2006.06.11 - Download Festival, Donington Park, Donington, England

Guns n' Roses @ Download: Destruction avoided

By John Atkin

John Atkin reflects on Sunday @ Download as Guns n' Roses headlined the festival with their appetite for self-destruction turning into a masterclass.

There's a moment when it all hangs in the balance.

For 30 minutes, Guns 'n Roses have singed the eyebrows and eardrums of the Download crowd. After being over an hour late on stage at Hammersmith earlier in the week, Gn'R are on-time and on-form, opening with flashbombs and the one-two-three suckerpunch of Welcome To The Jungle, It's So Easy and Mr Brownstone.

Live And Let Die and Knockin' On Heaven's Door follow, before guitarist Robin Finck picks out the signature riff to Sweet Child O'Mine.

But you can tell from the giant screens flanking the stage that all is not well on the braided, goateed visage of Axl Rose. He's been carping about the stage being too slippy and, during a front-of-crowd walkabout, appears to aim the 'c' word at an over-zealous steward. As the band's most famous song dies, he abruptly announces: "We're having some technical problems, so we're gonna take a break."

I was on this Leicestershire soil in 1988 when the over-exuberant response to Guns' debute Donington appearance led to the fatal crushing of two fans. With tonight's restless crowd, semi-delirious on three days of booze, guitars and 30-degree heat, this could all turn nasty. Just as it seems as though Axl's well-documented appetite for self-destruction is about to consume another comeback appearance, guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal saves the day, appearing alone, stage front, to crank out a guitar-only version of Don't Cry which quells the bottle-fight in the crowd enough for normal service to (almost) be resumed.

You Could Be Mine claws back more ground but then Axl's gone again, leaving Finck and Richard Fortus to widdle their way through a (frankly excruciating) guitar instrumental version of Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful". That's followed by the night's first new song (The Blues?) in which the level of chatter in the crowd, followed by booing and chants of "sort your f****** head out" , have seasoned Axl-watchers on alert yet again. When bassist Tommy Stinson grabs the vocal mic and threatens to go home if he's hit by one more flying bottle, the rainclouds gathering above Download for the first time all weekend seem an apt, if ominous, portent of a coming storm.

Maybe Axl needs this danger, this threat of impending violence, to really get the adrenaline racing. And as the band rips defiantly in to Out Ta Get Me, the whole dynamic shifts. Dizzy Reed's solo piano version of Ziggy Stardust is  warmly received, another new song (Better?) sounds loads, erm, better.

The tide has turned, and it's time for Axl's coup de theatre: "I'd like to welcome a very good friend of mine…Mr Izzy Stradlin…" and out trots his former sidekick to roars of approval. There are now as many members of prime-time Guns n' Roses in this band as there are in Velvet Revolver, and the performance of Think About You that follows throws down a gauntlet for all pretenders.

"Can I get a piano out here?" asks Axl and seated, drink in hand, there's only one way he's going now. November Rain is nothing short of a masterpiece, the band firing, finally, on every single cylinder as the main man, in his own words, "beats the hell out of that old love song."

Another "old friend" is welcomed onstage in the shape of ex-Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach, possibly one of the few frontmen who can give Axl a run for his money in the helium-scream department. The pair trade lines through My Michelle, before Stradlin's recalled for a run through Patience and a punked-out, four-guitar version of Nightrain which, to coin a phrase, rolls like a freight train right through the middle of this dusty field.

The encores, bravely, begin with another newie, Madagascar, before Brian Mantia kick-drums the seven-piece into a masterful version of Rocket Queen.

"I don't wanna go home," says Axl, before admitting: "that's different to how I felt an hour ago."

Two more new songs – IRS and Chinese Democracy – are aired, both of them whetting appetites for the new album, before Izzy Stradlin comes out once more for the final two-step, a ramshackle, Stonesy version of Useta Love Her and a thunderous reading of Paradise City which lights up the sky with pyrotechnics and ticker-tape cannons.

Guns n' Roses were once proclaimed The World's Most Dangerous Band. On tonight's evidence that danger is still there, which – while at one stage threatening to derail the whole show -  has instead focused Axl and the band into delivering one of the all-time great Donington performances.

Yes, Metallica were unstoppable on Saturday night, but they didn’t face the pressure of a world waiting to see them put a foot wrong. What Axl delivered in the face of that expectation was a two-and-a-half-hour masterclass in the light and shade of rock'n'roll.

The new album, Chinese Democracy, is reportedly ready for release. If it lives up to tonight, then Guns n' Roses will once again be the biggest band in the world.

Guns N’ Roses in shock Download reunion
Axl and Izzy put their differences behind them at Donington

Guns N’Roses’ singer Axl Rose was reunited with estranged guitarist Izzy Stradlin as Download drew to a close tonight (June 11).

And heavy metal’s legends of Sunset Strip closed the Donington festival in a typically chaotic style.

Midway through the set, Rose introduced original member Stradlin for three songs, ‘Patience’, ‘Night Train’ and ‘I Used To Love Her’.

It was only Stradlin‘s second show back with the band in over a decade, following a shock appearance in New York last month.

But that was not the only surprise instore; for ‘My Michelle’, the band were joined by former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach.

