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Posts Tagged ‘ Guns N’ Roses ’

Axl Rose Refutes Rumors, Announces New Manager in Supersize Tweet

by Daniel Kreps | February 17, 2010 | In Rock News | No Comments

Photo: McCarthy/Getty

Axl Rose never banned Slash-related clothing from the Chinese Democracy tour, smells better than you, and didn’t go on late at a tiny private gig in New York earlier this week: those are just a few of the things the Guns n’ Roses frontman gets off his chest in a 766-word tweet that takes aim at “mean spirited aholes” (journalists) and announces the band is under new management.

Check out photos of Guns n’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy world tour.

Rose starts off by enthusiastically recounting Guns n’ Roses’ two surprise shows — one at John Varvatos’ store and one at the Rose Bar — during New York’s Fashion Week (”Fuck!! The NY shows were insane!! Love the free form laid back vibe n’ both were completely different from r view”).

He then takes care of a little business, announcing he’s now working with Doc McGhee, Kiss’ manager since 1996 and the man credited with helping artists like Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe and Hootie & the Blowfish rise to fame. Rose recently split with Irving Azoff, the high-powered manager he hired in May 2008 to help launch Chinese Democracy.

Next, Rose — who obviously keeps detailed notes on what’s written about him — addressed the numerous rumors that have surrounded the band in recent months in a jaunty, conversational tone. “Some just like 2 bitch 2 bitch. So if ur complainin’ n’ u drink beer, today I recommend a Lucky or perhaps a Red Stripe…if ur still peeved…again, fuck off,” he wrote to those who complained hard-core fans couldn’t get in to the exclusive Fashion Week shows. The only topic he didn’t cover: the clash with a paparazzi photographer that threatened the band’s first gig in Taiwan last December.

As Rolling Stone reported, Rose previously responded to the Slash ban claims, lashing out on a Gn’R message board at one fan who said there was evidence that Rose requested all shirts bearing Slash’s image be flipped inside out.

Barring any more secret shows — some are already being rumored for the Los Angeles area — Guns n’ Roses will next embark on a tour of South America starting March 7th, with a headlining slot at the Sweden Rock Festival planned for June. Aerosmith, with Steven Tyler, has also been added to the Sweden Rock bill.

Guns n’ Roses Rock Fashion Week With Second Secret NYC Show

by Daniel Kreps | February 16, 2010 | In Rock News | No Comments

Photo: McCarthy/Getty
For the second time during New York Fashion Week, Guns n’ Roses staged a late-night secret show in a tiny private venue, performing at the Rose Bar in the wee hours of Valentine’s Day night in front of a celebrity-filled crowd of 150 people. Like Gn’R’s surprise gig at the Varvatos store where CBGB used to be located, Axl Rose and Co. didn’t hit the Rose Bar stage until 1:30 a.m., delivering another hits-filled set list that was almost identical to their Varvatos show, New York Magazine’s Vulture blog reports, with the major change being “Paradise City” replacing “Night Train” as the night’s final encore.

Check out photos of Guns n’ Roses Chinese Democracy world tour.

Packing Guns n’ Roses’ stadium-sized performances into a small venue is likely a difficult task, and the leap from arenas to ultra-trendy clubs did affect the Guns’ Rose Bar show as Rose struggled to lift his voice above the instruments, Vulture writes. Mickey Rourke, Adrian Grenier, members of the Strokes and Zoe Kravitz were just a handful of the celebrities that were treated to this exclusive Guns n’ Roses performance, which had been rumored since last week.

A scary sidenote to the Rose Bar show comes from the New York Post, who report that a seemingly drunk man with a knife somehow infiltrated the extremely private show, but the ever-watchful Sebastian Bach managed to get the man thrown out before any violence ensued. A witness told the Post, “The man walked in while Guns n’ Roses was onstage and pulled out a knife and flicked the blade out. Sebastian, who was standing on a banquette said, ‘Nobody is getting anywhere near my man Axl Rose with a knife,’ and went after him.”

