1993.01.30 - Eastern Creek Raceway, Sydney, Australia

No groupies

MOST jobs contain their usual share of requirements but casual staff needed to sell T-shirts at the Guns N' Roses concert in Sydney on January 30 are being specially vetted. Along with the standard “must have merchandising experience and know how to work" requirement, the ad in yesterday’s Herald stipulates “no groupies". How do they tell?

POP GUNS

The most dangerous rock band in the world or just a bunch of naughty boys? PAUL POTTINGER looks beyond the hype and the haberdashery.

SAY WHAT you like about Guns n' Roses, they've sure got all the rocking credentials. Riots at their concerts. Arrests for offensive or often just plain silly behaviour. Swearing at award ceremonies. Lawsuits. Former band members with heroin habits. Emasculatingly tight trousers and lots of nasty tattoos...

Apart from this set of raps, their much-vilified lead singer. Axl Rose (real name William Bailey, but don't call him that), has been accused of homophobia, racism and misogyny. And all in the course of the same song, One in a Million, from their first album, with its references to "faggots and their AIDS”.

Of course, this is, as they're still given to saying in some quarters, rock 'n' roll. Or is it? For all their outlaw posturing, this fabulously wealthy group of American medium- to heavy-metallers comes over less as bad boys than as naughty little boys. Boys who need, as AC-DC's no-nonsense singer Brian Johnson says, a “bloody good slapping”.

A list of Guns n' Roses behaviour reads like a charge sheet:

• A former guitarist, Izzy Stradlin, was banned by a US domestic airline for relieving himself in the aircraft's kitchen.

•  A former drummer, Steven Adler, a heroin addict, is suing the band for $26 million. He says they turned him on to drugs and booted him out when he tried to get clean.

•  The lead guitarist Slash (he also hates being called by his real name, Saul) confirmed for a TV audience of millions his wild man status at the American Music Awards two years ago. Staggering to the dais clutching wine glass and cigarette (never mind the "no smoking” signs - Slash is one bad outlaw), he was soon dragged away when he uttered both the "s" word and the “f" word.

On Guns n' Roses first Australian tour in 1988, they came perilously close to feeling the wrath of then NSW Police Minister Ted Pickering. He was reported to be considering laying charges against Axl for his references to taking drugs and leading vulgar chants. Acting Premier Wal Murray was reportedly horrified.

At the same concert, the fearsome lead singer implored fans not to throw missiles lest one of them strike him in the eye and end his career. Not the sort of outlaw utterance one would expect from someone living on the edge of eternity.

And then there is the question of Rose’s sartorial style. It would appear his most malign influence on today’s youth may be through his outlandish fashion statements rather than his pronouncements on sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

Laddish pranks and prancing aside, there is a less savoury aspect to the “Gunners”. Their concert path around the world has been dotted by a series of ugly riots.

Indeed violence and misogyny are part of the band’s allure, aspects of which Axl Rose, a diagnosed manic depressive, personifies. (Indeed, the singer’s name is an anagram of “oral sex”, although he maintains the sobriquet came about because he couldn’t spell Axel.)

In 1990, he was charged with bashing a female neighbour over the head with a bottle. The public brawls with his former wife Erin, daughter of Don Everly of the more restrained Everly Brothers, have been spectacularly ugly. He once chased her outside their Hollywood home yelling, “Psycho bitch!” and painted a headstone on their garage, “Erin Rose, RIP Slut. You were one of many nothing special.”

He eventually demanded an annulment on the grounds that Mrs Rose, for whom he wrote the uncharacteristically fragile song, Sweet Child O’ Mine, was unwilling to be a housewife and have his children.

But this domestic acrimony seems trivial beside the hostility the band can provoke in a packed stadium.

Two fans died during a Guns n' Roses gig at the 1988 Castle Donnington Festival in England. A concert in St Louis during their 1991 US tour saw Axl hurl himself at a biker who was taking photographs without permission (all photos and interviews have to be approved by the band before publication). End result? A crowd riot which caused US$200,000 damage.

And in August last year, Rose led the band offstage halfway through its Montreal appearance claiming he had a sore throat. The crowd, already incensed that the support act, Metallica, had been forced to curtail their set, rioted.

