1987.10.10 - Kerrang! - Rumble from the Jungle

THE MOST DANGEROUS BAND IN THE WORLD - GUNS N' ROSES - ARE CURRENTLY LAYING WASTE TO OUR CONCERT HALLS. MALCOLM DOME DISCOVERS THEIR 'UNCRONTROLLABLE EDGE', THEIR 'DEPRAVED GENIUS'... AND THE FACT THAT THEY 'DON'T GIVE A TOSS'!

"REMINDS ME of my expedition to the wilds of Afghanistan. We lost the corkscrew and were forced to live on food and water for several days." - WC Fields.

The most dangerous band in the world are back in Britain. No, this isn't an excuse for some yellow rag 'take your partners for the jaundice tango' journalism. Rather, it's a statement of fact, pure, simple and smouldering.

Over the past few months it seems that everyone has had Guns n' Roses on their lips, playlists and turntables. Since they arrived in England during late June for a two-week, three Marquee show stint, the Gunners have become hobo heroes, road surfers calmly rising above the initial controversy caused by an apparently disappointing debut gig at the famous Marquee sweatwashed hogs inn to establish themselves during the subsequent brace of dates as a real gem.

They are, indeed, dangerous in the manner that all truly awesome rock 'n' roll bands have been, always will be. Led by the remarkable W. Axl Rose, the Los Angeles five-piece are very much the harbingers of the third generation of sleazy spirit. The Rolling Stones began things in the Sixties, Aerosmith took up the cudgels a decade later . and now Guns n' Roses have come along to sweep the genre into a new, exciting era.

No, the Gunners are not the Stones. Nor are they Aerosmith. They have elements of both coursing through their speckled veins, but there's a degree (somewhere out beyond the usual limits of the Centigrade scale) of contemporary acumen that puts 'em into the same league as Jagger, Tyler et al, without recourse to imitation. In short, this band could prove to be as important to the next decade as their predecessors were to years gone by.

So, what is this danger? It's an uncontrollable edge, a sense of unpredictability that is a constant companion, straining at the leash of convention and always likely to break loose and push Axl and his troops (Izzy and Slash on guitar, Duff on bass and Steven Adler on drums) right over the precipice. It happened in San Francisco, when Gn'R recently opened up for the Cult. Right at the climax of a spectacularly frightening performance, Duff ripped off his bass and threw himself, Mosh-style, into the audience. It was an impulse act, folly coupled to adrenalin, and certainly not a pre-rehearsed contrivance. It had the effect of bringing home to me just what is the essence of this brilliant rock 'n' roll band: they don't give a toss!

"Duff hasn't done a stage dive like that since the last night at the Marquee," said Slash backstage after the show. "And that really is the point, you don't know what you're gonna get from this band, but whatever it is you can be sure it's worth the
wait!"

THIS PARTICULAR night in San Fran really brought home to me that at the moment there is no other group around who can hope to compete with Guns n' Roses onstage. It really was a set dripping with the rabid control exercised only by the insane.

Whilst they're on the boards, you really do get spine-tingling dribbling shivers caused by the spearing squeeze of depraved genius. It's as if all five members suddenly lose perspective, douse civilised norms in petard emotion and set it alight. They are a supernova that is unhinged by a charismatic impertinence. Indeed, it says much for the Cult that they allowed Guns n' Roses as much opportunity as possible to give of their best, with no hint of the usual headline act paranoia.

"The Cult are the first band we've met who really have treated us right," explained AXL shortly before this momentous show.

"And do you know how we got this tour? Because Ian Astbury, the Cult's lead vocalist, came to our first show at the Marquee, the one we got such a slagging for, and liked it so much he offered us the tour. So f**k those journalists who wrote those bad things, Ian Astbury liked what he saw, right?

"We've been having a great time with the Cult, and Ian seems to spend more time in our dressing room than his own."

Just how close these two bands now are became clear when Astbury himself dashed out to get Duff a ripped black T-shirt to use as a headband. Now that's what I call co-operation. Whether Motley Crue will treat their LA compatriots so well when the lattere replace Whitesnake as special guests on the Nikki Sixx trail very soon remains to be seen. But hey, Guns n' Roses (with a rapidly rising Hot 100 album on the US charts) won't bother worrying about this tour (which should definitely be dubbed 'The Survival Of The Sickest Trek') until they return from their current five-date headlining trek around the UK, in conjunction with Faster Pussycat.

