Twitter was amazing last night, as were facebook updates – i almost didn’t want to go to bed in case i missed another part of the story!

did they get to play big bottoms or stonehenge?

in all fairness, they were throwing bottles at him. wasn’t there and if i was I would be as equally pissed off at his lateness onstage but throwing items at him is not a good way to go…

glad i didn’t go. and feel sorry for those who did as for the eijets who threw things at him, and expected him not to leave the stage..hmmm.

Had friends travelling from Wexford for the gig and heading back straight after. Disgraceful that they should think concluding a gig at a 12.50am on a Wednesday is acceptable. Jim, can you get a comment from MCD on the o2’s curfew or lack thereof?

There is nothing more infuriating than waiting for a long time for a band to come onstage. Everything is set up and ready to go, they’ve had most of the day to get ready so what’s bloody taking them? Surely the fuming fans will be talking to Joe today? Axl is a walking disaster.

@9 – they do it all the time. fans should know what to expect.

…for my sins, I WAS THERE!

I have seen 100s nay 1,000s of gigs in my time but this was the most bizarre concert of my entire gigging life.

As mentioned, they didn’t make the stage until 10:20 (I kept an eye on the time throughout). By which point, the audience had already done a number of big cheers to get them out, big boos for their no show and even a couple of Mexican waves.

Within the first 30 seconds on stage, Axl had already thrown his mic pack and inner ears at his roadies. When I say throw, I mean with venom and intent to injure. The first song was actually a newie (not Welcome To The Jungle as some reports stated), probably Chinese Democracy. His band in their defense were red hot solid musicians and were keen to win over the audience. Axl however was not interested in winning the crowd back.

Second song in (WTTJ) and he stopped it around the point it normally would get it’s swagger on. Did his speech and put 14,000 punters on edge (the venue was close to full, even on the balcony which went to the back row).

At the beginning of the fourth song, a bottle landed at the back of the stage near the drum riser – nowhere near the diva. He called time and the stage went dark.

About 10 mins later (11:00) and with the house lights now on, some poor female nobody staff member came to the front of stage and injected some much needed comedy. “…due to technical difficulties, we have to had to stop the show. We hope to restart it shortly”.

About another 10 mins later (11:10), the double D and a couple of frightened hangers on came out to the back of the stage and delivered news of how desperate things were backstage. Basically to the effect of ‘We apologise for the strop. We’re trying to get Axl to come back on stage. Please bear with us and there will be an announcement shortly’. I’m paraphrasing but you get the idea i.e. we’re shitting ourselves and we are frightened of the balding ginger with the cocaine eyes.

During the next 30 mins, all of the burly security from around the venue were brought to the front of stage presumably to prevent a stage invasion.

Around 11:30-11:35 the road crew (even they had been escorted by security off stage originally) returned to remove all debris deposited in the interval. All the foaming, feral punters from the front row were removed before the show recommenced.

The lights went down finally and the band returned. It was too late for some however as I reckon they’d lost about a quarter of the balcony and maybe 20% of the floor.

With the band still trying to win the audience over and displaying a fair bit of embarrassment in their faces, Axl walked slowly out to deliver his vocals from the back of the stage. For the remainder of the set, he stood motionless and sang where required but sat still beside the drum riser or walked off stage when not. There was no interaction, no emotion. Axl had mentally left the building.

The remainder of the set made for uncomfortable viewing. They reverted to the original setlist including bizarre solo songs interjected for the guitarists and keyboard player to show off their skills. Each of them tacked a unique cover in a rocked out way – the theme from James Bond, Ziggy Stardust and the final left turn off the road of sanity…The Theme From The Pink Panther!

Grand pianos were wheeled out to deliver the ‘key’ songs like November Rain but I think no one cared. The damage was done. With the final notes of Paradise City, the band exited stage left and right with only the audience outrunning them to the open air.

Throughout the show/interval I had spoken to the lady sitting beside me who had made the trek with her young son from the UK just for this show. She had wanted the gig to be great for her son but there was very little to redeem what had just transpired. Similarly as I passed the line of minivans and coaches outside the venue, I thought of the number of people for whom this had been a big event. What a waste!

James D – that’s a brilliant comment, dude. Sounds like an equal mix of comedy, farce, drama and tragedy. I can see it now: “Guns N’ Roses: The Panto”

”I’m trying hard to get Axl to come back on stage. I’d ask you please to refrain from throwing items at him” Denis Desmond

This is gold.

This gig sound amazing. He came back onstage and just stood at the back singing songs? Crazy. What other band is allowed to do that? But surely nobody could expect anything else from GnR if they had heard about any of the ‘gigs’ they had done over the past decade?

