Thanks to IzzyJim
Frank Meyer, Managing Editor
GN'R Management Sues Former Gunners Slash and Duff
Guns N' Roses management company, Big F D Entertainment (headed by Doug Goldstein) have filed a lawsuit against former band members Slash (Saul Hudson) and Duff McKagan (Michael McKagan) for alleged monies owed, according to papers dated December 14 and filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. The suit claims that the duo is in debt to the company for at least $400,000. Slash's lawyer, Zia Modabber, told MTV News that his contract with Goldstein ended some time ago and he owes nothing and added that Slash intends to vigorously defend himself in court.
According to MTV News, included in the filed documents is a copy of Goldstein's contract, which covers both the band members' work with GN'R and their various solo projects. The contract appears to be valid for either a term of three years or until the last day of the next GN'R tour cycle, which ever comes last. The three-year period appears to have started in October of 1992 and ended in October of 1995. GN'R released its last original product, the "Use Your Illusion" albums, in 1991, and the group last toured in 1993.
The definition and timeline of the term "tour cycle" appears to be the key issue here. Big F D legal counsel Bert Deixler told MTV News there's a new Guns N' Roses record (tentatively titled Chinese Democracy) and tour on the way and that when that tour is over, the contract will expire.
Axl Rose retained the rights to the Guns N' Roses name after Slash left the group in 1996 and McKagan followed in 1998. Axl has assembled a new band that will be using that moniker and has released one new song, Sh My God," from the End Of Dayssoundtrack. According to the documents filed last month, the band is expected to finish recording this spring and will begin touring in the summer or fall.
McKagan is also accused of breaching the management contract by hiring independent managers in 1997 and 1999 for his solo projects.
Slash's manager, Tom Maher, declined to comment for this story, and McKagan's current manager, Katrina Sirdofsky, was not immediately available.
Axl Rose and Co. return to the stage after seven-year layoff
Patience pays off
"Good morning," Axl Rose told a packed House of Blues upon taking the stage Monday morning. "I've just woke up. I've been taking a nap for about eight years."
A rejuvenated Guns n' Roses partied like it was 1994 on New Year's Eve, returning to the stage for the first time in seven years at the Las Vegas' House of Blues. Originally scheduled to go on at 1 a.m., the band finally hit the boards and sounded the first notes of "Welcome to the Jungle" at 3:35 a.m., and closed the proceedings at 5:35 a.m., after mixing many of their hits with a handful of tunes from their forthcoming album, Chinese Democracy, due out this June.
According to a source at House of Blues, the Goo Goo Dolls' set ran longer than expected, and the venue had to be totally cleared before the organizers began taking the tickets of the 1,800 strong crowd who paid out between $150 and $250 for a ticket to the sold-out show.
In addition to Rose, the new Guns n' Roses featured a sole Guns vet Dizzy Reed on keyboards. The two were joined by ex-Replacement Tommy Stinson on bass, Primus' Brian "Brain" Manita on drums, the Replicants' Chris Pitman on keyboards, Paul Tobias and Nine Inch Nails' Robin Finck on guitars along with a white-faced, Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket-wearing Buckethead. The new Gn'R skillfully gamboled through a set of tried and true songs, before unleashing a flurry of songs from the band's forthcoming album, including the title track, an untitled track, "The Blues" and "Silk Worms."
"To tell you the truth, I don't think Axl Rose has ever sounded better, and I feel confident in saying this is the best show we've ever had at the House of Blues Las Vegas," enthused Dana Olliges of House of Blues. Promoter Bill Silva concurred, explaining that the refurbished band had rehearsed in Los Angeles on Thursday, and then starting loading in their instruments and stage set up late Friday night, following Chris Isaak's set. "Axl showed up at the club the next morning at 8 a.m., and they sound-checked for three hours. It sounded just as fantastic then as it did the next night onstage."
