2002.10.DD - Geffen Press Kit for the Chinese Democracy Tour in N.A.

Thanks to @troccoli for sharing this with us. The images of the press kit can be found on his site here:
http://www.troccolitm.com/2002PressKit.html

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GEFFEN RECORDS

GUNS N' ROSES
The History

Intense, compelling and dramatic, Guns N’ Roses formed in Hollywood in 1985 and rock ‘n’ roll was never the same. Not since the Sex Pistols had a rock band caused so much controversy. With a frenzied energy, on stage and off, GN’R swept away pop-metal and ushered in a new era of raw, honest, in-your-face rock.

Singer W. Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler took the L.A. club circuit by storm. In the fall of 1986, the band released a four-song EP, Live ?!*@ Like A Suicide, on its own Uzi Suicide label, pressing just 25,000 copies. In August, the band was signed to Geffen Records.

Appetite For Destruction (1987)... The first full-length album from GN’R, Appetite For Destruction became one of the most popular hard rock albums in history, selling more than 20 million copies world wide-certified 15 times platinum in the U.S. A street-level success, it took 10 months (during which the band toured with The Cult, Motley Crüe, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden and Aerosmith) before the album broke into the Top 100. When it reached #1 it remained there for five weeks. The album included three Top 10 singles: the gold and #1 “Sweet Child O’ Mine" (GN’R became only the fourth hard rock group to have a #1 pop single), the anthem “Welcome To The Jungle" (#7) and the rocker “Paradise City" (#5).

GN’R won two MTV Video Music Awards, Best New Artist (1988) for “Welcome To The Jungle” and Best Metal/Hard Rock Video (1989) for “Sweet Child O’ Mine” (the latter also won the American Music Award for Favorite Single, Pop/Rock). In July 1990, Appetite For Destruction finally dropped from the Billboard charts after a reign of nearly three years (147 weeks).

In 2002, Appetite For Destruction was ranked #1 among “The 50 Greatest Rawk Albums Of All Time!” by Blender (August) and #1 among the “40 Greatest Metal Albums Of All Time" by Spin (September).

GN’R Lies (1988)... Comprised of songs from the group’s independently-released 1986 EP Live ?!*@ Like A Suicide plus 1988 acoustic live performances, GN’R Lies followed the previous year’s Appetite For Destruction up the charts. GN’R became the only artist in the ‘80s to have two albums Top 5 simultaneously. Zooming to #2, the Grammy-nominated album (for Hard Rock Performance) was certified five times platinum and claimed a gold single, the #4-charting ballad “Patience."

In 1989, GN'R was named Best New American Band in the Rolling Stone Readers' Poll and Best Heavy Metal Band (and Axl Best Male Singer) in the magazine's Critics' Poll. That year, the band also played a series of celebrated concerts with the Rolling Stones. In 1990, GN’R performed at Farm Aid IV and won two American Music Awards: Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist and Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Album for Appetite For Destruction. New recordings were heard on two compilations: a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin' On Heaven’s Door" on the soundtrack to Days Of Thunder and “Civil War" on the benefit album Nobody’s Child: Romanian Angel Appeal.

In October, Adler was released from the band and replaced by Matt Sorum, most recently of The Cult. Sorum and newly added keyboard player Dizzy Reed’s first concert with GN’R was in January 1991 at Rock In Rio. That summer, GN’R launched its first-ever tour as headliner, many months prior to the release of the band’s next project.

Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (1991)... In one of the most anticipated events in music, two separate albums were released simultaneously, a first by any contemporary artist. On September 17, 1991, both Use Your illusion I and Use Your illusion II debuted. Together, they featured three gold hits with “November Rain" (#3), “Don’t Cry” (#10) and the previously released “You Could Be Mine" (#29), heard in the film Terminator II: Judgement Day, plus another Top 40 hit with "Live And Let Die" (#33). Each of the Use Your Illusion albums went seven times platinum. Use Your Illusion I reached #2 and II went to #1 — the first time one artist held the top two spots since 1974. II was Grammy nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance, as was “Live And Let Die." At the MTV Video Music Awards, the epic “November Rain" won in three categories: Special Effects, Editing and Cinematography, and GN’R was also honored with the Video Vanguard Award for lifetime achievement in music videos.

