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Guns N' Roses Have Plug Pulled After Disastrous Reading Festival Set

Steve McEnroe, AP Photo

Guns N' Roses made their return to the UK stage on Friday night more than an hour late to an arena resounding with boos and jeers -- only to have have the plug pulled on them at the end of their crushingly disappointing set.

Axl Rose, looking out of condition in a silver suit and seemingly struggling to sing, made no apology as he eventually took to the main stage at Reading Festival at around 10.30PM before 80,000 disgruntled festivalgoers.

Opening with the title track from their lacklustre 'comeback' album 'Chinese Democracy,' the boos didn't stop either as his band went through the motions of performing a headlining festival set.

Rose, looking bloated and red, could barely reach his trademark high notes or hit his mark with the lyrics.

With an oddly high-pitched, nasal whine, the band didn't get even get better during legendary songs such as 'Welcome to the Jungle' -- complete with embarrassingly lame fireworks -- and simply seemed to have an eye on the weekend's pay cheque.

The band played on however to diminishing returns, and the plug was eventually pulled on them at midnight when the band overran the site sound curfew by half an hour.

The band tried to play an encore of 'Paradise City,' but the sound had been turned off and Axl and co eventually gave up, performed a perfunctory bow and walked off.

Thousands of fans, many swearing out loud at Rose and others genuinely upset at the car crash unfolding in front of their eyes on the Main Stage, reeled away in disgust after just a few songs and headed to the NME/Radio 1 Stage, where LCD Soundsystem were giving a lesson in how to headline a festival.

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DP

C'mon people it was an awful set. There were boo's after every song and Axl looked like a cartoon character and his singing was horrendous. May as well have been a GnR covers band. Coming on late was disrespectful and sadly predictable. Massive fail.

August 29 2010 at 7:52 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dan

This is a joke review, I dont get this.. yeah, people boooed when he came on late, but once they got going he was amazing, the crowd were *really* impressed, and got completely into it, the general feeling was he was very good, and loads were won-over. At the end when they pulled the plug, the fans were chanting "F*** you reading" and "we want more!" for half an hour, (this is on youtube if you wanna watch it, and do some research for your 'reviews'. At the end, the band finished their set as an accoustic performance, with Axl using a megaphone, and bumblefoot on an accoustic guitar, cos they weren't finished, and didnt wanna leave the fans.

August 28 2010 at 2:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
basarab

this article can hardly be called a "review"! it's just a personal opinion of bias so-called "reporter". are? or you just sit on your ass in front of computer and twit with some retarded kids who were at the show, but knew nothing about GUNS N'ROSES way of having a concert?! this band has a rock n'roll attitude! the rest of them... are just entertainers.

August 28 2010 at 8:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jody Who?

Get someone decent to write your reviews !

August 28 2010 at 7:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jack

you see the thing is we can check it out for ourselves on the internet so your so called review isn`t really givig a true picture if you only want predictable don`t go to see guns n roses if you want unpredictable there the band the touch with the megaphone to brilliant for words!

August 28 2010 at 7:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Slash_has_Talent

I enjoyed the GN'R set personally, the tunes from their latest album were okay but the older stuff was great. Yes people left, and then returned as GN'R got into the show.

August 28 2010 at 6:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Fred the Shred

Dunno what show your reviewer was watching, I thought Guns were really good and my the end of the show had the crowd wanting more, looking forward to seeing them later on in the year at the O2

August 28 2010 at 6:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply