Monday, August 30, 2010

Guns N Roses criticise festival

DJ Ashba and Axl Rose from Guns N Roses Guns N Roses had their set cut short at Reading after going on stage late

Guns N Roses lead singer Axl Rose claimed his "war" with Reading and Leeds bosses "wasnt over yet" as they headlined the final night of this years festival.

The singer directed a string of expletives at organisers as his group ran over their allotted performance for the second time.

They came on stage 30 minutes late after being an hour late at Reading.

They played half an hour over their time before being told to stop.

Afterwards festival boss Melvin said he would book the band again but "wasnt sure theyd play for me".

See all the performances and pictures from the Reading and Leeds Festivals

Eventful weekend

Up until the final half an hour Guns N Roses set had been largely straightforward with a show which included songs like Welcome To The Jungle, Sweet Child o Mine and November Rain.

They were due to finish at 2300 [BST] but continued to play. At 2320 they left the stage and returned for a one song encore of Paradise City and then began criticising organisers.

Its disrespectful to all the other bands. Its disrespectful to all the people whove bought tickets. I think the guy is a joke and I think his band is a joke

Lostprophets guitarist Mike Lewis speaking about Guns N Roses

Speaking to Newsbeat after the band came off stage festival boss Melvin Benn said: "You have to put on a show and every band is focussed on only their aspect of what a festival is - that a band comes off unhappy is something Ill have to live with."

He described the booking of the band for the bank holiday weekender as a "good decision for the festival" adding that it had "paid great dividends".

The scenes followed their appearance at Reading festival on Friday where the band had their set cut short by organisers after breaking a newly-extended curfew.

They protested by continuing to play without amplification with Axl Rose singing along through a megaphone.

In between their performances Axl Rose had demanded the bosses of Reading and Leeds festival say sorry to fans at Reading for cutting their set short.

Speaking on Tweeter he said: "At the very least the fans deserve an apology from those responsible for the nonsense."

Meanwhile, touring guitarist with the band DJ Ashba described organisers as "cocky" and "money grabbing".

Its the latest in a prolonged drama involving Guns N Roses and the festival.

In the run-up to this years event organisers said they would have to pull the plug on the bands set if they ran over their schedule.

Thats after Guns N Roses took to the stage late at Leeds festival 2002.

Artist backlash

However, many artists were critical of Guns N Roses actions over the weekend.

Lostprophets guitarist Mike Lewis said: "It was so predictable that he was going to be late that nobody bothered questioning why. Its so predictable, its boring.

DJ Ashba and Axl Rose New Guns N Roses guitarist DJ Ashba left performed with the band

"I dont see it as him being a rock star or rock n roll. I just see it as being disrespectful.

"Its disrespectful to all the other bands. Its disrespectful to all the people whove bought tickets. I think the guy is a joke and I think his band is a joke."

Marina and The Diamonds Marina Diamandis said: "I just think its juvenile. Its really selfish to keep people waiting.

"Actually they did it because they [the organisers] said if youre an hour late you wont get paid so they were 58 minutes late in Reading."

"Its like, Grow up. Youre not king of the world."

Elsewhere, the final day of this years Leeds festival saw performances from Queens Of The Stone Age, LCD Soundsystem and Mumford And Sons who drew a huge crowd at the NME/Radio 1 stage.

Reading festival was brought to a close with shows from Blink-182, Paramore and Klaxons.

Radio 1 will have highlights from this years Reading festival from 7pm tonight 30 August.



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