In November 1991, Stradlin exited, replaced by Gilby Clarke, formerly of Kill For Thrills. Meanwhile, the Use Your Illusion Tour continued, eventually becoming the longest in rock history-28 months, 192 sold-out shows, seven million fans. On home video, Use Your Illusion World Tour 1992 In Tokyo I and II, both released in 1992, were certified gold. Issued the following year were Making F@*!ing Videos Part I “Don’t Cry” and Part II “November Rain".

“The Spaghetti Incident?” (1993)... A collection of GN’R covers of classic, mainly punk, songs that had influenced the band members since their early days, “The Spaghetti Incident?” reached #4 and was certified platinum. Included were renditions of songs by Iggy and The Stooges, The Misfits, Sex Pistols, Fear, The Damned, New York Dolls and The Dead Boys.

In 1994, Clarke left the band. The following year, GN'R was heard on the Interview With The Vampire soundtrack via a remake of the Rolling Stones’ "Sympathy For The Devil.” As the band's hiatus was extended, various musicians both joined and left, and Axl became the one remaining original member. After a video retrospective, 1998’s Welcome To The Videos, a live retrospective of never-before-issued performances was released in 1999, the double-disc Live: Era ‘87-’93, which was certified platinum. Also appearing that year was the first new original GN’R recording in eight years, the industrial-flavored “Oh My God" on the soundtrack to End Of Days.

On New Year's Day 2001, just after midnight, in Las Vegas, GN'R played its first live date in seven years. The revamped line-up included Rose; guitarists Robin Finck, Buckethead and Paul Tobias; keyboard players Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman; bassist Tommy Stinson and drummer Brian “Brain” Mantia. Performances followed in 2001 at Rock In Rio II and, once again, in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve. Guitarist Richard Fortus replaced Tobias in 2002 and the band subsequently kicked off its Chinese Democracy World Tour — Chinese Democracy being the title of the long-awaited next album from GN’R.

Performing a mixture of classic GN’R songs and new material from the forthcoming album, the band’s first leg of the tour sold out. It took them from Hong Kong, China (appropriate given the album title) to Tokyo and Osaka for Japan’s Summer Sonic Festival (where they set both attendance and merchandising sales records), Belgium for the Pukkelpop Festival and the U.K. for The Leeds Festival and concerts at the London Docklands Arena. In September 2002, GN’R made an explosive — and surprise — appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The North American leg of the tour begins November 2002.

10/02

For all press inquiries please contact:

Lori Earl
Codeblue Media

Terry Wang (tour press)
Interscope Geffen A&M Records

For all other inquiries please contact:
Interscope Geffen A&M Records

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GUNS N' ROSES
Today

After selling more than 80 million albums world wide. Guns N’ Roses are currently on their first world tour since 1993 in anticipation of the release of Chinese Democracy (Geffen Records), the band's first album of new material since 1991.

Today, Guns N’ Roses includes:

W. Axl Rose
Vocals

See “Guns N’ Roses: The History."

Buckethead
Guitars
“One of the most bizarre and enigmatic figures in American underground and experimental music." (All Music Guide) On stage, he wears a Michael Myers-style mask and an inverted KFG bucket. In the studio, he performs in a chicken coop and his solo career boasts a dozen albums. He’s also worked in Axiom Funk, Praxxis, Cornbugs and El Stew (with Brain) as well as projects from Iggy Pop, George S. Clinton, Viggo Mortensen, Anton Fier, Hakim Bey, DJ Q-Bert and others. Guesting with Primus, he performed at Ozzfest in 1999. At a Christmas party that year, Axl Rose, whom he had never met, gifted him with a Leatherface doll. Buckethead joined GN’R soon afterwards.

