GN'R Italy

Guns N' Roses ad Abu Dhabi

2010-10-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

I Guns N' Roses suoneranno alla Yas Arena di Abu Dhabi, negli Emirati Arabi Uniti, il 16 dicembre.

Per i biglietti: eticketing.co.uk.

Prosegue il tour: Australia + Israele

2010-10-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

I GN'R, salvo novità al momento ignote, termineranno il loro tour europeo a Barcellona il 23 ottobre.

Ma nn x questo significa ke gli impegni della band per il 2010 siano finiti...

Al momento sono infatti fissate 4 date in Australia, coi Korn come gruppo spalla:

1 Dicembre Reid Park, Townsville
4 Dicembre V8 Supercar Championship for the Sydney Telstra 500
7 Dicembre Adelaide Entertainment Centre
11 Dicembre Perth Motorplex

Pare inoltre ke i Guns suoneranno poi anke in Israele: Axl e soci dovrebbero essere il 18 e 19 dicembre alla Nokia Arena di Tel Aviv...

Guns N' Roses live in Italy!!! Ke spettacolo!!!

2010-10-14T04:45:00.000-07:00

Si, lo so...

E' passato più di un mese, ma ultimamente x il bloggaggio nn è ke abbia tutto sto tempo...

Prima o poi xò dovevo raccontare la favolosa esperienza del concerto del Forum di Assago...

...ed eccomi qua!

L'emozione era fortissima, molta di più ke x il 'Gods of Metal' 2006, anke se quella era (purtroppo) la mia prima volta in assoluto coi Guns dal vivo.
Ma quello era un festival, dove i Guns erano il premio dopo una giornata di rompimento di balle assurdo x band di cui nn mi fregava nulla, e ke nn sono certo riuscite a farmi cambiare idea ascoltandole...

Questo invece era un vero e proprio concerto dei Guns N' fuckin' Roses!!!

La Legnago-Assago è infinita. Ogni tanto si sgranocchia qlc dalle vettovaglie alquanto ampie. Classica sosta piscia & snack in Autogrill, e poi si riparte...

Arrivo, parcheggio, acquisto immediato della nuova t-shirt.

Fila...

Eterna, infinita, sfiancante, snervante...

Ke palle...

Aprono i cancelli!!!!!! Evvai, cazzo!!!

Si entra, assalto a un buon posto sulle gradinate. Piazzato l'accampamento giro di cesso e poi (ennesimo) spuntino.

Tocca ai Murderdolls...prima canzone passabile...poi 2 palle inaudite...

Finalmente vanno fuori dai piedi, mentre il Forum è sempre più stipato...

Via le luci...appare DJ...l'intro di 'Chinese Democracy'!!! Si parteeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Si canta, si salta, si balla, si fa air guitar su:

Chinese Democracy
Welcome To The Jungle
It's So Easy
Mr. Brownstone
Sorry
Richard Fortus Solo (James Bond Theme)/Live And Let Die
Happy Birthday x McBob, direttore del palco e tecnico dei GN'R dagli esordi
This I Love
Rocket Queen
Dizzy Reed Piano Solo/Street Of Dreams
You Could Be Mine
DJ Ashba Guitar Solo (Ballad Of Death)/Sweet Child O' Mine
Band Jam (Another Brick In The Wall-Part II)
Axl Piano Solo (Goodbye Yellow Brickroad(Someone Saved My Life Tonight)/November Rain
Bumblefoot Guitar Solo (Pink Panther)/Band Jam/Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Nightrain
--
Madagascar
Band Jam/Paradise City

Tornano ancora fuori, inchino x il pubblico. Alla prossima, speriamo!

Grazie ragazzi, nonostante la scaletta un po' poverella (e infatti rimpinzata nelle date successive...diamine!), è stato tutto favoloso!

Peace

We love U

Il tour c'è...i casini pure...

2010-09-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

Fortunatamente, i Guns alla fine in tour ci sono andati...

...ma ciò nn significa ke vada tutto bene...

Alla prima data, al Festival di Reading, gli organizzatori hanno tolto la corrente alla band ke aveva sforato i tempi, come x altro già annunciato dopo i problemi a Leeds 2002.

E proprio Leeds, seconda data, ha rischiato di saltare...

X rappresaglia al 'taglio' di Reading, Axl aveva annunciato ke la band nn sarebbe salita sul palco del festival 'gemello', ma poi le penali da pagare l'hanno portato a più miti consigli...

La data fila via abbastanza liscia, seppure con i soliti problemi di ritardi...

...problemi ke hanno portato ad un nuovo casino in Irlanda: il pubblico, spazientito x il ritardo dei Gunners, una volta ke la band è salita sul palco ha iniziato a bersagliare il palco con oggetti. E così Axl interrompe una prima volta il live. Al secondo stop, la band lascia il palco. Ci torna dopo 20-30 min, Axl canta piantato al microfono manco fosse Liam Gallagher e via...

Speriamo ke, dopo tutti sti casini, fili tutto liscio...visto ke adesso tocca all'Italia...

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!

Panico e mistero sulla presunta cancellazione -smentita- del tour

2010-08-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

Si è scatenato il panico nell'etere virtuale, tra i fan dei Guns N' Roses, dopo ke sull'account Twitter UFFICIALE di Axl Rose è apparso un messaggio ke annunciava l'annullamento dell'imminente Tour Europeo della band e invitava color ke avevano comprato i biglietti, a interessarsi x il rimborso.

E' il caos...

Inizia una ridda di voci e ipotesi contrastanti, dalle quali ne emerge una ke più di altre sembra prendere piede...

Il tour sarebbe saltato in qto Bumblefoot, dopo un litigio legato al ritardo biblico con cui la band è salita sul palco dell'annuale motoraduno di Sturgis, avrebbe lasciato la band.

Ad avvalorare questa ipotesi, un video dell'inizio del concerto nel quale un Ron incazzatissimo suona 'Welcome To The Jungle' e gesticola con qualcuno facendo il gesto dell'orologio.

Un utente del forum NewGN'R lo contatta via Facebook; il chitarrista risponde di attendere 48 ore x vedere ke succede.

Poi comincia ad uscire una nuova voce: il profilo Twitter di Axl sarebbe stato vittima di hackeraggio.

A riprova di questo viene fatto osservare come il messaggio risulti postato via 'mobile web', mentre Axl è solito usare l'iPhone.

Inoltre la parola 'cancellato' non è scritta in inglese americano con una sola 'L', ma in inglese britannico, con 2.

A dar seguito a questa news è un comunicato degli organizzatori del Reading & Leeds Festival, ke con un comunicato ufficiale dichiara di aver parlato col management dei Guns, il quale avrebbe fatto sapere ke si è trattato di hackeraggio e ke il tour è confermato.

Nonostante queste rassicurazioni, qualcuno si chiede come mai nn vi sia un comunicato ufficiale della band e/o del management.

Filtra la voce ke il messaggio su Twitter nn può essere tolto e spiegazioni date a causa di un problema di password (probabilmente l'hacker l'ha cambiata).

Ron, su FB, fa sapere ke l'incazzatura era dovuta alla tensione dimostrata dal pubblico di Sturgis, dando la colpa agli organizzatori ke nn si sono premurati di annunciare il ritardo della band x problemi tecnici, cosa ke quelli del Rock N' Rev hanno spiegato solo nei giorni successivi con un comunicato ufficiale.

Pare tutto risolto, anke se...

C'è chi nn crede al caso di queste circostanze così ravvicinate, e si forma un'altra tesi: Axl, incazzato x' cm al solito verrà data a lui la colpa del super ritardo ad un concerto, sclera e decide di annullare il tour. Poi, a mente fredda e magari convinto dal management, si rimangia tutto, e s'inventano la balla dell'hacker, ecc. x coprire il tutto...

Chissà...

European Second Leg 2010 - Date Ufficiali

2010-08-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

Ecco, al momento, quello ke risulta essere il calendario ufficiale della seconda parte del tour europeo dei Guns, secondo qto riportato dal loro sito ufficiale:

Date City Venue
Aug. 27 Reading Festival
Aug. 29 Leeds Festival
Aug. 31 Belfast Odyssey
Sept. 1 Dublin 02 Arena
Sept. 4 Rome Palalottomatica
Sept. 5 Milan Forum
Sept. 8 Zurich Hallenstadion
Sept. 10 Metz-Amneville Galaxie
Sept. 13 Paris Bercy
Sept. 16 Geneva Arena
Sept. 18 Vienna Stadthalle
Sept. 21 Bucharest Romexpo
Sept. 23 Belgrade Arena
Sept. 24 Zagreb Arena
Sept. 27 Prague 02 Arena
Sept. 30 Antwerp Sportpalais
Oct. 2 Lille Zenith
Oct. 3 Arnhem Gelredome
Oct. 6 Lisbon Atlantico Pavillion
Oct. 9 Madrid Vistalegre
Oct. 10 San Sebastian Velodromo Anoeta
Oct. 13 London 02 Arena
Oct. 17 Birmingham LG Arena
Oct. 18 Manchester Men Arena
Oct. 22 Zaragoza Principe Felipe
Oct. 23 Barcelona Olimpic de Barcelona

CREDITS: GunsNRoses.com

European Second Leg 2010 - Aggiornamento

2010-06-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

Nuove date per la seconda parte del tour europeo...

08.31 Belfast, Northern Ireland @ Odyssey Arena
09.08 Zurich, Switzerland @ Hallenstadion
09.16 Genève, Switzerland @ Genève Arena
09.30 Antwerpen, Belgium @ Sportpaleis

Guns N' Roses European Summer Tour 2010

2010-06-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

Axl e i suoi ragazzi hanno da poco inziato il loro tour estivo europeo. Finora hanno suonato in queste date:

05.31 - Bergen, Norway @ Vestlandshallen
06.02 - Oslo, Norway @ Oslo Spektrum

La prima parte del tour proseguirà così:

06.5 - Helsinki, Finland @ Käpylän Urheilupuisto (Helsinki Live 2010)
06.6 - Saint Petersburg, Russia @ Ledovy Dvorets
06.8 - Moscow, Russia @ Olympiyskiy Stadium
06.12 - Norje, Sweden @ Norje Havsbad (Sweden Rock Festival)
06.14 - Aalborg, Denmark @ Gigantium

E queste sono le date x la second leg (si aspetta la conferma x delle altre):

08.27 - Reading, England @ Little John's Farm (Reading Festival)
08.29 - Leeds, England @ Bramham Park (Leeds Festival)
09.01 - Dublin, Ireland @ O2 Arena
09.04 - Rome, Italy @ Palalottomatica
09.05 - Milan, Italy @ Mediolanum Forum
09.10 - Amneville, France @ Le Galaxie Arena
09.13 - Paris, France @ Bercy Arena
09.18 - Vienna, Austria @ Wiener Stadthalle Arena
09.23 - Belgrade, Serbia @ Belgrade Arena
09.24 - Zagreb, Crotia @ Arena Hall
10.02 - Lille, France @ Zenith Grand Paladis
10.03 - Arnhem, Netherlands @ GelreDome XS
10.09 - Madrid, Spain @ Palacio de Vistalegre
10.10 - San Sebastian, Spain @ Velódromo de Anoeta
10.13 - Zaragoza, Spain @ Pabellón Príncipe Felipe
10.14 - Barcelona, Spain @ Palau Olímpic de Badalona

Pare ke inoltre la band sarà in Australia a dicembre...

I Guns N' Roses tornano in Italia!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-06-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

Finalmente!

Sabato 4 settembre 2010 - PalaLottomatica ROMA
Domenica 5 settembre 2010 - Forum di Assago MILANO

Biglietto milanese già comprato, of course!!!

Slash: alcune anticipazioni...

2010-04-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

Ecco il singolo di lancio di 'Slash'...'By The Sword', con Andrew Stockdale dei Wolfmother alla voce...

--
Qui abbiamo invece la rivisitazione che Slash fa della storica hit dei Guns, 'Paradise City', con Cypress Hill e Fergie dei Black Eyed Peas...doveva essere una b-side/bonus track, ma x problemi legali nn sarà pubblicata...

I GN'R suoneranno ai Festival di Reading e Leeds

2010-03-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

I Guns N' Roses saranno, con Arcade Fire e Blink 182, gli headliners alle annuali edizioni dei Leeds e Reading Festivals.

Rispettivamente, i festival si terranno il 27 agosto a Reading e il 29 agosto a Leeds.

A quest'ultimo, i Guns hanno già partecipato nel primo vero tour post-Slash, quello conclusosi mestamente e bruscamente a metà dell'american leg...

X qto riguarda Reading, invece, si tratta di un debutto x la band.

Tra gli altri gruppi presenti, ci saranno: Queens Of The Stone Age, Biffy Cyro, Lostprophets, NOFX, Gogol Bordello e Billy Talent.

Slash annuncia la band x il suo tour

2010-03-12T09:22:00.000-08:00

Saranno Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge) alla voce, Bobby Schneck (già nei Slash's Blues Ball) alla chitarra ritmica, Dave Henning (Big Wreck) al basso e Brent Fitz (Alice Cooper) alla batteria ad accompagnare Slash nel tour promozionale di 'Slash', il primo album solo a proprio nome del leggendario chitarrista ex Guns N' Roses.

La tournèe dovrebbe iniziare il mese prossimo, dove e qdo esattamente sarà annunciato a breve.

Guns N' Roses in Croazia!

2010-03-08T08:27:00.000-08:00

I Guns si avvicinano sempre di più all'Italia...e le speranze aumentano...

Se tutto sarà confermato, Axl e soci saranno il 20 giugno in concerto a Zagabria, in Croazia, in uno dei tanti festival europei dell'estate, per cui pare i Gunners siano pronti a invadere il nostro continente...

Guns al 'Rock In Rio' di Madrid?!

2010-02-22T07:51:00.001-08:00

Altri rumors, ormai a getto continuo...

Stavolta si vocifera ke i Guns dovrebbero partecipare a una manifestazione cui sono molto legati, il 'Rock In Rio'. Per loro, già 3 partecipazioni: all'edizione numero 2 nella UYI Era (fu la prima uscita ufficiale con i GN'R di Matt Sorum e Dizzy Reed), nel 2001 x il trionfale ritorno sulle scene di Axl con la nuova band e alla seconda edizione in terra portoghese, a Lisbona. Questa volta la manifestazione si terrà a Madrid, in Spagna, nei giorni 4,5,10,11 e 12 giugno all'Arganda del Rey.

E l'Italia?! Noi continuiamo a sperare...

A breve l'annuncio del tour europeo?!

2010-02-19T07:33:00.001-08:00

Dopo la partecipazione al festival svedese (confermata, sarà la serata finale del 12 giugno), ecco una nuova data europea x i Guns N' Roses.

Axl e soci saranno ad Helsinki, Finlandia sabato 5 giugno 2010, all'Helsinki Live! - One Day Rock Festival, ke si terrà al Käpylän Urheilupuisto.

Che queste due date siano il preludio all'annuncio di un tour europeo?!?

Inoltre si vocifera ke il 13 giugno saranno ad Aalborg, in Danimarca e si parla con insistenza dei Festival di Reading e Leeds, in Inghilterra...

Live futuri e sopresa...

2010-02-15T07:34:00.000-08:00

News sempre più interessanti dal mondo GN'R...

Aggiunta un'altra data x il tour sudamericano, il 27 marzo all' Hipódromo La Rinconada di Caracas, Venezuela.

Inoltre i Guns N' Roses sono in cartellone x lo Sweden Rock Festival, ke si terrà a Soelvesborg, appunto in Svezia, tra il 9 e il 12 giugno.

Nel frattempo Axl e soci hanno tenuto due concerti sopresa a New York; il primo nell'ex CBGB's, il mitico tempio del punk americano. Il secondo, ironia del destino, al Rose Bar.

Altre 2 date x il Sudamerica!

2010-02-03T08:04:00.000-08:00

Secondo i media locali, i GN'R suoneranno al Simon Bolivar Park di Bogotà, Colombia, il 30 marzo.
The band è data inoltre in programma all'Estadio Olimpico Atahualpa di Quito, Ecuador, il primo aprile.

'Slash': artwork & tracklist

2010-02-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

Secondo 'Ultimate Guitar', questi dovrebbero essere la copertina e la trackist del disco solista di Slash, intolato semplicemente col nome del leggendario chitarrista...

01. Ghost (Ian Astbury/feat. Izzy Stradlin')
02. Beautiful Dangerous (Fergie)
03. Nothing To Say (M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold)
04. Crucify The Dead (Ozzy Osbourne)
05. Promise (Chris Cornell)
06. By The Sword (Andrew Stockdale of WOLFMOTHER)
07. Doctor Alibi (Lemmy Kilmeister)
08. Saint Is A Sinner Too (Rocco De Luca)
09. Watch This (Dave Grohl/Duff McKagan)
10. I Hold On (Kid Rock)
11. Gotten (Adam Levine)
12. We're All Gonna Die (Iggy Pop)
13. Starlight (Myles Kennedy)

Review: Guns N' Roses in Ottawa

2010-02-02T08:19:00.001-08:00

"Is he an only child," the 20-something woman asks about Axl Rose, who by this point on Sunday at Scotiabank Place has kept 8,000 fans waiting for almost 90 minutes. "Hurry the f-ck up man, people are waiting," says the young woman, who, like her mother standing next to her, has a sloshing cup of frothy draught beer in her hand. “I’ve wanted to see this show for 20 years,” her mother says. So what’s another half hour?

Axl Rose has made such a business of keeping fans waiting that they'd probably be disappointed if he did show up on time. It was almost midnight when he took the stage here a few years ago. It was 11:15 p.m. Sunday when he finally appeared with his latest version of Guns N’ Roses – though calling it that seems silly, liking watching Paul McCartney and pretending you saw the Beatles. Not that the fans seem to mind, as they often roared “GUNS-AND-ROSES!” during the two-hour-and-45-minute set, a performance so long that it started in one month and ended in another.

It began with Chinese Democracy, and the song, like the album of the same name that was 13 years or so in the making, hardly seemed worth the wait. None of the songs that Rose has written since Slash and Izzy Stradlin left the band can stand with the earlier work. No better evidence was needed than the skittering guitar line that told the crowd the next song was Welcome to the Jungle, the monster from their 1987 breakthrough album Appetite for Destruction.