Check out Guns n’ Roses’ Rose Bar set list below:

“You’re Crazy”
“Mr. Brownstone”
“Used to Love Her”
“Welcome to the Jungle”
“Street of Dreams”
“Sorry”
“It’s So Easy”
“Patience”
“Rocket Queen”
“Catcher in the Rye”
“My Michelle”
“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
“Whole Lotta Rosie”
“Sweet Child o’ Mine”
“Nightrain”
“Paradise City”

Guns n’ Roses Surprise Fashion Week With Set at Former CBGB

by Daniel Kreps | February 12, 2010 | In Uncategorized | No Comments

Raglin/WireImage
Axl Rose promised some “surprise gigs” at the tail end of a verbal assault on a fan, and Guns n’ Roses wasted no time making good on the frontman’s promise. The band staged a late-night performance at the John Varvatos boutique in New York City — a.k.a. the former home of CBGB — as part of Fashion Week festivities last night. More than an hour after Breaking band Alberta Cross warmed up the crowd, Axl and Co. finally took the stage at the boutique, rocking a 17-song hits-filled set that lasted until 2:45 a.m.

After a tour of South Asia and a trek across Canada, last night’s Fashion Week gig marked the first Guns n’ Roses’ performance in the U.S. since a brief, two-song set at another fashion-related event in Los Angeles in February 2007. “This was the best fucking show of our tour!,” exclaimed Axl to a fashionable crowd that included Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Sean Lennon, and buddy Sebastian Bach.

Check out photos of Guns n’ Roses Chinese Democracy world tour.

Fittingly, the concert began with “You’re Crazy,” a song Axl and his old Gn’R bandmates performed when they played the actual CBGB venue back in 1987 (Watch the video here). From there, Guns n’ Roses took a musical odyssey throughout their entire catalog — except for The Spaghetti Incident? — including four tracks off Chinese Democracy. The three-song encore featured “Sweet Child O’ Me,” “This I Love” and finally “Night Train.”

Alberta Cross frontman Petter Ericson Stakee tells Rolling Stone the band was surprised to learn Axl was in the house. ‘When we turned up for soundcheck it was the first time we heard that Axl might play after us,” he said. “We thought it was hilarious that we were gonna be the support band for Guns n’ Roses.”

As Rolling Stone reported yesterday, Axl is rumored to have another secret show up his sleeve, as the New York Post whispered about a potential gig at NYC’s Rose Bar. Until then, check out the set list, courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan, below:

1. “You’re Crazy”
2. “Mr. Brownstone”
3. “I Used to Love Her”
4. “Welcome to the Jungle”
5. “Street Of Dreams”
6. “Sorry ”
7. “It’s So Easy”
8. “Patience”
9. “Rocket Queen”
10. “Catcher in the Rye”
11. “My Michelle”
12. “Knockin on Heavens Door”
13. “Whole Lotta Rosie” (AC/DC cover)
14. “Paradise City”
Encore
15. “Sweet Child o’ Mine”
16. “This I Love”
17. “Night Train”

Axl Rose Lashes Out on Message Board Over Slash Ban Rumors

by Daniel Kreps | February 11, 2010 | In Rock News | No Comments

Photo: Kravitz/FilmMagic

Last month when Guns n’ Roses’ tour of Canada began, a rumor surfaced that the band was banning all Slash-related merchandise from Gn’R’s shows. Shirts featuring Slash were reportedly asked to be turned inside out and top hats were allegedly barred from the Canadian venues. The rumor, which was reported by TMZ, turned out to be false, but over at the MyGNRForum, some fans — one in particular — continued to perpetuate the myth, forcing Axl Rose himself — under the user name “Dexter,” which he has used before — to make a rare online appearance to lash out at the fan with his trademark vitriol.

Look back at Guns n’ Roses early days in photos.

“What the fuck do you know? That’s right! You don’t know jack fucking shit you fucking ignorant, know it all, fucking deluded, misguided, self important, self righteous, pious, small minded, clueless, loud mouthed, arrogant cunt,” Axl wrote in response to one poster who claimed to have the name and phone number of a security guard who could corroborate TMZ’s “No Slash” story. “You’re not a fan or a voice of reason… you’re a sick n’ diseased mind spilling it’s bile over the internet.” Ouch. You can read the entire chain of events over at the MyGNRForum, Rose’s post appears on Page Nine.

