Olympic bell, resisting the food vans and not requiring any further liquid after the beer and Cokes I'd enjoyed. I got inside the stadium when it opened and walked down the seats with no further search, although it did look that they were trying to steal bottles before letting people onto the pitch, insisting that fans transplant their drinks into useless open cups that encourage the disgusting spectacle of piss throwing. Nice move fuckwits! It was only at this point that I swapped my camera memory card, placing the other one in my pocket with the same meticulous care I'd handled it with all day. I could see that the seats were adjourned with West Ham's name and colours, and fair play to them for managing to bag such a prestigious stadium!

I was very surprised to see a Golden Circle in operation, and even more so when I tried to walk around it and realised that we were fully segregated. I'd paid a fortune for my ticket and don't recall seeing anything advertised about a Golden Circle, so I wasn't impressed! However, I had been sensible in getting inside shortly after the gates had opened and so could secure a decent position just ahead of the left sound desk, which to be fair was similar to the kind of spot I'd had wanted anyway. Nevertheless it was frustrating to see the huge empty space in front of us, and even more so when people were going up and down the pampered premium crowd trying to flog popcorn, Ben And Jerry's ice cream and - can you believe - cocktails!? I mean can there be anything less appropriate for a G 'N' R gig than sipping an over-priced cocktail out of a plastic cup? It's a sad spectacle when fans can be so removed from the raw rock 'n' roll experience, and in my mind the improvement of gigs should come from fans not behaving like apes and organisers not ripping us off and forcing us to pay for plastic open cups of awful beer. Undertaking rip-off attempts to move upmarket is not a step I wanted! However, if features like cocktails is the only way to get crowds to become more sophisticated then it would be an acceptable means to an end. Planes kept flying overhead, I presume from London City Airport, although for the most part the concert was easily loud enough to drown them out. I could just glimpse the red of the Orbit Tower through the high levels of the stadium to my left, and the black and white screen projection for first support band Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown was activated to herald their arrival.

I was surprised that ludicrously short support slots was to be a feature not only of tonight but The Stone Roses too, and although the band were entirely ok they came across as quite generic guitar music, and the one short video I captured indicated that they were actually fairly indie but with extended guitar solos. I think they had five members, with Tyler Bryant being advertised as the main man but in reality coming across as an equal collective. It was one of their birthdays so they were given some handheld drums to pound near the end, but the most interesting feature of the support slots were that the portrait side screens were in use, but hilariously featuring just a static landscape image of the full stage. Due to the screen ratios this meant that the video projection was literally smaller than the band onstage, which was a cheeky way of undermining the support band. Also to what end? There was no way that they'd upstage the main act like Bentley Rhythm Ace had destroyed The Wonder Stuff, so why not give them a bit of production value so the fans could feel that they were getting better value for money? Next up were The Kills, who were backed up by a Japanese-style volcano image. They made the worst possible start after playing a long and tedious intro tape, at the end of which they didn't appear! They then had another go before finally coming onstage, and I got very confused as the singer appeared to be a 1980s hair metal guy, before realising that he was a she and it was the new member who'd replaced the moderately famous Alison Mosshart. They were a band who NME had been talking about for ages who had seemed of little interest, and although entirely inoffensive the music made very little impact. I even forgot to shoot a video!

