Wembley Stadium, London, England
August 31st 1991
Review



Neil A. McGlynn's Review [posted 9.2.91]

A sell-out crowd gathered at Wembley Stadium on Saturday for one of the most awaited concerts of the year. The weather was perfect, with the sun shining all day.

NIN took to the stage around 4-15pm and played a 35 minute set. There wasnt much reaction from the crowd, who like myself, knew little about the band.

After a wait of 40 minutes, Skid Row came on stage playing 'Slave to the Grind' which was immediately followed by 'Big Guns'. The Skids played a 10 song set, split 5 and 5 off their two albums. They played 'Pyscho Love', 'Riot Act', 'Monkey Business' and 'Get the Fuck Out' from STTG, and '18 and Life', 'Piece of Me' and 'Sweet Little Sister' from their first album.

After leaving the stage they came back and played 'Remember Tomorrow' and 'Youth Gone Wild'. During YGW Snake jumped into the crowd and somehow managed to get out with all his clothes intact!

Main talking point during the set was when Bach read out a letter that the local coucil had sent to the promoters saying that, after reading press statements in the US about the show, they were worried about the use of bad language by the band and GnR, and they said that SR weren't to play `Get the Fuck Out'. After he read this the crowd all shouted `Fuck' for a couple of minutes before the band played GTFO. The Skid Row set was excellent, although the sound quality was a bit crap compared to that of GnR.

In between SR and GnR, they crowd amused themselves by building small human pyramids. Cameraman also focussed in on women in the crowd, who then got displayed on the giant screens by the side of the stage. The crowd then shouted 'Off, off off', after which the women got a big cheer or a boo from the crowd depending on whether they took their top off! Some guys also mooned.

After a delay of 80 minutes, which seemed like ages, Guns n' Roses took to the stage with 'Perfect Crime'. It was absolute mayhem within 50 yards of the stage. Crowd were uncontrollable as Axl and co, stomped about the stage. 'Mr Brownstone' was next. About half the set was made up from songs off the new albums (out 2 weeks today). A quick run down of the songs that I knew were:

Welcome to the Jungle, Nightrain, Mr Brownstone, Paradise City, Sweet Child O' Mine, My Michelle, Civil War, November Rain, Live and Let Die, Patience, Knocking on Heavens Door, You Could Be Mine, Perfect Crime, Dust and Bones, Bad Obsession, Double Talkin' Jive and Estranged.

There may have been more of the new stuff. Estranged and Paradise City were encores. Before PC, Axl thanked the crowd for helping to make the video for the song which was half shot at Donnington in 88.

Highlights of the show for me were Live and Let Die, Civil War and Paradise City. Of the new stuff, Bad Obsession sounded awesome.

Axl also had a dig at Kerrang saying he used to respect it but couldnt stand it anymore. He dedicated DTJ to it.

Guns were on stage for about 2 hours and 10 minutes. After all the bad press the band have had recently, I was pretty impressed by the whole performance. You could tell the band were having fun as well. Only thing wrong was the stage could have been about 5 feet higher off the ground, which would have given better views for anyone on the pitch.

It had been 3 yeard since they last played here. I hope we dont have to wait that long again. This gig blew Donnington away.