This was the trade-off that fans got all night long – a song from 2008’s Chinese Democracy and then a song from the back catalogue. Next came 1987’s It’s So Easy, complete with chest-constricting explosions on stage, and then another vintage GNR track, Mr. Brownstone. “The show usually starts around seven/ We go on stage around nine,” the song goes. Who says Rose has no sense of humour?

Rose seemed in high spirits, running full-out from one wing of the large stage to the other, rather impressively for a 47-year-old man who’s had his share of decadent living. He was talkative, too. After one of many wardrobe changes he told us he’d ripped his pants. “I blew my ass out.” This knowledge made it a bit scarier when he tried that serpentine shuffle he used to do so well back in the day, when he was younger and more limber.

They played Sorry and Better, two more from Chinese Democracy, before guitarist Richard Fortus kicked into Live and Let Die. This cover of McCartney’s song has long been a highlight of any GNR show, but the limitations of Rose’s voice were uncharacteristically apparent. He can still twist out that raspy howl, but his vocal cords, which serve an intensely demanding master, were crapping out on the high end, and elsewhere.

Sweet Child o’ Mine was his greatest test. Rose, in yet another new shirt, audibly clipped the first “whooaaaaaa, sweet child o’ mine,” but the crowd picked up the vocal slack quick enough.

The crowd was into it, though by 12:30 Monday morning it was a long way from 8 p.m., when most fans had arrived to see openers Danko Jones and Sebastian Bach. By 1:00 some fans were putting on their coats and leaving, thinking about work in a few hours, no doubt. Too bad. They missed Bubbles, from Trailer Park Boys, and they missed Guns’ classics such as the ballistic You Could Be Mine, Patience, and Paradise City, which closed the show at 2 a.m.

Rose stuck around and served shots of booze to a couple of fans down front. It was like he didn’t want to leave, and why would he? He’s a classic rocker, and if there’s one thing Ottawa loves more than politics, it’s classic rock.

Source: Ottawa Citizen

Guns N' Roses show worth the wait

2010-02-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

By JANE STEVENSON, Toronto Sun

How do you know you're at a Guns N' Roses concert?

You have to wait a really long time for the show begin.

And so it went on Thursday night at the Air Canada Centre as a crowd of about 21,000 waited for frontman Axl Rose to begin just over two hours past the scheduled start time - would you believe at 11:25 p.m.? - following sets by homegrown opening acts Danko Jones and Sebastian Bach.

Somebody needs to grease Axl's wheels. Seriously.

Of course, waiting for the 47-year-old Rose is nothing new.

He made fans wait some 17 years for the latest GN'R release of original music, Chinese Democracy, which came out in November 2008, and for which Rose is currently touring the world, including some 13 dates in Canada in January and February.

While fans cooled their heels at the ACC, women in the stands - either in various states of undress or making out with each other - were shown to huge cheers but time dragged on and there were boos as the crowd's impatience grew.

By the time Rose and the latest lineup of Gunners - guitarists Richard Fortus, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and DJ Ashba, keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman, drummer Frank Ferrer and one-time Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson - opened with Chinese Democracy's title track, it felt underwhelming.

Especially since Rose made his entrance in a wheelchair, wearing a black fedora over his red scarf and sunglasses (the fedora and glasses he eventually ditched), his blond hair now shoulder length and sporting a moustache, dressed in an unbuttoned shirt and jeans with a large cross and heavy necklaces adorning his chest.

"Sorry about the time delay," said Rose after that first song. "We got a little carried away .... last night. But anyway, we're here."

He even joked later that some local deejay had predicted the band wouldn't go on until 2 a.m.

"I'm early," he cracked.

Thankfully, Rose and company got the crowd quickly on side with the second song, an explosion-heavy version of the GN'R classic Welcome To The Jungle.

Other song highlights were no surprise: A fiery, explosion-laced version of Live and Let Die; the GN'R signature song, Sweet Child O' Mine featuring stellar guitar work by Ashba; the heartfelt ballad November Rain with Rose at the piano; the propulsive You Could Be Mine; a great cover of Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door that included an audience singalong; the anthemic Night Train and the show-ending Paradise City complete with more explosions pink confetti and silver streamers. (It's 1:55 a.m when they finally leave the stage although Axl returns to take a bow with his band and distribute shots to some people in the crowd and throw flowers out into the audience.)

Less effective was much of the Chinese Democracy material save for the soulful mid-tempo rocker Street Of Dreams; the dramatic power ballads Madagascar and This I Love, the latter featuring Rose standing on top of Reed's piano.

On the plus side, Rose proved to be a non-stop man in motion, constantly running around his enormous stage that was adorned with large video screens and lighting columns, two circular staircases, three mini-catwalks, and elevating platforms for the guitarists to play on.

He also performed his trademark side-to-side dance moves and stomped his right leg so hard, it's no wonder he kept running off to a little black tent at the side of the stage where he changed his sweat-soaked shirts.

Rose was generous frontman too, sharing the spotlight with nearly all of his musicians who were given extended solos with special mention to Reed on a mirrored grand piano and the heavily-tattooed Ashba on a glittery black guitar.

Axl even performed his own instrumental piano medley of Elton John songs.

So far the best reported sidebar about this tour is that the Rose has banned Guns N' Roses fans from wearing Slash T-shirts or top hats (I'm pretty sure Ashba was symbolically wearing a squished one) at the shows.

The incredibly silly move has been denied by Rose's camp even though TMZ claims a member of the concert security team has confirmed it.

Rose and Slash has been at odds since the guitarist left GN'R in 1996 and then wrote about their feud in his 2007 autobiography.

Someone will have to ask the former GN'R axeman, who will release a solo album later this year, what he makes of it all when the guitarist shows up at Canadian Music Week in Toronto in mid-March to be a keynote speaker and play some tunes.

Or not.

Can't we all just get along?

GN'R Bring Chinese Democracy Tour Across Canada

2010-02-02T08:12:00.000-08:00

(HoundsTV – Toronto) If there is one thing Guns N’ Roses 2010 Canadian tour has confirmed – Axl Rose still lives and loves the rock star lifestyle – relentless touring, late night partying, and lots of pretty ladies.

Axl and his Guns N’ Roses mates have been in eastern Canada the last week finishing up a 13 show trek across Canada to kick off a 2010 world tour in support of Chinese Democracy – Axl’s long awaited, and massively under-appreciated gem of a GN’R album.

The talk among many, many, many of the reviews has been the unpredictable late start to the GN’R shows occurring each night. For the Hamilton, London, and Montreal shows – Axl has been taking the stage around 10:30 and playing 2 1/2 hour sets ending around 1 a.m. We are not quite sure why so many people have been whining about the late starts -

BUT PEOPLE! Its a Guns N’ Fuckin’ Roses concert – not Disney on ice. So what if Axl is taking the stage at 10, 11 or 12?

But up here in Canada, venue officials and police do have concerns about rock concert crowds spilling out into the streets at very late hours. So all Canadian arenas have bylaw curfews (usually 11:59 p.m.) where the music is supposed to end or the concert promoter starts paying heavy penalties. The promoters and management of the GN’R tour surely paid some big penalties that night in Toronto when Rose was still on stage past 2 a.m.

In fact, when Guns N’ Roses took the stage at 11:30 in Toronto, discussions did occur with venue officials and GN’R management about cutting the set significantly shorter – to maybe 1 1/2 hours to help get the ACC crowd out still by about 1 a.m. Rose’s management refused. In the end, one or two songs were cut from the planned set list to try for a 2 a.m. finish. The word through Axl’s people was the GN’R set was minimum 2 1/2 hours and they were giving the fans ONLY a full set – no matter how late or whatever financial penalties they would incur.

So why did Guns N’ Roses take the stage so late in Toronto? It might have something to do with the fact Axl didn’t leave his downtown Toronto hotel till 11:15 p.m. for the show.

And why wasn’t Rose ready for the Toronto stage? Perhaps it had something to do with a very good time Axl and his GN’R mates had in Montreal the night before (actually, more the morning of..)

Rose made light reference to his previous night of Montreal debauchery kicking off the Toronto set, “Sorry about the time delay. I got carried away jumping off shit last night…I actually don’t remember a thing..”

After GN’R’s Montreal show the previous night, the band hit up a private club in old Montreal eventually emerging from the club at 6:30am in quite the high spirits. From there, it was time to head back to Toronto for the Air Canada Centre show that evening. And that evening started with

Rose going from his Toronto hotel room at 11:15 pm – to an awaiting vehicle speeding through traffic the ten minute drive south to the ACC – and joining his GN’R mates on the Air Canada Centre stage with the lights dimming just before 11:30 pm.

And the rush showed in a very uninspired opening of Chinese Democracy where Axl’s voice was clearly a little off. Rose exited halfway through the song to switch mics. The second song of the night, Welcome to the Jungle, was better and the songs familiarity helped to get the crowd going – but it was clear Axl’s voice was still ramping up (and Rose was maybe still waking up?)

By the time Live and Let Die rolled around forty-five minutes into the set – Rose was surely finding his voice and it was sounding strong. Axl and the band did a great version of Catcher in the Rye – in honor of J.D. Salinger who passed away that day (remarked by Rose.)

But its when the GN’R set passed the 1 a.m. mark and Axl delivered You Could Be Mine, Knockin on Heaven’s door, and November Rain you knew you were seeing classic Axl, in almost perfert form – and well worth the wait.

After the ACC show. Axl, his Guns N’ Roses bandmates, Sebastian Bach and many more partied well into the wee morning hours at a King St. Toronto club.

Guns N’ Roses wraps up the 2010 Chinese Democracy Canadian tour with three final dates out east in Quebec City, Moncton, and Halifax this week.

Thanks: Richard
Photo Credit: Richard Budman
Source: HoundsTV.com

Montreal 2010 Reviews

2010-02-01T10:58:00.000-08:00

Review: Guns N' Roses Rock Montreal Fans

MONTREAL - There’s waiting, and then there’s waiting.

There’s a teenage lifetime of dashed expectations, a lot of Patience, and an eventual 10:30 start time attending some kind of payment on an old debt.

And there’s Axl Rose, so toss the script aside and let’s see what flag we’re flying when we take ‘er home.

Guns N’ Roses finally made it back to Montreal, 17 years after a Big O riot, minus all other original members save the singer. But there would be no angry recriminations, or formal addressing of a past event that many in the crowd only heard about from their tattoed parents or older siblings. There would be a huge three-guitar arena show for just under 12,000, with enough happy pyro for a Vegas New Year’s Eve, a run through the hard rock touchstones from a 28-million-selling debut album, and the professionalism and honest rock’n’roll bonhomie we’ve come to expect from Axl Rose…

But the surprises would mark this as something else, something… unexpected: witty musical nods to Elton John, Henry Mancini and the Immigrant Song, a self-deprecating story about being winded, a reference to Kid Rock, sly references to 17 years ago, a masterfully-avoided apology, a song called Sorry, and 2 ½ hours of what can only be described as a likeable Axl Rose earning a barely-qualified win in the Bell Centre.

Let’s get to the explosions.

They came early, late and often. Chinese Democracy opened with a guitarist (either DJ Ashba or Richard Fortus) riffing atop the drum/keyboard riser, Axl running out in pin-striped shirt, jeans and fedora as the pyro went off. The stuttering guitar of Welcome to the Jungle brought the crowd up, Rose striking his fire-eater pose with

the mic. It’s So Easy brought more kabooms, bassist Tommy Stinson taking backing vocals. Still, there was a sense of much to live up to, or live down.

After Mr. Brownstone, Axl said “I think I recognize some of you… yeah, that’s right. That’s right.”

It might be reading too much into the ballad that followed – Sorry – but who can blame us?

During Live and Let Die, you noticed he was beefier (but who isn’t?).

During Street of Dreams, his Bruce-anthem move, you could finally confirm that either the screech-yowl had lost some puissance in the lower register, or the mic wasn’t picking it up. I’ll actually lean toward the latter, because for all Axl’s mini-exits during guitar solos (three of ‘em, including Ron Bumblefoot Thal’s speedfingers Pink Panther) for quick offstage shirt-changes (about six of ‘em), his energy never flagged.

And incredibly, neither did his humour. You know what’s funny? Those snake-hipped moves and stomps seemed fun rather than angry now.

You know what else is funny? The story Axl told about being chased by cops and mistaken for Kid Rock while trying to get into an MTV Awards ceremony.

At about this point, the pacing seemed off, as Rose began trimming songs from the set list – a good half dozen of them by my sheet.

The late start? Some warning about the Metro closing at 1 a.m.? No idea, but that set list was flipped around. The burbling If the World was a brave choice in this arena/hard rock context, but then, that was the point of all this band-recreation and endless recording, wasn’t it?

Better was as remarkable live as on record, revealing Stinson to be the absolute anchor of this band of whiz-bang guitarists. Rose keyed on him, drawing energy or balance from the former Replacements member.

You Could Be Mine brought the first crowd explosion, and justly so.

Sweet Child O’ Mine brought the next. And the friendly, lighthearted demeanour proved to be genuine. When he segued from an oblique reference to a ridiculous press rumour about top hats being banned at GNR shows into “You fuckers just like to tear shit up, doncha? That’s okay, I get that way myself sometimes,” you realized he had just kinda referred to the Big O while somehow bonding with the crowd and blaming no one – including, especially himself. And you were in the presence of stagecraft brilliance.

Naturally, he had to almost blow it. After the whistlin’ Patience, after Out Ta Get Me (kablammo!) and Night Train, a ballad-heavy encore had some fans heading for the exits.

When they finally pulled into Paradise City terminus at 1 a.m. (!), all those fans came streaming back to see Axl draping himself in a Fleur-de-Lis flag to the biggest roar of the night, tossing a whistle into the crowd, and kicking and roaring and beaming his way to the front of the stage. The fans had their moment, Axl had his, and it had only taken 17 years and 2 ½ hours.

markjlepage@yahoo.com

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
--

Classic Rock Montreal Review

Come inside for a review of Axl and co’s performance in Quebec, Canada on January 27.

Guns N’ Roses/Sebastian Bach/Danko Jones

Montreal Bell Centre

“All I’ve got is precious time,” Axl Rose tellingly proclaims in tonight’s opening track, the title song of Chinese Democracy. After all, why else would he seem to revel in keeping fans waiting, whether for his infamously late on stage arrivals, an album of mythical proportions that was nearly two decades in the making, or – perhaps most curiously – the overdue kickoff of the subsequent world tour?

Although the timing is perplexing, coming more than a year after the record’s release, there is one upside – it calls for a fresh reconsideration of the album’s merits: the driving chorus of Shackler’s Revenge; the unmistakable vocal cadence of the verses in Better; and the heart-wrenching ride-out of There Was A Time, among others.

It also, however, serves as a reminder of Chinese Democracy’s flaws – namely, the lack of timeless, memorable hooks that people will still pay to hear performed live in 23 years. That’s how long it’s now been since the release of Appetite For Destruction, the recording that rightfully made Guns N’ Roses an overnight sensation. Its material provides the brightest moments tonight, GN’R’s first performance in Montreal since a disastrous 1992 concert halfway through the marathon Use Your Illusion tour during which Axl left the stage after singing only nine songs, prompting a massive riot.

In contrast, tonight’s show – part of a winter tour of Canadian hockey barns, the group’s first performances in their home continent since the release of Chinese Democracy – goes off without incident. Openers Danko Jones, perhaps rock’s best-kept secret, deliver a libido-fuelled 30-minute set that drips with swaggering confidence, while ex-Skid Row front man Sebastian Bach – who seems content continuing to play a Robin- or Dr. Watson-like foil for Rose – gamely energizes the crowd with a 10-song performance culled primarily from his former band’s self-titled debut.

As for the headliner, it’s instantly clear that GN’R is now little different than any number of classic hard rock acts with only one remaining original member. Having surrounded himself in recent years with a revolving door of competent yet ultimately faceless replacements, Rose has, perhaps unwittingly, turned the spotlight even more on himself, no matter how many solos he lets his band members enjoy tonight. (His frequent wardrobe changes don’t help.)

Still, Rose – sporting a Fu Manchu, and flanked by video screens and LED back drops – admirably avoids the easy path of nostalgia taken regularly by so many of his peers, as tonight’s workmanlike, nearly three-hour set is split almost evenly between older and recent material. One only wishes he’d take to heart the most basic tenet of democracy: give the people what they want. All too often, the Chinese Democracy material falls flat next to classics such as Welcome To The Jungle and You Could Be Mine, but the magnetic presence of the slithering, itinerant front man holds your interest nonetheless.

His only overt references to the riot come during Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – “You fuckers just like to tear shit up,” he playfully prods the crowd before thanking them genuinely for their support – and after the show-closing Paradise City, when he gives a tantalisingly cryptic tease before exiting: “You deserve the truth, but tonight’s not the time.” More proof that the King Of The Jungle sets his own hours.

Source: Classic Rock

GN'R South America Tour 2010

2010-01-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

Con l'annuncio della data argentina del 20 marzo allo Stadio River Plate di Buenos Aires (dove si tenne la storica ultima data dello 'Use Your Illusion Tour'), si è delineato un quadro abbastanza preciso della tournèe sudamericana dei Guns N' Roses. Un paio di date brasiliane debbono ancora avere la conferma ufficiale, però...

March 7th, 2010
Brasília, Brazil @ Ginásio Nilson Nelson
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March 10th, 2010
Belo Horizonte, Brazil @ Ginásio Jornalista Felipe Drumond (Mineirinho)
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March 13th, 2010
São Paulo, Brazil @ Palestra Itália Stadium TBA
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March 14th, 2010
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil @ Praça da Apoteose TBA
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March 16th, 2010
Porto Alegre, Brazil @ Ginásio Gigantinho TBA
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March 18th, 2010
Montevideo, Uruguay @ Estadio Centenario
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March 20th, 2010
Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Estadio River Plate
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March 22nd, 2010
Santiago, Chile @ Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos
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March 25th, 2010
Lima, Peru @ La Explanada Sur del Estadio Monumental

The 'Rolling Stone' Winnipeg Review

2010-01-15T09:41:00.000-08:00

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.

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 GN’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”

Darryl Sterdan

Guns N' Roses show a massive rock 'n' roll spectacle

2010-01-14T08:03:00.000-08:00

Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

By: Rob Williams

WINNIPEG — Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses toured in support of Chinese Democracy four times before the album was finally released in November, 2008, 17 years after the last album of GNR originals.

