Yeah that's cool and I get what you mean, I mean we each have our dream line ups or approaches. I was going on for months that they should have hired doug aldrich from whitesnake before bumble came along.

I guess the difference also is whether or not a person wants the line up to contain other star power other than axl, as distinct from, other talent with Axl. You know like - do we want a previously famous guitarist to be in GNR, or just someone who can play like a deamon, and becomes famous once the world is exposed to him. There is benifits in both approaches....someone famous already prob helps to market it to fans upset at the loss of slash/bucket/brings new fans but then again someone new has potental to be just as exciting to me as I've learn't about a new player etc.

I think what i've been thinking in this thread though is that despite not knowing these guys upfront , once I got passed wishing they were the old band, I realised there's a pretty good amount of talent there.

I'd never heard of bumble, and at first i was skeptical, as bucket doesn't write the kind of parts anyone off the street can play. But then i heard how he'd been recomended by Satch...who's someone who knows his shit on guitar, and, over time,  I checked out those youtube vids of bumble with the thimble showing off his techniques, and I realised, bumble may never be bucket - just as bucket was never slash to me - but in the same way - he's a person who might do something pretty interesting.

Same with DJ.  I'd head of SixxAm cos of the motley book but that's about it. So when Axl appointed him i was like "who?". But since then i checked out some of his stuff on that line 6 commerical, and listened to some of other stuff and thought it sounded like he plays in an appropriate style, then i found out he co-wrote saints of LA which was an album i've really enjoyed (i didn't realise it wasn't just motley written previously) and so now I'm excited that he might bring some rock back, and a nice blend of modern-sounds but classic rock into the band....

Which isn't to say i'll like anyone Axl hires. I mean TBH because I like Axl's voice he could hire anyone and I'd give it a chance, but I wouldn't be excited about them like I am about this line up. A good example of that is Robin, I like what he played on CD in the end, but I never could handle what he did with the AFD tunes live for the most part. So it's not like I automaticly like anyone in GNR. But this line up does have the goods to get my attention. Not at first glance like it instantly would with Zakk or someone like that because I didn't know their resumes, but once I got into the playing of people like richard, i realised they can do stuff I can't

So i guess that's how it goes for me. I'd love some of the old line ups, particularly the first, not to have imploded, and I could make a shopping list of cool dudes i'd love to see audition for GNR, but at the same time, if I look past all that, this line up to me looks like it could be a ton of fun if the ball gets rolling on it.

I would NEVER say that. I love the old line ups and their work. But my question is why does it have to be about which is better? Can't it be that they're both good in VERY DIFFERENT ways? Why in GNR fandom does liking one person mean they are against the other?

I also think looking at who is better kind of implies that there is a choice going on which doesn't really exist at the moment. It's been said that prior to bumble being on scene many representations were made to Bucket to return. He doesn't want to. Likewise, based on recent remarks,  even if every guitarist in the world refused to work with Axl, I can't see him calling up Slash, seems he'd rather die first. Now obviously those things are regreatable, hell, they SUCK to us fans of the old line ups. But given that's the situation, we can have nothing, or we can have a new and different GNR, I'm interested in the different GNR. And once I let myself start to get passed the changes, it acutally became quite interesting to me what different things these people have to offer.

It's really like a second (or I guess third now!) marriage in my eyes. If you want the new wife to be the old one, then it's just outright never going to work and she can ONLY fail at that, because people are who they are. But if you look at it as a different relationship she can offer something new. Something right for that time. Who is better? Did you love wife 1 or 2 more at that time? They each did something amazing at that stage of things. So yeah...no one will ever be Slash and Izzy. Just like the second wife won't be the first. But I can still be happy. I think DJ and Bumble and Richard could make something i'll enjoy at this stage in my life. But your results may vary!

I havn't slept so i'm sorry if this post isn't sence making.

For me, as a guitarist, I have a stronger focus on guitars than an "average joe" listner, so I would be still interested in what this group did sans Axl, although, obviously Axl's an incredible vocalist and so i'm glad he is part of the equation.

It's somewhat philosophical I guess, but I've just been feeling a lot that as a fan base we're all so hurt by what's been lost that now even if something great came along we might be blind to it.

And I'm not for a second taking anything away from the old guys, Slash is the reason I learn't guitar and a god to me, bucket is unspeakably amazing..I love them both. But sadly, things are what they are, and it seems they arn't comming back, and truth be told, no one can ever be those people but those people. Which i think is what upsets so many of us. people feel these guys are replacements and just not quite right. and that's a logical way to view things given it's all marketed under the GNR brand and all that. I'm not really arguing that point, but for me, i've found solace in considering it new, i just ignore the name issue in my head, and I look at what these people can actually offer now. And the moment I stoped demanding richard be izzy, I realised richards fucking great at putting in little dynamics into his playing, and as soon as I could accept that bumble isn't bucket, but brings his own flavour to things I began to marvel at the amazing shit bumble does.

I'm not saying everyone has to think this way. I just thought i'd share my approach as it's brought me quite a lot of happiness to my fandom.
Allowing myself to listen to some of these players works fresh and free from the baggage has really opened my eyes/ears to how good they are and what potential exists.

I'm not saying everyone does this, but I know in the past I was blind to some of their ability just because it's different to what the last player had. Like DJ is never ever going to be slash. that's just reality. But that doesn't mean he can't do something really really cool in a totally different way. I feel like i've been dating a brunete with the tightest pussy in the world, but I didn't care because all I wanted was my blonde ex-girlfriends ass, and just figured out my mistake. Can't say it much better than that

Yeah..it's true to most of the general public GNR was Axl, Slash etc....

What I mean is like:

Lets say in 2004 you wanted to write an article, maybe about Bandmembers who went on without others or something, and so wanted a recent photo of Axl Rose, you'd have been going back to the photos from the 2002 tour or older. There wasn't anything current. 

Now if you want to make the same article this year in 2009, you'd be going back to the 2007 tour.

Gaps of a couple of years appear to have been the way this band has done things for more than a decade, there's been a handful of years of activity....it's half the reason why the fan base goes mental....for me I like it when stuff happens enough that i'm ok with it...but I know lots of people arn't!

yeah i mean it's normal now for what GNR's been doing for like 10 years or more.

Like back in 1992 I would have considered an extended silence wierd...as GNR had been in the gaze of public attention over and over again, from AFD, to lies, to the making the UYI, then the UYI tour.

However now in 2009 I do consider the silence normal practise for gnr - not other bands -  as realisticly, this band has had more years out of the spolight than in it. They were public in like 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2007 and then an album release in 08. But the rest of the time since like 1995 stuff has either happened in secret or not at all. so I can't say that silence from them is shocking me much in 2009.