Guns N' Roses Late Show Irritates Manchester Fans, Report Speculates it's Deliberate

Although fans should never be blamed for putting down their hard-earned money for concert tickets, Guns N' Roses fans should know by now the group rarely ever start their concerts on time. But a delay Tuesday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England definitely rubbed some concert-goers the wrong way.

According to NME, the group was slated to hit the stage at 10 p.m. local time but didn't saunter out until 11 p.m., beginning with "Welcome to the Jungle." When they began, Rose was reportedly hit with a flying pint. Still, it didn't seem to faze him as YouTube clips show him carrying on with the song and not stopping the show.

The three-hour show concluded after 2 a.m. with a little more than 6,000 remaining in the 16,000 seat arena by the end. The extremely late finish left many people taking to Twitter to vent their frustrations. Some were "disgusted" while others were forced to take the last train out of the area back to their homes before the show ended.

Rose has routinely played shows over the years. A 2010 gig at Toronto's Air Canada had the group kicking their show off at 11:25 p.m. According to a Toronto Sun review, Rose quipped that he was "sorry about the time delay" and added he was in fact "early."

More complaints about their late starts caused the group -- following another late start at Rock in Rio -- to respond in 2011, saying if fans wanted "8 o'clock shows go find F-R-I-E-N-D-S or hit a cinema somewhere" and "when the time is right the stage will ignite."

This lateness may not in fact be lateness at all, though. It might be part of the plan. According to Classic Rock Magazine, on Tuesday (May 29) the group's road crew and the band arrived 24 hours before a scheduled gig in Glasgow, Scotland. However, local roadies were told at a morning production meeting (13 hours before Guns were to start) to arrive at work two hours later than scheduled. Essentially, promoters knew in advance the show wasn't starting early.

"You would normally expect to go back about half an hour before the band finishes playing, so you're ready to get to work the moment they come off," a stage worker told the magazine. "That means Guns N' Roses knew at 9 a.m. they weren't going to finish playing until at least 1 a.m. -- and actually they finished at 1:30 [in Glasgow]."

The band's European tour continues this evening with a show at London's O2 Arena. Perhaps the band would be better off printing fan-friendly information on the tickets, say, "Doors open in evening, show begins early next morning."

In related news, the group was joined briefly onstage by former band member Izzy Stradlin at their opening night gig in London. He played on the song "14 Years."

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