1993.03.09 - Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, USA

Guns N’ Roses tickets going on sale for March shows

By ROGER CATLIN
Courant Rock Critic

Tickets go on sale Friday at 4 p.m. for two Connecticut shows by Guns N’ Roses next March. The band is scheduled to play Saturday, March 6, at the New Haven Coliseum and Tuesday, March 9, at the Hartford Civic Center.

Showtime for the Los Angeles band notorious for going on late is also quite late for an arena show — 8:30 p.m. Opening both shows will be the Brian May Band, a group headed by the former Queen guitarist, whose first album is due out next month.

All tickets cost $25; there is a limit of eight per person.

Lines will form Friday at 11 a.m. at both venues; numbered bracelets will be distributed between 1 and 2 p.m.; lotteries will be held by 2 p.m. to determine placement in line. Tickets also will be available through Ticketmaster outlets and Ticketmaster phone charge (525-4500 in Hartford area, 624-0033 in New Haven area).

The two shows will represent the first dates ever for Guns N’ Roses in Connecticut, but not the first time a show for the band went on sale here.

A proposed show at Lake Compounce Festival Park in Bristol last summer was a quick sellout, but the park’s financial woes caused the June 15 date to be postponed to Sept. 28, when it was canceled altogether.

To date, not all of the 21,500 ticket-holders for that show have been reimbursed.

The cancellation in part led to the bankruptcy of Joseph Entertainment Group, which was co-owner and promoter of rock shows at Lake Compounce for three seasons. No concerts were held at the amusement park this year, which was closed all season except for Labor Day weekend.

Last November, state Consumer Protection Comissioner Gloria Schaffer appealed to Guns N’ Roses to allow free admission to Compounce ticketholders at the band’s nearby show at the Worcester Centrum last Dec. 1, but it did not occur.

The band had been holding two dates at the Hartford Civic Center last Dec. 5 and 6 as a sort of makeup date for Compounce, but sources said the band was reluctant to play Hartford because of pressure to admit tickets from a show for which it was never paid.

Schaffer could not be reached Tuesday.

Guns N’ Roses is currently touring South America.

Guns N’ Roses up to old tricks

That sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach: It’s happening to Guns N’ Roses ticket holders again, because the bad boys of rock are at it again. The band has abruptly canceled all of this week’s shows on the road — from one last Friday in Cincinnati to shows Monday in Chapel Hill, N.C., Wednesday in Albany and Thursday in Providence. The cancellations were made Friday; the announcement wasn’t made until Monday for the later dates. The band is off the road and back in Los Angeles, according to spokesmen at Geffen Records.

Some tickets remain for Tuesday’s show at the Civic Center, which has not been canceled. But if you’re buying them, use a credit card; consumer-protection officials say refunds for canceled shows are easier with credit cards.

No reason was given for the cancellations; no makeup dates were given, either, although officials said all four shows would be made up.

The next unscathed show on the roster? Saturday’s sold-out show at the New Haven Coliseum, where Guns N’ Roses would be making its Connecticut debut.

Thousands of fans in the state are still smarting from the band’s proposed show in 1991, a sellout that was first postponed and then canceled at the last minute because of financial problems at Lake Compounce Festival Park in Bristol.

Some of the 21,500 fans from that no-show never received refunds.

[...]

By ROGER CATLIN
Courant Rock Critic

FINAL GUNS NOTES

After its efficient two-hour show at the Hartford Civic Center last week, Guns N’ Roses hung around the city for another couple of days before its gig last Friday in Hamilton, Ontario.

And they didn’t spend their time hanging out at the Atheneum. Instead, big nocturnal outings were planned for girlie bars from Tolland to Hartford.

The band’s local show seemed to stress its punk roots a bit more than the earlier performance in New Haven, starting with the Sid Vicious recording of “My Way” that served as fanfare for the show. Duff McKagan has long been singing the Misfits’ “Attitude” in the current tour (author: Glenn Danzig). But there was also a long version of Rose Tattoo’s “Nice Boys” from their live album. And while noodling around with an acoustic guitar before “Sick of This Life,” Axl picked out Devo’s “Mongoloid,” of all things.

(Sure, the “Charlie Don’t Surf” T-shirt Rose wore both dates is also the title of a Clash song. But more likely the phrase, from “Apocalypse Now,” is a sick joke referring to the face on the front of the shirt: Charles Manson).

The rest of the song list followed the New Haven list, with a few key substitutions: “Mr. Brownstone” for “Nightrain”; “Don’t Cry” for “Estranged.”

The complete song list for Hartford was “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Mr. Brownstone,” “The Garden,” “Live and Let Die,” “Attitude,” “Nice Boys,” “So Fine,” “Double Talkin’ Jive,” “You Ain’t the First,” “You’re Crazy,” “Used To Love Her,” “Patience,” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” “November Rain,” “Sick of This Life,” “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” (encore) “Don’t Cry,” “Paradise City.”

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Last Saturday’s Guns N’ Roses show at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass., has been rescheduled for May 6. But the opening band will no longer be the Brian May Band, which must leave for European dates; a replacement has not been named. Tickets are still available for the Amherst show.