"We are looking forward to this so much," gleams Axl. "It's a chance to get out around the country ad visit some of the places that fans travelled from to see us at the Marquee. We had a blast in London earlier this year and I'm sure this tour will go extremely well."

That's probably an understatement. As I write, just prior to the tour getting underway, all the signs are that we'll have a total sell-out situation to report. But more than that, I suspect this will be a real turning point for the group, with Aerosmith among the sufferers.

Originally, of course, Gn'R were supposed to come back here as the 'Smith's support act. However, due to confusing circumstances (finances apparently playing a part) that Euro-trek was cancelled by the Aeros. But the Gunners were determined to come anyway and will, I think, completely erase memories of Aerosmith, who've not been here in a decade and are showing no signs of genuinely wanting to return. If we're starved of the great Bostonians, let's hear it for their natural successors. In fact to many, with their 'Appetite For Destruction' album, Guns n' Roses have already usurped Aerosmith's crown and will `merely' use the UK tour to polish up those rivets n' jewels.

So, what can we expect from the Gn'Rs? Certainly no lack of potent, scarring activity. A set brimful of raw salt, germicidal edge and suicidal bloodlust. They will burst, bludgeon and blaze, never hiding behind SFX but proving that their music, attitude and excessive habits are all they need. In San Francisco, the Gunners had a dark, foreboding insolence. They seethed with a magnetic malevolence, at once invoking an uneasy, tempestuous spirit whilst kicking sharply with the sheer fortitude of their street-forged greed and hunger for gouging out a niche.

There is no arrogance about Guns, nor an air of superiority. They simply lash straight and burn with an incandescent fragility.

Izzy and Slash (the former operating with amps that threatened to pack up at any time) literally tore neon-glitz viscera out of their strings, rather like a pit bull terrier ripping apart a panicking victim at the shoulder blade, feeding the torn torso avariciously into the rhythmic rotary stare and the sawblade cutting thrust that is Duff and Adler. And holding the entire cannibal atmosphere in the palm of his hand is Axl, the knave at the court of crimson death, Rasputin defrocked for the jean jeanie jeneration. Possessed of a rapturous vocal range, possessed of a mesmeric presence, Axl is ... possessed. He commands and demands, shadowboxing, lunging, triggering, never more than a hair's breadth away from bedlam as he lasciviously twirls his lyrics, twisting 'em into a frenzy of erotic homicide.

THE SONGS speak of drugs, sex, violence. They are the poetry of the alleys, this band are the laureates of the gutter - God knows, I love 'em for it. 'Welcome To The Jungle', 'It's So Easy', 'Mr. Brownstone', 'Paradise City', 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door' ... this was another definitive performance from perhaps the latest band to deserve that irrelevant accolade of 'The Greatest Rock 'N' Roll Band In The World'. The Gunners don't need this title. I suspect they want it, and for what it's worth, they've now earnt it.

They've also earnt the revulsion and mistrust of the music establishment in America. Geffen Records tried to stop them using the supposedly controversial `robotic rape' painting by Robert Williams on the cover of the LP; clearly the label were running scared that the Moral Majority, the PMRC or yet another body of over-ripe Bible assassins freebasing on fanaticism would take offence and try to have the record banned. Guns n' Roses refused to change the artwork . and won their case (NB. As a compromise, an alternative cover has also been released depicting a 'cross tattoo').

The band have also hit trouble over the video for `Welcome To The jungle'. MTV insisted that a scene which shows Adler kissing a girl on the shoulder whilst in bed had to be edited out.

"It's f**kin' stupid," roars Axl with some justification. "This scene is harmless. There's no nudity or obscene behaviour. And yet MTV object to it. What sickens me is that the George Michael video for 'I Want Your Sex', which is far more suggestive than ours, is allowed to go out uncensored. Explain that one if you can. We're just being picked on."

YET DESPITE these minor setbacks, the people that matter, the kids, are taking the band close to heart. They have recognised that the Gunners are disenfranchised leaders.

They aren't rebelling, but making a statement, which is as follows: Just leave us alone to do our own thing. It's a simple message, but one that is more convincing than any conniving PMRC bogeyman bleatings deliberately coaxed into the open by the manipulative Bluey Clueless or the Ronald McDonald antics of Dee Snider.

Guns n' Roses represent themselves alone. But in doing so they've captured the mood of a generation. They have a scumball reputation and it's all true, but more than that this lot are real, which is why they are the most dangerous band in the world and why they cannot be stopped.

Found this cartoon at the end of the magazine. Don't really get it myself...