Yeah, that was the greatest missed opportunity in GN'R history. MTV was all geared up to promote the new band, their crazy appearance was actually pretty novel and iconic (and not that alienating to the audience in an era where Limp Bizkit's Wes Borland was sporting makeup and contacts). If Axl had bothered to do shed the pounds and engage the services of a vocal coach as he did in 2006, he would've blown them away - and we would've got Chinese Democracy then.

Well, I'm not particularly fussed about the moggs (other than mild curiosity at picking out some of the guitar lines - could be useful for learning the songs). But if there's any chance that this might lead to some unreleased material seeing the light of day, I'm excited. A better-quality Brian May CITR (or even, dare I whisper it, Atlas Shrugged), or more of the '99 demos with Robin and Freese, or... God, the Holy Grail for me, the re-recorded AFD...

I reckon the endgame's in sight now - I think Velvet Revolver are almost certainly going to announce Franky Perez as their new frontman after the promo for Loaded and Slash's solo album is over and done with. In him, they've got a vocalist who can match Axl on the high notes (Scott's biggest weakness was that he just didn't have Axl's range). Hell, without Scott around, they might even get Izzy back in a songwriting capacity; IIRC it was Weiland who nixed most of the Izzy-written tracks on Contraband.

If Velvet Revolver has a frontman who can match Axl's vocal range, the reunion is, bluntly, never going to happen; they can concentrate on making their band into a brand that's as big as GN'R, rather than having to live with a vocalist who's less able than Axl, and deal with people wishing they had the Ginger Recluse back.

I do vaguely wonder how long it'll be after Axl pops his clogs, before some record company exec hits on the idea of raiding his Chinese Democracy vault, stripping out the vocal tracks on the unreleased songs and getting Slash, Duff, Izzy and Adler to lay down some new backing tracks to them.

After a suitably respectful period of mourning, natch. I give it a week.

Thing is, I think if Weiland wasn't there, VR could persuade Izzy back. Maybe not on tour, but in a songwriting/studio capacity. Velvet Revolver with an Axl-quality vocalist in Corey, Izzy writing and Kushner doing his nicely modern effects-driven noodling would be incredible to behold.

Plus, if they can get someone who actually has vocal range, they won't be limited to covering Mr Brownstone and It's So Easy on tour. Truth be told, I was getting a bit sick of them wheeling those two out over and over again...