A review by Helsingin Sanomat (Helsinki Times), the biggest newspaper in the country.

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One-Million Euro Man (And Then Some)

Is art something you can put a price-tag on? Such a question springs to mind when one tries to even out the less-than-expected ticket sales of Helsinki Live, the festival by promoter Kalle Keskinen, and the headlining fee of over one million euros, which went the way of Guns N' Roses. In other words, was Axl Rose with his backup band worthy of one of the tallest orders in the Finnish festival scene ever?

Probably not.

That doesn't mean the show Rose and his band put up fell short on drama. Tension was in the air on whether Rose is able rev his engines, get his pipes cleared up, and whether the whole of the audience actually goes for it, instead of merely the hard-cores up front. Rose delivered, albeit the two-hour setlist contained an awesome amount of filler - for instance, almost  every single track off the new Chinese Democracy album, as well as various jams and instrumentals played by the band during Axl's every change of clothes.

Axl's outfits themselves lit up the mood. During Sweet Child O' Mine he went for a red flannel shirt, closely resembling the ones he'd worn in the early 1990's. The red bandanna also made an appearance, while the cornrows were gracefully gone. Axl was emulating the Golden Era of the band, right down to appearance and expression - a risky choice, as it underlined the new bands lack of charisma and the vocalist's hefty outlook. On the other hand, the show now offered an abudance of nostalgia, which most of the crowd was after anyway.

The biggest thrills came from, not the three guitarists, but the keyboardist. Out of the blue, Dizzy Reed played an instrumental of Warren Zevon's Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner. The choice might've been inspired by the opening lyrics, which went 'Roland was a warrior from the Land of the Midnight Sun...' Another fine moment was immediately before November Rain, as Rose himself sang and played Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd with a grand piano. Rose obviously played on into November Rain, with the song's uplifting C-part being one of the utmost highlights of the show.

Despite the freezing chill in the Käpylä night, the audience was warmed up with a concession of the big hits. As the response began to pick up, Rose reached his audience better. No later than the eighth song of the night, Rocket Queen, the mood and the sound of the show were right on the money, given the festival circumstances. Excluding the solo spots - instrumentals by the players, incl. the aforementioned Zevon track, the James Bond theme and The Pink Panther - the rest of the show was basically out and out old material, with a triumphant closure provided with Knockin' on Heaven's Door and Nightrain. Running about twenty minutes overtime from their slot, the band capped off a three-song encore, closing with Paradise City.

The GNR show may not be the liveliest Rock performance out there, but Rose remains a curious figure. He's a walking reminder of the times in between the 1980's-90's when rock bands still had a claim for superstardom.

Min svenska är lite bättre, men...

"DJ Ashba and Dizzy Reed reveal they're writing new songs for a new Guns N' Roses studio album.

"It may come out in 2011," Ashba tells BA. "We've been busy touring for the past year or so, but we're also writing new songs. As far as I can tell, it's going to be a great album," says the unashamed guitarist."

S&D could've sued Black Frog if they would've been uncertain of who holds the rights; that information could've been obtained through ASCAP. Also, if it would've gotten down the way you suggest above, it would've also implied S&D consider Axl Rose as a fictitious person, a non-entity serving as a cover-up.

You can read that in two ways:

- The defendant isn't actually called Axl Rose, but we don't know the real name of 'Axl Rose'
- The defendant(s)'s acting behind the name 'Axl Rose', but a person called 'Axl Rose' isn't officially involved, as the name's fictitious

Either way, they imply the 'Axl Rose' name is a 'fake'. I always took that as a sly legal pot-shot.

He did do a good bunch of interviews during the Village Gorilla Head era. He was mostly asked the standard GNR questions at that point, to which he often gave good, albeit succint, responses.

Some of that stuff was really cool. I remember a podcast where he said some of the producers were good (Sean Beavan) and others were not so much (Roy Thomas Baker). He also admitted most of the songs were written in '98-'01. Those were heavy things to drop in 2004.

I expect him to talk more when his next solo album comes out.