However their support slot was pleasantly short, which was great as all except the finest unknown acts do wear thin quite fast. The music while we were waiting was pretty quiet and inoffensive, although I do recall hearing Rock The Casbah. I made conversation with a few people while waiting for the main act, and it was good to see that Guns 'N' Roses don't attract entirely fuckwits, but also appeal to decent music-loving folks. For me metal, and the turn of the century gothy music that eventually morphed into emo has always been a crock of shit, with much of the frustration coming from the fans thinking that they are original-minded individuals while embracing music and dress that is more stereotypical and generic then the opposite side of the pop music loving fools who actually thought all chart music is fantastic! My distaste of the music most frustratingly has led to repeated accusations of being narrow-minded, whereas the precise reason I dislike the music is because it presents a backward-looking and narrow-minded sound! Also I dislike the negativity and self-pitying nature of such acts, and to give credit to the pop fans most of them don't claim to be music experts and enjoy the positivity and a wider variety. I also steered clear from stereotypical indie for the same reasons and forged my own unique path, which ironically has led me to an appreciation of many of the biggest acts of all time, as they become big by being the best examples of what they do and putting on a great show with memorable tunes. Guns 'N' Roses have always sounded like they're having fun and defined their own sound rather than being yet another identikit band, and although in a way they feel unoriginal, it's purely because what they do has become so ingrained in popular culture that it ceases to surprise. The image, hair, t-shirts and guitar solos may all be cliches, but they truly belong to G 'N' R, and if I was going to embrace metal for one night only I was proud to be mixing with the very best that the genre had to offer.

The crowd were far from free of fuckwits though, as there's something about the stadium atmosphere that brings out the worst animalistic behaviour, such as the disgusting guy next to me who pissed into a cup. Why drink at a concert if you can't control yourself? In fact why drink at all when the music is good enough to sustain you, it's over-priced, horrible and you get a nasty plastic cup? A guy nearby was talking about storming the barrier to get into the Golden Circle, but of course he was all bullshit and didn't actually do anything about it! Also plenty of people were smoking and vaping, and just before the main act got underway some fuckwit poured an entire pint down my back. It felt like it was poured rather than flung and it absolutely stunk of the horrible beer that it was, stinking out my clothes for the rest of the night. Disgusting! It was only around 7:30pm but the stage was set, with a Guns 'N' Roses logo on the drum kit, and award ceremony style staircases to either side leading to a high area on the stage designed for showboating guitar solos. The video screen was kicked into action as a loop of logos featuring guns, roses, and a combination of the above got us into the mood, as I tried to shoot a video of the guys coming onstage, but got bored of waiting, and it wasn't the most visually interesting arrival as it was still broad daylight and the screens were turned off again. Looking around the stadium it was clear that many people hadn't arrived, and with the failure to advertise the running times and Axl's appalling reputation for being late who could blame them? As someone who always tries to arrive early to gigs I do have limited sympathy for those who arrive late and expect the crowd to part for their convenience, then leave a space for them when they bugger off to the toilets five minutes before a band comes onstage. However I can imagine that a lot of people were utterly fucked off to arrive later and discover that the show was already well underway, and it was a catastrophic organisational fuck-up that the early start hadn't been massively advertised in big red letters on all of our tickets! I had captured glimpses of their reunion setlist as I'd wanted to reduce the risk of disappointment by verifying ahead of time that we wouldn't be fobbed off with a b-sides set, so the Looney Tunes theme didn't take me by surprise, although as they don't make a big deal out of it and the crowd didn't latch onto it I'm not sure I see the point. Is it a joke to stop the event seeming too self-important and to allow the night to get off to a light-hearted start? Who knows!

The setlist I read then suggests that they played The Equaliser, but I don't remember this, so it probably was drowned out by the roar of the band appearing onstage, which no doubt was amplified by the excitement of seeing a punctual Guns 'N' Roses and that Slash, Axl and Duff were all present and correct! I was aware that the obvious opener of Welcome To The Jungle had been shunted a few songs into the set and wasn't surprised that first tune proper was It's So Easy, which was appropriate on the 30th anniversary of Appetite For Destruction, a good statement of intent, and also highly suitable as the band made a stadium show seem so natural and effortless! The show started as it meant to go on with great sound, enthusiastic audience participation and a charismatic and positive band performance that blew all the negative associations with Axl and rioting crowds away from our thoughts. Axl had dropped the silly dreadlocks and completely destroyed all the negative perceptions of him by being engaging, energetic and friendly, even being firm but cool about it when he asked the crowd not to throw bottles. I gradually moved left as the show went on and many of my photos were obstructed by Twat Hands blocking my images, and I took what felt like a record number of videos throughout the gig, although I would be delighted if the guys put together a beautifully filmed DVD of one of their comeback performances so that I could relive the moment from the comfort of my living room. Next up was Mr. Brownstone, as I shot a video, noting that Axl was wearing a Harley Davidson top and that the central video screen was split into three to capture different things going on onstage and matching the vibe of a 1980s music video. They played Chinese Democracy, which I didn't recognise, and I was a bit surprised that the new songs hadn't been ignored and that Slash and Duff had accepted them as part of the G 'N' R canon. Or at least I presume they had, I can't remember if they vacated the stage for these moments! Despite being on throughout, the video screen was sometimes a little dull, falling back on the same imagery and not overwhelming us with lights, although to be fair the options are massively restricted when the show starts in broad daylight!

