In the aftermath of Reading, Leeds, and Dublin shows, Mick Wall weighs in on Axl Rose and the future of Guns N’ Roses .
Axl Rose goes on stage so late it causes the show to be curtailed. Axl Rose blames everybody except himself. Axl Rose fans go home angry and bitterly disappointed.

Um, is it just me or do those last three sentences induce a feeling of déjà vu? I mean, we really have all been here before, right? So many times, in fact, you begin to wonder if Axl isn’t just enjoying some sort of cosmic joke no one else is weird enough to get.

Even the most ardent Axl fans (a rapidly swindling band of naysayers) must surely admit after these latest episodes in Reading and Leeds that the whole sorry saga went way beyond the realms of ‘boring’ centuries ago, passed through the nebula of ‘unacceptable’ even before Slash and co walked out, and now resides inside a file marked ‘mental’.

And yet… I can’t be the only one either that finds the continuing war Axl seems to be waging against himself – and make no mistake, he’s the one that suffers ultimately, as he sits up all night furiously surfing the internet for mentions of his name, as insiders tell me he does – utterly compelling.

See the pictures of Guns N’ Roses from Reading

Me and Axl are about the same age. We grew up in a world where rock wasn’t just some pre-packaged item on a virtual shelf you could instantly download and try on for size. We came of age in a time and place called the 1970s when rock really was considered the last refuge of the outlaw. You didn’t join a band to make a million bucks. You did so to shake things up. Freak out the straights. Fight the man. Fuck all the rules until they bent so far backwards they broke in two.

It could be argued that when Axl refuses to come onstage until he’s good and ready, tells anyone who tries to impose their will on him to fuck off – including his own band, record company, managers, whoever – that it’s a simple manifestation of the philosophy he and I and a whole generation of others like us grew up believing in. That rock was something you needed to have the right juju to conjure up. Some found it through drugs, sex, black magic, or combos thereof. Whatever gets you through the night, as we used to say back in the very long day and even longer night.

The trouble is, that was then and this is now. And it’s one thing to want to sex-up your act, recharge the vibe, so that you can bring it to the people when you finally hit the stage. But when the magic backfires and all you do is piss off the ones that love you most – the fans – then something is very badly wrong.

There’s a reason Axl didn’t make it to the stage on time in Reading and Leeds and it’s got nothing to do with the spirit of rock’n’roll rebellion – or taking a nap or any pre-show deal he now says he made, as reports have suggested. It’s the same reason, in fact, that Chinese Democracy took 12 years to make and reportedly over $13 million. I think you know what I’m talking about.

Let’s hope Axl feels better one day soon. Or better still, calls Slash…