Met some really nice people and it was super fucking packed, even saw a Hells Angel! About 10PM I go find my seat and again, start making talk with two chicks next to me (who hadn't seen each other in 10 years but found out Axl was in town and found a tout) and a couple guys behind.

All of us bitched about seating and they said they'd run down to standing a couple songs in... I'm on my way to drunk at this point thanks to a few nice folk buying me drinks plus I had a bit of cash on me myself. So, at just gone half ten, I think like, an hour/hour n' a half late Mr Axl Rose and co arrive!  On a side note, a lot of people were booing when they played two Pearl Jam songs over the PA in the wait... Not too sure if it were directed towards the fact of waiting or if PJ just aren't too well accepted. None-the-less I and those next to me were singing away, don't remember the songs, one was definatley Alive, the other was off 'Ten' too, mighta been Evenflow or Jeremy...  So after the Welcome To The Jungle, It's So Easy, Mr. Brownstone triple hit AFD intro, Live And Let Die dies out into a guitar solo, the time is now to move! That we did and... got to fucking stand man! Woooooooo! Just waltzed in...
Got real fucking close, like 20 rows from the front... Then realised it was me vs. my bladder... Robin guitar solo, Sweet Child O' Mine, Madagascar, Better, You Could Be Mine, Knockin' On Heaven's Door - And the bladder overcomes me... It's that or piss on the spot...
Was in and out of the toilet in 30 seconds, back before the song was over... Though conceeded my amazing position relenquished... Still had a wicked view and kept getting more and more forward as it continued... Ron guitar solo (Partial 'Don't Cry' which, made me happy as it's the one song really, bar perhaps Get In The Ring that I'd never seen live,) The Blues, IRS, Out Ta Get Me, November Rain, My Michelle (with Sebastian Bach), Patience, Nightrain, Robin guitar solo, Paradise City  Show ends around 12:40 I think, lots of people choosing to be stranded and miss trains... Mr. Rose you really are something.  I didn't mind, I went on a mission round Hammersmith for a 24/7 to grab a pack of fags... Made my way back to the bus depot by the venue and it was Guns love baby... Every bus pulling out rammed  with Gunners! Great night, best live show I've ever seen, loving the fact that the coming Sunday means this is by no means over! Oh and Seb Bach of Skid Row was there to do 'My Michelle' with the band, Brian May was also sposed to play but missed the sound check and said online "i don't mind taking risks but on my time, not on someone else's, i could fuck up, and they have enough guitarists!) Fair enough, not a Queen fan so I don't care... Saturday morning... Had been out drinking from around 3:30pm-4:00am the Friday, return home around 10am, covered in random bruises, curious as to if my memorys failing me 'cause my body felt like it were quite possible I was pushed down a stair case or something the night before! Fell asleep for a few hours in the afternoon...  No sleep Saturday night...  Donnington is WELL SMALL compared to Reading... Like two stages, a tent n'... yeah...
The people seemed nicer though, more at ease. Reading, you always get fuckers that are just there for the sake of them being fuckers. I think I realised Sunday that a guy with my appearence is most widely accepted in the metal community. Figures since I remember being referred to in the past as like "that vaguely metal guy." Haha ah well, it could be worse!  SO glad I avoided the total w/e. All the bands on the bill were around like 6 or 7 years ago when I was in college, and even then, they were shit!  So apparently Axl was at the Grand Prix and arrives around 3-4pm by helicopter... Rock n' Roll!?! They're due on 8:15 after Funeral For A Friend... Saw a bit of Skindred, again from a far, then made tracks for the main stage... (Oh yeah, I wasn't impressed by anything musically bar GN'R so, yeah, in short, nice atmosphere, wank music!) Got well in to the main and alas, there is no one on stage despite (this is like 7:20) FFAF sposed to be on til 7:45... Prodigy have started on the second stage, although tempting, I ain't missing my spot!  8:07pm... Oh my, Axl's looked up 'early' in the dictionary!  No 3 minute super awesome video intro to Welcome To The Jungle, just straight into it... Now stick with me... It gets a WHOLE LOT MORE FUCKING INTERESTING! Welcome To The Jungle, It's So Easy, Mr. Brownstone, Live And Let Die, Knockin' On Heaven's Door... Axl "This is the worst fucking sound ever" ... Stops singing... "If you can't do your job, how about I don't do mine" aimed at the technicians.  Robin solo (Finlandia), Sweet Child O' Mine... At this point, Axl loses it... "Due to technical problems we're gonna take a break!"  He'd slipped during 'SCOM' and got pissed off 'cause of it... Dudes race out laying carpet... Crowd gets hot... Ron guitar solo (Dont Cry), Saves the day does our Mr Bumblefoot! Plays the ENTIRE song Don't Cry as a solo, fucking A! Now, the crowd gave the band a lot of shit but, I felt they fucking earnt their stripes... Putting in the overtime whilst Axl's throwing tantrums!  This happened again a couple times which I'll get too, the crowd dislikes the solos, feeling its slowing down the set, not realising they're pre-planned solos, and, for fucks sake, Guns N' Roses are made on solos!  You Could Be Mine... Just as we're back on... (Both gigs, infact all Guns gigs are BIG FUCK OFF sing-a-longs but then I notice...) Axl's at the back of the stage and he's stopped singing the outro to YCBM... At this point I start to fear this show may no longer go on... Axl may have walked at this point before returning. Then Tommy Stinson gets hit with a bottle, so throws his bass and hits the cameraman, he now fucks off! He returns after the song, cause this was MID song... Apologised on the mic and says like "I don't have to take this shit, you either quit throwing shit or I go home. I don't need this, if you wanna have a good time I'll fucking stay." Now, fair play to the fella.  Ron and Robin however, play solos again as shit goes down, these two are storm troopers! They laugh off attempted missiles and play like muthafuckas! Only downer was one of the solos was the Christina Aguilera song "Beautiful"... What the fuck!?!?! So... Ok.... I've read a lot of negative thoughts on the show.... At this point I'm thinking Hammersmith was way better and the whole crowd is tense. The heat and atmosphere is making me think 'riot' or some shit. However, for those who apparently fucked off at this point, how so fucking stupid.... No one split where I was, but we did bitch a lot among ourselves, lots of pro-Slash chants, bitching about ticket prices etc. Now, the band sounded fine, but Axl's vocals were cutting short and whatever you hear, he DID have tech difficulties. Now people don't get this, 'cause for me, why would you want a half-arsed show? He did what he did and....  