The delightful warm-up was now complete though, and Slash thoroughly milked the introduction for the legendary Welcome To The Jungle, which is a tune so fantastic it pretty much single-handedly justified being here tonight! I shot a video capturing green flashing lights as the backdrop was turned off for a minute, with Axl pacing the stage, smiling and asking us if we know where the fuck we are, before clarifying that we are in the jungle baby! He savoured the moment as much as we did and the moshpit was energetic but not too twattish, although my relative distance from the stage and the general madness of it all meant I don't remember as much detail as I'd like to recall. After Double Talkin' Jive from Use Your Illusion I and Better from Chinese Democracy was Estranged, which is the point I believe I shot another video, capturing Axl giving a shout-out to Dizzy Reed, who had been with the group since 1990, and astonishingly had never left the band like so many others had done! Axl by now was wearing what looked like a pink coat around his waist, mimicking the typical appearance of someone at a concert who has taken a coat but had started to get too hot. I think I'd done the same, but if I had a backstage area to deposit said coat I wouldn't still be wearing it! One of the strange things about Guns 'N' Roses is their reliance on cover versions of wildly popular songs, and their interpretation of Live And Let Die is perhaps the most pointless example of this. I'd hoped for Macca-style fireworks but instead the video screen projected gun shots to herald the chorus, and I shot a video of the crowd singing and waving their hands, stopping it as it hit the guitar solo and people started to mosh. It was entirely pleasant of course, but the band had added literally nothing to the song. They should have gone the whole hog and added flames and fireworks to the mix like Macca, or even better found another flourish to bring to the mix, but with just some wimpy simulated gunshots the whole tune seemed quite pointless when compared to the excitement of Macca whipping a crowd up into a frenzy and upstaging the entire Beatles back catalogue in the process!

Next up was Rocket Queen, which is a strange one on record, trying to be an epic but just sounding a bit muddy and rambling, as opposed to the sonic perfection of Jungle, Paradise City and Sweet Child. However I shot another video capturing Axl wearing a hat featuring the Union Jack, and some serious showboating with guitar solos, and it was very clear that this was a crowd favourite. The same could be said for You Could Be Mine, as I shot two videos, the first featuring a slam pit being cleared to my right for some twats to twat about in, and the second capturing the end, with flames that would have gone down nicely with Live And Let Die. However, I can see a motivation for the band trying harder to impress with their original material, and the perfect marriage of music and film as this great tune was played in a motorcycle scene of Terminator 2, shortly before Arnie got out a gun and trampled on some roses, has always stuck with me. Duff was introduced and took the lead for what may have been Attitude, which is a cover version of the Misfits. He had played alongside Slash with Velvet Revolver for a good few years too, although without Axl on lead vocals they'd seemed much too karaoke for me. I remember seeing them on TV playing a festival - probably Reading or Glastonbury - and that the guitar and everything was spot-on, but the whole thing just didn't seem real. I guess this tune allowed Axl to have a breather and a costume change, but Duff looked so fit and healthy that I can't imagine he needed a rest at any point! There also was who I assumed to be a Japanese girl on keyboards, who was a charismatic presence at the back, although Wikipedia indicates that her ancestry is a wonderfully exotic mix of many different locations. Sadly Buckethead was nowhere to be seen, although apparently he'd only been with the band from 2000 to 2004, and perhaps Axl grew tired of being overshadowed by a joker wearing a KFC bargain bucket on his head!