Then nothing. No tour to support the album and only one promotional media interview from the reclusive frontman.

Concert Review
Guns N' Roses
Jan. 13, 2010
MTS Centre
Attendance: 7,500
4 stars out of five

At least a bunch of people in America got a free Dr. Pepper.

A year later Rose announced he was ready to hit the road in support of the long-awaited album with four shows in Asia and 13 in Canada, the first in Winnipeg at the MTS Centre on Wednesday where they last played in December, 2006.

Why they chose to tour Canada in January, and start in Winnipeg, is anybody's guess, but the 2010 live version of Guns N' Roses is a sight to behold. The show is a massive rock 'n' roll spectacle as 7,500 fans witnessed Wednesday during a two-hour and 50-minute show featuring most of the new album and the band's greatest hits.

The unofficial over/under betting line on the band's start time was 10:30 p.m., and anyone who knows anything about GNR would have had their money on over. The group took the stage at the perfectly decent time of 10:45 p.m., 75 minutes earlier than in 2006, but still more than an hour after opener Sebastian Bach left the stage.

A series of fireworks encircling the stage exploded to start the show before the opening chords of Chinese Democracy kicked in and Rose ran on stage zigzagging his way through his seven-piece band. He was in constant motion throughout the whole song, looking a little like Kid Rock in jeans, a white shirt and fedora, albeit with more facial hair.

More explosions signaled the end of the opener before the familiar riff to Welcome to the Jungle rang out and a huge roar erupted from the crowd as Rose screeched: "Do you know where you are? You're in the jungle, baby. You're gonna diiiiiieeee."

He dumped the hat to reveal a red bandana (and no cornrows!) during the song and showed off his two favourite dance moves -- that weird serpentine slither and a series of herky-jerky bounce steps -- which would be repeated numerous times throughout the night whenever the 47-year-old wasn't running around on the massive stage shaped like the top half of a chalk outline of a body with fluorescent orange tape providing the piping. The circular "head" jutted out from the main body and two "arms" extended out on either side, curving slightly when they hit the seats. The drums were on a riser on the stage's torso flanked by two sets of stairs which ran up behind it while a set of circular lighting rigs with its own LED system moved vertically above it.

Rose's distinctive nasally whine is still in fine form, as he displayed on the swaggering It's So Easy and the drug ode, Mr. Brownstone, two classics from the band's 1987 debut, Appetite for Destruction, that help open the show. He looked and sounded as good as ever, but still relies on TelePrompTers to help out in case he forgets some lyrics.

And he even appeared to be enjoying himself, flashing the occasional smile and offering up some between song banter with the crowd.

"It's nice to be with you tonight. It's nice of you to turn up the heat for us while we're here," he said, referencing the warm weather, before launching into the new Shackler's Revenge, which gave his three guitarists --- Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, Richard Fortus and DJ Ashba--- a chance to show off some riffs Slash didn't write and allowed Rose to head backstage, something he did often throughout the night.

Massive flames shot in the air and concussion bombs exploded for the band's wall-of-guitars cover of Live and Let Die before they slowed things down with Sorry, If the World and Street of Dreams, three new songs that show off Rose's two best-known sides: ticked off and tender.

They got back into the hard rock boogie with Better, before pulling out some more old faves, with the caustic You Could Be Mine, Sweet Child O' Mine and November Rain, featuring Rose playing a grand piano at centre stage. Each song was given extra heft by the sheer amount of musicians on stage, each of whom got his own solo.

The metal-blues drinking anthem Night Train finished the main 130-minute set before the band returned for a six-song encore, highlighted by Rocket Queen, the ballad Patience and customary show closer Paradise City, climaxing with confetti being shot into the audience and more explosions.

"Have a good night, be safe. We love you and we'll see you again," Rose said after he and his band mates took a bow.

Knowing Rose, anything is possible.

Canadian Tour Promotional Video 2 - Shots from Asia!!!

2010-01-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

Ecco uno spot x la data del 25 gennaio al LaBatt Center. Favolose le immagini dalle date asiatiche...

Nuovi "leaks"?!

2010-01-11T16:33:00.000-08:00

Sono recentemente apparsi su YouTube alcuni video ke riproducono clip di brani che, secondo alcuni, risalirebbero al primo periodo post-UYI Tour, ossia della tutt'altro ke serena e produttiva collaborazione tra Slash e Paul "Huge" Tobias...

Guns N' Roses a Studio Aperto 1992

2010-01-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

Conferme x il Cile, nn x i Jane's Addicition...

2009-12-31T09:40:00.000-08:00

Sembra ufficiale anke la data cilena x il tour sudamericano dei GN'R. Dovrebbe trattarsi del 22 marzo, all'Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos di Santiago del Cile.

Ufficialissima invece la notizia che NON saranno i Jane's Addiction a far da spalla ad Axl e soci in giro x il Sudamerica.

La smentita è arrivata tramite la pagina Twitter ufficiale dei Gunners.

Data x il Perù

2009-12-29T18:03:00.000-08:00

Stando a qto sostiene un promoter locale, i GN'R suoneranno a La Explanada Sur del Estadio Monumental di Lima, in Perù, il 25 Marzo 2010. Anke in questo caso, apriranno x loro i Jane's Addiction. WOW!

CREDITS: estebanf & HTGTH

More Sudamerica!!!

2009-12-27T08:21:00.000-08:00

Altre conferme x il tour sudamericano!!

Stando a qto riportato da questo sito, a fine marzo la band sarà al Simon Bolivar Park di Bogotà, Colombia, mentre si parla di date anke in Perù, Chile e Argentina, oltre a quelle di cui s'è già detto in Brasile e Uruguay

Guns N' Roses to rock Brazil!!

2009-12-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

Secondo l'edizione verdeoro di 'Rolling Stone', sarebbero state fissate le date brasiliane della tournèe sudamericana della band, reduce dal trionfale passaggio in Taiwan, Corea e Giappone e pronta, dopo le feste, a riscaldare il freddo e innevato Canada.

Ecco quale dovrebbe essere il programma dei concerti nella terra del Carnevale:

7th March - Brasília
10th March - Belo Horizonte
13th March - São Paulo
14th March - Rio de Janeiro
16th March - Porto Alegre

Pare inoltre che, subito dopo il Brasile toccherà all'Uruguay. Per precisione, alla capitale Montevideo, il 18 marzo...

CREDITS: GNRDaily

19 Dicembre 2009 - Tokio, Japan

2009-12-21T09:22:00.000-08:00

Quasi 4 ore di concerto, x salutare il pubblico asiatico e chiudere la prima fase del nuovo "Chinese Democracy Tour". Con l'eccezione di "Rihad N' The Bedouins", suonato tutto il nuovo album, più la solita lunga serie di classici. Axl in formissima, la band ha spaccato e la nostalgia s'è fatta meno forte...

SETLIST:

Chinese Democracy
Welcome To The Jungle
It's So Easy
Mr Brownstone
Catcher In The Rye
Sorry
If The World
Richard Fortus Solo
Live And Let Die
Dizzy Solo (Ziggy Stardust)
Street of Dreams
You Could Be Mine
Rocket Queen
My Michele
DJ Ashba Solo
Sweet Child O' Mine
Shackler's Revenge
IRS
Axl Piano Solo
November Rain
Whole Lotta Rosie
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Scraped
Prostitute
This I Love
Drum Solo
Out Ta Get Me
Bumblefoot Solo (Pink Panther Theme)/Don't Cry)
Nightrain

ENCORE

Madagascar
There Was A Time
Tommy Stinson sings 'My Generation'
Better
Patience
Nice Boys (Don't Play Rock And Roll)
Paradise City

16 Dicembre 2009 - Osaka, Japan

2009-12-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

Più di 3 ore di concerto x la prima data giapponese dei GN'R!! Hanno tirato fuori cose assurde come la cover dei "Dead Boys" e "Whole Lotta Rosie", che erano millenni che i Guns nn facevano più (se nn ricordo male, la fecero una volta durante lo "Use Your Illusion Tour")!!!

Setlist:

Chinese Democracy
Welcome To The Jungle
It's So Easy
Mr Brownstone
Shackler's Revenge
If The World
Richard Fortus solo
Live and Let Die
Sorry
Rocket Queen
Prostitute
Dizzy Solo
Street of Dreams
Scraped
Drum Solo
You Could Be Mine
Axl Piano Solo
November Rain
IRS
DJ Ashba Solo
Sweet Child O' Mine
Catcher In The Rye
Out Ta Get Me
Bumblefoot Solo (Pink Panther Theme)
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Whole Lotta Rosie
This I Love
Nightrain

ENCORE

Madagascar
Better
Sonic Reducer (dei The Dead Boys)
Patience
Don't Cry (intro)/Paradise City

13 Dicembre - Seul - Corea del Sud

2009-12-13T09:17:00.000-08:00

Set List :

Chinese Democracy
Welcome To The Jungle
Its So Easy
Mr Brownstone
Shackler's Revenge
There Was A Time
Richard Fortus Solo (James Bond Theme)
Live and Let Die
Drum Solo
Sorry
Rocket Queen
DJ Ashba Solo
Sweet Child O' Mine
Dizzy Solo (Ziggy Stardust)
Street of Dreams
You Could Be Mine
Band Jam (Black Betty)
My Generation (In G with Tommy Fuckin' Stinson on Vocals)
Band Jam
November Rain
Take A Walk On The Wild Side

Encore:
Better
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Bumblefoot Solo (Pink Panther)
Paradise City

Axl & Co. Rocked Taipei

2009-12-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

E' finalmente partito questo nuovo 'Chinese Democracy Tour", che attualmente è destinato a toccare Asia, Canada e Sudamerica.

Il debutto è avvenuto venerdì a Taiwan, con un Axl già in discreta forma ed una band che ha raccolto molti più consensi rispetto alle precedenti incarnazioni post-Slash (x capirci). Il merito sembra essere in particolare del nuovo chitarrista solista DJ Ashba, che ha sostituito il nn certo amatissimo Robin Finck, e a molti è parso cm la cosa più vicina a Slash che abbia imbracciato negli ultimi dieci anni una Gibson a fianco di Mr. Rose...

Ecco la setlist del concerto:

Chinese Democracy
Welcome To the Jungle
It's So Easy
Mr. BrownStone
If The World
Live And Let Die
Richard Solo (James Bond Theme)
There Was a Time
Frank Ferrer Drum Solo
Tommy Stinson Bass Solo
My Generation (Tommy on vocals)
I.R.S
Rocket Queen
Dizzy Reed Piano Solo
Street of Dreams
DJ Ashba Solo
Sweet Child O' Mine
Band Jam
November Rain
Bumblefoot Guitar Solo (Pink Panther Theme)
You Could Be Mine
Shackler's Revenge
Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Encore:
Dizzy Reed Piano Solo #2
This I Love
Band Jam
Better
Paradise City

--

Piccola nota: non sono state inserite nella setlist "Nightrain", "Patience", "Out Ta Get Me", "Think About You" e "Madagascar", che c'erano in quasi tutti i precedenti tour dei "nuovi" Guns N' Roses.

Ma ciò nn significa che nn ricompariranno nelle prossime date.

Axl picchia un paparazzo all'aeroporto di L.A.!!!

2009-12-12T08:22:00.000-08:00

CREDITS: TMZ.com

New Album for Izzy!!!

2009-12-07T05:40:00.000-08:00

Il mitico Izzy Stradlin', chitarrista ritmico originale dei Guns N' Roses, si appresta a pubblicare un nuovo album solista. Il disco, intitolato "Smoke", sarà disponibile entro questo mese su i-Tunes, come tutte le ultime pubblicazioni di Izzy.

Oltre a lui, ovviamente, ci suonano i fidati Rick Richards (chitarra solista), JT Longoria (basso) e Taz Bentley (batteria), oltre a Timo Kaltio, coautore di alcuni brani del disco ("Seems To Me" e "Box"), storico amico dei GN'R, essendo uno degli autori di "Yesterdays".

Qui sotto trovate una clip con due anticipazioni: un pezzetto di "Breathing" e uno di "Nothing On Me".

Enjoy it!

GunsNRoses.com conferma il Sudamerica!!!

2009-12-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

Dopo un lungo silenzio, è tornato ad aggiornare il sito ufficiale della band!

E' l'ha fatto con notizie sicuramente interessanti...infatti, nel "box" delle Tour Dates, oltre agli impegni in Asia e Canada, sta scritto ke dal 10 marzo a 10 aprile 2010, la band sarà impegnata in Sudamerica!!!

Ora nn resta ke aspettare x l'Europa, no?!

GN'R Rehearsals Update

2009-11-19T07:42:00.000-08:00

Nice update from the rehearsals for the upcoming tour:

I was at one of their rehearsal's a few weeks ago and then todays was the full production run at a arena here in LA. I have to say, these guys got it together! All three guitar players are just monsters who each stand on their own as players, and then play really well as a unit. What's also cool is the fact that they are all quite humble and good people. For any skeptics, I can assure you that they treat the early hit's with respect by keeping the parts true to the record, yet with their own vibe and flare.

On to the fun stuff....

Richard Fortus is using his Jose Marshall ('73 I think) paired with a Friedman Marsha as well as Friedman modded Randall Modules...powered with a Randall RT-2 poweramp. He has a few pedals incorporated and all of the above is racked and switched via a custom system built by Dave. He is using two iso cabs with Golds and G12H's. He has a load of cool guitars including a Chet A. Gretsch, 335, tele's, and LP's.

DJ Ashba is their newest guitarist and sounds amazing as well. He also nails the 'classic' GN'R tones via another Marsha paired with a Boogie Dual Rect. The Boogie feeds a 4x12 with Golds while the Marsha is using V30's. He plays a variety of LP's. He's also quite a talented businessman as his graphics company did a lot of artwork for the Virgin Mega Stores and another one of his clients is Ovation (plus many others). Not bad for a rock star!

Many here know Bumblefoot and his playing famously sick! He relies on his Engl heads through Marshall 4x12 (may be using and iso but I did not have a tour of his set up. Guitar wise he sticks with is Vigier's....both standards as well as his double neck with the fretless.

They all share lead duties and then rhythm wise, Richard covers the "Izzy" vibe with his various guitars. DJ nails the Slash vibe, and Bumblefoot sits between them.

The rest of them are very solid as well.

CREDITS: TGPWebzine & GNRDaily

Guns N' Roses anche in Sudamerica?!

2009-11-18T08:45:00.000-08:00

Dopo l'ufficializzazione del mini-tour asiatico e della tournèe canadese, nuove voci riguardanti l'impegno live di Axl e soci.

Si fanno infatti insistenti le voci su un possibile passaggio in Sudamerica, dove la band ha sempre suscitato grande interesse, e che -Brasile in primis- ha davvero un legame sentimentalmente forte con Axl e con in Guns N' Roses in generale.

Perù, Argentina, Cina e Brasile (appunto), paiono le mete predestinate, con partenza subito dopo la conclusione del passaggio nella terra della foglia d'acero.

Ecco l'articolo apparso sulla versione online del cileno TERRA:

Luego de 17 años

GUNS N´ ROSES VIENE A CHILE EN 2010

La reformulada banda ya tiene pactada una gira sudamericana para febrero y marzo de 2010. Será la segunda visita a Santiago de los norteamericanos. (TERRA.cl)

SANTIAGO, noviembre 10.- A la inminente oficialización del retorno de Metallica para fines de enero en el Club Hípico, los productores locales ya guardan otro nombre de alto voltaje para la cartelera musical del próximo año: Guns N’ Roses, los estadounidenses que han sobrevivido a tropezones el paso de los años, la banda reformulada una y otra vez por el eterno Axl Rose.
Los promotores que manejan al conjunto ya tienen amarrado un tour latino que pasará por la región en febrero y marzo de 2010. Así también lo anunció el pasado sábado 7 el diario peruano “Perú 21”, afirmando que la agrupación aterrizará en febrero en Lima, en un recinto masivo, con capacidad para más de 40 mil personas.

En Chile, hoy son tres las productoras que han lanzado ofertas para su regreso. Pese a los trámites, uno de los involucrados dice que es casi seguro su paso por la capital para marzo, aunque aún no se ha analizado el reducto.

Hoy, el conjunto es liderado por Axl Rose, quien ha fichado a una serie de músicos para extender el legado del grupo: Tommy Stinson, Chris Pitman, Frank Ferrer, Richard Fortus, Ron ´Bumblefoot’ Thal, Dizzy Reed y DJ Ashba son los que completan la formación actual. En las próximas semanas, la banda iniciará una gira por Asia, luego partirá a Canadá y rematará el primer semestre del próximo año en Sudamérica, con fechas en Perú, Argentina, Brasil y Chile.

Todo para mostrar “Chinese democracy” (2008), el mayor despilfarro de la historia del rock, un álbum abortado durante años que finalmente recibió tibias críticas y un éxito regular de ventas. Si se cierra su paso por la capital, será el segundo show de Guns N’ Roses en el país: ya estuvieron acá en diciembre de 1992, en una recordada cita en el Estadio Nacional.

Claudio Vergara

Derechos Reservados Terra Networks Chile S.A

LINK

Canadian Tour Promotional Video

2009-10-22T11:03:00.001-07:00

GUNS N’ ROSES Announce Chinese Democracy World Tour Canadian Concerts

2009-10-19T07:46:00.001-07:00

Guns N' Roses will bring their Chinese Democracy World Tour to Canada in January 2010. The Winnipeg, Manitoba concert at the MTS Centre on January 13th is the first of thirteen Canadian concerts on the GN’R world tour, which begins in Asia on December 11th, with tour updates and announcements planned throughout 2010.
Guns N’ Roses – Axl Rose, Frank Ferrer, Tommy Stinson, Richard Fortus, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Dizzy Reed, and Chris Pitman – welcomed guitarist Dj Ashba into the band earlier this year and are scheduled to begin rehearsals in Los Angeles shortly.

The upcoming worldwide tour promotes the band’s latest album, Chinese Democracy, which debuted at #1 on the charts in thirteen countries including Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, as well as the European Top 100 Albums survey.

Chinese Democracy was released on Black Frog/Geffen Records in November 2008 and reached 3 times Platinum in Canada, Platinum in Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, UK, Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa. The album is Gold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Holland, Sweden, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil and Colombia. In the U.S., the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 3, 2009.

