by David Smyth at London Arena, 26/8/02

It's not clear whether the long-awaited live comeback of Guns N' Roses would have sold as many tickets if it had been billed as a solo outing for singer Axl Rose, but that is, in effect, what it was.

Guns N' Roses were never the most stable of metal bands, even in their late-Eighties heyday, and Rose has now fallen out with every other member. He was the last man standing, surrounded by a useful band of strangers, at last night's sixth date of a proposed world tour - the first time they have played the UK since 1993.

The new band, featuring former members of the Replacements, Nine Inch Nails and Primus, certainly made a mighty noise on tracks such as Mr Brownstone and fearsome opener Welcome To The Jungle. Threatening to steal the show from Rose was guitarist Slash's replacement, a masked man known simply as "Buckethead", because of the empty tub of Kentucky Fried Chicken he inexplicably wore as a hat. A bizarre solo spot during which he played various themes from Star Wars, and twirled the martial-arts weapons nunchukkas, had me rubbing my eyes in disbelief.

GN'R lost a great deal of their power with the arrival of Nirvana, their good-time, crotch-centred rock and roll not something you could admit to liking in an era full of angst and free of widdly guitar solos. Today it's safe to come out as a fan again, and thousands of fists unashamedly punched the air in unison to the fantastic Sweet Child O' Mine and a spectacular, fireworks-enhanced Paradise City.

GUNS N' ROSES played their first show in LONDON since 1992 at the DOCKLANDS ARENA last night (August 26) — and NME was the subject of two onstage comments from AXL ROSE!

Early in the set, which ran to two hours, Rose commented on the NME.COM review of the band’s performance at the Leeds leg of the Carling Weekend Festival, which stated that he looked "as big as a house". Said Axl: "If I’m as big as a house, maybe I should start charging rent. Some pussy ass writer at NME owes me rent — for living in my ass!"

However, Rose later took a time out to thank NME for its glowing coverage of Guns 'N Roses’s comeback gig in Hong Kong on August 14. "That was nice," he remarked.

Rose also provided details on the band’s long-delayed studio album, ‘Chinese Democracy’, promising that it would include 18 tracks, with "10 extra tracks "on top of that". He added: "Just because we’ve only played five or six new songs, people think there mustn’t be any other songs on the album. Au contraire, mon frčre!"

He went on to vow that once the album had run its course, the band would "do it all over again", and maybe then think about a more albums — "as long as Uncle Axl doesn’t act the asshole!"

Four new songs featured in the band’s stunning 19-song set, including ‘Chinese Democracy’, ‘Madagascar’ and ‘The Blues’. The new songs were rapturously received by the capacity crowd of 12,000, as were Guns N' Roses classics such as ‘Welcome To The Jungle’‘, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, ‘November Rain’ and ‘Paradise City’.

With no further live dates scheduled, Guns 'N Roses will now return to the studio to complete work on ‘Chinese Democracy’.

Published: 27-08-2002-13-11