Better, (For the record, all the new songs now sound way better and I am of the opinion that, although sales might not go over amazingly, this new album is gonna shake this fucking universe to it's fucking core!) Then... Then it gets realllllly fucking special... Axl would like to introduce an old friend... Hahahaha.... Mr Izzy Stradlin ladies and gentleman! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!  Think About You (with Izzy Stradlin), of course this turns the crowd... Dizzy then leaves his keys for a grand master piano to do his thing, solo, very nice, the crowd still love Dizzy and probably respect him for still hanging 'round these past 10 years... The crowd was all after November Rain... Of course once that grand pianos out, they're gonna get their wish...
November Rain, This single handedly turns the entire show around and blows the audience outta the water! Any people speaking shit around me have now shut the fuck up, some bloke behind me saying "that's more like it Axl." From this point they gain momentum and... My Michelle (with Sebastian Bach), Smoke On The Water (Izzy intro) / Patience (with Izzy Stradlin), Nightrain (with Izzy Stradlin)... "I don't wanna go home, that's not how I felt an hour ago" says Rose. "What to do now..."  I'm thinking there's a couple songs left in 'em with the impending Paradise City forever the encore... How wrong was I... This IS the SHIT! Madagascar, Rocket Queen, IRS, Chinese Democracy,  The last song there looks HUGE! The stage is on fire man! It's like that one song was Axl saying "LISTEN MUTHAFUCKAS, GUNS N' ROSES WILL NEVER FUCKIN' DIE!"  It's still not over... It gets special once again... Used To Love Her (with Izzy Stradlin), an old Lies EP song which I'd never seen nor has it been played for years... The crowd continue singing it back and forth with Axl for ages!  Robin solo, Paradise City (with Izzy Stradlin) The crowd pop wild for this, obviously, it's one of those that even anti-Guns fans love.... Axl ends the show around 10:45pm FUCKING AMAZING! Ending on such a fucking buzz, this may now be the best show I've ever seen!
This was a proper Guns N' Roses show... the rants n' tantrums, although testing, I mean, Axl has to be careful trying to get his new band over, but in my view, they all were worth their salt due to them carrying on where they could in a big fuck off fireing line! They won most of the audience over...  On reflection it's a tough call. I got to see pretty much everything there is to see within those two shows. The intimacy and tardiness of Axl Rose n' co at Hammersmith, so close your face felt the burn when the flames blew.... And the epicness, crowd clashing, tantrums of Donnington.  So whatever you hear, and it's very mixed (the fest at least) ignore. I spent all last night on the net reading peoples shit, oh and cause also, from like 12:30-4am there was a huge fuck off riot up there... So glad I missed that. I mean, who sets a fucking shitter alight!?!? Those toilets are fucking ugly man, why burn them? They burnt canisters and shit apparently but then it got well outta hand. They pushed down the floodlights and riot police got called in. Mixed reactions, some say the police helped, others, innocent, got police dogs set on them, trunchen battered, burnt etc. Seriously, fucking children not being able to handle their alcohol apparently... Think there was also a bit of a Metal Vs Emo thing going on, obviously, the 14 year old emo's being battered!  Axl Rose by far still has it... His voice was so much better than the 2001-2002 shows and there's a real feeling something big is still yet to happen in that mans career... What does fuck me off though is all the shit the new guys get, 'cause, they've been a band for like 5 years now! Oh and Bumblefoot is a nice addition, his solo had him bring out this guitar right which, is shaped like a foot, with wings that retract in and out... And hey, at least Slash can say it took 3 men to replace him to cover his solos! Hahahahaha.... I love all past and present to do with Guns N' Roses but when it comes down to it... Axl's new material shits all over Velvet Revolver. Now wouldn't it be nice if they all realised that and got along? Izzy's back to being friends so who knows, make some fucking calls man! Haha... 

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