Glastonbury’s Saturday night headliner Guns N’ Roses did not impress everyone, to say the least. Many fans watching online complained that the performance sounded like shit, while some publications simply said the band was shit.
Axl Rose and the fellas have fired back at two of the harshest critics, and a spokesperson for GNR has blamed the poor viewing experience on the technical aspects of the online broadcast.
The band’s Twitter account tweeted lyrics from their 2008 song ‘Chinese Democracy’: “... it would take a lot more hate than you,” they wrote, tagging the writers Mark Beaumont and Neil McCormick who were absolutely brutal in their analysis of the band’s performance.
Beaumont, who reviewed the band’s set for the Independent, absolutely roasted them. He said their performance is a “frontrunner for the worst Glasto headline set of all time”, that the band “represent everything dated, rockist, indulgent and macho that Glastonbury has rejected since its inception”, and compared Axl Roses vocals during ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ to a cockerel.
Rose also came under fire from Neil McCormick of The Telegraph, who said:
“Guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan still look the part of grizzled rockers who only function at night, but Axl Rose just looks weird, like an ageing small-town hairdresser who has been working out too hard at the gym. The real problem, though, is his voice.”
A spokesperson for the band disagreed with the above comments, obviously. Instead, in an email to Wales Online, they said the real villain was the British Broadcasting Company (BBC).
“Axl was in top form last night,” the email said. “We have dug deep into the matter, and it appears the broadcast had issues being played on certain TVs like UHDs.”
“This was an unfortunate issue that the mix played through these TVs sounded so poorly; however, it was not the band’s fault but the BBC’s.”
It should be said that not all of the official reviews were horrible and that many of those who were present for the set absolutely loved it.
GNR will always be remembered as one of the most legendary bands ever. This Glasto set, good or bad, will most likely be a mere footnote in their story.