However tortured Axl’s psyche is rumoured to be, it is difficult to sympathise with a man who surrounds himself with a travelling staff of 50 (including a herbalist and various other medicos) and who for a time, refused to appear in cities beginning with the letter “M” on the advice of his personal astrologer.

Regularly, too, if the audience is not sufficiently effusive, the band is more than likely to down instruments in pique.

Despite (or, more likely, because of) the official ire they seem to knowingly provoke, sales of their records soar.

Their 1987 debut album, Appetite for Destruction, has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, released simultaneously last year, became the only albums in recording history to go in tandem, in their first week, straight to No. 1 on the US charts.

In contrast to their image, the immense popular appeal of their music is due to its essential safeness: guitar-driven, raunchy but predictable, big-stadium American rock which stands apart only because of the current commercial dominance of dance-pop. More difficult to accept is the way in which those who should know better have perpetuated the “most dangerous band in the world" hype.

The less reverential would say that it is more a reflection of the state of popular music that the future lies in album covers that show a woman being raped by a to robot and in songs with titles like Back Off Bitch and Pretty Tied Up.

Paul Pottinger is a writer for The Sydney Morning Herald. His last story for Good Weekend was on the comic character Tin Tin. Guns n' Roses play at Eastern Creek, Sydney, on January 30 and Calder Park, Melbourne, on February 1.

GUNS AND POSES

IT'S amazing what people do as publicity stunts. Seen here is guitarist Slash from Guns ’N’ Roses, jumping off a perfectly good platform in Cairns yesterday.

The US group are now building up for their concert at Eastern Creek which promoters hope will not end, as some have, in a messy and highly litigious brawl.

Looking at Slash from this rather odd perspective, we are wondering whether he is starting to regret his decision to make the jump, and - more to the point -why didn’t he do it wearing clothes?

Crowd safety effort

Police and promoters say they have taken all steps to protect the 70,000 fans expected at the Guns N’ Roses concert tomorrow night at Eastern Creek.

Crash barriers and cyclone fencing have been erected and large teams of security and medical personnel will be deployed to help prevent tragedies. In 1979, 11 teenagers were trampled to death at a concert by The Who in Cincinnati.

Superintendent Ken Thrift, the Blacktown police patrol commander, said 204 police officers would attend. The St John Ambulance has been asked to provide four field medical teams and 60 ambulance staff.

Organisers said possible trouble spots would be under the watch of police cameras and “spotters” in towers.

Parents dropping off their children by car should use the Shell service station on the corner of Horsley Road and the Great Western Highway.

CityRail will run special services to Doonside, the station nearest to Eastern Creek, from Central and Penrith. Seventy buses will shuttle between Doonside and Eastern Creek.

After the concert, buses will run back to Doonside until about 1 am to connect with special trains for Central and Penrith.

Gates will open at 11 am, with live entertainment scheduled from 3 pm.

JENNIFER CONNELL

Eastern Creek has to grow: minister

By MARK COULTAN
State Political Correspondent

The Eastern Creek raceway may have to be expanded because it will soon be too small for the demands on it, the Minister for Sport, Mr Schipp, has said.

Mr Schipp said the two other motor racetracks in Sydney, Oran Park and Amaroo Park, had limited lives because of urban growth.

“I don’t think Eastern Creek in its present form could accommodate one, certainly not both,” he said. “The issue needs to be addressed fairly soon.”

In an interview with the Herald, Mr Schipp said he was considering an expansion plan to enable go-karts to use Eastern Creek.

“We have been looking at this, and you can’t accommodate, the karters, for example ... and that needs to be addressed to make full use of what is undoubtedly a magnificent facility.”

He said he could imagine that the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club, which runs Amaroo raceway, may shift to Eastern Creek.

“They would be expected to make a contribution to the facilities that they would need, and that approach has already been talked about.”

In a statement yesterday, Mr Schipp said: “With the growing international acclaim for the circuit, it is apparent that Eastern Creek has a bright future to host major events for motor racing, including Indy races, formula one, Nascar and Auscar events.”

He said Eastern Creek had made an “operational profit” of $200,000 in its first nine months and it would make a operational profit of more than $400,000 this financial year.

He excluded from this figure depreciation, which the latest Auditor-General’s report put at almost $700,000. This resulted in a loss of almost $500,000.

