Description

Rare 1992 double cd in thick jewelcase

It’s late July, and as usual, Guns n’ Roses are screwing everything up. They’re out on the road with devil-may-care attitudes and no set list, serving up a bunch of unfamiliar songs and saying their new records will be done when they’re done. To make things worse, Axl Rose is carrying on like an Apache. He stormed into his home state for a concert and compared the fans there to prisoners at Auschwitz. He showed up two hours late for a New York show and launched into a tirade against his record company and various other institutions, including this magazine. He steamrollered into St. Louis, and before he left town, a riot had broken out. During an encore in Salt Lake City, he got ticked off because the Mormons weren’t rocking and said, I’ll get out of here before I put anybody else to sleep. Then he did. Not since the Sex Pistols has one band caused so much controversy. From the day they burst out of a grimy Sunset Strip hellhole and into the public eye, Guns n’ Roses have been nothing but trouble. They wrote a song that pissed off blacks and gays, and a couple of others that riled feminists. One of them said fuck on television. Another got arrested for peeing in the galley of a passenger plane. They did drugs, lots of drugs. They drank like bandits. Every Monday morning a new rumor circulated that one of them had overdosed. Nobody was sure they’d live long enough to make another record. When the Use Your Illusions Tour started, before the albums were out, they were everyday news. Every day brought word of some new disaster, some new outrage, some new lawsuit. In the summer of 1991 Guns n Roses were very much a band teetering on the brink, and America was watching. Rolling Stone Magazine wrote: Will they survive? Do they even want to survive? The question most everyone seems to be asking is this: Is the world’s most explosive band about to self-destruct? By late July, early August the band did four sold out nights at Great Western Forum in Inglewood. By now, Guns N’ Roses had become the rarest of creatures: a band big enough to headline stadiums while remaining so volatile and unpredictable that buying one of their concert tickets was akin to buying a lottery ticket. Fans had no idea what might or might not happen on a given night, and for that matter, neither did the band. This was the state of affairs as the first leg of the tour wrapped up with the band heading into their coronation shows: four sold-out nights at their hometown in Los Angeles. Guns N’ Roses were clearly cognizant that this was their hometown-triumph moment, and they’d done it quickly—four years after playing the Appetite release party show at 400-capacity Whisky-A-Go-Go on the Sunset Strip, they were playing four sold-out nights at the 17,000-capacity Forum. Even with all of the craziness, the band arrived at the shows knowing they had reached the summit they had all once dreamed about. Another positive milestone finally took place on the afternoon of the first Forum show on July 29th: the band officially signed off on the final mixes of both Use Your Illusion albums. After over 18 months of struggles and lineup changes, it was all a wrap, and the albums could now be mastered, pressed, and shipped to stores for release in six weeks’ time. Relief quickly turned to joy, and the band now truly had something else to celebrate on top of the existing achievements. This album was recorded on the first night at the Forum and the band were in great spirits and playing at a very high level. There were even hijinks such as sending Rip magazine editor Lonn Friend out on stage wearing only his underwear and Slash’s top hat and boots to introduce the band on the opening night. The band didn’t use setlists during this era, so shows varied slightly from night to night, with a typical show lasting a little over two hours and featuring around 20 songs, including encores. The band did a surprise opening with Perfect Crime. After another half-dozen songs, it became apparent that Axl wasn’t saving anything for tomorrow, covering every inch of the stage while singing with a full-on delivery that touring vocalists quickly learn to avoid as the band played their hardest to match his intensity. Another effective trio of songs would consist of signature ballad Patience placed in between the two known original songs from the Use Your Illusion albums, Civil War and You Could Be Mine. For the aforementioned centerpiece, a grand piano appeared at center stage for Axl to use on his magnum opus, November Rain, complete with Slash climbing up on top of the piano to play his iconic guitar solo at the song’s climax. Axl also said about this nights that; These four shows are the four most important shows that this f—king band will ever play… Anything we do after these four gigs… (is) just icing on the f—king cake. These are the four shows we’ve been working for, for ten f—ing years. Revolution Calling, recorded on the first night, is a must if you want to enjoy Guns N Roses at the top of their game. This would only be beaten by the fourth night when the band did their longest show ever when they did a volcanic marathon of a show that ran close to four nonstop hours ending at 3 A.M.

Track list:
1. Intro
2. Perfect Crime
3. Mr. Brownstone
4. Bad Obsession
5. Live And Let Die
6. Dust And Bones
7. Double Talkin Jive
8. Civil War
9. Patience
10. You Could Be Mine
11. Fourteen Years
12. November Rain
13. Welcome To The Jungle
14. Drum Solo -Matt Sorum
15. Guitar Solo –Slash
16. Sweet Child O Mine
17. My Michelle
18. Knockin On Heavens Door
19. Don’t Cry
20. Estranged
21. Paradise City
22. Pretty Tied Up-Ritz 17th of May 1991
23. You Ain’t The First-Ritz 17th of May 1991