I shot a couple of videos during the wonderful Civil War, featuring Axl wearing a different hat and a silver chain around his neck. The guitar solo was as lengthy and fantastic as you'd hope for and Axl drew out the notes as appropriate, and it was clear that however he'd lived his life that he hadn't destroyed his fantastic voice, with this number being a perfect combination of his deep and high vocals working together and sounding like two different people. Yesterdays was alright but over-shadowed by all the other hits, and by the time they burst into Coma it was just starting to get dark. I shot a short video and the guitars were atmospheric, drawing out a proper stadium rock song as it should be drawn out. Around this point Axl introduced some of the band before coming onto Slash, announcing his name in a deep and dismissive voice, and it was hard to tell if it was good-humoured or a sign of friction. Axl left the stage as Slash launched into a jaw-dropping guitar solo, which I timed as over seven minutes on someone else's video! He was wearing his trademark shades and top hat and looked genuinely ageless, although with a wig, hat and glasses he has a very smart image that can easily hide his true appearance should he have deteriorated, although his playing suggested a man at the peak of his talents, and a credit to his hometown of Stoke-on-Trent! It's jaw-dropping to think that he'd spent the first few years of his life there before heading to Los Angeles, whereupon he'd met the rest of the band, and certainly Slash is a much better claim to fame for Stoke-on-Trent than Smuggest Cunt In The World Robbie Williams, who thankfully has largely faded from view after his baffling levels of popularity in the late 90s and early noughties. The guitar solo took in the always-welcome Johnny Be Goode, and not many guys could hold our attention without singing for so long, and the 30-second video I shot captured a ludicrously talented man showing off with a quite unnecessary but still absolutely brilliant solo.

This then morphed into Sweet Child O' Mine, which is a song I've always felt has been overshadowed by the superior Jungle and Paradise City, but it's still very memorable and my appreciation for it was enhanced as the crowd had calmed down and didn't launch into an unnecessary moshpit that just doesn't fit amid such a melodic number. I shot a video featuring us clapping along to the intro before the loud singing came in, and it felt memorable but chilled-out enough to shoot a longer second video, capturing the fact that Axl had yet again changed his hat, as well as the rather famous "where do we go now" bit. For such a long set and a band who'd only been smashing out great tunes from 1987 to 1991 it was great how they sustained our interest so easily, and when launching into tunes like My Michelle it really helped me appreciate the strength in depth of Appetite For Destruction. It was now really getting dark which made the light show much more powerful, although I must have missed something as the setlist suggests that they covered Wish You Were Here, but I have no memory whatsoever of this! Axl then took to the piano and started playing an introduction that is built for stadiums perhaps more than any song ever written - it was November Rain! It felt like Macca on the piano singing Let It Be to an enraptured crowd, and my first video of the piano featured so many hands in my way, although somehow I managed to zoom in on Axl and capture us all singing the first verse before Axl came in, not quite being prepared to wait! And now he was wearing a red hat! The stadium was awash with phone lights and it was magical, and at this point the showboating raised part of the stage was put to maximum use, with my second video featuring Slash going at the solo amid a lovely blue background, just before they hit the "need some time on your own" bit. You know it's an epic and special song when you take a third video, but the "don't you think that you need somebody" bit demanded it, and by now there was a red backdrop and sparks were falling from the stage. It was an absolutely astonishing song and simply could not work in an intimate venue!