But Mr Schipp said Eastern Creek was valuable for the money it brought into the NSW.

“If you took all the sporting venues in the State, it will probably turn out the best money-spinner in terms of economic value to the State economy, and particularly, to Western Sydney.”

He said Daytona raceway in the United States was worth $1.2 billion to the local economy.

Mr Schipp hoped Eastern Creek would become a regular venue for outdoor concerts after this weekend’s Guns N’ Roses concert. This would boost revenue markedly, he said.

“Let's hope this concert goes off well. It might have been less sapping on the nerves if it had been a more sedate type of concert to start with, but ...”

“I never heard of them [Guns N’ Roses], to be quite honest, until it was brought to my attention that they were the band.

“One can envisage five or six major concerts per annum which would be an excellent financial generator for Eastern Creek.”

He said the track would need extra work, including a footbridge across the start-finish line and an electronic scoreboard.

Asked if this could be funded from the track’s revenue, he said: “We are heading down that path and looking good at this stage, and looking better if we can pull these concerts off.”

Quiet and riot: Gunners and Rowers are here

By JUSTIN BICKNELL and EAMONN FITZPATRICK

It was all quiet at Eastern Creek yesterday morning with only the keenest Guns N’ Roses fans turning up - but there was almost a riot in Pitt Street for their support group, Skid Row.

The vanguard of the 80,000 expected to turn up to the largest rock ’n’ roll concert in the southern hemisphere arrived at Eastern Creek at lunchtime yesterday determined to score the front row.

Craig Hillyard, 15, Brendan Matheson, 16, and Jon Benson, 18, of Woy Woy were the first Guns N’ Roses fans to turn up at Eastern Creek at 1 pm. They were preparing to sleep in parking lot 3 in Jon’s yellow Sigma station wagon.

At daybreak the three will position themselves at the front gate and wait for the gates to open at 11 am, when they will race to the stage and spend the next nine hours preparing for the gig.

“We thought there’d be heaps of people here by now, we didn’t expect to be the first here,” Jon said.

But this is not the first time these lads have braved the elements in the name of rock ’n’ roll. j When tickets went on sale in November, these three camped for three days outside the Gosford Ticketek office to maintain first place in the queue.

Craig admitted the chances of getting to the front row without incurring some kind of physical injury were slim, but was confident he could handle all comers.

“There should be a few blues, but I’m not worried, I can take care of myself,” he said.

Brendan warned that the band had better not try to leave the stage prematurely as they did in Montreal last year after the lead singer, Axl Rose, complained of a sore throat, prompting a riot

However, Jon was confident the show would go off without a hitch.

“Axl’s calmed down heaps so there should be no trouble. I mean, we’ll go off [go wild] and everything, but there should be no trouble,” Jon said.

The police didn’t know which rock band forced them to close off Pitt Street to traffic yesterday afternoon but an estimated 4,000 other people did.

Thousands of fans dressed in black T-shirts and armed with records and compact discs, guitars and other musical instruments besieged the Brashs city store, hoping to come away with autographs from Skid Row. The five-piece US group performed a one-off autograph signing session at 3 pm.

But when the crowd rapidly swelled, police were called in to close the street between Park and Market streets and control the throng before worrying about who or what had caused the disruption.

“Skid who? We’re just here to make sure nothing happens, mate,” said one police officer trying to keep fans away from blocking the store entrance and being crushed against the glass doors.

“It must be Guns N’ Roses in there,” stated another before hauling away an enthusiastic teenager who had clambered over the crowd control barriers.

Ambulance crews were called in to treat about 10 people for heat exhaustion and hyperventilation, although police and store security guards used hoses to douse the crowd with water.

A store spokesman said about 100 fans had already lined up outside Brashs by 9 am yesterday and a handful of people had spent the night on Pitt Street to be first in line. He said the shop suffered
minor damage but turnstiles at the main entrance had prevented overcrowding.

The band signed about 1,000 autographs during the 90-minute session, which started at 3 pm, leaving many fans who turned up later disappointed.

Tempers flared when the band prepared to leave and the crowd began chanting obscenities and screaming for the “Rowers”, who previously visited Australia in 1990.