In addition to Guns' tunes old and new, Rose frequently referenced the band's hiatus. "I have traversed a treacherous sea of horrors to be with you here tonight," he told the crowd.
Guns n' Roses set list:
Welcome to the Jungle
Mr. Brownstone
Nightrain
Think About You
Out Ta Get Me
Oh My God
My Michelle
It's So Easy
Rocket Queen
Sweet Child O' Mine
Patience
Live and Let Die
November Rain
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
The Blues
Oklahoma
Chinese Democracy
Untitled
You Could Be Mine
Silk Worms
Paradise City
JAAN UHELSZKI
(January 3, 2001)
1/3/2001 GUNS N' ROSES MAKE TRIUMPHANT RETURN
1/1/2001 AXL ROSE'S NEW GUNS UNVEILED IN VEGAS
Thanks to IzzyJim
Sorelle Saidman and Kara Manning report
It was over seven years in the making, but the general consensus is that it was well worth waiting for.
Axl Rose debuted his new Guns N' Roses lineup at Las Vegas' House of Blues in the wee small hours of New Year's Day, belting out an array of old favorites and introducing a handful of new tunes to a capacity crowd of 1,800 ecstatic patrons.
GN'R kicked off the show with "Welcome to the Jungle" (RealAudio excerpt) and finished with an equally rousing "Paradise City," delivering other GN'R classics such as "Mr. Brownstone," "Sweet Child o' Mine," "November Rain," "Patience" (RealAudio excerpt), "My Michelle" and "Think About You" in between.
The band also rolled out a handful of previously unheard songs, including "Chinese Democracy" — the title track off the band's long-long-long-awaited album — and "The Blues," "Silk Worms" and one untitled track, GN'R management confirmed.
GN'R also offered up a version of 1999's "Oh My God" (RealAudi o excerpt), their contribution to the "End of Days" soundtrack.
Rose was "a little emotional" at the event, according to his longtime manager, Doug Goldstein, who added that the singer hugged his close friends in attendance and thanked them for their support.
The concert featured the expected lineup: guitarists Buckethead, Robin Finck and Paul Tobias (a.k.a. Paul Huge); keyboardist Dizzy Reed; former Primus drummer Brian "Brain" Mantia; and former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, who inspired Rose to joke, "'The Replacements' would be a good name for this band."
Keyboardist Chris Pittman, perhaps best known as a member of the Replicants and for his work on Tool's Aenima, also joined the group onstage.
"Axl really looked happy to be playing with those guys," said LeAnne Eden, a GN'R fan who flew in from Los Angeles for the show. "That's something that didn't seem to be happening with the old band — during their last tour, anyway."
Onstage, Rose alluded to how he had begun rehearsals with his new bandmates a few days prior to the show, another situation that rarely happened in days gone by. (The band usually rehearsed without Rose in attendance.)
"[Rose] looked young and healthy. He was slimmer than when I saw him sit in with Gilby last summer," Eden said, referring to Rose's only other outing in seven years: an impromptu performance with former guitarist Gilby Clarke in June.
The two-hour show got underway at 3:30 a.m., after the club cleared the house following a performance by the Goo Goo Dolls. GN'R started an hour later than expected, although the club's publicist said the group never intended to go on much earlier than 3:30 and that Rose's fabled tardiness was not a factor.
Rose was "awesome" and totally at ease with the HOB staff as well as with the audience, the publicist said.
Concertgoer Jeff Sheldon, who flew from Chicago for the show, said that Rose made a point of crediting guitarist Tobias with getting him through the past seven years, conveying that the two had played together since they were 12 years old.
Tobias — described alternately as a Kurt Cobain lookalike and as a paler, nondescript version of Rose himself — stuck to rhythm duties, concertgoers said, while ex-Nine Inch Nails member Finck, sporting eyeliner and black lipstick, faithfully revisited ex-GN'R member Slash's guitar parts. New twists and turns were added to the sonic texture by Buckethead, who wore his customary white facemask and Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket atop his head.
