To better remember what happened 15 years ago around now I went looking for Skwerl’s article about the 2008 leaks on Antiquiet and it seems that site is gone? Eventually it turned up here:

https://steveleeds.wordpress.com/tag/guns-n-roses/

This part is interesting:

“The story I got from Steve was that a year prior, a friend of his, a courier of some kind, walked into Jimmy Iovine’s office, and walked out with a CD. Ten tracks; these nine, plus another version of Better that I never bothered to get from Steve.”

Oh, and this:

“Jarmo from the GNR fansite Here Today… Gone To Hell came across news of the leak. He immediately notified Fernando Santos, who checked it out, and then did a Whois lookup on Antiquiet.com to get my phone number so he could talk tough to me.”

And this, which suggests that THE BAND TAKES ACTION ONLY WHEN LEAKS OCCUR:

“Chinese Democracy was finally released on November 23rd, 2008, exclusively at Best Buy, about 20 weeks after my leaks. That’s from no concrete plans, to going up on shelves. Pretty quickly, especially if we’re talking about the poster child for album delays. What did we know about that deal? Best Buy paid a large up front sum for the exclusive, at least seven figures, by all reports. We obtained evidence showing that the value of that exclusive was determined largely by the media hype my leaks had created. UMG had shown Best Buy charts of Google traffic for Chinese Democracy that started spiking in June, and was riding high. The iron was hot, so to speak. And before Best Buy got on board, the only heat source was the fire under my ass.

We started noticing a peculiar trend. Maybe it was all coincidence, maybe none of it was, or maybe something in between. But every time there was a major development in my case, there was a promotional event that seemed to capitalize on it. I would attend a scheduled court appearance, and a single would drop. Or the album art would be revealed. Or there was a tour announcement. I forget what lined up with what; at the time, I wasn’t sure if it was calculated, or our imaginations getting out of hand. So I wasn’t paying very close attention to that thread, but it was one that David and our PI would point out regularly.

What I do believe is that UMG used my leak to their advantage.”

Consider what happened with the storage locker leaks preceding the “Absurd”/“HS” single.

Which suggests that if we do want to hear “The General” …

A leak may indeed be what takes to get an official release.

I give The Beatles a ton of credit. They did two successful feature films and wrote hundreds of songs known around the world from 1962 — 1970. Pretty much the span of time from Live Like a Suicide to The Spaghetti Incident. Not to mention a tons of interviews, music videos, John’s books, writing hits for others (including The Stones), their involvement with the “Yellow Submarine” film, solo projects …

They ultimately made greater use of the time they had. And produced probably three times as many songs.

Now that the Duff interview has been removed from the Internet my hope for new music is dropping rapidly. Did not expect this (apparent) rug pull.

Three are re-recordings, but what about the re-recorded Appetite? Why didn’t we ever get that?

Or any of the many UYI demos and outtakes that we know of from bootlegs that were not released on the box sets?

Swift is releasing new music like crazy. Plus she releases remixes on streaming services (I looked them up). Where are the GnR Brain remixes?

Swift is a prolific artist in a way I wish Axl would be. She seems to love sharing her music, and won’t let anything stop her. Yes, Axl went through hell trying to release ChiDem but Swift had her own record company hassles which is why she is re-recording her early albums. She hasn’t had an easy time. She is just (apparently) more resourceful and persistent than he is.

He is one of the best artists of his generation. He has amazing human insights to share in his work. He should be as relevant in 2023 as Taylor Swift is but looking only to the past and not releasing new stuff gets in the way.

This is so true. The only reason the band even has fans and glimmers of media interest anymore is that every few years we get a leak that excites us and the press.

Otherwise what is there to talk about!

The leakers have done the band’s test marketing. If a particular release does not do as well as expected, a follow-up might surpass expectations. The Beatles didn’t stop working when “Magical Mystery Tour” flopped compared to the previous movies. They kept releasing new music.

GnR apparently has at least an entire album with Axl vocals on it. Allow Duff and Slash to contribute songs and they can easily get two albums ready to go.

Just release something already.

There is a lot of warmth to his stage interactions. He also went up to Slash to rest a hand on his shoulder which was great to see. Shows how their friendship has rebounded.

What was weird was his choice not to sing the scream. At the House of Blues performance he visibly loved the vocal gymnastics. Now he is … relying on tapes?

He should run around less to preserve his lung capacity. Same trap Mick Jagger got onto around 1981. Everyone saw him sprinting across the stage in that concert that aired on cable TV (on HBO, I think?) and expected it of him, whereas in the ‘60s and ‘70s he tended to stand at the microphone.

Still curious to see if they spring a new song on us.