2016.06.05 - Blabbermouth - Slash and Duff McKagan Attend Axl Rose-Fronted AC/DC's Concert In London (& related articles)

Slash and Duff McKagan Attend Axl Rose-Fronted AC/DC's Concert In London

AC/DC became the first band to perform a major concert at The Stadium at London, England's Queen Elizabeth's Olympic Park. The concert, which took place Saturday night (June 4),was the first major event in the stadium after the transformation works were completed. The stadium had been undergoing work since 2013 to turn it into a year-round, multi-use venue. The work included installing the largest roof of its kind in the world, a community track, innovative retractable seating, spectator and hospitality facilities and external landscaping.

The veteran rockers are still being fronted by Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose, who was no longer confined to the chair he had been seated on ever since breaking his foot during a surprise Guns club show in April 1 in Los Angeles.

Axl's Guns N' Roses bandmates Slash and Duff McKagan were in attendance at last night's concert and seemed to be having a good time, with the latter describing the show on Twitter as "simply an epic experience!"

AC/DC has three shows left to go on the European leg and has now finalized the ten rescheduled North American dates it will play later this summer — after Axl finishes his stadium trek with Guns N' Roses.

https://blabbermouth.net/news/slash-and-duff-mckagan-attend-axl-rose-fronted-acdcs-concert-in-london

Backstage:

The Sydney Morning Herald, June 7, 2016:
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Axl Rose's AC/DC gig in London gets the thumbs up from Guns N' Roses bandmates

By Ebony Bowden

He was the AC/DC frontman no one wanted, but Axl Rose's gig with the Aussie rock band has received rave reviews from both fans and his Guns N' Roses mates.

Rose was announced as Brian Johnson's replacement in the middle of AC/DC's Rock or Bust World Tour in April after doctors warned Johnson risked total hearing loss unless he stopped touring immediately.

Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan were both in the crowd for Rose's performance with AC/DC in London on Saturday and tweeted their praise after the show.

"ACDC/Axl gig at Olympic Stadium was nothing short of awesome last night! Memorable evening to say the least!" Slash told his 3.4 million Twitter followers.

Rose debuted with the group in Lisbon, Portugal last month to rave reviews from critics including Rolling Stone magazine's Patricia De Melo Moreira, who called the Lisbon show "a triumph".

The Guardian's Michael Hann even went so far as to suggest Rose brought another level to AC/DC's iconic songs.

"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap loses its cartoonish aspect, and becomes the bar-room chatter of a psychopath," he wrote.

Saturday's show was the first ever performance at London's Olympic Stadium. Rose was also back on his feet after being wheelchair bound since April with a broken foot.

AC/DC fans appear over the moon with Rose's stint in the band after harbouring initial doubts. Concertgoers at the London show described his performance as one of the best they'd seen and said they felt sorry for fans who sought refunds after Johnson stepped down.

"Had to eat my words tonight and admit I was wrong!" tweeted one fan, "London AC/DC gig with Axl Rose was brilliant! The boy did good!"

Another person gushed: "Massive amount of respect for Axl Rose. Absolutely nailed it tonight. Been to so many good gigs but this may top them all. What a band."

The warm welcome from AC/DC fans could result in Rose taking on a longer role with the band, with the door left open to Rose becoming a permanent member. It would make him the group's fourth vocalist.

While there's been no official word on whether 68-year-old Johnson will tour again, 54-year-old Rose appears to have brought a youthful energy back to the Aussie rock outfit.

Unfortunately no Australian dates have been set for the tour, which wraps up in September in Philadelphia.

Rose continues to tour with Guns N' Roses, headlining April's Coachella music festival in the United States.





https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/axl-roses-acdc-gig-in-london-gets-the-thumbs-up-from-guns-n-roses-bandmates-20160607-gpdby6.html

Review of the London show in UK Music Reviews, June 5, 2016:
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GIG REVIEW: AC/DC WITH AXL ROSE

Images and Review by Kevin Cooper

The once new guy on the block is now the old guy as AC/DC played the first ever gig at London’s Olympic Stadium last night for a spectacular show which featured pyrotechnics, flames, fireworks, giant cannons and Axl Rose.

Rose’s arrival makes this show the first AC/DC gig in years, certainly since Brian Johnson replaced the late Bon Scott in 1980, at which no one knew exactly what to expect. But nearly 90,000 fans were curious enough to make the pilgrimage and they were pleasantly surprised.

Coming on stage through clouds of smoke, he was no longer confined to a chair which he had been consigned too after recently breaking a bone in his foot. Instead he wore a special boot which allowed him to move around freely as he rattled through opener, Rock Or Bust.

He was stepping in for Brian Johnson after the 68 year old was forced to pull out of the tour due to hearing problems after fronting the rock band for 36 years, and Rose did not disappoint. There were none of the tantrums and tears normally associated with the lead singer of Guns N’ Roses, just pure entertainment.

Axl Rose just nailed the songs. From Back In Black it was obvious that he can ‘do’ Johnno, but he follows it up with a searing Shoot To Thrill before a swaggering confident romp through Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be, showing that he can also ‘do’ Scott as well.

Other Scott numbers went down really well, as he belted out Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Shot Down In Flames. His voice was brilliant; no matter how high the note, he hit everyone and he kept it up for over two hours.