Flanked by bodyguards, the band left the store by an adjacent basement passageway and fans began banging their fists on Skid Row’s fleet of Toyota Tarago cars as singer Sebastian Bach was bundled into the back of one.

Even after the band had left, store security guards turned away fans hoping to search the shop for debris left by Skid Row; discarded paper cups, mineral water bottles and cigarette ends.

Jason Bifford, 19, of St Mary’s, said he arrived at the shop at 7 am yesterday to ensure he got a signed compact disc.

“There’s nothing better than the Rowers,” he said.

“I’ll be at the concert tomorrow and I’m going to be right up the front”

Host: ... at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney. Some 70,000 fans have packed the venue to see Guns N’ Roses. So far there’ve been two arrests. Police expect more trouble tonight.

Voice-over: Eastern Creek Raceway has been transformed into a sea of black. Tens of thousands of heavy metal fans are shaking and jumping to the warm-up bands. It’s a time bomb waiting for the bad boys of rock ‘n’ roll to explode onto stage. It’s been billed as the concert of the year, and, with 50 tons of lighting and sound equipment, it’s bound to be spectacular.

Wendy Laister (GN’R tour publicist): 250,000 watts of power, so it’s gonna be a pretty loud event.

Voice-over: Many people have been queuing for days, while others have travelled from around Australia. Scalpers were out doing business, while a host of local bands pacified the impatient mob. When the gates finally opened after 11:00, the crowd surged forward. It was a race to get the best position. For some, the push and shove proved too much.

Police Superintendent: A couple of collapses, exhaustion, a few heat problems, and it’s just because they were here far too early.

Voice-over: Months of planning have gone into the concert, with special precautions being taken to handle the huge crowd.

Reporter: More than 400 security guards are teaming up with 200 police to ensure things run smoothly tonight. But whether that’s enough to control a hyped up crowd of nearly 70,000 remains to be seen.

Michael Chugg (promoter): Then there’s the blue fence near the towers there and the black fence. That’s an ambulance safety line, so you’ve got sort of three parts of the crowd spread out.

Police Superintendent: If those lines hold we will be able to get in quite easy. But if they don’t hold, we’ll force our way through.

Voice-over: No alcohol is allowed in the complex and, so far, most people have been well behaved. But police and emergency personnel are preparing for the worst when Guns N’ Roses hit the stage at 8:00.

Host 2: Well, I enjoy the music, I don’t actually mind Guns N’ Roses, but I think I’ll stick to my CD.

Host: Well, Chris, all I can say is I’m glad that someone else is trying to look after 70,000 raging fans.

Host 2: That’s a lot of people.

Voice-over: And the ears started ringing with last night’s rehearsal. Guitarist Slash and bass player Duff strutted their stuff without lead singer Axl Rose, still yet to make a public appearance since his arrival in Sydney on Thursday. This morning, fans started queuing at the three main entrance gates at first light. By midday, half the expected crowd of 80,000 had already arrived.

Wendy Leister (GN’R tour publicist): This has to be one of the most organized events that we’ve been to. It’s a big, big show. It’s now the biggest show in Australia ever, it’s breaking all records.

Bill Greer (GN’R director of secuity): So far, like I said, people have been great. The fans are really doing what we asked of them; they’re coming in very orderly. Hopefully, they’re protecting themselves from the heat, cos that’s a big factor today.

Voice-over: Despite of police fears and of the stifling heat, the fans were on their best behaviour.

Michael Chugg (promoter): We haven’t had any arrests. The feeling in the crowd is very light, very jovial. Not having alcohol is probably the smartest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Voice-over: The use of drugs is also closely monitored, but the fans could never curb their addiction to the antics of Axl Rose.

Reporter: When Guns N’ Roses hit the stage at 8:00 tonight, Axl Rose will be getting the sort of reception he could hardly expect from the mothers of his adoring fans. This boy is bad and he doesn’t live next door.

[Cut to interviews with concertgoers]

Reporter: What does your mom think of Axl Rose?

Female concertgoer: Well, my mom wanted to buy my ticket of me, so I wouldn’t come.

Reporter: I’m sure you wouldn’t rather be at the cricket.

