There's rock 'n' roll, and then there's just stupid. The 5km walk to last night's Guns N' Roses gig just about qualified as the former; the four-hour taxi queue after it concretely didn't. That, somehow, our memories of the night today are of the positive variety are entirely down to what happened on the stage and entirely not to all the nonsense around it. Yes, this was an almighty shambles, but boy do Axl, Slash, Duff and the other ones whose names no-one can ever remember still have it.
At various points in the show fireworks shot up from behind the stage, but they were essentially superfluous. The real magic was right there on it. For more than two hours Guns N' Roses nailed hit after hit, interspersed with various freewheeling cover-jams that took in everything from The Rolling Stones to Eric Clapton. Being in the crowd as the band transitioned from a note-perfect riff on the iconic Layla piano refrain (so perfectly used, of course, by Martin Scorsese in the GoodFellas montage) into November Rain was, simply, magical. Beautiful, even. And when Slash segued from one of the single most astonishing guitar solos we have ever seen into the opening chords of Sweet Child o' Mine you could have probably heard the crowd reaction from space.
Was it worth all the grief on the night? On balance, absolutely yes. But it was also seriously beyond ridiculous. That 5km trek, as it happens, was daft but actually quite fun, imbued with a lovely Blitz spirit as hundreds of fans marched together determinedly for a late date with their rock kings and the stationary cars alongside them cranked up Appetite for Destruction on their CD players as some sort of lyrical amuse bouche.
Following huge delays into Dubai's Guns 'N' Roses concert, organisers 117 Live release a statement:
Were you also at the event?
What was your experience?
Culled From Time Out Dubai
I trust Dubai to have had everything under control.
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