Just heard from one of the gals who left early that during the interval Axl was at the side gate berating any passing audience members and kneeling on the ground with his head in hands.

I don’t think I’ve been this excited by anything since that time Father O’ Grady and I witnessed Bruce Dickinson’s guest appearance at Donnington in 1987.

I was at Chiefs pretty decent showcase gig in the ghastly Academy 2 last night. The most rock & roll thing that happened was one of the guys rashly chugging his first pint of Guinness, thankfully just before the last song, it obviously kicked in quick. Still the guys played a neat 50 minute set. Looks like I got more value for my €13.50 ticket than the mis-fortunates who paid circa €70 at the O2.

Jim @ 22: I wish I was.! Supposedly there was a fair few people watching so I’m sure there’ll be a clip on you tube shortly…

Excellent account James D.
Sounds like my cringe levels would have been truly tested by Mr Rose… I wonder if Yusaf Islam will be offering his support.

I was there and in my limited legal knowledge Mr Desmond entered into a verbal contract with 13,000(or what was left of them) when he said “I promise a great show”
I challenge him to find anyone, just one person there who would say it was a great show.
Don’t think so

There was in total only 3 bottles thrown on stage. 02 should take responsibility for selling the bottles in the first place.

Plenty of sympathy for the fans today but that statement is frankly bollocks.

For all of the fiasco, which I found entertaining in a car crash way, one thing that has not been pointed out.

Axl’s vocals were shocking for his first 5 tunes. How can he not remember the words to Welcome to the Jungle?! And yet when he eventually turned up again, his vocals were almost spot on a lot of the time?!

I think he should consider less leapin’ around and concentrate on his job. Oh – and maybe some consideration for his fans/customers that pay to see him! but that’s hoping a bit too much!

for all the shenanigans, the majority of people I saw during the ‘intervals’ were wandering about with a look of complete bemusement at the situation! I actually laughed quite a bit!

I wasn’t there but heard a guy on FM104 saying that the bottles were all plastic, no glass, and at least the first one thrown onstage was empty. I don’t think there was anything dangerous. And if I’d paid 70 euros for a ticket I’d have been mad as hell too. Such prima donna behaviour deserves to be called out. “Don’t make Dublin look bad” my arse!

John S – do you mean line checks? A full soundcheck would NEVER happen between bands – too messy – but there is always a line-check. Was there NO technical checks onstage at all before GnR played? That’s highly unusual

Very very limited drum check and guitar check, and nothing over the PA that I can remember. I’ve never seen such a small number of checks between bands of this scale before.

Mark, you’re spot on. His vocals were much better when he just stood still and sang.

The problem with GnR gigs these days is that, hardcore fans aside, most people in the audience love the songs but hate the singer and his antics. Audiences aren’t so quick to forgive in such situations and any perceived “insult” (such as a ridiculously late start) is likely to set things off. Expect more such evenings on the tour!

@ Shane Hegarty – that had tears rolling down my face!

It’s not the first Axl strop related to Ireland and drinking vessels. As a young and innocent metaller I was dragged to the GnR day out at Slane Castle with Faith No More and My Little Funhouse. I was there for FNM really… Anyhow, GnR kept the crowd waiting for ages, during which time we entertained ourselves by throwing paper Coca Cola cups in the air. It was a quite beautiful sight it must be said. Thousands of red cups spinning in unseasonal summer sunshine. We had nothing else to do really as there was about two Coke stands, four beertaps, a dozen toilets, a Silk Cut cigarette stand and a burger van. Anyhow, a burly person came on stage to huge boos and jeers to announce that Axl wouldn’t be going on unless we stopped throwing things. Cue hundreds of thousands of Coke Cups aimed at the stage. Again, a beautiful sight; a tsunami of paper cups.

GnR came on eventually and aside from a Black Sabbath cover (Bill Ward’s “It’s Alright”) it was the greatest pile of shit I have ever seen on any stage. And, drummer Matt Sorum aside, this was the original GnR, not the tribute band Axl has now.

At least Justin Bieber carried on when he had a bottle chucked at him recently, and I always chortle at the fond memories of Linkin Park’s support slot to Metallica at the RDS a few years back when, after at least a half hour of audience abuse, the “DJ” at the back of the stage said “come on Dublin, give it your best shot” which was instantly followed by an almost slow motion Lucozade bottle hitting him right between the eyes. To be fair to them, they finished their set.

Jim, i probably do mean line checks,not sure what they are called but there were none whatsoever.
Nobody checking Mikes,
nobody checking guitars
nothing
And yea it is unusual, i’ve never seen it before.
It was a disaster from the start.