Another female concertgoer: It sucks. (laughs)

Voice-over: It’ll be remembered as a day of heavy metal mayhem, with the support programme featuring Pearls and Swine, Skid Row and Australian headbangers Rose Tattoo. Channel 7’s cameras were allowed backstage to film last-minute preparations in the calm before the storm.

Reporter: The concert is due to kick off in just under two hours. The band does have a reputation for being late at times. That shouldn’t happen tonight with a noise curfew enforced after 11:00.

Voice-over: They consider their craft to be nothing other than a serious business, evidenced by the intensity of Friday night’s rehearsal. The Eastern Creek Raceway usually rolls with the thunder of motorcycles, with the loudest Honda that have been drowned in the deafening decibels of Slash’s guitar. At first light on Saturday morning, the fans were already queuing for the best vantage points. The stage was awesome in itself, the size of a four-storey building, wired and computerised for a state of the art show of spectacular light and sound.

Wendy Laister (GN'R tour publicist): This lights (?) here holds 900 lights, so it’s a pretty amazing light show. It’s pretty much designed for all the band. I mean, they all utilise the ramps, everybody jumps and you’ll see Slash sort of come up and jump off the side of the ramp.

Voice-over: By midday, more than half the crowd had arrived, and despite police fears of bedlam, there would be only six arrests for drunken behaviour, after they managed to slip through the tight security into the alcohol-free venue. The sobriety (?) good will for the staging of other events on the same giant scale and not just rock concerts.

Michael Chugg (promoter): There’s a lot riding on it for us and also for Sydney. You know, this has got to help a lot if we pull this off trouble-free, and I think we’re odds on now to do that, touch knock on wood.

Voice-over: The band upheld its reputation for late arrivals, but it was worth waiting for the heavy metal explosion, and 80,000 fans were happy to be hit by the shrapnel.

[Live footage]

Voice-over: And the dosage will be just as heavy in Melbourne tonight, but police in Victoria can take hat. If Sydney has been any indication, it won’t be an overdose.

Voice-over: For fans of the band labeled the biggest hard rockers in the world, it was everything they dreamt and more. At the biggest gig Australia has ever seen, it was well worth awaited extended by 45 minutes with the Gunners living up to their reputation for being late on stage. The only ones who failed to meet expectations, the fans themselves. In a crowd of more than 80,000 there were only four arrests during the show. The First Aid said it treated less than 50 people for minor complaints. Dawn revealed surprisingly little damage and few sore heads. The lack of alcohol, just one of the factors singled out for praise by organisers.

Michael Chugg (promoter): I’m very proud of all my people and everybody’s who’s been involved. I mean, it’s a big challenge for us, and it’s a lot riding on for us and also for Sydney. You know, this has got to help.

Voice-over: For the much maligned Eastern Creek, it was an important test. Having passed that with hardly a hitch and basking in comparisons with London’s Wembley Stadium, organisers are setting their sights on a repeat performance.

?: We will certainly like to pursue the outdoor entertainment on the concert sight, and we’re gonna be negotiating with a number of people in the future.

Voice-over: Among the names being thrown around, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen. On the other side of town, the crowd was a little more subdued, but just as big. Another 80,000 people crammed into the Domain for the last of the festival of Sydney’s free concerts Midsummer Jazz.

Host: ... violence-free. Although it was Australia’s biggest concert, police made only four arrests. But 700 fans needed medical treatment.

Voice-over: It was billed to be the concert of the year. 80,000 die-hard rockers packing into Eastern Creek for the bad boys of heavy metal.

Concertgoer: The band was great. It really was!

Voice-over: Throughout the afternoon things ran smoothly. But as night fell, the crowd became restless. The lighters came first, and then the fires. One woman had to be taken to hospital suffering severe smoke inhalation.

Concertgoer: When 80,000 people get bored, they want to do something, and lighting fires is as good as anything else.

Voice-over: After a delay of almost an hour, Guns N’ Roses finally hit the stage sending the crowd wild. The show over, the boys headed to the airport and their Melbourne concert. The crowds headed home.

Reporter: It took seven hours and a lot of crowd control to get them all in here, but now that the concert’s over, it’s just one mad rush for the gates.  

Voice-over: Most chose public transport, packing platforms at Doonside station. While there were only four arrests and fourteen charges during the night, 700 people had to be treated for mainly minor injuries.

