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#1781 Re: Guns N' Roses » Rome, Italy - September 4, 2010 (Palalottomatica) » 842 weeks ago
Christ, I hope this one goes off without a hitch.
#1782 Re: Guns N' Roses » Stinson Vents at Del James During Dublin Concert » 842 weeks ago
The Independent's piece is pretty balanced:
#1783 Re: Guns N' Roses » Stinson Vents at Del James During Dublin Concert » 842 weeks ago
Well, most people believe anything they are told by the press, regardless of the subject. Sadly.
Sadly, yes, that's the way of the world. And that's why more than anything else, Axl needs a good PR team to manage his image and communicate with the press. If you don't communicate, other people will control the message; they will vilify you if it suits them to do so, and the public's perception of you is shaped by someone else's agenda.
#1784 Re: Guns N' Roses » Dublin, Ireland - September 1, 2010 (The O2) » 842 weeks ago
"The brains to adapt to his schedule"? Fuck that. If I pay €80 for a ticket (actually, I paid £130, plus the cost of the ferry and petrol to Dublin) I have a right to expect that the gig will proceed at something approximating a reasonable schedule. And I'm a fan of the band, one who knows about and understands Axl's preference for late starts. I talked to a lot of people while waiting for them to cone onstage, and 90% of them were casual concertgoers who had no idea who was in the band, much less that Axl tends to favour late starts.
On top of that, there's late and then there's late. Starting at 10:30pm in a venue whose license runs to 11:30pm, mere days after another gig has been cut short for overrunning AND OFFERING NEITHER AN EXPLANATION NOR AN APOLOGY is just unacceptable. It's unprofessional.
Now, I'm going to the Birmingham gig; I'm having to get transport to the venue and back from London on a Sunday; I have to go to work on Monday morning. I have to be able to plan this in advance, and not be subject to the whims of an overgrown adolescent who "just likes late starts".
#1785 Re: Guns N' Roses » Stinson Vents at Del James During Dublin Concert » 842 weeks ago
Neemo wrote:OUT OF CURIOSITY
is it pronounced reading....like reading a book? or reading like redding?
i was talking to my wife about it and was saying it like reading a book way and she called me an idiot and said it was redding not reading
anyway carryon
Yep you're right it's said like Red-ing.
You're right about the BS madagas, on the radio this morning the headline was how Axl Rose got bottled off stage for being an hour and a half late. When they told the story in detail it was down to an hour late but when they came on they played a shortened set to those few still in attendance.
In reality it appears GNR were 30 mins late and played a full set to what looks to be at least 3/4 of the crowd. GNR don't help themselves but lies and exaggerations in the media don't do anybody any favours either.
God I sound like Jarmo...
Like I said on the other thread, Axl needs to get himself a decent PR outfit. All the promoters, venues etc are running rings around him, sending out press releases making him out to be the villain. It pains me to watch, because it would be simplicity itself to turn the tide. I know plenty of PRs who could refashion his image easily - and he needs to do it. Spin may be the dark art, but if everyone else but you is doing it, you'll get taken to pieces.
#1786 Re: Guns N' Roses » Dublin, Ireland - September 1, 2010 (The O2) » 842 weeks ago
Conversely, I do think Axl has absolutely no grasp of the shit people go through to get to his shows. He rocks up and is all, "Hey, we're here to have a good time!" Not understanding that - as I said above - people have paid significant amounts for tickets, waited for hours, yomped miles to this inaccessible fucking venue, waited some more hours as the venue's closing time draws ever nearer, and when he turns up he doesn't even apologise or offer any explanation for the delay. No, it's the *crowd's* fault for not putting up with this shit…
#1787 Re: Guns N' Roses » Dublin, Ireland - September 1, 2010 (The O2) » 842 weeks ago
Stepvhen wrote:johndivney wrote:if what that woman on the radio said was true about him freaking out in the car park, and i think it probably is, you gotta wonder about how healthy his mind is.
What was said on the radio? I missed this
she said after the walkout at the 4tus solo she was walking by one of the gates where you could see into where the tour bus was parked.
she saw axl there & he was cursing the crowd for throwing things & leaving. she said he was then squatting down with his head in his hands looking like he was really freaking out trying to hold it together.