In sharp contrast to the pointless cover version of Live And Let Die was Knockin' On Heaven's Door, which added so much to the original version, with Axl's vocal ramping up the emotion, and the guitar solos turning a lovely tune into an epic stadium track. And this was perhaps the defining moment of the night in terms of the band utterly upstaging the studio recording and turning the tune into something on a totally different level of wonder, endlessly drawing it out and provoking a positive and enthusiastic singalong. Axl continued to show humour and charisma by joking about debuting it at London Marquee, before commenting that it had been a nice intimate gig just like tonight! In fact it had been a full 24 years since the classic Guns 'N' Roses line-up had hit England, and they certainly were intent to make the very most of it. For some reason the video I shot featured a rotating cube on the screen, and Axl then punctured the over-blown pomposity of the moment by leading a singalong of Happy Birthday to one of the crew. I also noted what looked like the Prince symbol on one of the guitars, and further advantage of it now being full night was taken with a version of Nightrain! I shot a video capturing the flashing red screen and car footage, and Axl now wearing a black hat, and it was a tune I'd entirely forgotten about that did that best possible thing of managing to surpass all expectations. Axl was also sporting his trademark bandana at some points, as well as an uncynical combination of the Union Jack and Star Spangled Banner that featured on a jacket. I don't know how Axl found time for all the costume changes and to what purpose it served, but looking back at my photos it is wonderful to see how his appearance changed seemingly dozens of times throughout the show. I felt an enthusiastic vibe for what turned out to be Black Hole Sun, a cover version of Soundgarden in tribute to Chris Cornell, and just when I expected the band to hit the home run they took it down a notch with a stadium-friendly version of Patience, taking the stripped down song and giving it enough power that it could comfortably fill an arena like this. It was very bravely placed between Sweet Child O' Mine and Paradise City on the Greatest Hits so has always felt over-shadowed, but tonight it was allowed to shine.

I was sure that there'd been two encores, but the setlist suggests that Nightrain had heralded the end the main set, and so Black Hole Sun kicked off the encore. But I thought that the band also left the stage at this point before returning for a highly unexpected blast through The Seeker by The Who, which wasn't as defining as The Who's version but kept up the quality and familiar tunes. And now came the inevitable finale, and what else could it be except Paradise City? My first video captured hand-clapping throughout the introduction, and a dark screen with white lights in time to the beat, plus the Guns 'N Roses logo appearing in a Looney Tunes style for some reason. The song was good and it finished up at 10:40pm, meaning that the guys had been on the stage for a solid three hours and so the reaction was suitably toned down amid our exhaustion, which was good for me as I didn't want to be caught up in an insane moshpit. I shot a second video featuring red lights and confetti and people bobbing their heads with rabid enthusiasm, before pulling a plug on my footage amid the sheer number of cameras in front of me blocking out my view. Axl showed more great humour by twisting his departing shot, thanking us from the heart of his bottom for tonight's show! There was a group hug and bow with suitable hugging and smiling, and I almost got a perfect shot of it except for one Twat Hand trying to pick Axl's nose! There were seven members in all, which is less than I expected as it had sounded like the band were much more extensive than that! I quickly downed that small water bottle I'd been carrying with me all day which I'd managed to resist until the end, and before the Guns 'N' Roses classic logo was again projected onto the stage there was a moment of pitch black darkness at the point we were all trying to head to the exit. On our way out they played You Know My Name by Chris Cornell, also in tribute, and I speedily made my way to what seemed like a fast exit to the front-left of the venue, walking incredibly quickly and skipping past the crowd, encountering one vague sign pointing toward the trains and following the fans with sorely misplaced confidence that people knew where they were going, then realising that we were under the flyover we needed to be on to reach Stratford station, and struggling to find a way to get up onto it.

