Gig review: Guns ‘n’ Roses, Glasgow SECC

It’s hard not to speculate as to the contempt Axl Rose might hold his audience in. Not through anything he said or did during this latest Glasgow date from his band (actually the singer backed by a bunch of capable session men, Slash and co having long since parted ways with him), which certainly counted as an arena spectacular in the most literal sense.

But why, in the face of a patiently waiting crowd of thousands for whom the sight and sound of Axl was enough to make it a night, did he see fit to keep them waiting for so long?

When the band took to the stage it was 10:30pm, and it would be almost three hours before they would troop off again, a disrespectful tactic whichever way you look at it.

When he was finally before us, from the flamethrowers that thundered during the opening Chinese Democracy and the explosions which rendered the chorus of Live and Let Die inaudible to the video montage of women in glamour model underwear accompanying Rocket Queen and the banal rock ballad melodrama of This I Love, the handlebar-moustached, ripped jean-wearing Rose steered a time machine back to the overblown 1980s.

It was no small saving grace, however, that bona fide classics like Welcome to the Jungle, Mr Brownstone, You Could Be Mine, Sweet Child O’ Mine and even overblown ballad November Rain were performed with the skill of a very good tribute band, and that Rose’s distinctive screech remains up to the task.

But after three hours which squeezed the pips from the worst of Chinese Democracy and even his band’s unheralded solo careers, the closing Paradise City was welcomed as much with relief as with excitement.

Rating: ***