Guns N’ Roses last toured the world in 2006 - 2007, performing 60 concerts in 26 countries playing to more than a million fans.

Canadian Chinese Democracy World Tour concert dates are:

January
13 - Winnipeg, MB - MTS Centre
16 - Calgary, AB - Pengrowth Saddledome
17 - Edmonton, AB - Rexall Place
19 - Saskatoon, SK - Credit Union Centre
20 - Regina, SK - Brandt Centre
24 - Hamilton, ON - Copps Coliseum
25 - London, ON - John Labatt Centre
27 - Montreal, PQ - Bell Centre
28 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
31 - Ottawa, ON - Scotiabank Place

February
1 - Quebec City, PQ - Colisee Pepsi
3 - Moncton, NB - Moncton Coliseum
4 - Halifax, NS - Metro Centre

CREDITS: HTGTH

Taipei & South Korea Show Announced!!!

2009-09-28T06:57:00.000-07:00

Avevamo detto ke, oltre al Giappone, si parlava anke di altre date in Asia?! Beh, eccole!!!!

4 dates has been announced so far on Guns N' Roses Asian Tour 2009. GN'R will perform in South Korea for the first time on Sunday December 13 at the Olympic Park Gymnastics Stadium in Seoul.

Guns N' Roses Asian Tour 2009:

December 11 - Taipei

December 13 - Seoul
December 16 - Osaka
December 19 - Tokyo

Ready to play live!!! Asian tour announced

2009-09-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Dopo mesi e mesi di silenzio, eccoci finalmente a quelle che pare una svolta reale.

Dopo un falso annuncio di un live in India a Novembre (e che in verità doveva essere tenuto da uno dei tanti project che coinvolge gente che, in un modo o in un altro, ha gravitato nella "galassia GN'R"), ecco ke arriva l'annuncio ufficiale del tour asiatico!!!

I Guns N' Roses, non si sa ancora bene con quale formazione, suoneranno nelle seguenti date e location:

11 dicembre 2009 a Taipei/Taiwan
16 dicembre 2009 a Osaka, Giappone
18 dicembre 2009 a Tokyo, Giappone

Si attende inoltre l'annuncio di alcune date in Corea del Sud...

SLash & Friends is comin'...

2009-07-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

Con puntuali aggiornamenti sul suo profilo Twitter, Slash ci comunica di come stiano procedendo le registrazioni per il suo album solista.

Da segnalare, tra le altre, l'ospitata di Steven "Popcorn" Adler, che suona la batteria in un brano.

Nella stessa canzone, al basso, c'è Flea dei Red Hot Chili Peppers...

No news...bad news... :(

2009-07-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

E' da un bel po' di tempo ormai che non si hanno notizie dal "MondoGuns"...

Pareva "imminente" ormai la partenza del tour, dopo l'ingresso nella band di DJ Ashba.

E invece...

:(

The newest man in town: DJ ASHBA!!!

2009-03-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Ecco, ci siamo ragazzi!

Dopo alcune audizioni, i Guns N' Roses hanno ufficializzato l'uscita di Robin Finck dalla band e, contemporaneamente, il nome del suo sostituto...

Si tratta di DJ Ashba, già nei Beautiful Creatures e nei Sixx AM, il progetto collaterale di Nikki Sixx dei Motley Crue.

Welcome to the Jungle, man!!!

Del James intervista Axl!!

2009-03-04T16:12:00.000-08:00

Axl Rose Insists Original Guns N' Roses Lineup Is Dead and Buried

Since releasing the long-awaited Guns N' Roses album 'Chinese Democracy' this past November, Axl Rose has said very little about it, taking to message boards and e-mails for the few comments he has made. But if there's one person who could get him to break his silence it's Del James, Rose's longtime friend, road manager and the man whose short story, 'Without You,' inspired the epic clip for 'November Rain.'

James, a music journalist who has covered G N' R for years, dating back to his days at metal mag Rip, as well as in several Rolling Stone articles, spoke with Rose and is sharing the results of that one-on-one exclusively with Spinner. Yes, here he is, W. Axl Rose, letting loose on Slash, answering whether he was trying to make the best album ever and waxing philosophically on when the original G N' R lineup really died.

Del James: As reported, were you, either in your mind or otherwise, trying to create the "best album ever made"?

Axl Rose: No. That's f---ing ridiculous and more negative media nonsense. We were all just trying to do our best for the fans and ourselves.

At any point did you feel or say either you or the band had to make a "masterpiece"?

Of course not -- more unaccountable nonsense. Obviously, media, elements of the public, fans and our detractors had all kinds of things going on such as high hopes, expectations, pressure, naysayers, etc. I don't think anyone would mind discovering a diamond mine and I don't think anyone in any competitive field would get very far if they didn't have dreams, aspirations or simply hope to do well. That said, these types of comments are more from our detractors, pulled out of their ass if not thin air.

Do you feel that your alleged sense of perfectionism has delayed the release of the album?

No. Guns in any lineup wasn't going to release anything all that great any sooner. And no matter how any of us tried, that didn't happen, and often while any number of us were pushing to try and do so with whatever we had going at the time. In regard to so-called perfectionism, I feel that has a lot to do with your goals or requirements with whatever one's doing or creating. Different levels may be required for different objectives. If you're making brakes for a vehicle, what's required? It's all relative, right? You try to make the best calls you can at any given moment and go from there. Generally, when this term is used by others in regard to me or how I work, it's said in a negative way or as an excuse for their shortcomings -- and again by my detractors. Whether they are open about such or not, some people love putting others in a negative light; helps them feel better about themselves. Too many ears and too many stupid comments have proven that.

Did you break up the old Guns?

It is my belief that the commitment to end old Guns came long before the band started in the heart and soul of one man. After that, it became more visible sometime before/during [the 'Use Your Illusion' albums], when the others opted for personal reasons to change our approach, styles and methods of working together. At the time, I unwittingly chose as a means of what I felt was both my own and Guns' survival to adapt, and threw myself into whatever I could get out of that to support and promote our efforts.

The group shot of the band in front of the piece 'Dead' was not a coincidence but not something I felt could be talked about openly, and something I hoped would change. I couldn't reach Izzy [Stradlin] and couldn't manage or curtail Slash and his personal objectives to take over Guns anymore than I did at the time, and I'm lucky to have survived, got what we did out of it and some still enjoyed the results. But for all intents and purposes, the 'Appetite [for Destruction]' lineup and approach was already dead, and with the addition of Matt [Sorum], the end of the then-lineup and what Guns was really about was only a matter of time. Only heartfelt choices by the others could or would change that. Unfortunately, nothing did.

I'm generally blamed for the time it took to release 'Illusions,' but again the reality of my fault would be in not finding a way to manage Slash complete with his addictions and bring both him and Izzy together either similar to 'Appetite' or in some other progression more conducive to Guns than how 'Illusions' was accomplished. Unfortunately, that never truly happened, and both Guns and the public suffered for it. I'll take the responsibility in the sense that had I known how to achieve those goals we would have made what I feel would've been a more effective and powerful album at the time.

See? There's the catch, right? All this time, most thought I changed the direction with 'Illusions.' A lot of nonsense theories, speculation and complete nonrealities put together by others, based on Slash and others' crap and off one interview taken out of context I did with Kurt Loder where I said I hated 'Appetite.' That sentence has been used and twisted in every conceivable way since to vilify me and purports to prove my guilt and responsibility, when I wasn't speaking to the music itself but the overwhelming and at that time seemingly drowning success of our record.

My statement was in specific response to the feelings I had listening to DJs at the L.A. hard rock station KNAC at the time complaining about having to play the entire record for the umpteenth time for fans. I simply wanted to make another record and have it be as good or better. If you don't think I would've liked to have five 'Appetites' and been living like the Stones at the time, you're high. With that, any other avenue I hoped to pursue musically would more than likely been available as well. This was something I could never get through to the others with. Personal need to dominate in Guns was very important to them. Izzy has to be in charge or he's not comfortable, same with Slash. Duff [McKagan] tries convincing himself he's equal partners with Slash. Each to their own.

Why didn't you write 'Appetite'-style songs yourself then?

Part of what destroyed Guns was the battle between those guitars that works so well for 'Appetite.' I have no concept how to duplicate that with either the old guys or anyone else. I liked it then but can't say I truly understood their nature as I feel I do now. Make no mistake: That was a war and the efforts of one man to "successfully" remove another in his path between him and I. Neither player wants to deal with each other in those ways again. Those battles have already been fought, both sides went their prospective ways. Regardless of if they were to work together or not, the true dynamics of back then aren't something Izzy has an interest in or would allow himself to actually be in to such a degree other than for appearances, if that. Also, anything I had written I felt was in similar directions then, during and after the 'Illusions' tour was more than rejected by both Slash and Duff at a time, which greatly helped destroy whatever confidence I may have had at the time.

Why so many guitars on 'Chinese Democracy'?

Why not?

Seriously, past Guns records have only two. Why did you feel the need for more on this endeavor?

I understand it's for whatever reason a bit of a challenge for most people to feel comfortable in their minds with any band having more than two guitarists, but technically, as far as our recording goes, we're a bit more alike with the older recordings than one might think. On the older records, though, it's very distinct that there are generally two guitar parts -- each part is actually performed and recorded twice, giving a fuller sound, so in effect you have four guitars. Leads and fills are another pass, and often songs were originally written and demos were done with other guitarists as well.

On 'Chinese,' instead of having the same player double his part, we chose to add another voice and either each player's own take on the part or their take of another's, then there's leads and fills which vary from one person or a few on a track. Also on this record, though, you may have one player playing more than one part in a section; they generally tend to be two distinct parts and not overdubs or harmonizing with their own leads or fills. No way is better than another; it's just whatever works for what you're trying to do, what you personally want or for whatever reason you feel you either need, choose or like.

For this record, I wanted a blend of different-style sounds and approaches; some at least a bit unique to the individual players and their takes on these songs. I feel the different personalities and techniques give the material its own sense of originality. Live, I prefer the more solid approach of the three guitars now, especially as the performances with the rhythm are more energetic, consistent and reliable. It was fun having Izzy on board a bit adding yet another voice to the mix and seemed to work better for the songs this way, as opposed to having him by himself.

Would you consider a reunion with the 'Appetite' or 'Illusions' lineups?

No.

Why not?

A lot more reasons than I'll get into here now. Different reasons for each version and each individual. The Izzy bit was fun -- and also fun because we didn't have to rely on him in any way, which is how he prefers things and works better for everyone. That said, you never knew if Izzy would be there or not or if he'd remember the song or decide to leave early. It didn't cause any problems, because we were doing our show regardless and didn't have to depend on anything, but it did open everyone's eyes a bit and blow minds.

He called, asked to come out and negotiated a deal with management that it's probably best that none of us knew about or the fun would've seemed a bit more like being used or taken advantage of spoiling the moment. As it was, we had a great time.

It'd be highly doubtful for us to have more than one of the alumni up with us at any given time. I suppose Duff could play guitar on something somewhere, but there's zero possibility of me having anything to do with Slash other than by ambush, and that wouldn't be pretty. He wrote that whole bit about not having his guitar in Vegas, I'd assume, to save face. I was told by both the Hard Rock and different Guns industry people who had come out to be supportive of the new band and were a bit surprised to see him there, especially guitar in hand, but just assumed it was a surprise for the show and we were in on the arrangement.

Steven [Adler] brings assorted ambulance-chasing attorneys and the nightmare of his mother. One gig, or even a couple songs, could mean years of behind-the-scenes legal aftermath.

Wouldn't you make more money?

If the music was there, meaning new music, I can't say for sure right now -- and there have been market surveys, and various promoters have put together different projections and analysis that in areas where there could be more, it's not enough to sell your soul and live in hell the rest of your life for, that's definitely certain. But that's the catch, right, the music? If I believed in that as a reality which, no offense meant to anyone, I haven't seen anything in all these years to convince me or we'd be doing this interview under different circumstances of some sort, to say the least.

It's not some place I want to be or have any interest in being. If I believed in it in regard to the music, not in direction so much but in how it feels and to what degree, then maybe it'd be another story. I'm in no way trying to be offensive to anyone here, and I'm allowed to have my own feelings in regard to what inspires me, not someone else. Other than a one-off or something, I don't really do songs because someone else likes them.

There is the distinct possibility that having his intentions in regard to me so deeply ingrained and his personal though guarded distaste for much of 'Appetite' other than his or Duff's playing, Slash either should not have been in Guns to begin with or should have left after 'Lies.' In a nutshell, personally I consider him a cancer and better removed, avoided -- and the less anyone heard of him or his supporters, the better.

Didn't you say you loved him in what -- '06?

No. I said "loved," as in past tense. It was a misquote by a writer I mistook as a fan.

Do you think he can play guitar?

I prefer listening to others in general, especially those who both push their talents and infuse them with a level of energy that I've seldom heard in his efforts over the years. I'm not taking anything away from the man that are his to claim for his past efforts; it's just that for whatever reason for me, whether the approach, style or basic hands-on technique is there, the passion and true dedication to the art of guitar in his chosen area other than being, in my opinion, a whore for the limelight has generally seemed absent or lacking with most efforts for a long time. To me, it's sad. I don't get it. Where does it go? Is it a choice? Sometimes it's there on covers; I think Clive [Davis, legendary record executive] fell for that.

It wasn't there with me on 'Sympathy [for the Devil]' or ['The] Spaghetti [Incident?'] and it took years for me to get there again, in my opinion, and in the ways I wanted it to be. Will I keep it? Who knows? I'd like to, but who can say?

Who's your favorite drummer you've worked with?

I've liked elements that each brought in. Josh [Freese], [Brian] "Brain" [Mantia] and Frank [Ferrer] have been the easiest to work with and get along with, as well as it being fun to hang out with any of them. I do feel that all three were the right drummers to make this album. The rehearsals with [Dave] Abruzzesse and Pod as a duo were really cool; it was a shame then that it didn't work out but seemed for the best once we found Josh. In regard to old Guns, I don't listen much and for different reasons -- more because of the drums than anything else.

With 'Appetite,' for me the parts, playing, etc., timing flaws, whatever, are perfect, and as a moment in time for me, the whole record is. That said, the sound of the drums, which at the time in our niche of the woods was a bit of a bold statement and a somewhat successful effort to change things from the current flow at the time, and so may have been necessary but for me sound the most dated of anything there sound-wise.

With 'Illusions' several years ago, something came on the radio and I realized how the energy in the drums, though solid and consistent, brought me down in a way I feel damaged the material in the long run, if not from the get-go. Maybe it's there with some, most or all of us in ways, but I specifically notice it more with the drums. And when listening in that sense of analyzing how something feels to me in regards to its involvement or inclusion in the song, whether anyone disagrees I'm somewhat capable of removing myself and events from the picture.

For me it's more about certain energies and feel, and I'm not into what we did there for a good bit in regard to the drum work. To actually have a drummer that could play at the time, though, was a bit too overwhelming. The public has no idea what went into Steven's parts and the notion of getting through songs in rehearsal if ever, with no exaggeration, was unfortunately a nightmare that neither I or Izzy could take, and eventually the others as well, though they lasted longer for other reasons.

What do you think of Steven being on the VH1 rehab show?

I wish Steven the best; unfortunately Steven's given us the spoiler for that. I hope people are able to find answers and get the help they need; other than that, I'm not the biggest fan of the show.

Who's in the band?

I think we'll go with a combo of who's around and who's on the album for now and worry about that when we get ready to tour.

Is Robin [Finck] in the band?

Last I was aware, he had some interest in touring, though I can't say what that means until then. In our opinion, he's made things a bit awkward publicly, but that's just his way.

Is Brain in the band?

Last I checked. Brain works on several things with Guns either from his home or in the studio.

So you have two drummers? Will they both tour?

Yes, and who knows?

When's the next album?

Have no idea and don't care. Hopefully, we'll be working 'Chinese' for a good bit. Of course there's the same idiots that have been around forever already demanding release dates.

How much material is there?

Not as much as Baz [Sebastian Bach] thinks he heard! Really, it doesn't matter. If things go well enough, we'd like to get another out at some point in our lifetimes.

Is anything finished?

Depends how you look at it.

How do you look at it?

Not something we've focused on.

You're not saying much.

You got that? What I can say is if you don't like this, then you probably won't like that. Same people, lots more approaches, bit meaner in places and darker in some. Robin does a really great Stevie Ray Vaughan-type solo on one track.

Slash has said that the sessions they did with Izzy before Velvet Revolver were the best Guns album ever. What do you think of that?

Politics.

In what way?

Old Guns promotion.

What happened between you and [photographer] Robert John?

Hmmm ... I don't know anyone who knows. Anyone whose opinions I trust seems to thinks he lost his mind, lives in a fantasy world and knows everything.

What's that about, if you don't mind me asking?

Have no idea. This is a guy that I got in the business, got him gigs, paid and treated well, promoted, etc. Helped him get a house, helped him keep his house, bought his photos, and when Merck [Mercuriadis, former G N' R manager], for whatever reasons took forever to pay him, Robert sues me ... but I didn't know anything about it. Next thing, I'm the Antichrist because I didn't like some photos. F--- if I know.

I called Robert out of the blue back when, because I felt I knew something was wrong. Finally, he says he was gonna kill himself. I put up about 60-something-K on the mortgage, got a couple payments, but that wasn't where the trouble started. It was that the bank was foreclosing on that money, so he was pissed at our accountant, who kept on him trying to sort out what we should do and Robert avoiding him -- who was the others' accountant as well. I only learned of any of this near the end. He and Robert knew each other for years. He's one of the guys who allegedly saw Slash with his guitar in Vegas. And it seems genuine because he didn't know anything was going on. He's like, "Why was Slash there with his guitar?" And the Hard Rock people -- what did they have to lie about? They deal with all the bands ... friends, enemies, whatever, so it's just business. As far as I know, we're all good with that.

Credits: GunsNRoses.com & Spinner.Com

Beta smentisce il tour?!?

2009-03-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

Secondo Eric Romano, amministratore di MyGNRForum, Beta avrebbe detto che le voci di un tour europeo con le date riportate nel post precedente, sarebbero false...mah...

Smentite ufficiali nn ne sono arrivate, nè da Axl nè dal management, x cui possiamo continuare a sperare...

European Tour?!?

2009-02-25T08:31:00.000-08:00

Da una decina di giorni, vari fan site e siti specializzati di musica, parlano di diversi appuntamenti europei per i Guns N' Roses.