What an absolute fucking shambles! And just when I thought I'd recovered from the time lost in going the wrong way round the crowd ground to a halt. People to my left starting to tear down a temporary fence to a car park and cutting off the corner that had caused a bottleneck, but I foolishly retained faith in the organisers to get us moving, but as more and more time elapsed and I realised that I was stuck and unable to move I realised that by following the rules I'd thoroughly fucked myself over! Some security wankers started trying to stop people from taking the shortcut rather than doing something to get the crowd moving again, and given that terrorist scumbags had been at large recently, and attacking crowds of people stuck outside music venues and unable to go anywhere, leaving thousands of us congregating, unsupervised, pissed off and unable to move wasn't just wrong, but it was criminally negligent. I had been happy that the show had finished well before 11pm and highly confident of making my last train, but by the time I reached the Tube station I was absolutely fucking furious, hot and stinking thanks to the twat beer pourer from earlier, and had no patience to hear a busker singing Patience either! I meant to take the Tube but spontaneously jumped on an empty TFL train to Liverpool Street, which was beautifully air-conditioned and I thought would assist in my journey to central London. How wrong I was. As the train was 30 miles long and I'd jumped on the back I was dumped a huge walk from the Tube station, then a closer inspection of the Tube map made me realise that I'd have to get on the Central Line anyway, which I should have done in the first place. I used the brief period of quiet on the TFL service to scribble down a few notes, then when I got on the Tube some absolute cunt started mouthing off at me for not letting people off the train first, after I'd waited a good few seconds for people to disembark and, not seeing any sign of movement, had naturally got on. Then it transpired a few dozy fuckers had realised this was their stop but hadn't bothered to stand near the doors, and they then wanted to get off. They easily got past me as I wasn't remotely in the way, but it didn't stop this utter cunt whinging loudly at me. The temptation to kick him violently in the balls just as the train doors shut so he'd fall backwards off the train was enormous, and I think I deserve a medal for rising above it and ignoring him, while at the same time giving him a look that made it clear that if he said anything else, that he would literally die, and would fucking well deserve it too.

I'm proud of my restrained behaviour amid utter incompetence and cuntish behaviour, also having resisted complaining to the stewards like the people who'd been screaming at them for trying to stop people taking shortcuts. However I hope that people were prosecuted for the disgraceful lack of organisation after the concert, which was absolutely shameful for what should have been a meticulously organised show at one of the largest stadiums in the country which is used to hosting large events. By now I was thoroughly pissed off, and the howl of disgust and rage emitted by one of my fellow punters upon reaching the Victoria Line to see a five minute wait for the next train encapsulated what I was feeling. I thought I might just make it to Victoria, and this final delay thoroughly fucked me over, making me miss the last possible train that would have taken me anywhere near were I wanted to go. By now I was utterly disgusted and not wanting to use my internet allowance or limited phone battery, but amid the complete lack of station information as to where the buses were I headed toward the Houses Of Parliament to try and catch the night bus I'd briefly looked into as my absolute last resort plan. I quickly popped into McDonald's for a large Coke, being pissed off that no-one was on the check-out so I had to get my card out to pay on the machine, before downing it and continuing my walk. Parliament was in a sorry state, with scaffolding everywhere and hideous crash barriers all around due to the despicable atrocities that some terrorist cunts had committed earlier in the summer. I thought that the bus was departing from Parliament Square but Whitehall was sealed off, and my phone stubbornly refused to load a map indicating where the fuck the bus stop actually was. I walked over Westminster Bridge then to Lambeth Palace, before finally finding a stop and realising that if I'd walked the other way around the Houses Of Parliament I'd had been there much sooner. However the wait for the bus wasn't too bad, and as far as I can gather I only fell one bus further behind as a result of the delay. It was missing the much faster train that had truly fucked me over.

