2022.07.01 - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, England

Guns N’ Roses fans left queuing for hours at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
The band are set to play two shows at the venue

By Arusa Qureshi
1st July 2022

Fans attending the Guns N’ Roses show at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tonight (July 1) have taken to social media to express their anger at the severe delays in entry to the event.

The band are due to play two shows at the venue tonight and tomorrow (July 2), with early doors entry at 3.15pm and main doors at 3.30pm.

The first support act, Gary Clark Jr, was due to kick off at 4.30pm but according to Twitter, as of 5.30pm, fans were still waiting to be let in. Guns N’ Roses are due to be on stage at 6.45pm.

One person on Twitter wrote: “Anyone know why we’re still stood outside 3hrs after it was supposed to start?”, while another added: “We’ve been standing outside for 2 hours. Why don’t open the stadium? This is ridiculous.”

Someone else Tweeted: “Over an hour waiting for #GunsNRoses wtf is going on @Ticketmaster.”

As of 6pm, some audience members appear to have made it inside, while others continue to queue.

Guns N’ Roses review: too late, too quiet – and as unpredictable as ever

3/5

Fans were angered by 'teething problems' at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium's first ever gig, but the hair rockers' charisma is still undeniable

By Ian Winwood

To a chorus of displeasure expressed online, ticketholders gathered to see Guns N’ Roses’ performance on Friday night were required to wait two hours later than advertised before at last being permitted entry to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Such was the delay that Michael Monroe, the night’s opening act, was cut from the bill, while the headliners themselves appeared onstage almost an hour late for a set that was trimmed by no fewer than seven songs. All the same, at Gate 11 a cheery steward explained that the occasion represented a slice of history. “It’s the first ever concert here,” she reasoned, “there’s bound to be teething problems.”

According to a well-placed source, the reason for the delay was that singer Axl Rose had fallen victim to a bout of anxiety that was only assuaged by the event’s organisers agreeing to allow him to remain in the venue, night’s sleep and all, until after the second of his band’s consecutive evenings at the gleaming North London stadium. “Nice place you’ve got here,” he said, when at last his band appeared before an audience that in some cases had paid more than £250 for the privilege of being kept waiting. Elsewhere, on the pitch, the crowd vented their displeasure at what for them were pitifully low volume levels. “Turn it up,” they chanted. After less than an hour, a steady stream of people began trudging towards the exits.

In a night beset by problems, it was surely testament to the scale of the concert that, in the seats hard by the stage, Guns N’ Roses’ emphatic rock rang out clear and true. The sight of Rose violently tossing aside his microphone stand in the thick of the thrillingly nihilistic It’s So Easy – “cars are crashing every night, I drink and drive everything in sight,” he sang – recalled a time when he couldn’t always be relied upon to finish his night’s work playing to the kinds of audiences not averse to causing serious damage to venues as large as this.

But if the atmosphere in London was less explosive than at concerts of old, Guns N’ Roses’ continued ability to play with a measure of menace exemplified just one of the qualities that set them apart from the hair metal pack of the 1980s. So too did the refined grandiosity of songs such as Estranged and November Rain, both of which were last night elevated by the inevitably imperious lead guitar playing of top-hatted top-tier rock star Slash. Such was the towering charisma of bassist Duff McKagan that it didn’t much matter that his lead vocals on a cover of the Stooges’ fittingly punkish I Wanna Be Your Dog made Iggy Pop sound like Pavarotti.

What did matter, though, was the manner in which the set was cut. For reasons known only to themselves, the Los Angelinos excised the epic and masterful Coma from the running order in favour of newer songs that were simply not its equal. The decision to remove the searing You Could Be Mine was similarly mysterious. With a set list comprised of 22 songs performed over the course of two and a half hours, few could reasonably complain that they were short-changed by Guns N’ Roses, but it seemed as if the men responsible for some of the finest songs in the hard rock canon didn’t know the worth of some of their best work.

For Paradise City, the night’s final song, the group were joined onstage for a second time by singer Carrie Underwood. As if oblivious to the night’s lavish surroundings, leaning into its murderous groove, Axl Rose delivered the line “I’m your charity case so buy me something to eat” with a venom that implied he remained hungry after all these years. At moments such as these, it was only fitting that Guns N’ Roses themselves seemed as precarious and as unpredictable as ever they were.

Guns N’ Roses review: too late, too quiet – and as unpredictable as ever

According to a well-placed source, the reason for the delay was that singer Axl Rose had fallen victim to a bout of anxiety that was only assuaged by the event’s organisers agreeing to allow him to remain in the venue, night’s sleep and all, until after the second of his band’s consecutive evenings at the gleaming North London stadium.

ludurigan wrote:wtf

is axl anxious because he has to sing the same 30 songs for the millionth time all over again?

ludurigan wrote:yeah man I know sorry I was just being an asshole and being ironic buy guess I am not tooo good at that and yeah it sucks

Soulmonster wrote:

ludurigan wrote:yeah man I know sorry I was just being an asshole and being ironic buy guess I am not tooo good at that and yeah it sucks

No worries. It's going to be interesting to see if this marks a permanent change in his vocal style or if it was just a temporary adjustment because he had some throat issues. I think the vocals earlier in this tour has been pretty good and doesn't really necessitate a permanent change, although it might make for more consistent and less hurtful shows for Axl if he were to drop down an octave.

Blackstar wrote:

Soulmonster wrote:Richard is just having fun