Paddo – Joooooooooooooooooooe is on a week off – it’s Damien O’Reilly. Bet he’s a big aul’ metalhead.

I was in college with Damien. Big Johnny Hates Jazz fan. Partial to a bit of Cock Robin too.

MCDs statement on the fiasco all but says no refunds

…and as if by magic….here is that MCD press release, with the key legal advisor inserted element “performed their full set”:

http://mcd.ie/home/fn.php?c=9096245&ar=gunsnroses&cat=all

Axel is a complete ****. I have been a fan since the 80s and even when they were on stage over an hour late I thought I’ll give them a chance. They powered into Welcome to the Jungle and I was thinking pure class. Then he stopped like a bitch after about a minute into it threatening the crowd with walking off if he wasn’t treated with respect. That was it for me. It ruined the song. I wish I had walked out then and not waited for the other 3 songs.
I see people here blaming the people who threw stuff. That is a complete load of rubbish. That is like the battered wife saying it is her fault. The fault lies with that arrogant , egotestical ( yes testical) dumb aged decript piece of dog flesh. He should be barred from Ireland and never be allowed back.

MCD statement:

NO artist should be subjected to missiles and unknown substances being thrown at them.

I mean, that’s clearly not true …

Back in 2001 I went to see Iggy Pop at HQ (now the Academy). The band starts up, Iggy runs on stage throwing the kind of shapes that Iggy like to throw, goes right up to the edge of the stage and strikes a fuck-you pose. A bloke down the front tosses a full pint of beer straight into his face. Iggy shakes his head, stays standing still, summons up a huge gob and spits it right back in the direction of said punter. Cue one of the greatest gigs I have ever seen.

Axl, you pussy.

The smell of pure solicitor’s sweat off that MCD statement is unreal. You could bottle it. Love how the ‘unknown substances’ bit implies some sort of deranged bunch of hillbillys with their lads out, all pissing into bottles and the bottles hailing down all over the band, when, by James D’s account above, we are talking about a cup or two with a couple of droplets of the official ‘brew’ served in the venue.

GnR played in Belfast on Tue night – any reports from that one? Or are Belfast fans willing to put up with the kind of behaviour?

Also that statement from MCD from last night is perfectly in order. Band played their full set, albeit with the extended break in the middle. Don’t blame the promoter or venue or this, blame the band. As with high ticket prices, it all begins and ends with the ACT. Anyone fuming about last night’s show and throwing shapes for refunds is fooling themselves as much as Axl Rose – what did they expect?

@63 Here’s a pic from the Belfast show which was posted on a forum, I guess at least some Belfastians also had problems with Mr. Rose: http://tinyurl.com/37twehg

“Don’t blame the promoter or venue or this, blame the band.”

Jim, surely the promoter and venue have some responsibility for the timely and organised running of the event?

I respect the fact that the artist should take the majority of the blame, but there are also some lessons to be learnt here for MCD and O2. They are responsible for the running of the event, the communication during the event, the safety of the patrons, the effective and timely transportation of people away from the venue (to some extent).

I think they did very well to manage to get GnR back after the bottle throwing situation, but perhaps they should have been as persuasive earlier in the night to get things started on time.

I feel worse for his band more than anyone else. They seem like admirable, professional musicians stuck in the circus of this ego-driven lunatic.

when morrissey regularly does this type of stuff his (syco)fans always let him off.

my favourite bottle throwing anecdote involves dogstar (featuring keanu reeves)

at one particular gig they came under sustained attack of hurled bottles, cue bret domrose saying to the audience “throw a full one, so we can drink it”

Jim – I think from a refund perspective, it’s not quite as simple as you lay it out. Punter purchases a ticket, they enter into a contract, effectively, with the promoter. In return for me giving you €50, you’ll permit me entry to Venue X, which YOU’LL hire, on Date Y, to see a performance YOU’VE organised by Act Z.

At the same time, Promoter has entered into a contract with Act Z, stating that in return for Promoter handing over €50,000, Act Z will turn up at Venue X, on Date Y, and perform as agreed per standard rider.

If Act Z default, the punter might well have recourse to get a refund, if it’s demonstrable that Act Z are bound by a contract, which Promoter can pursue them for…

If I was MCD, I’d be putting a punctuality clause into me contracts…

It beggars belief that there are still morons out there who still think that throwing bottles at musicians is somehow ‘cool’. But that’s no excuse for what Axl Rose pulled last night.

The thing is he has been doing this sort of stuff for years and finally Ireland got a taste of it. The difference is he used to have offenders ejected by venue security. Now, it seems that he just wants to take it out on the rest of the audience.

