2022.06.28 - Marlay Park, Dublin, Ireland

Slash and Meegan in Dublin:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CfUOdbcsvXH

Irish Independent, June 28:

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‘It was an absolute joy to have Slash in the shop’ – Guns N’ Roses legend visits well-known guitar store

By Paul Hyland

Tens of thousands of music fans will flood into Marlay Park this evening for one of the summer’s most anticipated concerts, with American rockers Guns N’ Roses performing.

Ahead of the concert, the band’s legendary guitarist Slash paid a visit to one of Dublin’s most celebrated independent guitar shops.

Owen McQuail (49) opened ‘Some Neck Guitars’ 11 years ago and since then he has built long-standing relationships with numerous well-known Irish and International artists.

Mr McQuail said he opened the Liberties shop because he was “out of work” and saw “gap in the market for used guitars”.

“It was a wing and a prayer stuff. We had a couple of months rent and a few guitars. It was pretty barren and spars,” he said.

Over the years Owen said the business has built a reputation for stocking and selling a wide range of “really good, high-end second-hand guitars”, and for equipment repairs.

Lisa Hannigan, Fontaines DC, Christy Moore, James Vincent McMurrow and the Stunning are among a long list of headline acts which regularly trust ‘Some Neck’ with their instruments.

The shop has become something of a pilgrimage for visiting international artist as well.

“We’ve had a lot of different people in from Bon Jovi, to ZZ Top, it’s endless. We don’t know when a lot are coming. Sometimes you might get a little bit of information, but we had the War on Drugs in two weeks ago buying some stuff. I’d say a lot of people if they’re on tour and they have time off, they might come in and pay us a visit,” Mr McQuail said.

“If I go anywhere, I go and find the guitar shops and a lot these guys love guitars and love gear, so they come and visit and a fair amount of times they buy stuff off us as well.”

Slash was one of those artists who contacted Mr McQuail ahead of his visit to the shop yesterday.

“I’d been having a conversation with him for a while on and off on the phone. I was actually in the Gravdiggers [pub] last Friday having a pint and he rang me. So, I knew he was coming. He bought some stuff from me, and he came to collect it,” Mr McQuail added.

Following the meeting with Slash, Owen posted picture on the business’s Instagram account with the message: “It’s not every day that you have a living legend walk through your shop doors, and that’s exactly what happened ng today. It was an absolute joy to have Slash in the shop this afternoon ahead of the Guns N’Roses show tomorrow night.”

He also confirmed that the rock iconic collected a “very specialised” pedal steel guitar and gifted him tickets to tonight’s gig.

Owen, who last saw Guns N’ Roses in Slane 30 years ago, said: “I Can’t wait for the show.”

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/it-was-an-absolute-joy-to-have-slash-in-the-shop-guns-n-roses-legend-visits-well-known-guitar-store/41798456.html

Another article about Slash's visit to the guitar store in Dublin (and preview for the concert); Irish Mirror, June 28:

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Guns N Roses guitarist Slash pops into Dublin guitar shop ahead of Marlay Park gig
Slash donned his famous sunglasses and black attire as he dropped into Some Neck Guitars on Dean Street

By Justin Kelly

A guitar shop in Dublin had a legendary customer on Monday as Slash, guitarist with Guns N Roses, popped in to pick up a very important item.

Slash donned his famous sunglasses and black attire as he dropped into Some Neck Guitars on Dean Street ahead of Guns N Roses Marlay Park concert on Tuesday evening.

The shop took to social media to share news of the visit by one of the all-time great rock guitarists.

"It’s not every day that you have a living legend walk through your shop doors, and that’s exactly what happened today [Monday]. It was an absolute joy to have Slash in the shop this afternoon ahead of the Guns N’Roses show tomorrow night, picking up a killer GFI Pedalsteel. A true gentleman. We can’t wait for the show tomorrow, thanks again for dropping in!"

Slash has been making the most of his Dublin trip and has explored a number of the capital's attractions.

He was seen exploring Malahide Castle and Gardens in north County Dublin with his girlfriend Meegan Hodges, who posted a snap of the pair together in front of the historical Dublin castle. Meegan also posted a snap to her Instagram at the market in Herbert Park which she says she found during her walks around Dublin.

Guns N Roses will bring fans some of their best hits during the concert on Tuesday. Songs that are on the rumoured setlist include Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, November Rain as well as famous covers such as Live and Let Die and Knockin' on Heaven's Door.

Guns N Roses take to the Marlay Park stage just 24 hours after Green Day, Fallout Boy and Weezer rocked the Dublin venue. The shows were overshadowed by queueing and transport issues with fans joining 1.5km queues at 4pm on Monday.