St John Ambulance officer: Heat exhaustion was major, few assaults.

Voice-over: Overall, the night is being held a success. Organisers are now planning more outdoor concerts for Eastern Creek.

Concertgoer: They were fantastic.

Voice-over: Eastern Creek was packed with thousands of screaming fans who went out to see their heroes of heavy metal. It was a two-hour performance that set the crowd wild. At the medical center, however, staff were working overtime. Ambulances carried hundreds of injured fans. This man suffered a minor stab wound, others needed fluid injections, one young girl suffered neck injuries. Back at the main arena, the finale of fireworks lit up the sky. Then it was over.

Reporter: 100,000 fans are now heading towards the exit. They’re causing a major problem for authorities.

Voice-over: It started when hundreds stormed off safety fence. Then, when the crowd hit the main road, more problems.

Police officer: It’s a sensitive situation. At the moment there’s chaos. Most of them are at the (?) and it’s a big problem that they’re blocking up the roadway.

Voice-over: Thousands of cars took the highway back to Sydney. At the Raceway dozens of (?) around the exit. It took until the early hours to clear the traffic jam. Despite the problems, authorities say that the concert was a success, and Eastern Creek now appears set to become a major concert venue.

70,000 rock to Gunners

By BRETT THOMAS

THEY had to wait for it — but a massive Sydney audience finally witnessed the world's so-called “most dangerous band" when Guns N' Roses exploded on to the stage at the Eastern Creek Raceway last night.

The band, on their second tour of Australia, went on 50 minutes late before an excited but patient crowd estimated at more than 70,000.

Fans lit bonfires, built human pyramids and raised cigarette lighters aloft in an eerie display prior to the band's arrival on stage.

Led by controversial singer Axl Rose, the Gunners produced a dazzling light, sound and pyrotechnic display, with a show that included 900 lights and 250,000 watts of power.

Band members raced around the giant stage — said to be the biggest used in the southern hemisphere — like professional athletes, with Rose displaying a revealing pair of bicycle shorts and a pierced nipple.

The fans, creating a sea of black ‘Gunners’ T-shirts, had formed huge queues at the four entrances to the raceway from early morning; some had camped in nearby car parks since Thursday.

Strict security checks at the gates ensured that no dangerous objects or alcohol were allowed into the venue, which was being used for a rock concert for the first time.

An estimated 400-strong security team was in operation.

There were relatively few incidents. There were a number of arrests for drunkenness and one arrest for assaulting police.

Five people were taken to Mt Druitt Hospital suffering minor injuries including heat exhaustion.

Sebastian Bach, lead singer of American hard rock band Skid Row, one of the earlier acts, lambasted the organisers for making the concert a no-alcohol event and threw bottles of beer into the front rows.

• AN estimated 80,000 people packed the Domain for the Midsummer Jazz concert last night, the final free outdoor concert for the Sydney Carnivale.

Axl Rose heavy on the cliches

ROCK
BRUCE ELDER

GUNS N’ ROSES
Eastern Creek Raceway January 31.

WELL, now we all know. Guns N' Roses may be accused of homophobia, they may incite their fans to violence, but they are deeply concerned about the environment. How else can anyone explain the fact that they have carefully collected every piece of heavy metal and pop rubbish from the past 25 years and recycled it all as something new and exciting?

Yes, this was a concert where the worn-out heavy-metal cliche was God. It was a concert where the black T-shirt (preferably with a Guns N' Roses logo) and the mandatory tattoo were the insignias of the tribe. It was also, in fairness, a day when about 70,000 people had a lot of fun.

The problem with concerts like this is not with the audience or the musicians. It is with the genre. Heavy metal/hard rock survives and prospers in spite of the fact its entire vocabulary — both musical and visual — was defined by about 1970 and no-one has since added to the original formula.

Thus, while Guns N' Roses delivered everything their audience wanted, all they had to offer was an amalgam of heavy-metal and hard-rock cliches — with a few best-forgotten gimmicks thrown in for good luck.

The Gunners know their cliches and, one suspects, they hope their audience doesn't. Thus, during the course of their two-hour performance, they trotted out the old guitar-against-the-amplifier feedback routine perfected by Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townshend in the mid 1960s, the guitar voicebox which gave Peter Frampton a string of hits in the mid 1970s, a drum solo of breathtaking awfulness by the new drummer, Matt Sorum, and the blues harmonica and guitar routine so beloved by the early Rolling Stones.

