Guns N Roses, Gary Clark Jr and Michael Monroe, London 2022 – Review by Dawn Osborne

Friday

Things did not get off to a good start when two hours after general doors everybody was still standing outside the stadium. I was also disappointed to find that although I appeared on the Stadium map to have a good ticket in the stands, my view was very restricted due to the large opaque sides of the enormous stage. Add in that Michael Monroe didn’t play, apparently due to the delays caused by a power cut, and the gig was starting to feel a little cursed.

However, things got a little better when Gary Clark Jr’s set appeared to go without a hitch. He offers to the crowd ‘Let’s have some fun’ and his soulful playing, extended guitar solos and laid back languid style does smooth matters over somewhat. There’s no announcement about whether Michael Monroe is going to play, but that question is answered in the negative as Duff McCagan’s wife comes on stage and GNR go on, later than officially announced, but not actually late by most headline stage times.

 

 

The final disadvantage for those who attended Friday night is that GNR’s sound is very muted for the first half dozen or so tracks. The band themselves look lithe and fit and in a very good mood. Axl has lost a lot of weight and seems to have got his confidence back to try his trade mark mike stand horizontal hopping and twirling moves. Running through big tracks ‘It’s so Easy’, ‘Mr Brownstone’, ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and Velvet Revolver’s ‘Slither’ they seem unaware that anything is wrong. Eventually gesticulations in the crowd making Axl realise and result in Axl stopping proceedings during ‘Estranged’, recommencing and, miraculously, the sound is instantly better. The band now sounded much improved, night and day! Luckily in this long set there are still fifteen songs left. We can now appreciate with the epic ‘Live and Let Die’ that the band are back at the top of their game, sounding as good as they look.

So much had happened thus far and because I really wanted to see Michael Monroe I refuse to be thwarted and arrange to come the next night also. I was not sorry I attended the first night, however, as the set list was different with tracks played both nights in a slightly different order. Some tracks played on Friday were not played on Saturday, specifically ‘Rocket Queen’ where we can now hear all the nuances of Axl’s voice and a dramatic version of my favourite ‘November Rain’ with Slash’s distinctive desert church solo and Axl on the piano playing with a huge emerald and diamond ring a la Liberace or Elton John. The fantastic version of the latter was enough for me to forget all the difficulties.

‘Patience’ and ‘Paradise City’ were the encore with Carrie Underwood, Nashville singer, recruited for the final track for her ability to belt out the high notes. She had appeared earlier for a great version of ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ and so came on twice. To the extent that the set overlapped I cover the Saturday night show below. The problems of the Friday made the first night very different to the second and were a big part of the a story for me, so I decided to cover Friday where it differed. Essentially the band were so good for the last seventy five percent of the show that the pretty dismal start was forgotten and forgiven in an instant. People were just so happy to see the band back together, engaging with each other as friends and looking and sounding wonderful. The weather was also great. No one was griping on their way out of the stadium as far as I could see.

Saturday

Having said that unless you were lucky enough to go both nights, fate decreed that, as long as you did not mind a little rain later on in the GNR set and did not mind missing ‘Rocket Queen; and ‘November Rain’, Saturday was far and away the best deal. It was much improved for me from the start as I had a Golden Circle ticket and ended up only one layer behind the people on the barrier. For the first time I could see the whole stage, the drummer and the graphics on screen which felt like a whole different and better experience.

Entry was pretty much on time and Michael Monroe was able to do his set. I was amazed to find the crowd around me did not know who he was and so I did not hesitate to tell them his live show is incredible, and he did not disappoint.

Kicking off with three songs from the last two albums ‘One Man Gang’, ‘Last Train To Tokyo’ and from the brand new album “Murder The Summer of Love’ Michael makes his way along the barrier almost immediately to the delight of the crowd.

They marvelled at him doing the splits as many had not seen him before live. During ‘78’ he climbed forty feet up the stage rigging without any kind of safety belt making security panic a little and, again, amazing the crowd.

Donning a sailor hat he goes along the barrier again for ‘Ballad of the Lower East Side’. Declaring that this is for those who remember Hanoi Rocks (sadly I seem to be the only one near me that did!) he plays the saxophone for ‘Malibu Beach’. Using a red Japanese fan, he is indeed looking hot in more than one sense and plays the mouth organ along the barrier for ‘Up Around The Bend’.