Even though the audience was positioned directly before the stage, the band's backdrop was a JumboTron-style, 25-foot, floor-to-ceiling video screen augmented by a number of smaller monitors.
"It looked like they fit an arena-sized show into this club," Eden observed.
Security was incredibly tight, so fans may be hard-pressed to find live MP3s or photos on the Web. "Not only were they confiscating cameras," Eden said, "they were even going after cell phones."
The band's performance was preceded by an animated feature that poked fun at Rose's media-perpetuated persona. The mercurial frontman was depicted in bed — presumably having spent the last seven years in Brian Wilson-like seclusion — carrying on conversations with Buddha and the odd alien, with a music magazine used in lieu of toilet paper following a bedpan sequence. Footage depicting a journey through a birth canal was also presented, among other esoteric endeavors.
Next up, the band heads to South America, where it will play the gigantic Rock in Rio festival on January 14.
Thanks to IzzyJim Axl Rose kept Guns N' Roses fans waiting for eight years after the band's last album — and when diehard fans showed up for the New Year's Eve comeback show at the Las Vegas House of Blues, they had to wait a few hours more. Perhaps Rose should have opened the show with "Patience."
But when the new lineup of Guns N' Roses started playing at 3:30 a.m., the crowd was blasted with the 1988 top 10 hit "Welcome to the Jungle," followed by a crowd-pleasing mix of hits peppered with songs from the upcoming Chinese Democracy.
Rumors have swirled for years over who the new members of Guns N' Roses will be — for this show, Rose was backed by an all-star cast that included lead guitarists Robin Finck (formerly of Nine Inch Nails) and the eccentric Buckethead; former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson; former Primus drummer Bryan Mantia; and longtime GN'R contributor Dizzy Reed on keyboards.
After the show, fan sites were flooded with postings about the performance, for which tickets were hard to come by. According to postings, the band played numerous hits — such as "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Mr. Brownstone" — but they also unveiled five new songs: "The Blues," "Chinese Democracy," "Oklahoma," "Oh My God" (from the 1999 End of Days soundtrack), and "Silk Worms."
According to the Los Angeles Times, the crowd began chanting "Welcome back!" during a pause in the show. Rose smiled and said, "Now you're embarrassing me."
Next up for the band is a trip to South America for a February performance at the Rock in Rio festival.
Thanks to IzzyJim
1/1/2001 GN'R UNVEILS NEW SONGS AT NEW YEAR'S SHOW
2/20/01GN'R FAN AWAITS CHINESE DEMOCRACY
C. Dallas McCoy, Pure Rock Patroller
Tuesday, February 20, 2001 03:40 PM
Pure Rock Patroller Reflects On Axl And GN'R History
I've been a diehard Axl Rose fan since 1988 {since I was 16} and I just cannot comprehend the complaining of other Axl Rose fans at all! I mean the man never said anywhere or to anyone that he would not return
Appetite for Destruction was released in August of 1987 and in November of 1988 we were appeased with the stopgap CD Lies featuring an acoustical electric side of tracks and material from their 1986 independent release Live Like A !*?@ Suicide. Though it would be nearly three more years before we would have the double Use your Illusion CDs, it would only be a year and a half before we would actually have any original material from them. If my memory serves me correctly {and I know it does} "Civil War" was released in 1990 on the benefit album The Romanian Angels Appeal. The studio version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was also released that year on The Days of Thunder soundtrack as well as the live at the Ritz version holding massive radio and MTV airings. The following year {1991} Use Your Illusion I and II were released containing 28 original recordings and two covers (although many of the tunes from those albums were actually written during their pre-Appetite club days - Ed.).
In 1993 came The Spaghetti Incident? with 13 great covers including The Dead Boys' "Ain't it Fun," The U.K. Subs' "Down on the Farm" and Fear's "I Don't Care About You."