Not satisfied with these aging tricks, they recycled a bunch of old hits. There was an elongated, and not terribly interesting, version of Dylan’s Knocking On Heaven’s Door where Axl Rose distinguished himself by singing with all the falsetto panache of a castrated hamster.

There was a bit of a nod towards Alice Cooper’s Only Women Bleed and a pomp-and-circumstance version (is there any other kind?) of Wings’s Live and Let Die which incorporated lots of pyrotechnics, a superb strobe lighting effect, a bit of an audience singalong, and the appearance of three scantily-clad female performers known as the 976 horn section.

All this would be perfectly good fun if the Gunners saw the humour and absurdity in their own antics. Unfortunately, they take themselves so seriously. When Axl Rose sat down at the piano to play November Rain it was clear that he actually believed he was performing something of enduring artistic merit.

The video screens came alive with images of puffy white clouds, raindrops on still water, pictures of quiet rivers and all the while Mr Rose, dressed in lurex shorts with a bandana wrapped around his long, blond locks, sat earnestly tapping away at the keyboard. Oh, the pretentiousness of it all!

Is it possible not to collapse into uncontrollable mirth when a lead singer spends most of the evening, like some bizarre heavy-metal model, rushing off stage to change into a seemingly endless array of new outfits?

There was the baggy, tartan shorts outfit (shades of the Bay City Rollers?), the fishnet T-shirt number, the “get a job” T-shirt, the Neil Young-style red suede buckskin jacket, and the lurex biker shorts. There was one point (if you count taking off your shirt as a change of clothing) when Rose changed his outfit three times during the course of one song.

It is easy to argue that this kind of music should have been obliterated by the raw urgency of punk back in 1977 — but it wasn’t. It is equally easy to argue that Iggy Pop, the highlight of The Big Day Out earlier in the week, had more real energy and real rock ’n’ roll spirit than a thousand Axl Roses. But the inescapable truth still remains: 70,000 people had a great time and Guns N' Roses delivered precisely what everyone came to hear and see.

Sober fans show metal doesn’t equal chaos

By BRUCE ELDER
Rock Critic

Eastern Creek Raceway widely perceived as the Greiner Government's greatest fiscal folly, has produced the best outdoor rock venue in the country - and arguably the world.

The most remarkable aspect of the concert was that everything worked. The parking areas were not overcrowded. Access was quick and easy. There were rarely queues for the toilets. The numerous drink and food concessions did a roaring trade. People moved through the crowd with ease.

Even the weather was benign.

The heat of the day gave way to a cool evening breeze which left the crowd good-natured and relaxed.

The hard-core fans down the front worked up a sweat but, towards the back, a picnic atmosphere prevailed with people lying on the grass.

Such was the success of the pre-publicity of “no alcohol, no bottles, no cans, no weapons or studded belts” that the security guards at the gates had a trouble-free day. There were no caches of contraband and few attempts to smuggle alcohol in.

The natural amphitheatre ensured that everyone got a decent view - if watching a bunch of ant-sized musicians on a stage about one kilometre away can be described as a decent view - and the multi-level speakers meant the sound was clear even at the back of the crowd.

The economics of the day were extraordinary. On the credit side, the official crowd estimate was 70,000 which, given a ticket price of $50, meant the Frontier Touring Company grossed $3.5 million. To that could be added the fees for the lucrative food, drinks and sideshow entertainment stalls which encircled the site.

On the debit side, Frontier s managing director, Mr Michael Gudinski, revealed that Guns N' Roses had been paid “in excess of $US1 million” ($A1.47 million) for the performance.

The band was on stage for a little more than two hours, meaning that it earned about $US8,500 a minute - a circumstance which made Axl Rose's decision to wear a T-shirt loudly proclaiming “get a job” seem particularly incongruous.

While ambulance officers were kept busy — mostly from heat exhaustion and minor injuries -police had little to do other than stand around and enjoy the music.

A police spokesman said last night that four men were arrested on “alcohol-abuse related” charges.