Robin Finck
Guitars
Finck first gained notoriety when the guitarist replaced Richard Patrick in Nine Inch Nails for the massive Self Destruct Tour, which included a memorable performance at Woodstock II. After being heard on "Closer To God" and Further Down The Spiral, he left to play with the enormously popular performance art/circus ensemble Cirque du Soleil for two years. Finck joined GN’R in 1997 before returning to Nine Inch Nails in 1999 for the Fragility Tour. He was back with GN’R in late 2000.

Richard Fortus
Guitars
Fortus made his breakthrough in the mid-‘90s with Love Spit Love. Since then, he’s become a versatile and heralded studio and touring musician, including playing cello. Among his credits are albums ranging from electronica to rock to pop, from Honky Toast, DMX, Swedish Egil, Bedrock, BT, Deep Dish and DJ Hurricane to The Psychedelic Furs, Ben Folds, Gravity Kills and Enrique Iglesias. He joined GN’R in 2002.

Dizzy Reed
Keyboards
Reed joined GN’R during the Use Your Illusion recordings in 1990 and his keyboards quickly became an integral element in the band’s music. In addition, he has been heard on albums by Motörhead, Doug Aldridge, 22 Jacks and Linda Perry.

Chris Pitman
Keyboards
Originally the keyboardist for the Replicants, Pitman helped form neo-psychedelic Lusk with Paul D’Amour from Tool, on whose monstrous Aenima album Pitman also played. Other credits include work with Blinker the Star. He joined GN’R in 1999.

Tommy Stinson
Bass
Stinson is best known as the charismatic bass player of legendary garage punkers the Replacements. After the demise of the group in 1991, he went on to form the short-lived Bash & Pop and then Perfect. He’s also been heard on albums by Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg as well as Cracker and Whiskeytown. In 1998, he joined GN’R.

Brian “Brain” Mantia
Drums
Mantia has played with some of rock’s most acclaimed cult artists from Buckethead, Praxis and Primus to Tom Waits and Godflesh. He first gained notice with legendary funk-rockers the Limbomaniacs. He then played with M.I.R.V., MCM and the Monster and Tom Waits and was briefly a member of Primus before co-founding experimental supergroup Praxis with Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Buckethead and Bill Lasweil. He’s also been a regular on Buckethead’s solo efforts. In the mid-‘90s, he once again joined Primus, drumming on Rhinoplasty, The Brown Album and Antipop. He joined GN’R in 2000.

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GUNS N’ ROSES
Milestones

Despite many years being out of the public eye while preparing Chinese Democracy, the legend of Guns N' Roses has continued to grow. In retrospect, the band's accomplishments appear even larger now than they did when they were achieved — from perhaps the most significant hard rock album in history to the following major milestones marking the group’s popularity.

— Guns N' Roses is 36th among the best-selling artists in U.S. recording history, according to the RIAA as of October 2002, with domestic sales of 35,500,000 albums and singles. With only three full-length original albums, it is estimated that GN'R is #2 (behind only The Beaties) in terms of sales per original album.

— Appetite For Destruction is the 17th biggest-selling album in history. As a measure of its importance, the album is tied with Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A., Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, Elton John’s Greatest Hits, Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and The Beatles 1962-1966.

— Appetite For Destruction is one of only 87 albums to receive a Diamond Award, sales of 10,000,000. The album is also the biggest seller in the history of Geffen Records.

— With “Sweet Child O’ Mine” GN’R became only the fourth hard rock group to have a #1 pop single.

— When GN’R Lies reached #2 with Appetite For Destruction still Top 5, GN’R became the only artist in the ’80s to have two albums Top 5 simultaneously.

— GN’R was the first contemporary artist to release two separate albums on the same day when Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II debuted September 17,1991.

— The band became the first artist since 1974 to hold both top spots on the chart when Use Your Illusion I reached #2 and II went to #1.

— The Use Your Illusion Tour was the longest in rock history — 28 months, 192 sold-out shows, seven million fans.