Guns N’Roses took the stage half an hour early, but Rose easily made up the time in a series of sensational walk-offs.

After slipping over during ‘Sweet Child O’Mine’, Rose annnounced that the band were experiencing “technical difficulties” and left the stage for five minutes while a guitarist played an instrumental version of ‘Don’t Cry’.

The singer had already abandoned the show once before, leaving the crowd with an instrumental version of Christina Aguilera‘s hit ‘Beautiful’. And he threatened to leave the stage after ‘Better’ if the crowd persisted in throwing bottles.

However, they did get to air ‘new’ songs ‘Better’, ‘The Blues’, ‘IRS’ and ‘Madagascar’.

Perhaps referencing this weekend’s Nokia Isle Of Wight festival, Rose dubbed the site “the Isle Of Wrong” before ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’.

Guns N’ Roses played:

‘Welcome To The Jungle’

‘It’s So Easy’

‘Mr Brownstone’

‘Live and Let Die’

‘Knockin’On Heaven’s Door’

‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’

‘You Could Be Mine’

‘Beautiful’ (instrumental)

‘Better’

‘Out To Get Me’

‘The Blues’

‘November Rain’

‘My Michelle’ (with Sebastian Bach)

‘Patience’ (with Izzy Stradlin)

‘Night Train’ (with Izzy Stradlin)

‘Madagascar’

‘Rocket Queen’

‘IRS’

‘I Used To Love Her’ (with Izzy Stradlin)

‘Paradise City’

Elsewhere at Download, second stage headliners The Prodigy narrowly avoided a crowd incident as hordes of fans climbed the lighting rig onn what was only their second-ever show back in their original line-up, after headlining Isle Of Wight on Friday.

Finnish Eurovision winners Lordi also played today, alongside Welsh hardcore heroes Funeral For A Friend and Bullet For My Valentine.

Closing the biggest ever Download, organiser Stuart Galbraith confirmed that the festival had sold out for the first time in its history, and that it would return next year, June 8-10.

As well as sister festivals in Dublin and San Francisco, he also revealed plans for a Download festival in Boston.

Axl's Actually Here!

Once one of the most influential bands in the world and now they're back to play Download 2006. But is that a good thing?

Ever since Axl Rose went awol and fired the rest of Guns n' Roses they've just not been the same band. This isn't the Guns n' Roses of old that was known for defining a musical generation, it is the Axl Rose tribute band that are known for taking almost a decade to release an album whilst cancelling most of their gigs. The last UK festival appearance by the band was at Leeds Festival in 2002 which was followed by a riot and a change of venue for the festival in 2003. After the festival date, of course, Guns n' Roses pulled out of the rest of their UK tour.

With just forty five minutes to go it isn't the most electric atmosphere that Donington's Main Stage has ever seen. It's not even the most electric atmosphere that the toilets at Donington have ever seen. In fact, most people have wandered off to see Prodidgy with the incorrect assumption that if Guns n' Roses do turn up they'll be at least two hours late.

With five minutes to go pre-recorded music starts to play and surprised half-asleep people start to rush towards the stage, suddenly, the opening of 'Welcome to the Jungle' rings out through the PA and Axl Rose appears in an almost George Michael come Freddy Mercury style outfit with 'It's So Easy', 'Mr. Brownstone' and 'Live and Let Die' following.

It may not be the real Slash, nor the real Guns n' Roses, but does that really matter? Yes. A resounding yes. The passion that went in to the songs originally may be able to be replicated from a solely musical standpoint, but when all you really have left from the band's beginnings is Axl the whole essence of the original Guns n' Roses no longer exists. The current band may well be technically perfect, but technical perfection isn't something that justifies a headlining slot no matter how hard you try to make your new guitarist look and act like Slash.

As 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' and 'Sweet Child o' Mine' finish the ever charismatic Mr. Rose announces "We're having technical difficulties and will be taking a break" and walks off stage for five minutes without uttering another word. After a bit of time to sort out his hair one of the plethora of guitarists rocks out for five minutes more before Axl and the rest of his merry men walk out to begin 'You Could Be Mine' and an instrumental version of Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful'.

After just one more song the crowd are now informed that if they throw any more bottles containing urine (and most likely any other substance) at the stage that everyone is going to throw their toys out of their pram and go home. That's right, the man that was once known for fronting one of the greatest rock n' roll bands of all time is now more concerned about restraining orders on former band mates and ensuring that his perm is kept in top condition at all times.

As the sun finally sets over Donington for the last time at this year's Download Festival 'November Rain' plays and, for the first time tonight, causes the crowd on the hill to, mostly, stand up and even clap as opposed to boo. The selection of classics continues until 'Night Train' calls for the final break for an encore.

Axl Rose finally walks off stage to his waiting helicopter without saying a word thirty minutes late after the end of 'Paradise City'. The arena is now full of fires and as a chair is thrown on and a plume of toxic smoke rises it spells another night of mini-riots across the campsite as scaffolding and fences are torn down whilst fires spring up everywhere. They may no longer be able to draw a huge crowd or justify themselves in the way they once could but they certainly know how to start fires. If the fame thing fails at least Axl could get a job working at a power station.