Guns N Roses have declared "war" on the organisers of the Reading and Leeds Festivals after two chaotic performances over the weekend. Axl Rose and co. showed up on stage over an hour later than the advertised time and, according to The Guardian, delivered a performance which contained "no charisma and no chemistry". Rose's vocals haven't really withstood the test of time and his voice was reportedly drowned out by a chorus of boos from the less-than-impressed crowd. Also, due to their tardiness in beginning the performance, curfew laws dictated that the band's set was to be dramatically pruned. Rose then attempted to whip up the disinterested audience into a friendly by encouraging them to complain to festival organisers about Gun N Roses' neutered set.
You would imagine that after a PR disaster of such epic proportions Axl would be inclined to put on a hellraiser of a set on the following night in Reading. Nope. This time the band began their set just 30 minutes late but then aimed a profanity-laced insult at festival promoter Melvin Benn, who defended his stance by saying his hands were tied because of the strict noise pollution laws.
Blink 182 and LCD Soundsystem directly referenced the Guns N Roses debacle during their sets too, much to the delight of the crowd.
**Updated**
Having regained control of his Twitter account Axl has since used the social networking tool to respond to the widespread criticism with the following comments:
"In regard to Reading we feel at the very least the fans deserve an apology from those responsible for the nonsense. We'd also like to thank the fans for being so great, singing along n' not tearing the place apart!!"
"So u know, we allegedly had a deal in place pre show w/the city at least at Leeds to do a bit longer performance that was either miscommunication, someone wasn't informed, changed their mind, didn't care or was a con. (sic)"
"Regardless the nonsense just seems so unnecessary but w/out real management or industry presence is unfortunately beyond r control. We hope the fans feel they got at least what they could from us under the circumstances as 4 us all things considered that's the main thing. The rest is filler."
"Anyway, enough rambling. Peace, thanks 4 understanding n' what we did manage to get done out there was a blast! The crowds n' fans were amazing!! And in r opinion (not that apparently it means much) u deserved better!! Thanks again!! Axl."
That's what we've got to look forward to at the Odyssey tonight (August 31st) and The O2 on Wednesday (Sept 1st)!
