Discussing the current Guns N Roses Line Up ahead of June 9th

Motley Crue

A couple of days ago another poster on another forum in an article about the Guns N Roses concert made the point that a good deal of people attending prob wouldnt know who the current line up actually is. This is true of course, since Kerrang and Scuzz would only show videos from Appetite from Destruction, Use Your Illusion and The Spaghetti Incident with a couple of those ‘fan’ videos that have appeared over the years (also featuring the original line up) making their ways onto our screens.

Looking at Aiken Promotions ads for the event (even after Motley Crue were removed as the support act), Saturday February 25ths Evening Herald ran an ad that contained a black background and a newly designed Guns N Roses logo with the original type font and colour style spelling for the name Guns N Roses. Seeing this, even I was questioning whether or not the original band were reuniting, with no mention of newer bandmates in site. Even when the band embarked on a short European Tour 3 years ago the promotional material reflected a chinese style with a dog holding a globe in its mouth, and gave a very modern look and feel to the band, with this material looking extremely ‘old school’ indeed.

Heck even the Irish Independent said, and I quote, in its Thursday 23rd Feb article on Guns N Roses (written by Allison Bray) that ‘…the original Guns N Roses line up, including Axl Rose (below left) plays the RDS on June 9th…’

Add all this to the fact that Guns N Roses last apperances in Europe were 3 years ago (and how likely were young Irish fans to get tickets to see them) and you’re looking at a rather (admittingly slim) expectation by some 15yr old that Slash and Duff are going to walk out on stage!

For this reason, I’ve decided to start this thread to discuss the new Guns N Roses lineup in full, so that as many people as possible are aware of who and what will be in the RDS on June 9th 2006.

Before we begin, a short history of whats happened since 1994…The original Guns N Roses line-ups last attempt at a tour was their cancelled 95/96 European Tour after which Axl and Duff began recording Chinese Democracy with Matt Sorum, Dizzy Reed and Paul Huge. McKagan and Sorum were fired shortly thereafter and Rose hired ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stintson to replace McKagan. Its unclear who actually replaced Sorum at first, but Josh Freese (of A Perfect Circle) and the drummer from Garbage were also named as replacements on fansites, before Rose settled on Brian Mania (ex-Primus). The band then recorded the track ‘Oh My God’ in 1999 with Robin Finck (of the Nine Inch Nails) before Finck rejoined NIN and the band made another change when Buckethead was drafted in. In January 2001 Axls’ first live show in 7 years happened at the House of Blues, Las Vegas, before the crowd played to a slightly more larger crowd at Rock in Rio 01. After this, Axl returned into hiding and next summer (02) the band embarked on a slightly short Asian/European Tour before beginning an American Tour in November. It started and ended with a riot, and when Axl admitted to watching a basketball game in his room when he was supposed to be on stage, the plug was pulled and GnR once again became a distant memory. That has remained the case until now, when Axls more constantly public apperances, and leaked songs have led into this most recent tour announcement.

W.Axl Rose (Vocals)More arrogant then Dave Mustaine, if such a thing were possible, Axl is no born again Christian…but he does believe in ‘born again bands’ since this is his 3rd official attempt to get his new band rolling. Theres nothing that hasn’t been said about Axl before, so I wont waste time on him, but you may be interested to know that he was fired from the band in 89 for claiming his bandmates were ‘doing too much Mr Brownstone’ before being taken back 3 days later. If that had held up, we would have never had that near 3-year tour in 91-93, and possibly no apperance in Slane Castle in May 1992. In hindsight, I wonder does Slash kick himself when he thinks about that, or did he actually have a choice in the matter?

Robin Finck (Guitar)
Possibly the only person I think Axl made a good choice in hiring, Robin Finck is an amazing Guitarist, and hopefully he will be promoted to the position of lead guitarist on the bands next tour with the departure of Buckethead. Robin spent most of his musical carrer under the tuition of Trent Reznor and toured extensively with the NIN. Finck wears a lot of makeup on stage and looks like a member of the Murderdolls on his better days…he can be seen in the NIN video ‘March of the Pigs’ Finck even played in Dublins SFX in 1994 with NIN on their European Tour.

Richard Fortus (Guitar)
Richard Fortus was hired by Axl in 2002 to replace the recently departed Paul Tobias (or Huge) for the bands European and Asian jaunts. Sources close to the band say that Tobias, who’d been with GnR since 1994, hadnt actually been fired but simply decided he didn’t want to go on tour (much like Izzy Stradlin in 1991). Whatever the reason Fortus has been with the band ever since and mentioned recently that he re-recorded over the departed Bucketheads guitar parts for Chinese Democracy. Last year, Fortus colaberated with ex-80s popstar NENA on the latters most recent album, even going so far as to perform some dates in Germany and Austria with her.

Tommy Stintson (Bass)
In Punk terms, Tommy Stintson is big news, as he is a founding member of Punk band The Replacements and is the longest ‘newer’ member of Guns N Roses…having been with the band since replacing Duff McKagan in 1997. Often referred to as ‘The General’ jokingly by Axl Rose, its quite obvious that both men have a good relationship, and it is also possible with Stinston wrote some material and may have even recorded some vocals for the new album (much like Duff did for Use Your Illusion). Stinston can be heard on any Replacements album and appeared in the Village last year in town as low-key support to someone or other.

Dizzy Reed (Keyboards, Piano, Organ, Additional Drums)
Dizzy Reed is the same Dizzy Reed from the original line up, albeit hes lost a lot of weight and now sometimes wears glasses, and of course has his hair braided like Axl. One of the most outspoken members of Guns N Roses against those critical of Axl (I wonder why?), Reed has his own band called Hookers and Blow that move up and down the Californian Coast playing cover versions and promising to release an album one day, maybe making him more like Axl then we think? He was also a childhood friend of Axls, his first gig with the band being Rock in Rio 91, when he made his debut live in front of 3million people.

Brian Mania (Drums)
Don’t know much about Brian Mania, except he wears a cap that makes him look like Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit, and plays a rather interesting drum set. He has worked with some big names in the music Industry over the years and was chosen for Guns N Roses because of his friendship with Buckethead…who also worked with Primus.

Chris Pittman (Keyboards)
Apparently did some pyro work for TOOL ‘back in the day’, Pittman was Guns N Roses pyro man before Axl decided that he could join the band since Dizzy would need some help during some of the rather more complicated songs. Wrote a song called ‘Silkworms’ with Dizzy Reed that was played at Rock in Rio 01. Very fast, lyrically vulgar and Industrial sounding it would be interesting to see if it makes the album but I’d personally prefer tracks like ‘Better’ and ‘There was a Time’

mickymg2003

Axl Rose: Never liked the guy. I'v been a GnR fan for about 5 years now and i find myself listening to the music and trying to ignore his voice, although he is a good frontman(Live) i find him annoying

Brian Mantia: I listened to the leaked stuff and the drums arent really that special. Havent heard much of his stuff with primus because i've only listened to sailing the seas of cheese and pork soda and i dont think he played on them

Tommy Stintson: He's a nobody compared to duff. Duff remains one of my favourite bassists and this guy doesnt seem to be the right guy to "replace" him.

The new material is alright (Just alright) but not brilliant. I'll go to the gig because ive seen videos of the new line-up on you-tube and it seems like a pretty decent live band that would be worth seeing although its not right having guns n' roses without slash and duff