 

The finale is ‘Dead Jail Rock n Roll’ and I think he went along the barrier again!! Suffice to say I think he made some new fans in an audience that had been oblivious to who he was prior to his show. Thank goodness that has been corrected.

Gary Clark Jr did pretty much the same set as Friday, although they seem a little more subdued. I, myself, would not want to follow Michael Monroe, but they needn’t have worried as this being a generalist audience, more of the crowd appeared to be familiar with his material and despite the show being far more sedate he got a great reaction.

Without electrical problems GNR still go on a lot later than advertised, although again not later than most headliners at most shows. (The crowd amused itself with twitter photos of Jason Momoa who was in the audience and doing Mexican waves (the audience not Jason!) Thank goodness the sound seems pretty much on point and the band are majestic from the off. Although the first few tracks including Chinese Democracy are the same as last night and it’s great to hear ‘It’s so Easy’, ‘Mr Brownstone’ and ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ the way they were supposed to be heard. ‘Slither’ was interesting although perhaps not suited to Axl’s natural voice, at least tonight. The band are as up and active as they were the previous night, running all over the stage and generally appearing to be decades younger than they actually are. Axl does admit he is having some temporary vocal issues with his high register, although I myself am so happy to hear his famous timbre I am very happy regardless.

 

 

 

While most of the same tracks are played as last night Axl admits that he had changed it up order wise the main difference being we get ‘You’re Crazy’ instead of ‘November Rain’ and ‘Rocket Queen’. While I did not think this was really a fair trade and, some people were heard to say that the set had been shaved down from three hours to about two, there’s no doubt that it is a much better experience in the Golden Circle rather than the stands and I am fascinated to be so close to the band, having them sound and move so well and be able to see the screens as an additional mode of communication of ideas. Axl has his mojo back and he looks like a Jaguar stalking the crowd, watching their every move, still dangerous and unpredictable commanding respect, but beautiful and phenomenal. The rest of the band are tight and Slash’s solos peerless and he gets no less kudos for that just because he has been more predictably constantly amazing over the past few years. Even more lovely to see is the genuine interaction between the band which suggests a deep bond and friendship which, of course, has not always been the case.

While the new song ‘Absurd’ may not be the band’s finest hour musically it is visually stunning with the spitting Medusa head from the video playing behind the band. Seeing the screens I can also appreciate the support the band offered symbolically to Ukraine during ‘Civil War’ including huge shots of blown up apartment blocks that we are now all too sadly accustomed to seeing on the News. Slash uses a double necked guitar to cover all bases for the song.

‘Patience’ with its whistling intro provided by Axl himself is part of the main set instead of the encore. I particularly notice the emotion Axl is still capable of expressing in his voice and remember again how distinctive his vocals really are, a one off!

Duff’s turn on vocals for ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ comes later in the set on the Saturday. It has started to rain and I did think I wonder if Axl did that deliberately, surely not, ha ha .He’s back, while it is still raining for ‘You’re Crazy’, but off again for Slash’s solo a combination of Delta Blues with faster shredding at the end.

 

Axl is back in a black cowboy hat for ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ and ‘Nightrain’ with an enormous train tooter to mimic those western old time trains to kick off that track which is absolutely deafening if you are the front. They are the last two tracks again of the main set.

The encore this time is ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ with Slash’s iconic intro and ‘Paradise City’ which works better as Carrie Underwood only has to come on once for both songs. It has to be said Axl looks very enamoured of her and she does indeed do such a good job with vocals that Axl thanks her for saving his ass! There’s only a group bow to go, and they’re off – apart from a handstand from Slash proving that his hat’s never gonna come off on stage…

 

I am so glad I saw both nights, to be honest I would not have been happy if I had not seen both. It’s amazing to see the band back so strong and vital. While Axl has not always been thought of as a very nice guy (on the Friday he joked that they call him ‘Accomodating Axl’ due to his flexibility and demonstrating a pretty British sense of humour for an American) I actually found that I am very fond of him and have a lot of respect for his determination to be himself. His time in AC/DC does also seem to have improved his sense of duty to an audience, he apparently slept at the Stadium overnight to try to ensure the second day went more smoothly. While suffering some temporary high register issues with his voice, thankfully at the moment his confidence and sass is back, long may it continue.

Dawn Osborne