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I\u2019ve had a hellishly busy week.\u00a0 That\u2019s why this report on Singapore\u2019s big musical event of the month is reaching you nine days late\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was with misgivings that I bought a ticket for the concert by the legendary \u2013 not always legendary for the right reasons \u2013 hard rock \/ heavy metal band Guns N\u2019 Roses at Singapore\u2019s National Stadium on November 12th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Like many things in Singapore, the ticket was not cheap and, given Guns N\u2019 Roses\u2019 reputation for pissing off gig-goers, I wondered if I would get anything near my money\u2019s worth.\u00a0 I knew about, for example, their notorious 1992 appearance in Montreal when, thanks to both coming onstage late and leaving it early, they triggered a riot.\u00a0 (\u201cCome Monday morning, the mayor was looking for apologies and fans were looking for refunds.<\/a>\u201d)\u00a0 Or their performance<\/a> at the O2 in Dublin in 2010 when, after another late arrival onstage had angered the crowd, they played for 20 minutes, then walked off, and only returned an hour later after being strong-armed by the event organisers, by which time many fans had given up and gone home.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This year, the band was still being associated with crappy concerts.\u00a0 Two July spots at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London suffered from \u201cappalling sound, everything was muffled, couldn\u2019t hear Axl\u2019s voice, the support act was cancelled, GNR came on real late, kept fans later, no apologies, fans walking out<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Their next scheduled gig, in Glasgow, was then cancelled \u2018due to illness and medical advice\u2019.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meanwhile, I\u2019m not a fan of stadium rock shows, where the venue\u2019s scale and the distance between most punters and the stage kill any sense of intimacy.\u00a0 And I was not enthused about seeing a band at Singapore\u2019s National Stadium because I\u2019d read some complaints about it on Trip Advisor.\u00a0 The main gripe was that the place doesn\u2019t let people bring food or drink onto the premises, obliging them, inside, to spend ages waiting in queues at the stadium\u2019s vendors, where refreshments are sold at predictably high prices.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I had to work on November 12th<\/sup> until six o\u2019clock.\u00a0 As Guns N\u2019 Roses were officially due onstage at seven \u2013 \u201cHuh,\u201d jeered a colleague, \u201cdo you really<\/em> expect Axl Rose to come onstage at seven?\u201d \u2013 I hopped on a taxi and went straight to the stadium lugging a knapsack full of important work material.\u00a0 This meant I had to spend a couple of minutes at a security desk outside one of the stadium\u2019s entrances while a lady went through every nook and cranny of the knapsack, rummaging among papers, books, stationery, my (empty) lunchbox, etc., with airport-style thoroughness.\u00a0 But that security lady was undeniably chatty and pleasant.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Having made it inside, at about 6.50, I joined a queue to get some beer \u2013 also airport style, with lines of people threading through twisting passages formed by retractable-belt stanchions \u2013 and spent the next 20 minutes glancing nervously down into the arena and at the distant, empty stage, hoping that Axl Rose and co. would<\/em> come on a little late.\u00a0 I also feared that the beer would have run out by the time I reached the counter, although I was reassured when a guy propelled a trolley past me, laden with crates of Tiger beer, in the direction of the vendor.\u00a0 Presumably much needed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Each customer, incidentally, was allowed to buy a maximum of four alcoholic beverages at a time. If you purchased four Tiger beers \u2013 as I did, not wanting to experience that queue a second time \u2013 these came in four plastic glasses planted in an eggbox-like tray.\u00a0 Transporting them without spilling anything, down to my seat near the bottom of one of the terraces, required mind-reader levels of concentration.\u00a0 Furthermore, I had to decide where to stash those drinks when I reached the seat. The only space for them was on the floor between my feet, which meant I spent the gig reminding myself, \u201cKeep your legs apart!\u00a0 Keep your legs apart!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Most of the stadium is roofed over.\u00a0 Only one section of it, directly opposite the stage, is exposed to the elements.\u00a0 The cheapest concert-tickets were for seats in that open area but, this being the wettest month in the Singaporean calendar, I\u2019d decided not to risk it. There\u2019d been a downpour earlier that day and, sitting there, it was possible that whilst listening to Guns N\u2019 Roses performing their famous ballad November Rain<\/em>, you\u2019d be subjected to November rain for real.\u00a0 Thankfully, the bad weather held off that evening.\u00a0 The show\u2019s most expensive tickets, meanwhile, were for the pitch, which was beyond the barrier a few rows below where I was sitting. \u00a0Spectators there could snuggle against the front of the stage.\u00a0 Also, they were enviably unconstrained by having rows of seats all around them and could dance and jump and jig around as much as they liked.