By the time they let us in at about 6.30pm my feet were bloody killing me. The crowd had swelled by this time and I did notice a huge number of Brazilian flags about - those folks really do love GNR! I also saw Buckethead in the queue! Well, a guy in a near perfect Buckethead outfit (quite a few people wear carrying KFC buckets with them). Onr thing - that queue sure did smell of 'funny' cigarettes.... When they finally let is us I was amazed to see that we were among the first into the arena and so were lucky enough to secure a place almost on the barriers - the stage was no more than 10ft away from me and so I had a bloody brilliant view of the entire show!!! Weezer came on at 7.00pm (30 minutes earlier than scheduled - did this mean Axl would be early...?!) and played for about 50 minutes. I'm not a big fan but did sing along to the only two tunes I knew: the 'Hep Hep!' one and the 'Buddy Holly' one. Weezer were good, but the crowd wasn't there to see them and it's a shame that a few arseheads let them know this by chanting "F*** OFF" and throwing bottles at the stage (I'm sure the Axl of old would have said something about this when he came on - but 2002 Axl didn't)

At around 9.00pm (30 mins late, if you believe the lead singer of Weezer had told us) the lights dimmed and George C Scott's Exorcist "Slime!" voice boomed out over the Arena and the place went absolutely frickin' bonkers!

The stage in Docklands Arena is quite small, maybe about 80ft across and 30ft deep so I had a great view of everyone. Axl didn't look fat at all - I think his hair looks stupid with those braid things in and he has the eyebrows of a serial killer but he looks like a frickin' rock star! In all seriousness if I saw him in a bar I'd avoid him cos' he does look like a mean motor scooter. He wore a bandana (blue paisley I think?) heavy duty boots, black leather trousers (pants) and a white US football top with the number 80 on it and the name 'RICE'. He didn't change his outfit during the entire set, never even took his shirt off, although he did drop his trousers to his ankles during You Could Be Mine! (or was it Patience?).

I was directly in front of Buckethead. He started off in that yellow jacket but later changed to black. He also wore a "severed hand" glove for a few songs. There was no tombstone near him but he did have 'funeral' printed on his bucket. He was (after Axl) the best part of the show. His guitar playing was awesome and he freaked me out by staying motionless during the tracks until it was his turn to play! He did his breakdance/nunchuck solo (two people caught a set of nunchucks each) and during his guitar solo he played the main theme from Star Wars and what I think is called "Luke's theme" - crowd loved this!

Next to Axl and Buckethead the other band members had a hard time registering on my radar. I couldn't see Brain behind his drums and Dizzy, Tommy, Chris and the New Guy just seemed to 'be there' if you know what I mean. Robin Finck is hard to miss though. He was dressed in a white shiny sort of clown suit costume. He looks like Ben Affleck from close-up. I never saw him smile once. His guitar solo seemed to be a bit boring, I got the impression he was just improvising and I don't think it worked - he's no match for Buckethead!

The band played for about 1 hour 45 minutes. The setlist was the usual one but without Silk Worms or Oh My God which I found disappointing. I was amazed at how fresh the Appetite songs sounded (I put that down to Buckethead, his style really does add something to what are perfect - Slash's! - guitar parts in the first place). Every track sounded great although I though Rhiad fell flat on much of the audience, as did Madagascar and The Blues. I love those two songs but I think they are more suited to CD tracks as opposed to live performances. The Blues was played a lot slower than I've heard before. Chinese Democracy went down a storm though!

The three video walls were used to great effect. Apart from the generic death and horror imagery I also remember drag racing during You Could Be Mine, Buckingham Palace and a Union Jack during Paradise City, Pam Grier and Elvis during Rocket Queen, and a 50s Japanese robot cartoon during Bucket's solo! 20ft high flames, explosions and a massive ticker-tape 'rain' at the very end added to a great evening.

Axl was quite talkative throughout the set and it was great to see him smile and joke too. He had a go at the NME (more than once) for saying he was "as big as a house", had a go at people who say because they play the same "new" songs all the time they're the only ones ready - he said they play them because they're the ones that are NOT being considered for Singles. He said the album would be "18 tracks and 10 extras" and that "when the record company feels that record had run it's course there were be ANOTHER album and so on".

Other things I remember ... a couple behind me throwing a soft toy on stage and almost exploding in cheers when Axl picked it up and put it on his wrist ... Axl ending the show by shouting "God Save The Queen" - hope he was being sarcastic!...some wanker near me trying to barge his way to the front only to be beaten up by some pissed off dude!...Axl playing a comedy piano tune before Rain...Axl being told by Finck that because he hadn't spoken for over 5 minutes his talk about the NME wasn't technically a rant!

All in all the best gig I've ever attended by a long, long way! Merchandise was quite sparse, I got a mug and had two of the five T-shirts that were on offer. I also managed to sneak off a few photos which should be quite good as I was so close to the stage

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