I used to love her...sorry, I used to love these guys back in da day. They arrived with a rocket, peaked rather too soon, then swiftly became irrelevant in the mid 90s. Then came laughing stock status which lasted, oh quite a while, though their T-shirts still sold well amongst those who wanted to look harder than they were. So the news that they were headlining Glasto impacted on me very little.
I thought I'd give it a watch though, mainly to see if any original members were still alive. Lo and behold, the holy trinity of Axl, Slash and Duff were all present and reasonably correct. Axl was in turns impressive and over ambitious, his high notes resembling Mr Hanky, as my wife cruelly, but accurately, noted. And Slash reminded us of his inhuman talent, while looking for all the world like Dr. Teeth from the Electric Mayhem.
They were great, if chaotic and erratic as ever. But hopefully they woke up at least a few of the uninspiring Glasto masses, accustomed to boring indie music once upon a time, and these days accustomed to any old crap that turns up. It struck me that if you removed all of G 'n' R's more OTT moments (cough, November Rain, achoo) what you have left is a riotously good Rawk 'n' Roll combo. They were never really metal, just a really noisy rock group. And this they still do supremely well.
The whole experience has sparked a totally unexpected G 'n' R revival in my house at least. In the year 2023...I mean really.
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