Load of bullshit no doubt..... The perfect time to pretend you have leaks, just some little gimp trying to drive people mad....

Too funny, same old excuse 9 years on... Go Axl!

Anyone got his spiel about OMG being a demo after it crashed and burned, I'd like to see that....

Good work on the Balin appreciation btw James, if you want any Airplane stuff, let me know....

Will check some of those out. Prob not Simply Red though, just cant abide the man! One ginger balladeer is enough for these ears.

Funny though but I was listening to Dont Stop Believin yesterday and thought it was similar in many ways to a lot of the CD stuff but a hell of a lot better imo. I love that song, its a real guilty pleasure, especially since it featured in the Sopranos so prominently. I'm going to listen to it right now.

Ah Axl, 14 years to sound like Journey. Well done. I wouldnt be surprised if theres a cover of it on CD.

'He's like the George Lucas of rock,' Bach marvels.

Yep, he took something fantastic, chopped and changed it again and again, tweaked it and tweaked it til it turned to shit.

As for the General being a 'slow grinding track', didn't he say exactly the same thing about Sorry? Doom metal or something??? We have enough slow songs on this album, grinding or not. Everything Baz says just gives me the fear or is downright annoying. They may as well ask Beavis & Butthead to be the official spokesperson for GNR. The sequel to Estranged - i.e a long balled about Stephanie Seymour. Someone ran out of ideas many years ago it seems.

Pessimism aside, an autobiography would be most interesting, I reckon it would be painful reading and may finally give us a better insight into the world of Axl and his side of the whole GNR thing. I'd hope hes objective and not just blame the whole world for everything but we'll see. Some chapters will be pretty thin though I'm sure - '1996-2002 - got out of bed, tried writing a song about Stephanie, went out, bought some rap clothes, went back to bed'.

Its funny that this thread has deteriorated into a Slash v Buckethead thing - 2 guitarists that left ages ago. Come on people, its not 2004 anymore, Buckethead is gone, get over it. Stop living in the past Theres something called Bumblefoot on guitar now, jeez, get with the times....

So what we have deduced is: Buckethead is very talented on guitar, and so is Slash - no argument there. Slash wouldnt fit these songs, ok fine. He probably wouldnt, - but the new guys prove time and again that theyyre very good at butchering Slash's work, but what sticks in your head more? The solo for Sweet Child, or the solo from Rhiad? Thats the crux of the matter really isnt it?

You can take take a song like If the World, Madagascar, Better and whack a great solo on it, an unmemorable solo mind you, and tweak it more and more, so what? You cant polish a turd.

A good song is a good song, regardless of whether some freak shreads a million notes over the top or some other guy sticks a bluesy solo on it. The difference now is that we really dont have many good songs from these guys, a trend that doesnt seem to change from leak to leak really, try and tell me IRS is a classic and up there with anything off UYI (except My World obviously). The only gem is TWAT, especially solo wise and please just tell me that first solo doesnt sound like Slash to you.

What did you get into GNR for? Was it for synths? Multiple piano ballads about some bird that fucked off 10 years ago? Songs that sound like Evanescence (song 2 off the new leaks), or flamenco funk?

The point isnt the talent employed to play on the songs, its the songs themselves. We all know Buckethead is good, but the songs on the whole arent. Not too tricky really.

Right I'm off to listen to If the World... Oh maybe not, its rubbish.

Just my opinion......