There was a nice chatty guy at the bus stop and it says a lot about my positive attitude amid horrid adversity that I could hold a friendly conversation with him, although I did have to reject his offer to share a taxi as he didn't live remotely near where I was going, and it made no sense as the bus was going to take me on my way anyway! The bus showed up and it absolutely zoomed down the empty roads, before finishing up in Bromley. It was now extremely late and I had a long walk down a hill to get back, with thankfully Google Maps offering a bit of assistance to point me in the right direction so I hopefully wouldn't have to endure any further misery. I scribbled a good few notes on the night bus which I was pleasantly surprised to be able to read ok when I wrote up this review, but the moment when I should have realised it hadn't been so bad after all and that I was on the last leg was cruelly snatched from me as I frantically searched my pockets and realised that my other memory card with my pics from earlier in the day had vanished! I got back to the flat and had another search, but it had vanished off the face of the fucking earth. I couldn't believe it, and it was 3am, so the moment I should have put this nightmare behind me and caught up on my sleep was ruined as I was left to ponder just what the actual fuck had happened to it. The loss was cruel beyond belief, as I'd tried to order new memory cards online but the Amazon package had been ripped open by some thieving cunt, plus I'd specifically chosen jeans that I knew had deep and safe pockets, but lost it anyway, plus I had so carefully and meticulously looked after my pockets throughout the gig, leading me to think it must have fallen out of my pocket when I got my credit card out to pay for my Coke at McDonald's.

And remember I was only in McDonald's because I'd missed my fucking train, I only got the Coke because I was utterly fucked off and wanted something to feel better, and I'd only paid by card because there was no-one on the check-out, and had only momentarily lifted my meticulous care and attention in looking after my possessions because I had been so utterly fucked over by the hidden night bus stops. Plus I had had a chance to go back to the flat earlier in the day to drop off my memory card and hadn't took it, considering it ludicrously paranoid to think I could lose such a thing when I almost never lose anything as I take so much care of everything. And finally I back up my photos nightly when I'm on the road, and retain them on the memory card, one PC, one laptop, Facebook and two separate hard drives stored in different locations to make it literally impossible to lose my photos as they mean so much to me. There's only the tiniest of chances something can go wrong with such a carefully thought out procedure and I was absolutely fucking furious by this combination of horrible circumstances so cruelly conspiring against me. But anyway, despite this, and the frustrations of the post gig organisation and unwarranted Golden Circle, the gig had been truly spectacular. I did make the point to Matt afterwards that when you pay so much money that it bloody well should be, but nevertheless the show did at least hit the spot. The band had omitted Don't Cry, and apparently have never really played the lovely Since I Don't Have You, and I guess Back Off Bitch would have been good too. Astonishingly the Saturday night audience had to do without My Michelle, Patience and The Seeker, and all they got in its place of note was Don't Cry. Amid such awful misfortune this felt like a rare victory! Perhaps they hadn't started quite so early on Saturday and had to cut it back? Also if I'd arrived late and missed Welcome To The Jungle I'd had been even more devastated! Apparently they'd played 8 out of the 12 tracks from Appetite For Destruction and three cuts from Chinese Democracy, so the setlist at least had been near-perfect to give me positive memories that I will ensure overcome all the misery I was put through to get them! It would be nice if the band go the whole hog and record a new album while they're at it, but this was a fantastic and exciting reunion, and everyone was determined to make the most of it. Plus I had The Stone Roses the next day, so my story continues on that page!
Setlist (Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown)
Weak & Weepin'
Criminal Imagination
House On Fire
Aftershock
Got My Mojo Working
Lipstick Wonder Woman
Setlist (The Kills)
Heart Of A Dog
Kissy Kissy
Hard Habit To Break
Doing It To Death
Whirling Eye
Setlist (Guns 'N' Roses)
Looney Tunes
The Equalizer
It's So Easy
Mr. Brownstone
Chinese Democracy
Welcome To The Jungle
Double Talkin' Jive
Better
Estranged
Live And Let Die
Rocket Queen
You Could Be Mine
Attitude
This I Love
Civil War
Yesterdays
Coma
Slash Guitar Solo
Speak Softly Love (Love Theme From The Godfather)
Sweet Child O' Mine
My Michelle
Wish You Were Here
November Rain
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Nightrain
Black Hole Sun
Patience
The Seeker
Paradise City

Mark: 9.0/10