Eager concertgoers were snapped waiting in the lengthy queue on Monday, which stretched a great distance before the entrance to Marley Park.

Thousands of fans were rather peeved to discover that on their arrival, just one entrance into the venue was open, leading to a huge backlog of people.

Many took to social media to complain about the gig's organisation, with one calling it a "disaster".

One man wrote: "1.8km away from Marlay Park and ONE entrance open! No toilets or staff for updates along the way."

A second wrote: "Anyone know whats happening at #marlaypark stuck in massive queue with little movement."

Someone posted pictures of people queuing for the gig, writing: "The state of the queue to get in to Marlay Park. Surely @mcd_productions should have made safer arrangements for people!!! Actually standing on the side of a road with traffic passing."

There are fears a similar situation will unfold tonight, and Wednesday when the Red Hot Chilli Peppers roll into the park. And with the weather forecast looking quite abysmal, no one will want to be queuing for long outdoors.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/guns-n-roses-guitarist-slash-27348659

From Meegan and Del James:

Source: "edquilty" on twitter

Credit: ana.sbano



Credit: edwinkphotos



Credit: Robert Lowe



Credit: Christine Bass

Credit: stephenbrow

Patience

This show is getting great reviews from people who attended.

Slither has now been played more times than Think About You (as far as I can tell) and Absurd has been played more than 14 Years and Anything Goes.

Review in The Times, 4/5 stars:

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Guns N’ Roses review — hard rock survivors conjure head-banging sorcery
Marlay Park, Dublin

By Ed Power

★★★★☆

Guns N’ Roses were famous for a lot of things during their hair metal heyday, but punctuality was not high on the list. Singer Axl Rose was notorious for leading his troops on hours later than billed and, on occasion, not turning up at all.

He’s a reformed character nowadays, by all accounts. It nonetheless came as a shock to see the 60-year-old frontman step from the wings bang on 7pm as the hard rock titans kicked off the latest leg of their new tour, the sun directly overhead bathing the performance in a feelgood halo.

Rose was accompanied by Guns N’ Roses’ two other essential members — guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan (plus some hired help). This wrinkled triumvirate together constitute a sort of three-headed Lennon and McCartney of classic heavy rock. And they conjured plenty of head-banging sorcery during an enjoyably thunderous three-hour set that brought the 1980s Sunset Strip to a balmy suburban park in Dublin.

Hair metal is today largely celebrated as a guilty pleasure. However, Guns N’ Roses always stood apart from their permed peers, whorls of darkness laced through their trashy, glammy anthems. That heaviness flowed from Rose’s traumatic childhood, seeming to bubble up as an incandescent rage whenever he stood at a microphone. It proved a crucial ingredient in some of the most essential moshpit singalongs in rock history. Together with Nirvana’s Nevermind, Guns N’ Roses’ 1987 masterpiece Appetite for Destruction has a claim to the title of best guitar album of the past 40 years. Yet Rose’s increasing unpredictability eventually drove away his bandmates, leaving him sole custodian of the Guns N’ Roses brand until a rapprochement in 2016.

Having settled their differences — and possibly bought the singer an alarm clock — Rose, Slash and McKagan appeared determined to make up for lost time. An agreeably expansive concert took in Appetite for Destruction’s essential moments. Strafed through were highlights from Use Your Illusion volumes I and II, their overblown 1991 double-whammy, with further padding via covers of the Stooges and AC/DC.

Rose’s voice isn’t what it was. As a recent viral TikTok video confirmed, that old shrapnel shriek has been replaced by a sort of Herculean huffing. Happily, the tumult of guitars propelling It’s So Easy and Welcome to the Jungle more than compensated. This confirmed Slash as the group’s true lodestar. In trademark top hat, he produced volcanic shredding that marked him as a missing link between Jimmy Page and Jack White as he proceeded to romp through Paul McCartney’s Live and Let Die and the power ballad Civil War.

He chugged, he chimed, he chuckled. And as the evening entered its final stretch and he plunged into the zigzag opening riff of Sweet Child o’ Mine even the setting sun seemed to stop in its tracks to bask in an unsurpassable moment of hard rock greatness.

Guns N’ Roses are touring to July 5

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/guns-n-roses-review-hard-rock-survivors-conjure-head-banging-sorcery-62tp5jbws

From Susan Holmes McKagan on Instagram:





https://www.instagram.com/p/CfY9ErwDM_A/

Credit: Tako217.

Credits: HTGTH.

Official video of Sweet Child O' Mine from this show

Photos by Kat Benzova: