Guns N’ Roses Begin World Tour With Secret Gig In Bangkok

Axl Rose kicked off his long awaited Guns N’ Roses world tour last night with a secret concert in Bangkok that was only announced on the radio the day before and billed as “Roses N’ Guns” due to legal hassles from former bandmates

The Bangkok Post ran a half page report today on Guns N’ Roses secret gig in Bangkok last night. The gig was hastily convened after legal intervention from Axl Rose’s former bandmates prevented him from launching the tour in Tokyo as originally planned.

Here’s an excerpt from the Bangkok Post article: “Announced on local radio only the day before, the show was apparently the result of on-going legal action by original members of Guns N’ Roses against frontman Axl Rose. Rose is the only remaining member of the band’s original line up, with keyboard player Dizzy Reed, who joined in 1990, the only other current member who played on the famed two-year “Use Your Illusion” tour.

The Gunners’ new world tour, which will feature much of the new Chinese Democracy album written by Rose, was booked to start in Japan. However, original members Duff McKagan and Slash, applied for an injunction in the US to stop Rose using the Guns N’ Roses name for his new material (which they have publicly derided as “sad, bitter folk-metal”). The pair also lodged a case in Tokyo, halting the shows there. Thanks to a contractual obligation to begin the tour on time, a new opening city was hastily sought. Rumour has it that Rose personally chose Bangkok as a way of paying back his one-time favourite getaway. With the next show on the “world tour” still to be booked, the singer is said to be waiting out his band’s troubles at an island in the south of the country.

Filing through the foyer, the first taste of rock fever gripped the crowd as they rushed the merchandise booth. A further, last minute case lodged by Rose’s former bandmates with the Bangkok Central Court succeeded in blocking him from using the Guns N’ Roses name in Thailand. With pragmatic flair, perhaps resulting in the lower than expected turnout, the gig was re-billed as the first date of the “Roses N’ Guns” world tour. With no time to redesign the tour merchandise, the band’s tour crew attempted to present the new name by having a batch of T-shirts printed with the famous Guns N’ Roses revolvers and thorns logo upside-down. Hence the storming of the merchandise booth when fans recognised the collectability of these goofy looking shirts (some of which have already appeared on eBay).

With no opening act booked (an out of place performance of some high school girls miming to the Pussycat Dolls Don’t Cha was politely received), fans were left staring at an empty stage and an upside-down backdrop for many long minutes. Then, almost simultaneously, the lights dimmed and the opening guitar echoes of Welcome to the Jungle echoed through the hall. Rose’s unmistakable croak-wail, hampered by the occasional cough, rang out in the song’s introductory primal scream and, putting it simply, the crowd went nuts. It was lights, action and go, go, go as the band stormed through the track, a corn-rowed, bandanna-clad Axl running the ramparts just like it was 1992. Skidding to his knees as dictated by the song’s chorus, the somewhat podgier singer was all but drowned out by the roar of his fans.”

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