\u00a0 Although the folk passing on the other side of the barrier, heading towards the stage, seemed to be mainly moneyed, middle-aged expats and I doubted if Axl and the gang would be looking down on much mosh-pit action tonight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, there I was, weary from a long day at work, jaded after waiting in a lengthy refreshments queue, worried that an accidental twitch of my foot might knock over my hard-won quartet of beers, and wondering if the evening ahead would prove to be a giant waste of money.\u00a0 Then, at 7.30, the lights dimmed and\u2026\u00a0 The general stadium-crowd roared with excitement.\u00a0 The well-heeled crowd pressing against the stage-front suddenly became densely spangled with light as hundreds of smartphone-cameras sprang into action.\u00a0 From the speakers rushed the blood-stirring chords of It\u2019s So Easy<\/em>, a song on the first and best Guns N\u2019 Roses album Appetite<\/em> for<\/em> Destruction<\/em>.\u00a0 And on the towering screens that flanked the stage, there appeared\u2026\u00a0 Axl Rose!\u00a0 Duff McKagan!\u00a0 Slash!\u00a0 Or as someone sitting near to me exclaimed, \u201cSla-a-a-a-ash!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019d seen footage of Axl performing a few years ago, as temporary vocalist for AC\/DC, and he\u2019d looked worryingly porky.\u00a0 But he’s slimmed down since then and is in decent shape again.\u00a0 McKagan looked admirably lean and mean. \u00a0As for Slash\u2026\u00a0 Well, he\u2019s evidently been putting too much middle-age spread<\/a> on his sandwiches lately, not that the excess pounds affected his guitar-playing.\u00a0 He and Jacob Rees-Mogg remain the only two men on the planet in 2022 who aren\u2019t embarrassed to wear top hats in public.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While Axl, Duff and Slash loomed large on the screens, I wondered why Dizzy Reed didn\u2019t appear on them too.\u00a0 Keyboardist Reed, after all, has been in Guns N\u2019 Roses since 1990.\u00a0 He remained in the band after Slash, Duff, guitarist Gilby Clarke and drummer Matt Sorum quit in the 1990s, and he even stuck with Guns N\u2019 Roses throughout the seemingly never-ending recording of the Chinese<\/em> Democracy<\/em> album, finally released in 2008.\u00a0 This was when Axl operated a \u2018revolving door\u2019 policy regarding Guns N\u2019 Roses membership \u2013 though guitarist Richard Fortus and drummer Frank Ferrer, recruited during this period, remain in the present line-up \u2013 and, apart from Reed, the band sometimes seemed to consist of Axl \u2018and your granny on bongos<\/a>\u2019.\u00a0 So where was Dizzy?\u00a0 Did he have a hump on his back or a wart on his nose that made his bandmates too ashamed to show him off?\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until halfway through proceedings that Axl announced \u2018Mr Dizzy Reed on keyboards\u2019, and the screens finally gave us a glimpse of this elusive but long-time and loyal bandmember.\u00a0 I snatched a picture of the moment.\u00a0 Here\u2019s Dizzy!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This evening, Guns N\u2019 Roses played 27 songs over three hours, a very pleasant surprise.\u00a0 Considering some of those notorious past performances, I feared I might get three songs in 27 minutes before they called it a night.\u00a0 The lengthy setlist did have a few drawbacks, though.\u00a0 It meant we were treated to the whole musical smorgasbord that is the Guns N\u2019 Roses experience, which in my opinion contains a few lows as well as numerous highs.\u00a0 There were a few too many wibbly, wanky guitar solos designed to remind us that Slash hasn\u2019t lost his musical prowess, as if anyone needed reminding.\u00a0 That said, it was fun when he did an instrumental workout of Albert King\u2019s Born Under a Bad Sign<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Also, though the setlist was weighted towards their late 1980s \/ early 1990s stuff, with a half-dozen songs coming from the mighty Appetite<\/em> for<\/em> Destruction<\/em>, it was inevitable that something would slip in from the long-awaited, then much-derided Chinese Democracy<\/em>.\u00a0 I actually like the title track, which they bravely served up immediately after It\u2019s So Easy<\/em> at the start.\u00a0 But the same album\u2019s Better<\/em>, which came a few songs later, just sounded a mess.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And then there were the ballads.\u00a0 I realise that every heavy metal band in the world feels obliged to record a ballad now and again \u2013 well, every mainstream<\/em> heavy metal band, as I don\u2019t recall Cannibal Corpse ever recording something slow and smoochy to keep the \u2018lay-deez\u2019 sweet \u2013 but there is something about your average Guns N\u2019 Roses ballad that sets my teeth on edge.\u00a0 Probably it\u2019s Axl\u2019s voice, a melodramatic beast at the best of times.\u00a0 When it\u2019s emoting through the likes of Don\u2019t Cry<\/em> from the 1991 album Use Your Illusion I<\/em>, for which tonight Axl donned a show-bizzy silver-lame jacket, I find it hard going indeed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But my least favourite Guns N\u2019 Roses ballad is the afore-mentioned November Rain<\/em>, also from Use Your Illusion I<\/em>, which seems to drone on forever.\u00a0 Two hours into the set, the song hadn\u2019t been played, and I began to entertain hopes that I\u2019d get through the evening without hearing it.\u00a0 Maybe the band would forget to play it?\u00a0 But no.