Axl Rose’s paparazzi punch-out: photos of his LAX scuffle.

In more positive Guns news, at the end of Axl’s post he promised “Surprise gigs comin’!!” According to the New York Post, one of those surprise gigs will take place at New York’s Rose Bar in front of a scant and ultra famous crowd of only 100 people as part of Fashion Week.

Guns n’ Roses Bring “Chinese Democracy” to North America With Marathon Winnipeg Gig

by Darryl Sterdan | January 14, 2010 | In Live Shows, Rock News | No Comments

Photograph by Jason Halstead for RollingStone.com

Sometimes with Axl Rose, all you need is just a little patience. Other times, you need a little more than a little. Guns n’ Roses’ Wednesday night concert in Winnipeg, Canada — their first North American date (and fifth show overall) since the release of Chinese Democracy in 2008 — was, thankfully, a case of the former.

Axl in action: check out photos from Guns n’ Roses’ marathon opening-night gig.

After making the world wait nearly a generation for his sixth studio album, and then keeping fans on hold for more than a year for a tour, Rose wasted little time getting down to business in the Great White North. The frontman and his septet took the stage shortly after 10:40 p.m. — practically a matinee for the notorious Rose. And once they got down to business, they certainly made up for any lost time, treating 7,500 fans at the city’s MTS Centre to a high-energy three-hour marathon of new material and classic G n’ R hits.

Following the basic template laid out on the band’s Asian dates in December, they kicked open the doors with the title cut from Chinese Democracy, followed by the one-two-three punch of “Welcome to the Jungle,” “It’s So Easy” and “Mr. Brownstone” from 1987’s Appetite for Destruction. From the moment Rose opened his mouth to scream, “You know where you are? You’re in the jungle, baybeeee!” it was clear his corroded air-raid siren of a voice had lost little of its range, rage or power. Likewise, the rest of the band — guitarists Richard Fortus, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal and DJ Ashba, keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman, drummer Frank Ferrer and bassist Tommy Stinson (formerly of The Replacements) — hit the ground running, tearing through most of Appetite and Democracy, with a few cuts from the 1991 Use Your Illusion albums (including covers of “Live and Let Die” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”) sprinkled in for good measure.

Although he appeared to be in good spirits, between songs Rose kept fairly quiet, offering little beyond the usual thank-yous and how-is-everybody banter. In fact, for a guy who wields such a commanding musical presence, he spent much of the evening shining the spotlight on his bandmates, bolting from the stage during every instrumental break and introducing nearly every player for a solo segment (best of the bunch: Stinson’s suitably snotty bash ’n’ pop version of the Who’s “My Generation”). Rose also posted a backstage photo on his Twitter, and wrote, “Excited 2 get this rolling. In r off time we’ll b helping Mounties flush out Al Qaeda. (What’s that aboot, Eh? jk)” in one of his first three tweets since the new year began.

The gigantic three-runway black stage and high-tech production — which included all the requisite video screens, moving light trusses, pyro, percussion bombs and confetti cannons — also commanded plenty of attention. But not enough to overshadow Rose’s and co.’s triumphant return to North America. Now, you just have to wait for them to make it to the States. All you need is just a little … well, you know.

Set List:

“Chinese Democracy”
“Welcome to the Jungle”
“It’s So Easy”
“Mr. Brownstone”
“Shackler’s Revenge”
Richard Fortus Spotlight
“Live and Let Die”
“Sorry”
“If the World”
Dizzy Reed Solo
“Street of Dreams”
“Better”
“You Could Be Mine”
DJ Ashba Spotlight
“Sweet Child o’ Mine”
“I.R.S.”
Axl Rose Piano Solo
“November Rain”
“Scraped”
“O Canada” / “Pink Panther” (Bumblefoot Spotlight)
“Out Ta Get Me”
“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
“Nightrain”

Encore:
“Madagascar”
“This I Love”
Frank Ferrer Drum Solo
“Rocket Queen”
“My Generation” (Tommy Stinson Spotlight)
“Patience”
“Paradise City”