1987.10.DD - Hard Rock Magazine - Guns & Roses (Axl, Slash, Duff)

Translation from French:
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GUNS N’ ROSES
"LAGAFFE"⁽¹⁾ OF HARD ROCK

By Arlett Vereecke and Dominique Du Jean

GUNS & ROSES, a new combo made in L.A,  managed to cause the effect of a tornado during its passage through the Perfidious Albion. In the most beautiful tradition of rock-stars like Richards or Blackmore, they trashed hotel rooms, had confrontations with the cops ... but played sold-out shows at the Marquee for three nights in a row. Quite the characters!

Guns & Roses, LA's latest "bad-boy" gang, seems to have been a source of controversy since forever. In less than two years, the rosy guns⁽²⁾ have evolved from an opening band to the most successful performing act in the region. After signing with Geffen for a debut album aptly titled "Appetite For Destruction", the guys recently drew attention in their own unique way, playing three consecutive sold-out gigs at the famous Marquee club in London.

Chaos. There are some gangs that go headlong: in less than two weeks, the armed roses⁽²⁾ managed to shake the foundations of good old England ... "At first, we wanted to sleep on the plane. So someone gave us half of a J&B Magnum as a sleeping pill. Whiskey is a big emotion (or commotion?) stirrer among the band,” explains four-stringer Duff MacKagan. “Slash, our guitarist, thought that he was at a party, and wanted to leave through the escape hatch! And someone else nearly started a fire by throwing a cigarette behind a seat. The captain of the 747 reprimanded us, and the cops were waiting for us in England, but, thankfully, our manager got it all settled..."

CASCADING CONFRONTATIONS

And that was only the beginning. Besides being kicked out from three of the most famous clubs in England, rumour has it that they smashed a shop window after they were refused entry, and that they threw various objects through the window of the hotel that accomodated them. That same night, Slash, the hellish guitarist, managed to turn his room all upside down without preventing the others from falling peacefully into the arms of Morpheus... Is that all? No, that's not all! W. Axl Rose, the Guns’ vocalist, had an altercation with the security personnel at Tower Records, who even called the police after Axl refused to leave the place. Axl, who was accompanied by Alan Niven (band manager) and Tom Zutaut (CEO at Geffen), explained that he’d only bought a cassette and was waiting for his mates so that he could buy a laser disc, too. But security didn’t want to hear anything, and the argument broke out. The police arrived at the scene, but no charges were filed. "I wanted to break everything in there," Axl said when asked about the incident. “I’d gladly drive one of these English cabs through their showcase! It’s very hard to keep your cool in this kind of situations."

Following the affront, Tower Records sent their deepest apologies, along with a jacket with the store’s logo, to (still furious) Rose.

Axl’s troubles, however, didn’t end there. The RSPA⁽³⁾ (British version of our SPA...) tried to get all the performances of the group cancelled, after the singer was presented as a "slayer of little dogs" in a Time Out Magazine article dedicated to the gunmen of the Rose⁽²⁾. During an interview organised by Sounds Magazine in L.A., Rose, who owns two Maltese dogs, arrived late and in a bad mood.

The dogs had made a mess of his apartment, and, still affected by it, he declared: "I hate small dogs. I hate everything about them! I'm gonna kill them!" No one in the room took that excessive mood seriously, except for the Time Out Magazine interviewer – and, of course, the RSPA.

STRAIGHT TO YOUR FACE

"We always do what we want, even at someone else's expense," says Slash, whose potential and ability may elevate him to one of the top six-stringers of the genre. He is one of those people who don’t mince their words and spit them straight to your face: "We meet a lot of opposition from people because of our lifestyle. But what we believe in is evident in the music. Our music is, in fact, very honest." And without an album yet in the record stores (their first LP "Live Like A ?! / Suicide” climbed to the tops of the imports charts), Guns & Roses offered their followers three hot shows of solid and powerful rock. Each night, Rose, MacKagan, Slash, Izzy Stradlin (guitar) and Steven Adler (drums) took the stage by storm, spreading their distress through the sound system. The armed roses⁽²⁾ made bodies sweat with songs from their album that were massively approved by the crowd, like "Night Train", "You're Crazy", "Welcome To The Jungle" and "Paradise City.” A recent single released in Europe, "It's So Easy" and "Mr. Brownstone,” has sold over 10,000 copies in two weeks, and the majority of the fans already sang it along with the band. W. Axl Rose is gifted with one of those unique rock 'n' roll voices; and with his natural charisma as a frontman ensuring the rest, he may very well challenge the accomplishments of certain giants of the mike in the coming months.

TOTAL SUCCESS

Each night the band was called for an encore and complied with the demand right away. At the third and last gig, the guys played a five-song encore: Dylan's classic “Knocking On Heaven’s Door,” ferociously reinvigorated, "Move On The City" and "Whole Lotta Rosie" of the “kangaroos;” and, finally, a crazy-wild version of Aerosmith’s "Mama Kin", during which Rose, MacKagan and Slash dived into the crowd giving the startled roadies a lot of work.

In a short period of time, five young people who held on to a dream have become five young people really flirting with glory. Characterised by a maturity growing in all respects, the rosy guns⁽²⁾ are finally coming to us via vinyl. Let's wait for the fury to go off...

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Notes:

(1) I believe “Lagaffe” is a reference to a French cartoon character.
(2) The article makes various wordplays with the name of the band.
(3) RSPA: Royal Society for the Protection of Animals