Jeez. Poor guy. Y'know, I think he really does care, and that he just has the worst luck in the world when it comes to venues/road managers etc. But he does urgently need to sort out the behind-the-scenes goings-on. He claims he's being booked for gigs without his knowledge? This shouldn't be happening. He claims that he's being fucked over by promoters and they're taking him to pieces in the press? He needs to get himself a decent PR operation. Hell, I could think of a dozen good PRs who'd do a better job than whoever he has on the case now. If he's the injured party, he needs to get a hell of a lot better at communicating his message to the public.
#1788 Re: Guns N' Roses » Stinson Vents at Del James During Dublin Concert » 842 weeks ago
Stinson, Ron… these are good people, and they don't deserve this shit. I'm not sure I can blame Axl for the problems; they're putting on a big production and it takes time to set the stage up… but they shouldn't be *starting* to set the stage up at 9:30pm. Like I said in the other thread, it seems to me that there's a fundamental break in communication between the band, the venue and the management. Specifically, I'm not sure that whoever's in charge of the road crew is up to the task of shepherding this show onto the stage every night.
#1789 Re: Guns N' Roses » Dublin, Ireland - September 1, 2010 (The O2) » 842 weeks ago
Nah, the support crew genuinely have a lot of stuff to do, checking and rechecking the kit. And I think Axl might have actually hurried onstage; there was a guy trying to fix his monitor onstage during CD. But, y'know, I'm not sure that the guitarists *need* seven guitars each; one of DJ's Les Pauls sounds much like another. And they could've had roadies out sorting Dizzy, Pitman and Frank's kit out during the support set if they were running late; if they feel it's disrespectful to the support act, then drop a curtain and do the setup behind it. And don't waste time DUSTING DIZZY'S FUCKING PIANO.
#1790 Re: Guns N' Roses » Dublin, Ireland - September 1, 2010 (The O2) » 842 weeks ago
I left after Sorry and the band walkout. People throwing bottles is not cool, at all. You know what else isn't cool?
1) Keeping the audience waiting until 10:30pm in a venue with an 11:30pm license, just days after the show was stopped at Reading because they started late and broke the curfew. It's understandable that the audience who paid €80 a ticket would be worried that the same thing would happen again.
2) On which subject… every other band on the face of the planet is able to come out and play in a timely fashion. Why not GN'R? Half of the gigs on this tour have started late, and Axl's offered a Completely Reasonable Explanation in each case; that's a lot of Completely Reasonable Explanations, though. Coupled with Axl's own admission that he's a night owl and an alternative explanation does seem to offer itself. There is clearly a problem somewhere, a failure in the chain of command between management, the venues/promoters and the band. This needs to be fixed. NOW.
3) I appreciate that Axl hasn't had to hold down a 9-to-5 job since, what, 1985? While we'd love to stick it to the Man like rockstars, the sad fact of the matter that he just doesn't seem to have grasped is that if we turn up late to work in the morning because of his gig overrunning, WE GET FIRED.
3) Those people chucking bottles? They were at the front. While I don't condone their actions, these are the people who paid €80 a ticket, hiked the mile out of town to the venue, stood in line for hours to get a place at the front, stood there for hours with only the O2's shite overpriced beer to drink and then faced the very real prospect that the show might have been cut short by the venue's license. Yeah, I can see why they might be aggrieved, even if their way of expressing it wasn't on. But they weren't the only angry people in the crowd; from where I was standing the chorus of boos was deafening. Which leads neatly on to…
4) Completely misjudging the mood of the crowd. When DJ was teasing out the opening notes of WTTJ, the crowd were booing. And he carried on trying to milk it like a mug. Ya know what? People who've been waiting for that long just want the band to get on with it. Oh, and when the crowd was angry, rather than try to harness that energy with something like YCBM or Shackler's, they… played Sorry. A slow song, whose lyrics could very easily be interpreted as an almighty Fuck You to the paying audience.
5) Speaking of which… Sending a roadie out to dust Dizzy's piano while the crowd's waiting will not win you any friends among the crowd.
For my own part, I bought a ticket on Seatwave for £130, then paid to travel to Ireland, spending about a third of my monthly wages after paying my rent. Oh, and then struggled out of bed to go to the gig after having the flu for two days. It's fair to say I did everything a fan could possibly do to support this band, and I've been royally shafted.
