1988.08.20 - Monsters of Rock Festival, Donington Castle, England

Guns N' Roses were brilliant that night: the best show I ever saw them play. At times, Axl was in playful mood, swapping cowboy hats with Duff. [...] Aerosmith may have been the headliners of that tour, but Guns N' Roses were the main attraction, and Axl owned that stage. Just before they'd gone on, Ian Tilton [photographer for the Shine (?)] had asked Doug Goldstein [GN'R's manager at the time] if he could shoot from the side of the stage. "Not unless you want to eat a mic-stand..." Ian asked me if that was a joke. I assured him it wasn't [20 Years of Appetite, Classic Rock Magazine, July 2007]

Push wrote:
METAL FATIGUE

MONSTERS OF ROCK FESTIVAL
Castle Donington

Following numerous traffic jams along the motorway, there's another on the country road. The queue barely moves in half an hour. "It's not far – walk," advises a friendly passing policewoman. Hundreds of long-haired, baseball cap-sporting lads and their molls, denim and leather bearing their heavy metal allegiances, are already undertaking the final part of the journey on foot, trudging along lanes, across fields and through woods. Photographer Richard Bellia, loaded down with equipment, joins them, disappearing up the twisting, narrow road.

The queue makes no advance. Then I notice several vehicles displaying guest passes heading in the opposite direction. A three-point turn and I'm in pursuit, a couple of lucky guesses and I'm soon on site, having missed HELLOWEEN but with GUNS N' ROSES about to take the stage. Bellia, meanwhile, is only a short way into what turned out to be a six-mile yomp.

Inside the arena, there's no less madness. One of the large video screens falls down and the traditional hurling of plastic bottles and other containers starts early. Beneath a makeshift flagpole of fishing rods, what looks like a giant colostomy bag full of black ale is doing the rounds. "Have you seen my mates?" dribbles a dazed youth. "One's in leather and Levis, the other's wearing a Maiden T-shirt."

After just a few songs, Guns N' Roses leave the stage. There's a serious problem in the crowd. I see flashing blue lights and hear the wailing sirens of ambulances. As a result, it's a severely shortened set. It's littered with bum notes too, but is impressive nonetheless. "Welcome To The Jungle" is a hurried, hazy hubbub, a querulous affair, vocalist Axl flaunting his tattoos, the two guitars locked in combat, the beat shaking the knots out of a thousand heads of hair. There are others of a similar design, but the latest single, "Sweet Child O' Mine" is more obviously melodious, mellifluous even, and one of the newer songs is a ballad, an opulent, bristles-brushed-up blues, an unapologetic unearthing of the band's roots.

They strut and stomp, scowl and howl, but there is a real urgency and a multi-dimensional character to their music. They skip, with considerable ease and the odd frivolous word, from a sophisticated hard rock to a petulant, unimpoverished pop sensibility and sensitivity, offering a sting in each tale, sometimes playful, sometimes painful. It's no surprise that the Guns N' Roses merchandising sells out soon after their performance ends.
[...]
This year as any other, Donington is an opportunity for the outcasts to celebrate, in filth and in style, a day and a place where nobody but themselves mattered a fuck. But of course, it wasn't as simple as that.

We leave as Iron Maiden are approaching the end of their set. We drive away from the site, past cars abandoned, hours earlier, on the grass and mud verges, past lay-bys crammed bonnet to boot. As we hit the motorway, the radio crackles the tragic news that two young men had been killed, trampled to death, during the Guns N' Roses performance. My mind is immediately cast back to the – at the time – hilarious enquiry as to the whereabouts of the one in leather and Levis and the one in a Maiden T-shirt. The chances are they were queuing up, lopsided, for greasy chips or for the overflowing toilets. For others, the answer wouldn't come so easy.

MONSTERS OF ROCK '88

Performing as a second band means, no matter which festival it is, a kind of 'Russian Roulette' for the band in question. You can only survive or go under. There's nothing in between. Why, however, the Pistoleros and Roses, which are at least a platinum act in the United States and have grown far beyond cult status on the island, were put on billing in Donington as a second volume, is at least - to say the least - surprising.

Nevertheless, there could be little doubt in advance that the Lines N 'Noses would do their job excellently despite the poor placement. To start with: They blinded their cause. Why not? After all, hardly anything could have gone wrong simply because numerous fans came exclusively for their sake and were hungry for as many Guns N 'Roses as possible, no matter how good or bad.

A lot of fans were still on the way to the actual festival site, only half warmed up by the contents of the huge canisters brought from home. The scenery looked more like that before a soccer game than like a real rock concert. Although the air was already crackling, the feeling remained that everything hadn't really started yet. Even the most convinced Guns N 'Rose friends had trouble devoting themselves wholeheartedly to the show of these degenerate children of rock 'n' roll. Too bad that this was not a club concert ...

These summer tourists are racing on the Disneyland giant roller coaster, they have played every imaginable kind of gigs during the last year, so that an appearance before wild rabble, composed of fanatical followers as well as occasional listeners and people who do not like GN 'R at all say they just went past their ass. The audience is crappy? So what?

Axl, absolutely one of the best and most charismatic front men of this decade, rushed his band through a furious appearance, literally drove himself and his fellow campaigners to the edge of exhaustion and beyond it - as you could easily see later backstage.

Of course, you don't just fly in a blunt-nosed giant jet across the Atlantic, in which the Jack Daniels' flight flows and pin-up girls play the stewardesses, only to put the gig in Donington in the deepest dirt. Especially not when you play with the pistol boys.

Okay, that with the pinup girls is a guess, but it would fit the guns smoothly, because especially with these guys, reality often surpasses all rumors, clichés and wild images.

Contrary to all rumors that were thick and pregnant with meaning from the good old states, there were no open acts of war between Slash and Mr. Rose on stage and therefore no premature termination of the concert. Unfortunately the band could only play one shortened set, not the full US show, but they still managed to bring the dreamy and cumbersome melodies of their new masterpiece 'Patience', while Slash impressed everyone with brilliant solos.

Along with Izzy's whipping riffs and the powerful rhythm section consisting of Duff (who recently got engaged and drummer Steve Adler showed Axl everything that makes a great front man. Guns N 'Roses is a real rock band with tremendous skills, and that is exactly what it is what makes this band so special is that they are rough, rough and far closer to the roots of rock than so many other faceless groups.

The tragedy of this festival, however, the death of two fans, happened during the Guns N 'Roses gig. If you consider that this band in particular has always stood for violence and the rough sides of life, musically and textually and in their lifestyle, then it becomes clear why these accidents are so special about the Guns N 'Roses set cast deep shadows.

Still, it would be more than tragic to remember the Guns N’ Roses Monsters Of Rock gig just because of these unfortunate events.

Pete Makowski & Debbie Burnz