Secondo i rumors, i Guns dovrebbero esibirsi in queste date e luoghi:

20 Giugno - Kobetasonic Festival, Bilbao, Spagna
26 Giugno - Stavanger, Norvegia
1-2 Agosto - Knebworth Festival, UK

Inoltre si parla di concrete trattative per un'apparizione tra maggio e giugno a MILANO!!!

CHECKMATE Lyrics

2009-02-10T08:25:00.000-08:00

In Rete è apparso questo post con il presunto testo di "Checkmate/Soul Monster". La prima frase è sicuramente attendibile, essendo quella ke si sente nella clip apparsa on line, il resto...ai posteri l'ardua sentenza...

CHECKMATE
Guitar Intro

All cautions made, every chance was given, no effort spared, to save what we had*
or it would take, away the light we given, once it is ours, were free from this land
dont ever expect me to turn up this late
mother fucker' in this game, its checkmate

*interlude*

as I then ran, as fast as I could, memories both friends, escaped from my hand
I've got a gun, now the bloods on my hands, everything you see is here till the end
dont ever expect me to turn up this late
mother fucker' in this game, its checkmate

*solo*

lies that I've told, lies that I've given
lies that I've sold, lies that have driven
me mad to the top of my own head
me mad to the top of my head
at night sugar, I'm sorry if I turn up late
well now honey, my turn, check mate

all dozens slayed, every chance, one given, don't ever spin ,just say what we had
or it would take, away the light we given, once it is ours, were free from this land
dont ever expect me to turn up this late
mother fucker' in this game, its checkmate

Outro + Solo

All Thoughts in lane (all thoughts in lane)
every chance we gave (ever chance we gave)
don't ever spare (don't ever spare)
I'm here till the end (checkmate)
I'm here till the end
I'm here till the end

About 'Silkworms'...

2009-02-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

Questa canzone, una delle cose più strane mai prodotte col marchio Guns N' Roses, continua a ronzarmi in testa...

Il fatto che Axl ne abbia parlato chattando nei fan forum, non ha fatto altro che aumentare la mia curiosità...

ha detto ke "il ritornello" è andato...come e con cosa l'avrà rimpiazzato?!?

Poi su YouTube compare quel supposto "intro" della canzone in versione studio...mah...

E pensare che, qdo l'ho sentita in versione live la prima volta, l'ho frettolosamente bollata come "cagata"...

Però poi ha cominciato pian piano ad affascinarmi, sempre di più...

E il pensiero che, come per 'Riad N' The Bedouins', la versione studio sia mooooolto più accattivante che dal vivo, mi fare certo sperar bene...

Vedremo, semmai sarà pubblicata, cosa mai ne verrà fuori definitivamente...

Nel frattempo, mi trastullo "remixando" il pezzo...magari vi faccio sentire qlc, prima o poi...

Chinese Democracy' Sequel is comin'!!!

2009-02-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

L'uscita di 'Chinese Democracy', dopo anni d'attesa, risale solo a poco più di due mesi fa, che già si parla del prossimo album dei Guns N' Roses!!

Oltre a vari accenni fatti da Axl in persona, nelle sue "apparizioni" in vari fanforum e nell'intervista su Billboard.com, hanno cominciato a comparire in Rete leaks veri o presunti di brani o spezzoni di brani, associati ai Guns N' Roses.

Sappiamo che al 99,9% il leak conosciuto come 'Checkmate' è 'The General', brano di cui s'è parlato per lungo tempo.

E' inoltre apparso su YouTube uno spezzone molto industrial oriented, bollato come intro di 'Silkworms', brano che i nuovi Guns eseguirono nelle loro prime performance live del 2001/2002, e che nelle parole di uno dei suoi co-autori, Chris Pitman (gli altri sono Dizzy Reed e Axl stesso), è stata esclusa da 'Chinese Democracy' perchè troppo futuristica.

La verità sui leaks, specie qdo ci sono di mezzo i GN'R, è sempre difficile finchè non c'è un comunicato ufficiale o una pubblicazione, x cui...

Decidete voi...

E' apparsa anke questa, sulla quale è più difficile dare un giudizio...però x dovere di cronaca, eccola...

Chinese Democracy: My Review...FINALLY!!!

2009-01-13T15:31:00.000-08:00

C'ho messo un po' di tempo, ma eccovi finalmente servita la mia recensione di 'Chinese Democracy', il nuovo album dei Guns N' Roses, finalmente pubblicato dopo anni d'attesa.

Track by Track

CHINESE DEMOCRACY
Ad aprire l'album, la traccia omonima, la prima nella storia nei GN'R a condividere il titolo con quello dell'album. La partenza, in cui alcune schitarrate seguono un "chiacchiericcio" cinese, rimandano immediatamente a 'Welcome To The Jungle', l'opener di 'Appetite for Destruction', il primo storico album dei Gunners. Dopo l'intro, il brano sfocia in un poderoso rock, dove la batteria (travagliata, dato che quella - considerata perfetta - del coautore Josh Freese, fu cancellata con l'addio del batterista e ke, x rimpiazzarla, sono state mixate insieme le versioni di Bryan "Brain" Mantia e Frank Ferrer) martella forte, le chitarre sventagliano alla grande ed il testo è "furbo" nel parlare di lotte e costrizioni personali tramite la metafora della dittatura cinese.

SHACKLER'S REVENGE
Primo brano di un "trittico" di rock che rimpiazza la matrice blues di Slash con quella industrial amata da Axl ed interpretata bene dai sui axemen. Nata su un'idea del "pazzo" Buckethead, la band ha una ritmica accattivante ed avvolgente, inframezzata da un assolo davvero particolare di Bumblefoot. Il testo è il più corto dell'intero album, e parla delle sensazioni negative del protagonista, che intima a qualcuno (gli ex Gunners?!?) di nn provare a passare x buoni...

BETTER
Il primo vero singolo dell'album, una delle migliori performance canore dell'Axl "cinese", un rock avvolto di modernità ma ke arriva dritto come ai vecchi tempi e alla fine, quello strano intro "alla Rihanna" nn ti esce dalla testa...
Il testo parla di una persona che ha fatto soffrire Axl, che ora può affermare di conoscere meglio la controparte, ma ormai è tardi...ke a Stephanie Seymour fischino le orecchie?!?

STREET OF DREAMS
Già nota come 'The Blues', questa è una ballata bellissima, nel solco di quelle che hanno dato lustro ai mitici album 'Use Your Illusion I e II'. Altra canzone sull'amor perduto, sempre con la Seymour protagonista. Il piano di Axl dolce e scatenato, è magnificamente accompagnato da un assolo di chitarra bellissimo, come le "cuciture" di basso in cui Stinson pare il McKagan di 'Sweet Child O'Mine'. Si può chiedere di più?!?

IF THE WORLD
Forse il brano più strano, con una ritmica funkeggiante e una chitarra spagnola idealmente legata a quella di 'Double Talkin' Jive'. Il brano, partendo dalla possibilità ke il mondo finisca a breve, serve a fare una sorta di bilancio. E con tutte quelle ke ha passato Axl, è il minimo...

THERE WAS A TIME (TWAT)
Altro brano particolare, con una ritmica coinvolgente ke si fa paradossalmente debole nel ritornello. Peccato perchè la canzone sarebbe altrimenti favolosa, specie x quella lunga coda chitarristica finale che ci ricorda come i Guns N' Roses siano unici nel fare brani di oltre 6 minuti che non risultino noiosi. Altro testo amaro, su quello ke fu e su le cose negative che l'hanno influenzato. La doppia lettura Stephanie/Slash è d'obbligo...

CATCHER IN THE RYE
Primo brano dell'ennesima triologia axliana, stavolta riguardante canzoni con titoli di libri (le altre due sono 'Atlas Shrugged' e 'Zodiac'). Il brano, una ballata più sostenuta rispetto a 'Street of Dreams', vedo ancora il piano a reggere il gioco, ma meno egemone rispetto alle altre ballads. L'assolo di Brian May è stato rimpiazzato con uno di Finck più in tema con le sonorità dei Guns attuali. Il testo è una sorta di omaggio a John Lennon, alla solitudine in cui s'è ritrovata Yoko Ono e si rifà al fatto ke Mark David Chapman, assassino dell'ex Beatle, avesse con sè proprio questo libro ('Il Giovane Holden' in Italia) di Salinger.

SCRAPED
Secondo brano delle "triologia rock strano", parte con un coretto a cappella davvero accattivante, che dà il via poi ad un brano tirato al punto giusto, con un cantato cadenzato tipo "botta e risposta", che parla dell'incostanza di Axl, a volte super carico, a volte depressissimo. Ma sempre battagliero.

RIAD N' THE BEDOUINS
Ed ecco anke il terzo brano dell'appena citata triologia, certamente molto lontano dalle sonorità di AFD, ma che coi suoi cambi di ritmo e le sue sonorità sintetiche risulta cmq gradevole. Axl torna nuovamente ad usare una metafora, quella di antiche battaglie, per parlare dei suoi scontri con Slash e gli altri ex. Ovviamente il vincitore è lui...

SORRY
Ecco la Grande Sorpresa del disco. Un brano che parte lento con un cantato particolarmente abrasivo che ti si piazza dritto nel cervello x nn uscirne più. Nel ritornello si fa pesante ed incalzante e dopo un solo ascolto la adori. Il testo è unanimemente considerato come rivolto a Slash, con passaggi chiari come l'aver imbrogliato i fan avendo raccontato un sacco di frottole...

IRS
Una chitarra acustica e una elettrica sovrapposte, eseguono un riff d'entrata davvero bello, che porta ad un brano tirato e molto ritmato, con un cantato quasi rap che incalza e non può non prendere subito l'ascoltatore. Le parole parlano di una disputa x la quale il protagonista si troverà costretto a coinvolgere l'Agenzia delle Entrate (IRS), Il Presidente, l'FBI, l'investigatore privato...altra interpretazione a doppia lettura Stephanie/Slash?!?

MADAGASCAR
Ballatona alla Axl, molto bella nonostante l'eccessivo filtraggio elettronico e che ha come suo punto di forza il "collage" centrale imperniato sul celeberrimo discorso 'I Have A Dream' di Martin Luther King. Un'altra geniale perla di Axl, qui indulgente contro chi l'ha ferito e abbandonato. Un caso raro...

THIS I LOVE
La più bella canzone di pene d'amore ke sia stata scritta. Piano e voce, straziate e strazianti, che ti entrano nel cuore e nell'anima. Canzone che Axl scrisse addirittura nei primi Anni '90, con un assolo di Slash modello 'Estranged' si sarebbe guadagnata la lode. Ma anke quello di Finck merita, sia chiaro.

PROSTITUTE
Power ballad di stampo moderno, con sapiente alternanza di momenti dolci e picchi d'intensità, sottolineati da un assolo killer che spacca. La canzone porta in sè un messaggio di ribellione contro giudizi, pregiudizi e imposizioni altrui, a fronte di un'integrità da difendere ad ogni costo, invece di prostituirsi metaforicamente x avere qlc in più...pochi ma buoni, caro Axl...

Considerazioni generali

Da più parti s'è detto che intenzione di Axl fosse quella di fare il disco perfetto. Altri sprezzantemente, parlavano di disco solista di Rose col nome Guns N' Roses. In verità, 'Chinese Democracy' ha diversi punti di contatto con gli 'Use Your Illusion', ultima raccolta di inediti prima di questo cd. Certo, l'influenza blues di Slash è stata rimpiazzata da sonorità "industrial" che son sempre piaciute ad Axl, ma le ballate, i brani lunghi che non stufano c'erano anke prima, come pure cose sperimentali come furono allora 'Coma' e 'Locomotive'. Il disco risulta godibile, con punte d'eccellenza nelle ballate, ma che si ascolta volentieri anche nei brani più hard, pur se nn sono "puri" come una 'Paradise City'. Al giorno d'oggi, con dischi fatti di 3/4 singoli (se va bene...) ed il resto NOIA (x nn dire di peggio...), è bello nn dover skippare alcuna traccia. In più, il pensiero ke Axl abbia pronti almeno altri due album di musica di questo livello, non può che farci sperare x il meglio!

GN'R at their best: Live in Paris '92 - Sweet Child O' Mine

2009-01-09T07:58:00.001-08:00

Good thousand and - fuckin' -nine, motherfuckers!!!

2008-12-31T08:11:00.000-08:00

Gli amici attorno sono cambiati quasi tutti, ma Axl sa darci ancora dentro con 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door'...

CHINESE DEMOCRACY STARTS IN MY FAVOURITE STORE!

2008-12-03T05:49:00.000-08:00

Dov'è Axl?!? Se ne occupa anche "L'Arena", quotidiano di Verona

2008-12-03T05:46:00.000-08:00

21 NOVEMBRE 2008: CHINESE DEMOCRACY!!!

2008-11-22T19:50:00.000-08:00

After-Listening Reviews of ' Chinese Democracy'

2008-11-18T07:12:00.001-08:00

THE STATISTICS SPEAK for themselves. 14 years, 14 studios, a minimum of five producers, at least the same amount of guitarists, a revolving door of session players and mind-boggling sums of money. But ultimately, Chinese Democracy, the first new album of original songs to appear under the Guns N' Roses banner since 1991, is the story of one man. Axl Rose, the wayward kid from Indiana turned razorblade-voiced global rock icon and one of the last decade's most mysterious recluses, has finally put his tools down. The saga is over.

Phil Alexander, MOJO's Editor-In-Chief, will be bringing you the full MOJO analysis very soon, but since we've just heard the thing, we thought it only fair to give you our immediate impressions of the record most thought had been assigned to the archive of legendary might-have-beens – along with The Beach Boys’ Smile and that Johnny Marr/Ian McCulloch record they left in the back of a cab.

First impressions are of an overwhelming avalanche of activity (ideas, sounds, stuff) – as much as might conceivably be stuffed into a 14-track rock album – and a surprisingly up-to-date sound.

1. Chinese Democracy
A sprinkling of background voices and the sound of street-side rattle begin a song ignited by the sort of propellant, processed guitar incisions that saturate all of the album's full-tilt offerings. Here is the mechanised underbelly of Rose's 21st Century debut. "All I've got is precious time," he sings.

2. Shackler's Revenge
Axl harmonises with himself as a furious wall of pitch-shifting guitars bite into a Foo Fighters-esque rumble that is so jammed-packed full of overdubs, it's a wonder he manages to maintain any structure whatsoever. Released with the new instalment of the mega-selling Rock Band video game, could this also be a dig at his old sparring partner Slash? "Don't ever try to tell me, how much you care for me / Don't ever try to tell me, how you were there for me," he growls.

3. Better
"This melody inside of me still searches for solution". The verse is a pop-rock groove that evokes Pacific nights and sunset drives. The chorus on the other hand is a pulverising minor-key rant augmented by more trilling axe-work and a final guitar solo surely ear-marked for one-time Chinese Democracy contributor Brian May. (Queen's guitarist ruminates on Axl' s latest halfway down the page).

4. Street Of Dreams
Played live during Guns N'Roses most recent outings and led by Axl’s long-serving piano man Dizzy Reed, this gargantuan, Jim Steinman-flavoured ballad was originally called The Blues. November Rain fans should be queuing around the block.

5. If the World
A break-beat intro; a sparse melody punctuated by a clutch of power chord shimmies and a Spanish flavoured acoustic guitar flourish that immediately reminded your correspondent of Use Your Illusion I’s Double Talkin' Jive.

6. There Was A Time
Almost 7 minutes long, this is one of Chinese Democracy's defining moments. "It was a bargain for the summer,” rues Axl, “And I thought I had it all". Phalanxes of guitars engage in panoramic battle with a gloriously histrionic vocal – he’s lost none of his power, or he hadn’t at whatever point in the last 14 years he recorded this – before it signs off with a burst of an unnecessarily digitised choir.

7. Catcher N' The Rye
Axl's nod to J.D Salinger's outsider opus is split into sections that could quite happily soundtrack the credit sequence to a frat-boy rom-com. Fans of Guns’ most melodic offerings should find solace here. Unsurprising to see Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker’s name on the credits.

8. Scraped
An impenetrable, gothic head-mess of damaged distortion and chordal-riff guitars, this is one of the album's most brutal tracks.

9. Riad N' Bedouins
In my notes I wrote the word “defibrillator”. A wired and awakening sound (the army of guitars, the piercing high notes) that's followed by Axl Rose screaming defiant epithets such as: “I don't give a fuck about this ’cos I’m crazy!”

10. Sorry
Electro-pulsing, Pink Floyd-esque ballad that throws up this chorus-opening: “I'm sorry for you / Not sorry for me”, before opening out into a Gilmouresque guitar solo.

11. I.R.S.
Axl: “Gonna call the president / Gonna call a private eye / Gonna get the IRS / Gonna need the FBI”. The man's paranoia is made explicit through another wall of dense guitars and scattershot solos.

12. Madagascar
A processional anthem replete with excerpts from Martin Luther King's I Had A Dream speech, this is a track that's been battered around since the late '90s (see the band's MTV performance here . Once again we find Axl betrayed, imploring, "Forgive them that teared (sic) down my soul / Bless them that they might grow old / And free them so that they may know / That it's never too late". Did he pen these lyrics as he saw Guns fall apart in the mid-‘90s? It’s all a bit biblical.

13. This I Love
Axl Rose the record-head. Witness the melancholic, Elton John-style piano and the soaring verses. It’s a heraldic drama straight from the fantasyland of Queen II and quite possibly the most heartfelt song on the record. Everything he's been striving for since Use Your Illusion II's Estranged. Andrew Lloyd-Webber wouldn't balk at this.

14. Prostitute
Chinese Democracy ends as it begins in grand, posturing style. “I’ve got a message for you,” sings the man that for so long has refused to say a word. Those tinny, break-beat drums appear again, as do layer upon layer of furiously overdriven guitars. One final ambient wash of organ and then, just like that, he’s gone.

So there it is. A brash, unashamedly super-sized cacophony of songs that are overdubbed to hell, but occasionally hint at the monolithic power Axl has been chasing all these years. If his voice – that vitriolic screeeeeech – often sounds like it's making its way back from a time when the original line-up of the band ruled the world, perhaps that was inevitable.

