1993.06.DD - Hard Force (France) - Guns N' Roses: In France This Summer

The interview with Slash is a French translation of the Q&A part of this one:

https://www.a-4-d.com/t576-1993-03-15-the-civil-war-ep-interview-with-slash

Translation of the rest:
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STORIES

* Axl Rose has bought a new house facing the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, California. He spent $3.9 million (about 20 million francs) for this 700 m2 home of 5 bedrooms.

* Axl Rose has reportedly declined an offer by the Lipton tea brand to appear in an advertisement where he would praise the merits of tea for his voice.  

SOME ESSENTIAL FACTS IN THE LIFE OF GUNS N' ROSES

* Since its inception, the band has sold 46 million albums worldwide.

* The first date played by GN'R outside the United States took place at the Marquee Club in London in June 1987.

* Since its first opening tour with The Cult (1987), Guns N’ Roses has performed in the United States opening for Motley Crue (1987), Alice Cooper (1987), Iron Maiden (1988), Aerosmith ( 1988), The Rolling Stones (1989).

* Guns N’ Roses is the first rock band to have released two separate studio albums on the same day, "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II". They contain 30 tracks in all (75 minutes of music on each LP) and went straight to No. 2 and No. 1 respectively in the US charts.

* The “Use Your Illusion World Tour” was planned to last 8 months, but there was mention of the possibility of its extension to a year. Eventually, it's been two years since Guns N’ Roses hit the road ...

* A surprise show took place on May 9, 1991 at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, but the “Use Your Illusion World Tour” officially started  on May 24, 1991 in front of 40,000 people at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy (Wisconsin).

ALL THE TOUR UNVEILED!

* The new tour takes place on 26 dates in 23 different cities, across 15 countries.

* 80 people accompany the group on tour including management, 6 carpenters, 12 caterers, 3 coordinators on the spot, 1 technician responsible for the power of the show and 6 people on video production (each concert is filmed by four cameras under the direction of Paul Becher).

* Nearly one million two hundred thousand people will attend the European dates.

* This is the first appearance of Guns N' Roses in Greece, Israel and Turkey.

* The stage was designed by Phil Ealy and the group. Ealy also designed the lighting for the show.

* The dimensions of the stage for a current Guns N' Roses show are 50 meters wide by 25 meters deep and more than 20 meters high.

* Three separate stages are used in Europe and each is used every three concerts. The global equipment is transported throughout Europe using 11 semi-trailers.

* The stage weighs 50 tonnes. The overall weight of each show reaches 150 tonnes, including band equipment (7 tonnes), metal frame and decor.

* Slash travels with 13 guitars, including Gibson Les Paul and the famous double neck. Duff uses two Fender basses. Gilby employs a variety of Gibson. Axl uses a grand piano for the song “November Rain”. 60 microphones are required on stage for each concert.

* The show requires 250,000 watts of power and 900 lights on stage, three giant video screens on each side of the stage (7m by 4) and behind the group (4m by 4).

* Two giant inflatable “monsters”, each powered by four men, appear during “Welcome To The Jungle” and refer to the painting on the cover of “Appetite For Destruction”.

* It takes three days to set up the complete stage and one day to put everything together. 60 people are needed for this tough task.