Wembley Arena, London, England
July 29th 2006
Review



Mark Albrecht's Review

Bullet For My Valentine finish their set (much to my enjoyment) and i contemplate ducking down in the crowd for a ciggie due to Wembley Arena's stupid no smoking rule. After about an hour of women getting their tits out and chatting to a couple of people around me, the lights go out, the crowd roars and the intro tape begins. A surge of adrenaline rushes through my veins more powerful than the one I'd felt at Download. The crowd were nowhere near as hostile either.

The opening chord of WTTJ strikes, I lose complete control of my actions and the adrenaline in my system takes over. A scream of "YOU KNOW WHERE THE FUCK YOU ARE" follows, and the night of pure rock n roll mayhem begins. Far superior sound to the Download festival set, Guns N' Roses have returned to London, and London is welcoming them the only way it can, with thunderous cheers and applause. It's So Easy is played flawlessly and so is Mr Brownstone. Live And Let Die makes it's usual appearence in the setlist, then Robin is left to play a little guitar solo, which he does and plays the English National Anthem, "God Save The Queen" before kicking into SCOM. After this, AXl mentions that he's got two competitions running that night. the first is a little acoustic show in a small club in Central London, the other is all expenses paid tri to the KROQ Inland Invasion, which GNR are headlining (unfortunately i didn't get either). The night continues with the old favourite Knockin On Heavens Door and then Dizzy's paino solo and The Blues, which Richard follows with his little bit of mindless guitar wankery and then into his duet with Robin Finck.

You Could Be Mine is then started, which imo always goes down well. Following that, Bumblefoot is left to do some solo'ing, and then has the crowd singing along to Don't Cry, a song thats as popular with fans today as when it was first released. Following swiftly on from that is Out Ta Get Me, which seemed to be another crowd pleaser (mind you, they all were if I'm completely honest), and then somethign no one was expecting, 3 cover songs, Sway, Sailing and Back In The U.S.S.R. (Fucking UK) which all go down with a bit of a mixed feeling lol. The cover songs also lead to Izzy's first appearence of the night, which is then followed by Think About You. Izzy goes backstage again and Sebastian Bach (who had blown the small audience he had there away completely earlier on) joins Axl onstage, not in his leather trousers and waistcoat thing, but in a white suit, and does dual vocals on My Michelle. Izzy returns after this and Richard picks up an acoustic guitar for Patience. At this point i was a little upset because i thought they weren't gonna be playing November Rain because having seen setlists from the tour it was mostly Nightrain straight after this, and then encore time which was two or three songs. However i was wrong as the piano appeared again, Axl sat behind it, and the song kicked off. After this was the closer of Appetite, something they hadn't played at all in the UK since Download, Rocket Queen. That was something else i would be able to say made the first London night special compared to the rest of the tour as well, the first thign being the three covers earlier mentioned. Izzy then rejoins GNR onstage and Nightrain is played.

At this point i nearly get kicked out by security for having a well deserved cigarette and over reacting with some abuse when the thing was snatched out my mouth and broken in front of my eyes. Still, should have stuck to the rules, despite it being 1AM and having been in the building since 6pm with no designated smoking area. Ce La Vie.

I.R.S. starts as the band return to the stage, and some of the audience, including myself are singing along to it knowing we've had an excellent show, and if I'm honest, i was hoping for an encore like was seen at Download the previous month, no such luck though. Paradise city is then started, and the crowd once again roars with exictement.

The song ends, the night finishes and i head back to the little B&B i'd booked myself into, sweaty, tired and satisfied that the money I'd spent on the ticket was indeed money well spent.