Having effectively forced most of the other original band members out (late gigs were a particular bugbear of Slash), Axl appears to be living in a weird, twilight world where the only way he can now rebel is to piss his audience off by turning up late for gigs and then storming off because some little boys throw a few plastic bottles onstage.

Axl is a caricature of his former self and he has been dragging the Guns N’Roses name through the mud for years. It should be remembered that Slash played a gig here recently where the singer Myles Kennedy had lost his voice beforehand but the show went on and turned out to be really enjoyable. That was real professionalism, something which Axl Rose wouldnt know even if it turned around and bit him on his botoxed face.

I feel bad in particular for the younger fans who may have only recently discovered GNR’s music and went along last night to see a true legend in the flesh only to be treated like dirt by a pathetic, wheezy old fart.

I was at the belfast gig and it wasn’t great to be honest. They came on stage about 40mins late and the crowd was getting very restless at that stage. Furthermore, the delay definitely led to an increase in drunkenness to the extent that a fight very nearly broke out amongst a group of morons standing to my right. In terms of the gig, the sound was all over the place and seemed to be just noise for a large part of the first hour. The gig did get better as it went on and the slower songs were actually pretty good-they did a great version of “knockin on heaven’s door”. Interestingly, some stuff was actually also thrown on stage-plastic pint glasses and a ruck sack amongst other things. Axl was hit directly with a t shirt or something and he just got on with

Barbara@80. Agreed I would rather spend my money on Michael Buble tickets at the Aviva any day. I am upset his tour schedule is so odd this time. He his only concert dates in the States are West Coast, Mid West,and Texas, no where near Philadelphia. At least you all in Dublin will have a great show. Axel’s antics are well know in the States, same with Motely Crue, they did some crazy things. I am planning to see the Irish band the Script in Philadelphia at the Electric Factory in November, hope it is a good show.

Told you James Delaney O’Neill should have organised it.

I’d be disappointed if I spent 70 quid on a gig where Axl was on-time and didn’t walk off stage. His antics are part & parcel of GNR – you’ve attended a concert that will aways be remembered.

The tide has certainly turned in the last 6 posts.

the spinning – the spinning. Let break it down

“Despite every effort being made by promoters to ensure Guns N’ Roses would go on stage on time, they went on at 22.26hrs having been due to be on stage at 21.45hrs, ……..

Nowhere did it state the Band would begin 21.45 – asking at the o2 on arrival I was told a 9pm kick off. The implication in the Statement is that the “€70 ticket plus every other cost” plebs dumb ass enough to stump up that much lolly were “only” waiting half an hour.

……support artist finished at 21:00hrs.

yes after playing for an hour and a half which must be a record for a support band.

During the second song Axl requested members of crowd who were throwing plastic glasses containing unknown substances……….
…..Fair enough

to immediately stop or he would have no option but to leave the stage.

……Well not in so many words but ok…….

He confirmed band’s wish to perform stating “we want to stay..one more bottle and we go home”.
..which incidentally would make it a grand total of three (PLASTIC) bottles at that stage

“Despite his continued appeals”

…..Continued appeals???

“having tried to continue performing for 22 minutes, people continued throwing unknown substances leaving artist with no choice but to leave the stage.

mmmmmm… kinda gives the impression old Axle’s was valiantly trying to put on a show dueing the seige of Stalingrad lads

From the stage MCD Promoter Denis Desmond again appealed to audience to refrain from throwing items and stated that the band would be back on stage shortly.

….Yes after sending some poor young one (which inflamed it even more – great call there Denis) out to tell a bare faced lie– “technical difficulties” me bare faced arse!

“Following backstage discussions Guns N’ Roses went back on stage at 23.20 hrs and performed their full set until 00.53 hrs”

By which time half the audience had left, in part because the house lights went up

While the artist has a long history for being late on stage (Slane 1992 – crowd waiting 2 hours and last weekend’s UK Reading festival),
….You morons – don’t you know they do this all the time – you should have known they’d come back out – please don’t make me hit you again ….

NO artist should be subjected to Missiles and unknown substances being thrown at them.

Unknown substances? – did anyone think to have a sniff

However, despite this the band went back on stage
……..brave soldiers, brave, brave ……..

after people stopped throwing items performing their full set of songs in full.

…….items, missiles, bottles, tomatoes, tomatoes….

MCD and The 02 wish to apologise for any inconvenience caused due to late running of the show.

Ah shucks – that’s ok – I forgive you – lets have make-up sex – might as well cos you’ve already f**cked me good and proper.

Hmm. Many big bands repeatedly take their tours to Ireland because they know they can charge three times the price they do in other countires…