By Ross Bennett - MOJO

When Guns n'Roses last released their own material, it was an event of not inconsiderable cultural significance. I remember the excitement at school as everyone rushed out to spend what was to us a small fortune on the two CDs, one red and orange, one black and blue. Stores opened specially for the release of Use Your Illusion I and II in 1991 - these days, only computer games or new IKEA stores warrant that kind of obsession. What's more, you couldn't imagine something so preposterous as that grand statement being allowed in the current state of the music industry. Yet Chinese Democracy has managed to make itself an event, with speculation as to when it might appear dominating the press for years, and Dr Pepper foolhardily offering a can of pop to every American if the record saw light of day in 2008. Other media more pompous than the Quietus (that's you Gigwise and the Guardian Guide) have seen fit to compile crass lists of notable events that have happened since GNR's last release. I had a great shit on March 21st 1998, as it happens, but I don't see what it has to do with this piece. So after all the waiting, the speculation, the hype, the press releases that are more about marketing campaigns than the record, will the new Guns n'Roses album actually be any good? Or will the legendarily nuts Axl Rose, without Slash and co behind him, have disappeared into bloated irrelevance? I headed down to Universal Records in Kensington to find out.

Chinese Democracy

The title track opens with mighty portents of doom, strange sounds, murmuring voices, the promise of something wonderful and terrible coming over the horizon... which, given 17 years and ten minutes hanging around in the lobby of Universal HQ, exactly what we ought to be expecting. But then, instead of the Art of War manifest in song, a rather straight-forward riff takes over, and Axl starts singing about "Iron fists" and "missionaries and visionaries". It's a solid start, nonetheless.

Shackler's Revenge

Given the title, I was hoping for a GNR sea shanty about some old salt who devotes his life to ploughing the waves in a sloop in search of his avowed enemy M Le Saucisson who gave him the peg leg back in 1793. Instead, it's a grinding beast that's -hopefully- going to be evidence of an industrial influence throughout the rest of the record; there's a lovely aggressive, snatched-at almost new-wave guitar riff too. Oddly, we get to hear Rose singing in a low register before the nasal whine of yore comes in. It does sound as if his larynx is giving him gip in his advanced years. Is that why it's taken so long? A week of vocal takes then a few months on the lozenges? Still, if this keeps up Chinese Democracy has the potential to be all that the build-up has promised it to be...

Better

Like the first track, this has a diverting opening, percussion and tremulous vocal dancing with bits and pieces of electronica. It follows on well from 'Shackler's Revenge', and gets me hoping that Rose has produced an album that'll justify the $13 million spent... But his voice starts to dominate the track, as the music becomes a murky soup beneath. It doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, this one, so many ideas coming up for air before being subsumed in the maelstrom that nothing of note manages to escape. Goes on a bit too. Uh oh.

Street of Dreams

Dizzy tinkling on the ivories, a sense of imminent bombast... for a split second you could imagine this being on one of the Illusions then... oh dear. When Rose decides to sing in a lower register it just doesn't work, an uncomfortable growl that, when he climbs steeply up to the trademarked screech, shows how the years have been unkind to that famous voice. It's hardly Rose's fault, though, use your nose, throat and chest to sing with rather than your lungs and your singing career is always going to be defeated by strain - Liam Gallagher suffers in the same way. Suddenly the piano disappears under a another indifferent bit of soloing before a marshalling yard's worth of string tracks splurges out over everything. "I don't know what I should do", Rose sings. Which is exactly the problem here, once again too many ideas gilding the lily so heavily that it sinks down into the oomska. You can hear a goodly chunk of those millions of dollar bills burning here.

If The World

Again, this is a track with too many bitty concepts that never mesh, in this case a Spanish guitar trick that's present for the start but never quite knows what to do with itself, save wave a red rag at a bull of hulking guitar before getting trampled under its ungainly hooves. Guns n'Roses made such a unique sound in the early 90s, yet metal has evolved, fractured, and been reborn so many times since then that you get the feeling that Rose doesn't quite know which bits to borrow from, and which to leave on the shelf. The muddle here seems to suggest insecurity, and it's a far cry from the bold, aggressive tones of 'Shackler's Revenge'. The Spanish guitar resurfaces at about 4.22, and you can't help but ask yourself why they bothered having it there at all.

There Was A Time

Here they go AGAIN: a choral start. That promptly disappears until a couple of seconds before the end of the track. You get the feeling that there are stacks and stacks of this sort of thing lying around, brilliant ideas that everyone forgot they'd had until they played them back a few years later, and thought might as well be used somewhere. Rose is singing about lawyers, cocaine and California, which is never going to be of much interest to us humble lay folk. Once more, the production is too confining and this portentous edifice of a track is never allowed to flex and breathe, so different from the old GNR, where brilliant musicians came together to make the ridiculous plausible, leaping across the genres in the process.

Catcher In The Rye

A song inspired by a novel that most read as part of a literate teenage rebellion perhaps suggests that Rose's personality has become trapped in his formative years by massive fame at a tender age, a Peter Pan figure holed up in his mansion since the death of his mother in 1996. Cod psychology aside, this is a generically rocking filler track - and albums this expensive, this long in the making, should not carry filler tracks. Look at the Illusions - two records with nary a duff track.

Scraped

This is a bit more like it, a big hulking riff and Rose's phrasing pretty interesting over the top of it too, even if it does get a bit uncomfortably nu-metal when he sings "no-one can make you do what you want to". The vocals dominate the track again, and when you consider that Rose is essentially performing a duet between his roar and his screech, it's once more underlined that this is very much a solo project painstakingly pieced together in the studio rather than a breathing, living, organic band.

Riad N'Bedouins

Another brighter moment, even if I've no idea what that title's all about. Interestingly, some of the music sounds like something the Manic Street Preachers might have concocted had their Guns n'Roses fascination extended into the writing for the Holy Bible .

Sorry

A ballad where Rose's voice has an effect that makes it sound like it comes from a man with slimy plastic cheeks. Despite the title, it's not a sign of a new humility from Rose, instead he sings that he's sorry for someone or other who's done him wrong. There's finally a stab at an old fashioned GNR bit of soloing, but it sounds like something Slash left back down the back of the sofa in 1989. His fluid, graceful/sleazy and inventive playing is really missed on Chinese Democracy.

I.R.S.

Who the hell sings songs about the tax man? "Wouldn't be the first time I've been robbed", Rose complains. It could be a complicated metaphor for stolen time, or something, but I doubt it. It's a pretty decent track... but "pretty decent" isn't good enough when you consider the epic, arrogant, grandiose achievement of the Illusion double whammy. Like so many front men, Rose needs a band around him, to goad him on, to reign him in, to weave louche magic around his mercurial presence. Even the crunching rhythm guitars of yore are in a different league to the generic rock plodding on display here.

Madagascar

The sleeve credits are a great read here, promising samples from Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, Cool Hand Luke, Casualties of Ware, Seven and, er, Mel Gibson's English-bashing historical rewrite Braveheart. Strangely enough, the same "What we've got here is failure to communicate..." sample as the band used in 'Civil War' nearly two decades ago. It's a mistake, putting this muddled commentary on war/conflict/and stuff in direct contrast with the older, far superior track. Musically its more of the same, technically superb in every way, but deathly cold. There just aren't enough personalities on this record.

This I Love

The only track credited to Rose alone, this is a bit of a schlocky ballad with some dodgy rhyming going on, "goodbye/why", "light/bright/night". There are hints of Queen, but not bold enough to lift the track. More light drizzle than 'November Rain'.

Prostitute

"I'm misunderstood / Please be kind / I've done all I could" is Rose's plaintive farewell. Without a lyrics sheet (presumably locked in a Universal vault, a naked intern strapped to a TNT trigger in case anyone tries to breach it) it's hard to pick out exactly what Rose is trying to say, whether he's speaking through the mouth of a practitioner of the world's oldest profession to try and justify what he's been up to in the garden shed for all these years. Yet it's hard not to have the feeling that Chinese Democracy has been too much of a dictatorship to succeed, rigid autocracy conjuring non-existent divisions out of the map as the forces of indifference batter down the citadel. Those tattooed, bouffant rapscallions who drank and fucked and snorted and injected their way through the charts in the late 1980s were a perfect gang, five individuals (of whom Axl Rose was only one) causing a riot both onstage and in the studio. Look back and ask yourself the question, would it have even been possible to top Appetite For Destruction and the mighty Use Your Illusion pairing? Those were records made by certain, special people in a certain time - no amount of money and egotistical insanity could ever come close to replicating them. Crucially, unlike that brilliant run of albums, this is not a pop record. No doubt a sizable chunk of the GNR faithful will feel enfranchised by this, but it's hard not to see Chinese Democracy as a tragic failure. Yet, we have to ask ourselves, could it have been any other way?

THE QUIETUS

The new record from Guns N' Roses is a scorcher. Hard to believe I'm actually writing these words, but Guns N' Roses is back. Axl Rose rules and his new 14 tracks are going to make lots of non-believers freak out. Thursday, we had a sneak preview of the record and man oh man, the first single Chinese Democracy does not indicate the direction of the album: the thing is vintage GNR, and makes you think that Slash, Duff and Izzy were little more than well-dressed sidemen. We'll have a full review posted on Tuesday, but after giving this thing a test drive, let no man question the genius of Axl -- Guns N' Roses, the best album of 2008? Could very well be. Rock on.

[NOTE: This isn't a proper review, but a preview of the album. The writer was given the chance to listen to the album once in its entirety. These are his first impressions. We will have a full review once the album is released.]

• Chinese Democracy -- This song is terrible. The over-dubbed Axl vocals are grating and the title is horrid, this is what made people believe the record would blow.

• Shackler's Revenge – Vintage Appetite. Play this song for any GNR fan and I guarantee they will love it. Huge, huge monster riffs.

• Better -- The best song on the record? Could be. You can almost hear Duff in the background and it has that sweeping optimism of Rocket Queen. This is Axl doing his sensitive thug thing, hard rock has really sounded this good.

• Street of Dreams -- The album's November Rain. Axl on the piano, and that voice: Still better than anything on the radio today. The Killers? Snow Patrol? Feist? Man, listening to this, you can almost see the hurricane in the video. The wedding with Erin Everly and Slash with his top hat and no shirt? Here's some lyrics: "I never wanted you to be so full of anger/I never wanted you to be someone else."

• If the World -- A groovy track with a Blaxploitation monster guitar riff. Sounds like Heavy Metal Shaft.

• There Was a Time -- The record's first cocaine reference, at seven minutes this song changes tones more times than a 17-year-old girl's cell phone.

• Catcher N' the Rye -- Embarrassing title. Pretty lame song.

• Scraped -- This has Axl sort of rapping with himself and is pretty lame. Additionally, on the album's credits there are seven people credited with "additional Pro Tools."

• Riad N' the Bedouins -- This sounds like Alice in Chains, who, like Weezer, is thanked in the album's liner notes. Why does Axl thank Weezer? Who knows. But maybe Spike Jonze could make a video for this song.

• Sorry -- Another awesome ballad. This record is so, so good. Here's some lyrics: "You don't know why I never give in/To hell with the pressure/I'm not caving in."

• I.R.S. -- Great rock n' roll song. Axl has one of the best voices of all-time. At three minutes, the song turns into a juggernaut.

• Madagascar -- This represents both the best and worst of Axl. Why is he sampling Martin Luther King? The song is pretty straight-forward awesome, but Axl makes it over-blown. Love the ambition. Love the song. But clearances for MLK - as well as Braveheart and David Fincher's Seven - probably are one of the inconsequential additions that kept this really great record from coming out for so long.

• This I Love -- Such a great Axl piano ballad, and again at 3-minutes in it becomes a rock n' roll anthem. The Axl Rose high voice is better than anyone from Thom Yorke to Chris Martin. And how much better is Guns N' Roses than either of those whimpy, navel-gazing British bands?

• Prostitute -- Again, echoes of Rocket Queen, probably the best song off Appetite for Destruction.

OK: this record is no Appetite, although we only got a single listen and will write more when the disc is sent out for a proper review. Mr. Brownstone? Welcome to the Jungle? Sweet Child? For men of a certain age, those songs are as ingrained in our consciousness as Family Ties, 21 Jump Street, Alf and Arsenio Hall. I love this new Guns N' Roses record. And if you remember when video music channels actually played music videos, you probably will, too.

By Ben Kaplan - NATIONAL POST

I’ve had a listen to the long overdue Chinese Democracy and can confirm it’s one of the most unashamedly over-the-top rock records ever.

It is so lavish that even the contribution of Queen’s BRIAN MAY, a scorching guitar solo, was left on the cutting room floor by mastermind AXL ROSE.

The poodle-haired guitarist told me: “It is a shame. I put quite a lot of work in and was proud of it.

“But I could understand if Axl wants to have an album which reflects the work of the members of the band as it is right now.”

The CD, out on November 24, has taken on mythical status. I didn’t think it would see the light of day.

But the band’s manager, ANDY GOULD, explained: “When they asked MICHELANGELO to paint the Sistine Chapel they didn’t say, ‘Can you do it in the fourth quarter?’

“Great art sometimes takes time.” I’m inclined to agree. The album is heavy in places but also shows Rose’s vulnerable side.

Stormers Shackler’s Revenge and Scraped, with Axl howling: “Don’t you try and stop us now, cos I won’t let you”, and berserk thrash-metal track Riad N’ The Bedouins, will please headbangers.

On the other hand, Street Of Dreams, with its sweeping strings and tinkling pianos, could have featured on THE BEATLES’ classic album Abbey Road.

Soppy ballad If The World sounds like a vintage Bond theme.

The most startling offering, This I Love, is like a 19th Century waltz while Sorry could be the ultimate power ballad.

Chinese Democracy is lavish, ludicrous...and quite brilliant.

No one else on the planet is making music like this at the moment and label Universal are so confident that they have pressed an unprecedented three million copies ahead of the CD’s release.

The fact Axl is the only one left from the original line-up won’t stop it flying off the shelves.

But there’s one place you won’t be able to buy the record — it’s already been banned in China.

THE SUN

Notes on the new Guns N' Roses album

Earlier today we attended a listening party for the new Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, which has been an incredible 15 years in the making. Without further ado, here are our first impressions:

The majority of the album features the same industrial beats and heavy guitars of the single - anyone hoping for the sleazy Sunset Strip sound of their debut may be disappointed. In the main, it veers between NIN-style industrial rock and piano ballads.

You like guitar solos? Well there's more here than you could shake a KFC bucket at. The most noteworthy are the outros to 'Shackler's Revenge' and 'This Is Love', both which will have you dusting off your air guitar moves.

There are a couple of attempts to match the bombast of 'November Rain', and with several tracks featuring orchestras and Elton John-style piano, Axl will need a massive dry ice machine come the world tour.

'Streets Of Dreams' sounds in parts like Bon Jovi, features some ball-clenching squeals from Axl and has a huge key change right at the end that even Mariah Carey would consider crass.

If you ever wanted to hear Guns N' Roses do a Bond theme then skip straight to 'Madagascar', which features trumpets, tons of strings and an overblown crescendo. It also nabs samples from Martin Luther King speeches and Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

Axl shows his romantic side on 'This I Love', crooning: "I heard she'd never leave me, please God you must believe me." Aww, sweet!

'Catcher In The Rye' should probably be the next single. It has an operatic, stadium rock feel and sounds like it could have sprung from Axl's recording sessions with Brian May.

We're not sure what the barmiest track is, but the near-emo sound of 'Better' and mixture of dub, Spanish strings and robotic drums that is 'If The World' are prime contenders.

Guns N' Roses release Chinese Democracy on November 24, with our full review to come nearer to release date. Get your cans of Dr Pepper at the ready!

By Alex Fletcher, Entertainment Reporter - DIGITAL SPY

Guns N' Roses codependents are rejoicing over Chinese Democracy's long-awaited release, perhaps the most-delayed album in rock history.

But think, for a second, about our fragile economy: According to a 2005 New York Times story, Axl Rose spent more than $13 million recording this thing; if left unsatisfied, his appetite for construction might keep the West Hollywood service industry afloat for another decade. Is now really the best time for this gravy train to pull into the station?

You bet.

An outrageously overblown pop-metal extravaganza, Chinese Democracy feels like a perfect epitaph for all the absurdity and nonsense of the George W. Bush era -- one final blowout before Principal Obama takes our idiocy away.

The music toggles between two primary modes: grinding industrial rock and keys-and-strings balladry. (Imagine Rammstein covering Wings, basically.) Yet to that blueprint Rose and his battalion of musicians (including no fewer than five guitarists) append every trick new money can buy: hip-hop beats, Middle Eastern–influenced riffs, space-cowboy atmospherics, and, of course, Rose's still-astounding vocals, often multitracked into a paranoid boys chorus.

Singling out highlights seems antithetical to Rose's double-widescreen vision, but with their memorable melodies, "Better," "This I Love," and "Riad N' the Bedouins" (say what?) rise above the aural onslaught.

Blast ’em at top volume as you wave good-bye to our yellow brick road.

Mikael Wood - SPIN

In their heyday, Guns N' Roses were remarkable for their ability to ride catastrophe. Following Use Your Illusion I and II, however, in 1991, huge fissures developed in the band, which even they couldn't endure. One by one, the original band members left, most fatefully guitarist Slash, apparently unable to endure the “dictatorial” tendencies of singer Axl Rose.

Work on this, their first album proper since then, actually began in the mid-90s. However, it's been made in such fits and starts, with such a liquid line-up (even Brian May dropped in at one point) that it would be a miracle of Sistine proportions if it amounted to anything coherent and consistent.
Such worries are, sadly, not without foundation. Soundwise, Chinese Democracy is all over the place. Tracks actually vary in volume according to their disparate ages, with the likes of “I.R.S.” (around on bootleg for years) quite clearly having been cut and finished years before the track that precedes it.

A similarly tangled story accompanies the music. Chinese Democracy is evidently the work of a man becoming progressively more interested in avant-rock forms: virtually every track on Chinese Democracy starts out sounding like it might amount to something that extends GNR’s parameters in truly unexpected directions (noir-ish ambient, electronic, even brass band on “Madagascar”). However, Rose's experimental hankerings generally give out after about 10 seconds. Oh Slash, where art thou?

