2006.06.20 - Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris, France

Guns N’ Roses reunite again with Izzy Stradin

The guitarist is special guest at Paris show

Guns N’ Roses reunited again with former member Izzy Stradin in Paris last night (June 20).

The guitarist joined-up with Axl Rose and his band at the Bercy concert hall in the French capital.

As at this year’s Download Festival, Stradin played on tracks ‘Patience’ and ‘I Used To Love Her’, but also joined Guns N’ Roses on their signature single ‘Paradise City’.

Playing for around three hours, the band also included Bob Dylan cover ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’ and several new songs, including ‘Madagascar’ and ‘IRS’.

The set also that featured a series of instrumental covers, including songs by David Bowie and Christina Aguilera.

Guns N’ Roses played:

‘Welcome To The Jungle’

‘It’s So Easy’

‘Mr Brownstone’

‘Live And Let Die’

Robin Finck guitar solo

‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’

‘Madagascar’

‘You Could Be Mine’

‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’

‘Ziggy Stardust’ Dizzy Reed piano solo

‘Beautiful’ Richard Fortus guitar solo

‘Out Ta Get Me’

‘Don’t Cry’ Bumblefoot guitar solo

‘Better’

‘November Rain’

‘IRS’

‘My Michelle’

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

‘Patience’ (with Izzy Stradlin)’

‘Night Train’

‘The Blues’

Robin Finck guitar solo

‘Paradise City’ (with Izzy Stradlin)

Axl Rose was long overdue

Paris-Bercy Sports Palace (XIIe), last night.

By Sébastien Catroux

When Axl Rose, the singer of Guns N 'Roses, took the stage for the first time in France since 1993, he had a lot to make up for. Expected around 9 p.m., he finally showed up at 10:40 p.m. - a record of its kind.

While waiting for him to turn up, all kinds of rumors were flying around, between beers, in the aisles of a packed Bercy. "He's going to sing just for half an hour, like a few weeks ago in London,” some said. "He fired his guitarists and his drummer yesterday. Eventually only the drummer came back and they’ve been rehearsing, if not learning, the songs all afternoon. That’s why the opening bands couldn’t rehearse and why they’ve been so late,” affirmed others... This version, in line with rock 'n' roll romanticism and the man’s notorious instability, was the most popular among the soothsayers.

And then, at 10:40 p.m., as the boos and the gestures of discontent were multiplying, Axl Rose, the only original member of the hard rock band known in the early 1990s as Guns N’ Roses, took the stage. "I've been preparing three years for this tour”, he stated after “Welcome to the Jungle,” an appropriate show opener for the occasion, followed later by: "I feel better. Five songs ago, I still felt bad.” Miraculously, his old hits, sung in a beautiful high-pitched voice, still worked: "Live and Let Die," a Paul McCartney's Wings cover, as well as the iconic “Sweet Child O 'Mine" (despite the awful guitar solo intro).

"Tell the truth, you didn't think we were coming, did you?” he said at one point, without even getting an angry reaction from the – dulled by the wait and the heat - audience. After an extended version of Bob Dylan’s "Knocking on Heaven's Door," the pianist went to cover Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust". Would Axl Rose come back to sing? Fortunately, he did. At 12.50 a.m., he was still on stage.