Given that Guns N’ Roses came to Australia with a reputation for starting riots, and given that heavy metal fans have been known to convert a venue into a war zone, this was a model of mutual respect, good behaviour and low-key control.

Guns N’ Roses arrived shortly after 8 pm. Their helicopter twice circled the crowd before landing. In typical style, they did not appear on stage until nearly an hour after their scheduled time.

Even this delay did not seem to worry the audience who, as the sun set, started their own group activities of making human pyramids, Mexican waves and bonfires.

The day affirmed the organisational skills of the promoters and the good nature of Aussie heavy-metal fans.

Rock promoters unsure of Creek's future

By KATE McCLYMONT

Despite the success of Saturday night’s Guns N' Roses concert at Eastern Creek Raceway, it doesn’t appear as though a music-led recovery is set to pull the troubled motor-racing venue out of its financial difficulties.

Commenting on the favourable response to the weekend’s heavy metal concert staged at the raceway, the Minister for Sport, Recreation and Racing, Mr Schipp, said Eastern Creek had come through its initiation as a rock venue “with flying colours”, which “augurs very well for the future”.

Mr Schipp said that its potential as a venue was unlimited. As well as car and bike races, he predicted that rock concerts, Opera-in-the- Park-type events, along with major corporate exhibitions, would be staged at East-ern Creek in future.

But rock promoters contacted by Herald, while they were enthusiastic about Eastern Creek's availability, were less optimistic about how often it would be used.

Mr Michael Gudinski, whose Frontier Touring Company staged the Guns N’ Roses concert, said there were very few bands in the world that could play to that kind of capacity or were suited to that kind of venue.

“Take Madonna,” he said, “she’d be much better in a seated venue.

“I don’t think you’re suddenly going to see 10 shows a year out at Eastern Creek but it’s certainly opened the door to do some big special shows.”

Similarly, Mr Paul Dainty of the Dainty Corporation said it was great for promoters to have a choice of venues but that “more grown-up” acts, like Madonna and Paul McCartney, were better suited to Parramatta Stadium, which has reserved seating for 30,000.

He had considered Eastern Creek as a possible venue for McCartney, who will tour next month, but chose Parramatta Stadium because of its seating and its better access. Mr Dainty has no plans to use Eastern Creek in the foreseeable future but he saw it as a great place for a concert on a long weekend, because of its “festival-venue atmosphere”.

Asked how the concert’s success would affect the racetrack’s debt, Mr Schipp said he was sick of Eastern Creek being singled out and that it shouldn’t be treated any differently from other sporting venues. “There are no liabilities on if per se,” he said.

The NSW Auditor-General’s report tabled in Parliament in September revealed that the State Government had spent $86 million on the raceway. It also recorded an operating loss of $542,322 in the nine months to the end of June last year.

Mr Schipp would not discuss the commercial arrangements surrounding the concert.

However, industry sources said the raceway’s management would have taken about 15 per cent of ticket sales. With 70,000 fans paying $50 a ticket, that means the track might have earned about $500,000, plus percentages of merchandising and catering sales and car parking charges.

Eastern Creek fry

SIR: Yesterday my son returned from the [Guns ’N Roses] Eastern Creek rock concert with severe sunburn. He had sun screen in his backpack, but was prevented from taking the backpack in. His hat did little to allay the effects of 10 hours in open sunshine. I understand many others removed their shirts because of the heat It seems this captive audience had little choice but to fry.

Now I hear Eastern Creek is to be a favoured venue for subsequent concerts. How about encouraging the promoters to provide a sachet of sunscreen on entry; otherwise, make shelter provisions mandatory.

January 31
R.J. Paterson, Caringbah.

The quiet achievers

AFTER all the predictions of riots, mayhem and hotel wrecking, America's Guns N’ Roses will now have to alter its oft used tagline to the world's least dangerous band following an uneventful week-long Australian tour. Things went so smoothly that even former PM Bob Hawke, a resident in the same Double Bay hotel used by Gunners frontman Axl Rose, saw fit to praise the band's exemplary behaviour. Even happier are the five seriously ill children who met band members Gilby and Dizzy at the Eastern Creek Raceway before the concert, courtesy of the Starlight Foundation. “They were made to feel very special," said the foundation’s executive administrator Gailene Jones.