Scouring the album for redeeming moments, one could cite the steely, futurist angst of “Shackler's Revenge” and the pianistic “This I Love”, which in making Elton John and Freddie Mercury sound like Chas N' Dave, must at least merit some kind of high camp award. And in “Prostitute” Rose offers a hint of atonement which excites fleeting sympathy. What kind of surreal pass has your life come to, after all, when you get involved in a fistfight with Tommy Hilfiger?
With rumours that the original G N'R are set to reform next year, and mega metal currently in the ascendancy, the insanity looks set to carry on regardless.

2*

DAVID STUBBS - UNCUT

How much idle conjecture has there been over Chinese Democracy? Axl Rose has had 17 years to turn this vanity project into absolute gold. It has to be a masterpiece. It has to be the best album of the 21st century.
I say “vanity project” because Rose is the only founding member remaining in Guns N’ Roses. I say “vanity project” because he has taken 17 bloody years to write one album!
After all this time, it would be a travesty to give the fans exactly what they’re expecting, and by and large, the fans are expecting an album which sounds like Guns N’ Roses. Axl always maintained that he was taking his time in order to create something new; something special.
This year has already seen albums from two of the greatest hard rock bands of the lasats twenty years. Metallica went back to their roots and AC/DC decided to retain the usage of the words “Rock” and “Black” in as many songs as possible.
Both albums were hugely successful. Neither album reinvented either band’s sound.
The last proper thing we heard from Gn’R was in 1999 when they contributed the huge, overblown, industrial-sounding ‘Oh My God’ to the End Of Days soundtrack. It sounded promising. It gave us the hope that Chinese Democracy wasn’t far away. Oh how we laugh now.
The next thing we hear is the title track from Chinese Democracy. It sounds like Marilyn Manson playing The Darkness’ ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’. Everybody shrugged and said the rest of the album will be great. The rest of the album had to be great.
‘Shackler’s Revenge’ follows on with the electronic, industrial theme but does it better than the single. The fantastically meaty production is the first thing that hits you and Axl is starting to sound a bit more like Axl.
‘Better’ is an evasive musical manoeuvre as a gentle intro makes way for an explosion. The song grows and grows and could definitely work with a video. Single alert!
Another leftward shift is found on ‘There Was A Time’. Judging by the production notes, it’s the song that had the most time spent on it but it sounds nothing like what you might expect from Guns. Rolling thunder and the sound of thousands of cans of fizzy pop are opening. Interesting song.
The bass-driven ‘Riad N’ Bedouins’ and the superbly heavy ‘Scraped’ are mid-album pleasers but their unfamiliarity in both sound and style means that the full effect of these songs will only be felt in a few months, if indeed the album draws us in enough for a repeat listen.
‘If The World’ could be a Bond theme, but it isn’t. It’s not ‘Live & Let Die’ or ‘Goldfinger’ but it’s definitely going for the same theme. Indeed, Oscar-tipped spy drama, Body Of Lies has it on its soundtrack. Not Bond though, is it.
It’s like Axl Rose has the ambition and he has the quality and he definitely has had the time, but he just hasn’t maximised the potential. Every track seems to miss the mark a bit. Instead of hitting the bright yellow bullseye, the arrow flies into the red, or even the blue.
What has Axl Rose done with Guns N’ Roses? He has made that new(ish) sound that he wanted in the most part but then you get tracks like ‘Catcher In The Rye’ (you’ll be singing along to this) and ‘Madagascar’ (the new, less good ‘November Rain’) which sound like the Gn’R that we know.
Is that really what we want, though? Is that really what Axl Rose spent all this time doing? After all, he crushed Slash by turning down his work in favour of a new direction. To retain the old sound would be to turn the Chinese Democracy into a long-awaited hypocrisy.
Axl’s voice means that it still definitely does sound like Guns, but the solos seem tacked on. It’s like Rose couldn’t find riffs up to Slash’s standards so he trawled the LA guitarists-with-one-name agency and only got Buckethead and Bumblefoot. Not quite the same.
You will buy Chinese Democracy. You will listen to it as soon as you get home. Then you’ll sit there and think disappointedly, “Well, it’s not crap but…” Then it will stay on your CD rack and in your iTunes because you’ll have forgotten about it.
3/6

Raziq Rauf TRASH HITS

CHINESE DEMOCRACY - THE SINGLE: SOME REVIEWS

2008-11-03T08:04:00.000-08:00

Eccovi alcune recensioni pubblicate dopo l'uscita del singolo "Chinese Democracy", anticipatore dell'omonimo attesissimo album...

CHART ATTACK - JOSH VISSER

Since Jesus Christ and Satan didn't get together to jam on the title track of Guns N'
Roses' decade-plus-in-the-making Chinese Democracy, expectations won't be met for this song. But that aside, "Chinese Democracy," which hit radio today, is a pretty rad track. Once Axl Rose's patented banshee scream kicks in over a thunderous guitar riff, all the hype and bullshit go out the window. The song features dueling Axl vocals (the high-pitched one and the low growling one from "It's So Easy"), and the redheaded one goes on angrily about something vaguely political in the verses ("Blame it on the Falun Gong/They've see the end and you can't hold on now"). The song's soaring guitars seem to build towards a killer chorus that never quite happens. Instead, there's a ripping guitar solo (some combo of Robin Finck, Buckethead and Ron Thal) that almost makes up for having nothing to sing along to. The outro is classic GN'R, but on steroids — guitars blazing, multiple Axls screaming — and there's just a bit too much going on. This song ain't no "Paradise City" or "Welcome To The Jungle," but it stands tall against any other GN'R rocker, and that's not something rock radio can say very often these days.

SUNDAY MERCURY - STEVE WOLLASTON

I first started listening to Guns and Roses in 1987, my obsession with their music is just as strong now as it was when I was a teenager listening to Appetite For Destruction for the first time.

I have since 1987 trailed the band, their ups and downs, the on-going sagas and the solo projects and waited patiently for Chinese Democracy to arrive.

Some said it never would, the real fans knew different, they saw beyond the joke, I have heard the bootlegs, we all have and they are in some cases truly stunning tracks.

I have seen the raw power of the new tracks come into their own when played live, songs like Madagascaar and There Was a Time stand shoulder to shoulder with previous epics like Estranged and November Rain, If The World and Prostitute show a more poignant and thoughtful side to the music and indeed Rose's songwriting.

I write this on the back of unfinished gems that I have seen on the Internet, I don't condone people leaking tracks but they have certainly made me that little bit more eager to add this to my collection.

The release of Chinese Democracy the single has happened quite quickly and taken people by surprise, some have slated it, others are impressed - now we have heard the finished version of this track it will be interesting to see how polished the others sound.

It doesn't matter what Guns and Roses release, the reaction will be the same, many people won't see beyond the media circus surrounding the release and will wonder what all the fuss is about. Others will expect it to be the greatest album of all time - it's not, but I think people will be surprised at just how good it is.

Of course Slash, Duff, Izzy on the album would have been the dream ticket but that won't happen, didn't happen and isn't an issue... the one mistake Axl Rose made was not launching this as a solo project, he would have had less abuse - but he worked hard to build the name, he owns it, so why not?

My view is simple, listen to the album two or three times and I reckon you will be impressed, if you were a fan before I think you will be a fan now. The music is a mature progression from Use Your Illusion and has a depth and variety that certainly no other artist has tried to create in recent times, to record an album over 13 years and it not sound dated is an art in itself!

I just can't wait to hear all those b-sides and studio tracks that didn't make the grade over the 13-year selection period!

SPIN - STEVE KANDELL

Maybe it's the fact that I'm listening to it on my computer and not, say, in a car, that makes it feel less than real. After all, we've been here before: (alleged) tracks from the mythic, Sasquatch-like Chinese Democracy leaked last year, and we downloaded them, tentatively, straining to hear some sort of genetic connection to the Guns N' Roses we all remember and romanticize. It seemed as if this long story was going to come to an end with a whimper. And a shrug. And here we are again, only without the shady back-alley torrent-site-dealings or fear of RIAA reprisal.

"Chinese Democracy," the first single from the actually-existing Guns N' Roses album of the same name, was released today. Officially. Legally. (The album is available November 23, exclusively from Best Buy. Unless of course, it isn't.)

Once that weird shock wears off, there's the small matter of, you know, whether or not it's any good. Which is to say: Is it as bad as we all assume it's gonna be?

Answer: Kinda, but then again, not really!

Those fearing/expecting an overly synthesized, 1999-vintage techno-metal can rest easy-ish. Once the overture of muffled voices, ominous drums, and plinky Edge-ish guitar gives way to a thick, muscular four-chord riff and that Axl banshee wail, only the most stubbornly jaded will manage to suppress the goosebump reflex. The verses are double-tracked: half high-pitched Axl, half guttural, growly Axl. But then a funny thing happens before the song gets to the chorus: IT FUCKING ENDS.

Sure, there's some suitably Slashy wankery from, oh, I don't know, Bumblefuck, the guy who plays with a honey-coated beehive on his head, or whichever other guitarist is currently under contract, but it's a bit confounding that the first (official, legal) taste of the Most Anticipated Album, Like, Ever -- and from the human who wrote "Paradise City," no less -- is utterly and completely hook-free. I've listened to it 12 times in one sitting and cannot hum a bar.

Then again, I was able to listen to it 12 times in one sitting. Maybe we should take our victories small, and wherever we can get them.

Now (Finally) Hear This: Guns N' Roses - "Chinese Democracy"

CHICAGO/McCLATCHY TRIBUNE - GREG KOT

Guns N’ Roses fans, the wait is over.

“Chinese Democracy,” the title track from the band’s first studio album since 1991, was released Wednesday to radio stations. The track was also available online, where it was streaming on various Web sites.

Was the wait worth it? Axl Rose is the only band member left from the band’s original incarnation and so this is essentially a solo project.

Rose sings in the lower end of his range, save for the introduction where his heavily processed voice sounds like a distant air-raid siren; otherwise, the wicked-witch cackle that defined his Sunset Strip bad-boy incarnation in the ’80s sits this one out.

The track indicates that Rose hasn’t gone soft. But technical prowess is no substitute for a great song.

Beneath the six-string buzz there really isn’t much of a melody, or even a memorable hook. After 17 years, this is the best tune Rose could conjure for the lead single?

Not a promising sign for an album that is supposedly going to be made available exclusively at Best Buy stores the week of Nov. 23.

IN MUSIC - ELIZABETH BROMSTEIN

This ain't no Welcome to the Jungle

The first single off of Guns N Roses' Chinese Democracy made a long awaited radio debut this week. Seventeen years! That's how long it took. So, if you have a 17-year-old kid, take a good look at him/her and think about how long it took to get this point. Then imagine that kid had cost you $13 million (the reported cost this far of producing Chinese Democracy). You'd expect that kid to be pretty awesome right? Like a psychic philanthropist with early masters degrees in Physics and English lit., and perhaps a fledgling multi-million dollar business on the side.

But OK, wait. I just got it. Maybe the album was NEVER supposed to come out. Maybe it was like, when pigs fly: this album will be released when China becomes a democratic nation. Or something like that. The National Post quotes Stephen Davies, author of Watch You Bleed, a new unauthorized biography of GNR as saying, "I think [Axl is] definitely getting bullied into releasing this record now."

Whatever the case, here we are. So, how's single?

It starts with a long build up (not unlike the wait for the album) and has a mildly catchy hook and some pretty smoking guitar work. But the lyrics aren't as inspired as I had hoped. I think he says, "It don't really matter. Guess I'll keep it to myself. I said it don't really matter. It's time I look around for somebody else," which doesn't exactly stand up when you compare it to Mr. Brownstone, Night Train, November Rain or Estranged. Also, there's no REAL hook, like a pumping chorus and the driving rhythm is plodding.

Slash himself said in his book that he didn't realize how much of a force drummer Steve Adler was behind Appetite for Destruction until years later. And it's pretty apparent now. You don't know a great rhythm section until you don't have one. Axl's voice appears to have held up pretty well though. And we're all just so happy to see him doing something right?

Is Chinese Democracy the equivalent of that amazing 17-year-old 13-million-dollar kid? In a word: no. But I'm going to reserve judgment until the whole record comes out in late November.

THE TELEGRAPH'S BLOG - NEIL McCORMICK

Confirmation that Guns N' Roses long awaited ‘Chinese Democracy' is not just a figment of Axl Rose's imagination finally arrived when radio stations began playing it today.

It's a very slow starter, but hey, after 15 years what's another minute or so of messing about?

Clearly, Axl is not a man in a hurry. There's 45 seconds of people talking while an orchestra tunes up before the snare drums crashes down and an understated guitar arpeggio joins the warm up.The actual power chord riff that signals that the band is ready to rock doesn't kick in till the minute mark, and Axl doesn't let out his trademark scream till 1 minute thirty seconds.

The opening line is "It doesn't really matter," which you might think was a bit defeatist after all that preamble, but the song itself is surprisingly lean, mean and to the point, verging on old school power pop with extra twiddling (it sounds like they might have spent most of the last two decades mixing guitars).

Linking onanism and politics, Axl rhymes ‘masturbation' with ‘rule the nation', but I couldn't actually work out what the connection was, or what the song is supposed to be about, but that's par for the course in the genre. There's a lead solo at 3.15, the purpose of which seems to be to set the record for the number of notes that can be played per bar. It's sparky but not particularly memorable. Slash is unlikely to lose sleep.

The song climaxes at 4.20 but then there's another 25 seconds of fading rumble, presumably while the band catch their breath. The whole thing lasts nearly five minutes, but I only make that about three minutes of actual song, the rest is just a kind of elaborate set of bookends, lending the whole experience an air of self importance. Still, after all that time, you can forgive them for making a meal of their comeback.

The problem with taking so long to make a record, of course, is that anticipation creates added expectation, until anything less than a groundbreaking masterpiece is going to be a disappointment.

But if you can forget about the millions of dollars and thousands of man hours, Chinese Democracy actually sounds like a decent afternoon's work in the studio, which should be enough to satisfy what's left of their fan base.

BLOGSNROSES.COM - WETTNER

No matter how much I wanted to hate this song, I can't.

The song starts out slow. There is a over a minute that is just a long intro until Axl's primal scream announcing to the world he is back and screaming once again.

There are two vocal tracks, both of Axl. One is the higher singing Axl (think My Michelle) and other, the lower register Axl (It's So Easy), is the one front and center. It provides a layer to the song, that I found mildly distracting. Due to the duplicate layer, Axl never mixes the vocal ranges after the primal scream. Something I wish this song had, I wanted it to go higher and grab me by the balls.

The lead guitarist has changed so many times, I have no idea which lead track this is. It could be any number of guitarists, Buckethead, Robin Finck, or Bumblefoot. The most likely explanation is that it is a mixture of all three guitarists. The solo still has that technology "Bleep Bleep Tweak Tweak" sound, so I'll guess that part is Buckethead. The solos in the song sound like a Bumblefoot/Slash solo. Since Slash had nothing to do with the solos, I will guess Bumblefoot on those. The solos are good, but nothing mind blowing.

The lyrics seem to be Axl saying fuck you to those who were impatient to the album and to those criticizing the album. But lyrics are up for interpretation, so read into them what you want. I will say this though, they don't describe a time in a China where democracy rules.

On Appetite for Destruction, Stephen Adler's drums were always audible. You never really had to listen for them. But these drums are in the back. Same thing with the bass. You had to do more listening for it, but take a listen to Think About You. You can hear both drums and bass working together and driving the song. The song Chinese Democracy features vocals, guitars, and drums. Where is the bass? Of course, I Heart Music, wasn't the ideal medium for the single, so I reserve judgment until I hear it on cd.

I actually like the song. I think it is better than some songs on Use Your Illusion I and II. However the biggest strike against it is, it took 14 years for that? If this album were released right after The Spaghetti Incident? There would be no questioning it. This is the current form of Guns N' Roses minus Izzy and Slash and people would have accepted it.

I think if you can put your bias aside, you will find this song isn't bad. Is it Welcome to the Jungle? Fuck no. But is it good? Shit yea. It does make me excited to hear the rest of the album.

L.A. TIMES - ANN POWERS

"Chinese Democracy," the first single from the ridiculously long-awaited Guns N' Roses album of the same name, is out, and can be heard below.

Here are some thoughts the song inspired early this morning.

No pop star has built a fortress as maze-filled and iron-clad as one W. Axl Rose. Not Michael Jackson, whose retreat was forced by scandal as much as by artistic crisis, and who seems ever more weakened by his reputation's slide. Not Zack de la Rocha, who (like Rose) went down countless collaborative roads before revamping the Rage Against the Machine template with his new project, One Day As a Lion. Not Garth Brooks, who also turned hermit, but craved the crowds too much to stay inside.

Rose, the most ambitious hard rocker of the late 20th century -- shout-outs to your Trents and your Bonos, but Axl is the most vividly driven -- essentially quarantined the Guns N' Roses brand for 15 years -- unable, perhaps, to reconcile the sounds in his head with what is humanly possible. "Chinese Democracy," the title track from the album finally coming out in a month, hits like an offering pushed through a crack in a locked gate, hinting that those sounds, never completely apprehended, have now coalesced into something Rose can face.

The sound is murky, ugly and evocative of a dark cityscape; you could call it "Blade Runner rock," because like that 1982 film, it's a very dirty vision of the future. Siren-like effects kick off the track, and then a slicing guitar riff (courtesy of Robin Finck, perhaps, or Buckethead -- the credits should be clarified whenever Rose deigns to do so) punctuated by squiggling, pedal-heavy licks, sets up Rose's multiple-tracked vocal.

"It don't really matter," he sings. "You'll find out for yourself." As the cryptic verses unfold, it becomes clear that this is one of Rose's songs from inside the cage of fame, attacking external forces he despises but can't ignore or repel. Like "Get in the Ring" or "You Could Be Mine," this is Rose as the nastiest kind of punk.

On one level, it's a protest song about Chinese state oppression. More important, it's a spit back at the audience that's been waiting for what has to be a masterpiece, if Rose is to survive artistically.

The song builds like bile. It doesn't behave the way radio-friendly singles usually do. The chorus is just an extension of the verses, rising a little in pitch and compression. There isn't really a proper hook; the sweet release that Slash's solos always brought to the mix never comes. But the refrain sticks after several listens.

"It would take a lot more..." is the key phrase, the one that Rose sings in still-powerful mid-range. More hate, more time. (There's a weird reference to masturbation too, that will have critics and possibly 12-year-olds snickering for a while.) These are the points when the song sounds the most like Nine Inch Nails -- a shot of aggression that somehow contains its own alienated retreat.