\u00a0 Axl sat down at a piano and began tinkling its ivories and the bloody thing started.\u00a0 At this point, a large percentage of the crowd, who thought November Rain<\/em> was the best thing ever, sprang to their feet and started waving their lighters, or phone-lights, en masse<\/em> in the air above their heads.\u00a0 This made me feel like I\u2019d suddenly been teleported into a Bryan Adams concert just as Bryan was starting to sing Everything I Do, I Do It for You<\/em> (1991).\u00a0 At least, for this rendition of November Rain<\/em>, Slash didn\u2019t attempt to play his guitar on top of Axl\u2019s piano, as he\u2019d done in the song\u2019s video.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But enough of the negatives.\u00a0 What of the positives?\u00a0 Well, there were plenty.\u00a0 Lots of spiffing tunes off Appetite for Destruction<\/em> for a start: Welcome<\/em> to<\/em> the<\/em> Jungle<\/em>, Nightrain<\/em>, Rocket<\/em> Queen<\/em>, etc.\u00a0 Though for some reason not Mr<\/em> Brownstone<\/em>, which, the show\u2019s official statistics<\/a> tell me, makes this the band\u2019s first gig since 1993 that they haven\u2019t played the song.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was also pleased that they treated the crowd to their bombastic cover versions of Wings\u2019 James Bond theme Live<\/em> and<\/em> Let<\/em> Die<\/em> (1974) and Bob Dylan\u2019s Knockin\u2019 on Heaven\u2019s Door<\/em> (1973).\u00a0 Yes, they throw all subtlety and nuance out of the window and, basically, murder both songs \u2013 but they murder them gloriously.\u00a0 For Knockin\u2019 on Heaven\u2019s<\/em> Door<\/em>, Axl put on a cowboy hat, which made me wonder if he was acknowledging the fact that Dylan originally wrote the song for the soundtrack of Sam Peckinpah\u2019s masterly western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid<\/em><\/a> (1973).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Splendid too were their covers of the Who\u2019s The<\/em> Seeker<\/em> (1970) and the Stooges\u2019 I Wanna Be Your Dog<\/em> (1969).\u00a0 The latter was sung by Duff McKagan with the instrumentation stripped back and it made for an impressively intense couple of minutes.\u00a0 Commendably, McKagan wore a Mot\u00f6rhead T-shirt for part of the show.\u00a0 Also, by coincidence, I\u2019d just finished reading Sing Backwards and Weep<\/em> (2020), the autobiography of the late, great grunge singer Mark Lanegan, in which Lanegan credits McKagan with helping to rescue him<\/a> from homelessness and drug addiction in the late 1990s.\u00a0 An all-round top bloke, then.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And I was very happy that, for the third song of their set, they performed Slither <\/em>(2004) by the underrated Velvet Revolver, the group Slash, McKagan and Matt Sorum formed with Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots during their estrangement from Guns N\u2019 Roses.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Even with 27 songs played, it was inevitable that they missed out a few things I\u2019d have loved to hear.\u00a0 They performed nothing off their album of punk and hard-rock covers, The Spaghetti Incident?<\/em> (1993), which nobody in the world seemed to like apart from myself.\u00a0 Their boisterous version<\/a> of the UK Subs\u2019 Down on the Farm<\/em> (1982), which Axl sings in a hilarious \u2018Mockney\u2019 accent, would have slotted in nicely tonight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And I\u2019d have welcomed a rendition of the sweary, vitriolic and exhilarating Get in the Ring<\/em>, off their other 1991 album, the imaginatively titled Use Your Illusion II<\/em>.\u00a0 Get in the Ring<\/em> is basically a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll update of the Scottish poetic tradition of flyting<\/a>.\u00a0 It contains such lyrics as \u201cI got a thought that would be nice \/ I\u2019d like to crush your head tight in my vice<\/em>,\u201d and takes aim at all the \u201cpunks in the press<\/em>\u201d who \u201cwant to start shit by printing lies instead of the things we said<\/em>\u2026\u00a0 Andy Secher<\/a> at Hit Parader, Circus Magazine, Mick Wall<\/a> at Kerrang!, Bob Guccione Jr<\/a> at Spin<\/em>\u2026\u201d \u00a0If they updated that shit-list for 2022, which modern-day journalists would be on it, I wonder?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Oh well.\u00a0 You can\u2019t have everything, I suppose.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As the band took the stage at 7.30 that evening, and as everyone around me went wild, it occurred to me that this was the first time in almost two years I\u2019d been at a concert.\u00a0 After all the restrictions imposed by that cursed bloody virus, it felt marvellous to experience live music again.\u00a0 Yes, I had a massive, uplifting sense of joy and relief…\u00a0 Just because I was seeing Axl Rose and the crew amble into view on two giant stadium screens.\u00a0 Not something I ever expected to happen, but it did.\u00a0 Thanks, guys!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ve had a hellishly busy week.\u00a0 That\u2019s why this report on Singapore\u2019s big musical event of the month is reaching you nine days late\u2026 It was with misgivings that I bought a ticket for the concert by the legendary \u2013 not always legendary for the right reasons \u2013 hard rock \/ heavy … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodandporridge.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/20221112_185750-225x300.jpg\")
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