"Chinese Democracy" also recalls "I'm Afraid of Americans," David Bowie's 1997 foray with NIN. Both songs have a suffocated quality, as if their makers are pushing through smoke to express these thoughts. It's the sound of florid, romantic rockers aiming for something cold and modern.

But Rose can never really be cold. He's a Heat Miser -- whatever he touches starts to melt in his clutch. That's why these paranoid rockers never quite satisfy the way his grandiose ballads can. As real as Rose's anger may be, in song it starts to feel overly put on, in need of a sweeping chorus (or Slash-like ringing solo) to relieve the tension of the pose.

Still, for all the pooh-poohing this song will inevitably earn because it's just been too long in coming to fulfill all hopes, "Chinese Democracy" brings back a passionate weirdness that the hard rock airwaves have lacked. However overwrought or undercooked the whole album may be, it's good to have this mad king venturing forth over his moat.

GUARDIAN/THE OBSERVER - ELIZABETH DAY

It got its first radio airplay in the States last week, prompting a collective gasp of underwhelmed incredulity. 'We're confident in saying that "Chinese Democracy" is certainly one of the best songs of the year,' said one review. 'It's just a shame that the year in question is 1991.'

While everyone else has spent the past few years logging on to MySpace and downloading from iTunes, it seems as if Axl Rose has been cryogenically frozen in the early Nineties, with his fingerless gloves and his Stars and Stripes bandana.

There is something rather heartening about this refusal to evolve: a bit like one of those ubiquitous reunion tours, but without the bother of having actually to reunite.

Listening to the new single online, I am struck by its uncanny resemblance to the Crocodile Dundee soundtrack and am transported back to a simpler time when we all used to make mix tapes and listen to them on our Walkmans.

The opening bars are punctuated by exotic animal calls and a sort of electro-synthesised kettle drum. The whole thing sounds like one of those pre-recorded programmes you used to get on Casio electric keyboards, perhaps entitled 'Jungle Bossa Nova'.

Then there are Axl Rose's familiarly strangulated vocals, delivering profound lyrics that make no sense but rhyme words like 'missionaries' with 'visionaries'. (Seventeen years is enough to make even the most uninspired rock star polysyllabic.)

In spite of myself, I end up liking it. It's the musical equivalent of a Werther's Original - reassuringly evocative of a simpler age.

But some Guns N' Roses fans are distinctly unimpressed. 'Thanks for taking so long Axl,' typed one on the New York Times website. 'I hardly have any hair left to headbang to this with.'

KUNG FU RODEO - BRITT SCHRAMM

Since I’ve been the voice of dissention concerning W. Axl Rose and his multiple variation of Guns N’ Roses, I thought that the only fair and balanced thing to do would be to review the Chinese Democracy single, which was released worldwide yesterday. I have listened it at least 10 times and took some minor notes so no flying-off-the-handle here.

My initial thoughts are that it has the potential to be a really good hard rock song. The blues riffs of old are weaved around Rose’s trademark growl/high-sung duet. The groove marries well with melody lead by a syth-filtered rhythm guitar, giving the song a flavor of grunge-ish proportions. Really, there is no mistaking that this is a GnR song.

The drawbacks? It’s feels too short and too long at the same time. How can that be , you might be asking yourself? The complete song clocks in at 4:42 but is really around 3:33. There is an 46 sec intro that give an impression that this song is part of a concept CD. The same could be said for the 23 sec ending. Now, in the context of a concept CD, these parts might make more sense to remain. A more judicious hand on the production board might’ve helped in making this song a tighter (and better) track.

Overall, Chinese Democracy, the song, is a decent one and should get its fair amount of airplay. But as a single, especially one that their fans have been waiting for over a decade and half to pull their leathers out for and to rock out to, an in-your-face, immediate impact was needed and with this unneccessary padding, the might of GnR gets somewhat lost in the shuffle.

CI SIAMOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

Ragazzi, stavolta è vero al 99,9%, tra poco più di un mese BestBuy inizierà a vendere "Chinese Democracy". A tal proposito, abbiamo già la tracklist:

01. Chinese Democracy
02. Shackler's Revenge
03. Better
04. Street Of Dreams (The Blues?!?)
05. If The World
06. There Was A Time
07. Catcher N' The Rye
08. Scraped
09. Riad N' The Bedouins
10. Sorry
11. I.R.S.
12. Madagascar
13. This I Love
14. Prostitute

DATA DI USCITA PER "CHINESE DEMOCRACY"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-30T06:41:00.000-07:00

I miei problemi tecnici persistono, ma quest'oggi riesco ugualmente a poter postare qualche riga...

Giusto lo spazio x segnalare che il 25 NOVEMBRE sembra dover essere davvero quella di uscita di "Chinese Democracy"!!!!

PROBLEMI TECNICI

2008-09-29T09:14:00.001-07:00

Ciao a tutti!

Il mio modem ADSL è andato a meretrici, per cui sono senza connessione Internet. La saltuaria possibilità di collegamento dalla biblioteca pubblica mi consente di farvi sapere ciò e dirvi che, non appena arriverà il già ordinato modem nuovo, tornerò operativo.

Scusate per l'assenza.

Federico Zuliani

Mtv VMA: No Axl, Si Slash...

2008-09-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

La speranza era tanta, anche se il "pissi pissi" non era "caldo" come nell'ormai lontano 2002, quando a fine show partirono le note di "Jungle" ed un brivido mi percorse la schiena...

Stavolta il sogno era destinato a rimanere tale, ma qualcosa ce lo aveva detto fin da subito...

Nel pre-show, infatti, eccoti l'inquadratura di Slash e signora che posano x i fotografi...

Primo pensiero?!? Se c'è Slash, col caxxo che ci sarà Axl...

E infatti...

Britney Spears e altre gnocche a volontà, artisti rap e R&B in tutte le salse, ma dei Guns N' Roses manco a parlarne...

Accontentiamoci di Mr. Hudson che premia i Linkin Park per il "Best Rock Video"...

A proposito di Slash, il chitarrista ha rivelato di aver ceduto alla tentazione e, dopo aver rifiutato per molto tempo di ascoltare i vari leaks, ha inserito nello stereo della sua auto una copia di "Chinese Demoacracy" che qualcuno gli ha passato...

Ha detto che, pur trattandosi di un'opera molto diversa da quello che erano i Guns originali (sai che scoperta...), parla di un buon lavoro da parte di Axl...

Se lo facessero ascoltare anche a noi comuni mortali...

Ah, su Antiquet trovate il modo per dare una mano a livello economico a quel povero cristo che hanno messo in galera per i leaks...AIUTIAMOLO!!!

The "Chinese Democracy"'s Leaks Review

2008-08-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

Qualcuno sostiene che recensire dei leaks sia folle e privo di senso...

A livello "filosofico" forse non hanno tutti i torti, ma per la quasi totalità dei leaks si tratta di qualcosa ormai vicinissimo al prodotto finale, se nn proprio questo.

Ecco quindi la mia personalissima recensione di "Chinese Democracy" così come lo conosciamo ora (secondo una tracklist uscita tempo fa), con l'aggiunta di qualche "bonus track"...

CHINESE DEMOCRACY
La title track e, teoricamente, la traccia che aprirà l'album. L'intro "etnico" fa da tappeto rosso per delle lancinanti schitarrate che, con le dovute proporzioni, rimandano a quelle di "Welcome To The Jungle", non a caso l'apertura di "Appetite For Destruction"...
Molti hanno definito CD "post-grunge" o "industrial", ma per quanto mi riguarda lo ritengo un brano hard-rock "geneticamente modificato" con elementi "attuali", con un testo criptico che fa in parte riferimento alla Cina, in parte più genericamente all'oppressione del Potere e alla volontà insita nella natura umana di conquistarlo. Come dargli torto?!

IRS
L'IRS è l'equivalente USA di un ufficio indagini tributarie, e viene elencato nella canzone insieme al Presidente, l'FBI e un'agenzia investigativa. Tutta gente che Axl sostiene di dover chiamare, di dover fare di una diatriba un caso federale. Potrebbe riguardare i suoi guai giudiziari con Stephanie Seymour, oppure con gli ex Gunners o entrambi.
Il brano parte lento, su una base di chitarre acustiche, per sfociare poi in un groove ritmato ed ipnotico che ti conquista. Assoli di chitarra "bizzarri" arricchiscono la canzone di quel tocco "nuovo" che Axl ha avuto da subito intenzione di imprimere al sound della band. Con ottimi risultati...

BETTER
Qualcuno ha detto che questa canzone parte come un brano di Rhianna...in verità, dopo qualche secondo di cantilena filtrata, si sfocia subito in un rock sostenuto, fatto di assoli intriganti, cambi di ritmo, frenate improvvise e ripartenze. Un brano ricco, ma non saturo e quindi molto godibile. Robin Finck sugli scudi, alla faccia di chi lo massacra a prescindere nei vari forum...

MADAGASCAR
Una power ballad intensa, sia nella parte musicale che in quella lirica. Il testo parla infatti di una persona abbandonata da chi gli era vicino (la Seymour? la band? Entrambi?), ma non chiede vendetta, ma di capire e perdonare chi ha compiuto il torto. Un Axl dai buoni sentimenti, una quasi rarità. Musicalmente, l'incipit di organo è grandioso, come i contrappunti di chitarra. La chicca, nella fase centrale, è il collage di frasi, il cui trave portante è il discorso "I Have A Dream" di Martin Luther King. Se il disco uscisse a breve, Obama potrebbe farci un pensierino come jingle delle presidenziali...

THE BLUES
Ballatona strappalacrime, nel segno delle varie "November Rain", "Estranged" e così via. Bellissimo l'assolo di chitarra, ai livelli del miglior Slash. Peccato che, rispetto alla versione di inizio millennio, sia stato eliminato il fraseggio di chitarra all'inizio, in favore della semplice accoppiata voce/piano, anche se questa dà un ancora maggiore senso "di tristezza", addattissimo per la canzone.

IF THE WORLD
Loops, chitarre spagnoleggianti, ma anche un assolo "da paura", per una canzone sicuramente strana per i fans di vecchia data

THERE WAS A TIME
Qui si rasenta il capolavoro! Se solo il ritornello fosse più incisivo, avremmo una delle canzoni più grandi di sempre. Tolto ciò, ci troviamo di fronte ad un brano complesso, con strofa lunga fatta a cambi di ritmo e un ritornello corto. Un bridge che funziona alla perfezione e, soprattutto, una coda da 10 e lode, con la chitarra di Finck che sembra ricalcare perfettamente la voce di Axl, prima di lanciarsi in un cosmico assolo che ti avvolge e non ti lascia più...FAVOLOSA!

CHICKEN DINNER
Dovrebbe trattarsi di "Shackler's Revenge", la canzone della band che apparirà sul gioco "Rock Band 2". Per molti significa che sarà il singolo di lancio, ma non è detto affatto. La canzone, secondo me, è stata scelta espressamente per il gioco, essendo abbastanza "tecnologica" e avendo un assolo che spakka per far divertire chi se ne sta con la consolle in mano.
Ciò detto, il brano è carino, anche se non pare all'altezza di molti dei brani leakati in precedenza...

UNTITLED SONG
Per quanto mi riguarda, una delle più belle canzoni mai scritte da Axl, specialmente per quanto riguarda il testo malinconico e straziante. Che poi si intitoli "This I Love", "Prostitute", "Fortune And Fame/Shame" o che altro, DEVE trovar posto in questo disco o in quelli che dovrebbero seguirlo a ruota, secondo quanto detto da Axl e stesso ed in maniera più dettagliata dal suo sodale Sebastian Bach. Brano che parte lento e soffice, per aumentare poi il ritmo e sfociare in un energico rock alimentato da schitarrate da brividi. Bellissima!

RIHAD & THE BEDOUINS
Apparsa dal vivo fin dalle primissime esibizioni dei brancaleoneschi Gunners del Terzo Millennio, si giocava la palma di "peggior cosa nuova" dei GN'R con Silkworms, e anche nella gara assoluta con "My World" (da UYI II) stava piazzata bene. Invece, nella serie di leaks apparsi su Antiquet, ecco spuntarne la versione studio, col brano che acquista tutto un altro spessore. Ritmo trascinante, chitarre che ci danno dentro e cori al punto giusto. Non varrà una "TWAT" o "The Blues", ma non è certo un brano da buttar via.

CATCHER IN THE RYE
Secondo una mia teoria, l'unico leak uscito "per caso". Tutti gli altri, infatti, sono stati suonati live prima o dopo la loro apparizione in rete, e sono inoltre usciti in più versioni, escludendo ovviamente l'ultima infornata (però "Rhiad" era già apparsa dal vivo, come spiegato sopra).
Si tratta della classica "ballata alla Axl", ossia col pianoforte a fare da traino e con un assolo magico che spunta a metà canzone. Autore della "schitarrata" e addirittura Brian May dei Queen, che tira fuori qualcosa che è una perfetta fusione tra il suo stile (chiaramente) e quello di Slash. Ve ne fosse un secondo (come in "November Rain"), il brano toccherebbe vette magiche (ed il mio "remix" lo dimostra...). Tanto più che 5-6 anni fa veniva dato come singolo apripista del nuovo disco, mentre ora appare più fuori che dentro dalla tracklist...

OH MY GOD
Questa è l'unica cosa ufficiale dei nuovi Guns apparsa dai tempi di "Symphathy For The Devil". La si sente infatti nei titoli di coda del film "End Of Days/Giorni Contatti" con Arnold Schwarzenegger. Era il 1999 e la canzone stupì negativamente per il suo essere un pastiche techno-industrial più vicino a certi lavori di NIN, Marilyn Manson e simili, piuttosto che ad un classico brando targato GN'R, fosse un hard rock venato di blues o una ballata al pianoforte con degli assoli killer. D'altra parte in questo periodo Axl è attiratissimo dalla musica "sperimentale", tanto da esser visto assistere ad un concerto dei Tool ed esser noto per l'utilizzo in studio di computers, Pro Tools e sintetizzatori di vario genere.
Il brano, nonostante tutti i suoni "sintetici", è cmq un pezzo rock con un discreto tiro, con assoli interessanti ed un testo ficcante come Axl sa fare.
Si vociferava ne fosse stata in seguito registrata una versione più rock e meno "computerizzata", ma nn se n'è saputo più nulla e cmq il brano non dovrebbe apparire sul disco.

SILKWORMS
Brano sentito solo dal vivo, e facente parte del filone "techno" del gruppo. Logico quindi che live possa aver difficoltà a rendere, ma la controprova non c'è. Il brano è stato composto dai due tastieristi del gruppo, il vecchio sodale di Axl, Dizzy Reed e l'esperto di "macchine infernali" Chris Pitman.
Come per "OMG", il testo è "cattivo", quasi che nel periodo in cui sono state composte le due canzoni, vi fosse un "disegno" sul tipo di lyrics da abbinare ad un certo tipo di brani.
Alcuni remix fatti dai fans in giro per la Rete, con l'aggiunta di qualche loop ed una parziale pulizia dei rumori di fondo, ha reso più onore ad un brano cmq davvero strano, con una partenza lenta e vagamente mistica, che sfocia però poi in un ritmo sostenuto con un tappeto "elettronico" e chitarristico molto pastoso.
Da rivedere, potrebbe sorprendere in meglio come "Rhiad"...

CHECKMATE
Per la maggioranza dei fans dei vari forum, questo frammento apparso in una versione da 16 secondi e in una da 26, è un fake.
Io però faccio parte della minoranza che la ritiene reale, dato che la voce sembra proprio quella di Axl, e molto in forma anche!
La batteria pesta, il brano sembra avere davvero un bel tiro. Chissà se scopriremo la verità prima o poi...

Copertina "Shackler's Revenge"?!?

2008-08-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

GN'R's Newest Leak!!!

2008-08-15T17:59:00.001-07:00

"Sweet Child O'Mine" a Studio Aperto!!!

2008-07-23T05:01:00.000-07:00

Italia Uno, edizione delle 12.25 di Studio Aperto. Nella seconda parte del tg, c'è un servizio sui "pentiti da tatuaggi". Parte il servizio con un braccio "addobbato" e, contestualmente, un intro di chitarra davvero familiare...

Butto l'occhio al cellulare, dato ke quel suono è identico alla mia suoneria, ma nn lampeggia...

Non ho sentito male, allora, viene proprio dalla tv!

Horns up, headbanging e mia nonna ke mi guarda stranita mentre trascuro il mio panino x lasciarmi andare al sound di "Sweet Child O'Mine"...

Da raccontare...

Happy Birthday Mr. Zulie!!!

2008-07-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

Il blog è il mio, x cui gli auguri me li faccio da solo... ;)

There's a lot goin' on!

Schlacker's Revenge!!!

2008-07-16T09:07:00.000-07:00

E' ufficiale!

I Guns N' Roses appariranno nella colonna sonora del videogame "Rock Band 2" con una nuova traccia, "Schlacker's Revenge", un'anticipazione del stavolta forse davvero imminente "Chinese Democracy"...

Unknown Titled New Song

2008-07-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

Rhiad & The Bedouins

2008-07-08T11:00:00.001-07:00

If The World

2008-07-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

L'ultimo abbraccio...?!?

2008-04-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Mr. Rose!!!

2008-02-06T06:05:00.000-08:00

Momento di compleanni in "casa" Guns N' Roses...dopo quello dello storico (ex) bassista Duff, oggi è il giorno del signor Guns N' Roses in persona, W. AXL ROSE!!!

X lo zio Axl sono 46, e quando sono nati i GN'R ne aveva esattamente la metà. Il nostro ha quindi passato metà della sua vita nella/x la band, e speriamo che il suo regalo sia "Chinese Democracy", x noi da parte sua e dalla casa discografica x lui...

Happy Birthday Mr. McKagan!!!

2008-02-05T06:26:00.000-08:00

Oggi è il 43° compleanno dell'ex "Sumo Wrestler Bear" Duff "Rose" McKagan, bassista dei Velvet Revolver e, ovviamente ex dei Guns N' Roses. TANTI AUGURI!!!

Load up on Guns!

2008-01-20T06:08:00.001-08:00

Cari amici, benvenuti su GN'R Italy, il blog dedicato ai Guns N' Roses! Enjoy and rock on!