Songs that are rarely given an outing were included in the set list, such as Riff Raff, Rock ‘n’ Roll Damnation and If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It), and as the night went on it was clear that Axl was having a ball delivering them. Cracking jokes throughout the set and before You Shook Me All Night Long, he quipped about his fellow band members that “now you know what the Buckingham Palace guards do in their free time”.

It helped that the set list is so well known by their loyal fans, that the whole concert becomes a huge karaoke party. There were mass singalongs to Thunderstruck and Hells Bells and when announcing Whole Lotta Rosie, there was a giant inflatable doll erected on stage.

But it was not all about Axle Rose. At 61 it seems that age has yet to affect guitarist Angus Young, who dressed in his trademark school uniform, jumping around the stage and performing his signature move, the duck walk. A particular highlight saw him perform an extended guitar solo at the end of Let There Be Rock, during which he was raised up in the air on a huge platform.

Flames shot up from the stage as the band wrapped up the show with Highway To Hell before the canons appeared for the finale of For Those About To Rock (We Salute You), as a short firework display brought the evening to an end.

There can be no replacing Brian Johnson, he will always be Mr AC/DC. But with Axl Rose as the stand in front man, AC/DC sounded like AC/DC should; absolutely brilliant.

As for the venue; well that is a whole different story.

https://www.ukmusicreviews.co.uk/gigreviews/gig-review-acdc-with-axl-rose/

Review of the show in Manchester that took place on June 9; The Guardian/The Observer, June 12, 2016:
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AC/DC review – it’s all about the dynamics
4/5 stars
Etihad Stadium, Manchester

With temporary new frontman Axl Rose rolling back the years, and guitarist Angus Young recalling Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC look as indestructible as ever

By Kitty Empire

Clumping around the stage on a brace, jeans torn off at the knee, Axl Rose – temporary American singer of Australian rock powerhouses AC/DC – has the air of a pirate regaining his sea legs and his authority.

Rose is not smiling, exactly. But there is a malevolent gleam in his eye as he tosses a fat microphone from hand to hand, surveying AC/DC’s fans. Gone is the throne that immobilised Rose on earlier parts of this controversial hybrid tour, a prop made necessary by the injury Rose sustained at a Guns N’ Roses reunion gig in early April.

Rose’s confinement added another Spinal Tap-ish dimension to AC/DC’s already beleaguered Rock Or Bust outing. AC/DC singer Brian Johnson was forced to pull out because of hearing loss in early March. The band’s press releases at the time had a strangely brutal finality to them (“We wish him all the best with his hearing issues and future ventures,” said a spokesperson). Thousands of fans demanded refunds when it was announced in mid-April that Rose would be Johnson’s replacement.

Those fans might be repenting their decision at leisure now. Because the band we might call Axl/DC combines the strengths of both parties: AC/DC’s pulverising constancy – Thunderstruck still rumbles through the seating, Hells Bells sends your tinnitus polyphonic again – spiced up by Rose’s own damage and derangement.

Emboldened, this half-time sub with a dodgy metatarsal romps through the AC/DC classic Back in Black, screeching victoriously through very white teeth. It would be wrong to say he makes the song his own, but it’s not far off.

Back in Black is a testament to AC/DC’s own resilience after the loss of original singer, Bon Scott, who died in 1980, now something of a byword for the general indomitability of rock’n’roll, and all who sail in her. Although you don’t doubt that Rose has sung Back in Black into a hairbrush more than a few times while Guns N’ Roses were coming together in LA, Rose’s rendition is emphatically not karaoke, as some have suggested. Rose’s screech just works: not aping AC/DC singer Brian Johnson overmuch, but sharing his frequencies.

The differences, though, are marked. Where Johnson had a smutty chuckle at the ready, both revelling in, and sending up, his band’s ridiculousness, Rose is a more predatory presence, channelling a little of the band’s original singer. He can reach the high notes on Hells Bells that Johnson was, perhaps, eyeing with some trepidation. By Highway to Hell in the encore, Rose just sounds like himself.

But if Rose’s mobility is the first thing that grabs you, it is not the focus of tonight’s show. In front of the reinvigorated Rose is puppet master Angus Young, AC/DC’s founding guitarist and owner of the most overexposed shins in rock, chicken-strutting backwards and forwards along the penile stage extension. Young has always been the star of AC/DC’s shows, and tonight his primacy is underscored even further.

Young comes on first, to adulation, at the start of Rock Or Bust. His solos seem to have gained in intricacy (or perhaps Johnson is no longer there to suggest he keeps it tight). The end of this long and joyous set – Let There Be Rock – is just one protracted blizzard of electric guitar, during which Young mock collapses twice. Mid-set, he rips off his schoolboy tie and frets his guitar with it, a pint-size Jimi Hendrix in velveteen school uniform.

You come for the songs – utterly formulaic, deathlessly amusing, the sexist twaddle still irksome – but you stay for the dynamics. Rose, one of the biggest rock stars on the planet, is deferential towards the human riff machine, the last man now standing of the band established in 1973. Young’s brother, Malcolm, retired from the band in 2014 because of dementia; their nephew, Stevie Young, is installed on rhythm guitar. Erstwhile drummer Phil Rudd has been sidelined after criminal charges; his stool is filled by Chris Slade. (“Is it even AC/DC?” Rudd has wondered aloud). Bassist Cliff Williams has been a constant since 1977.

As the hits roll on, drawing from virtually every era of AC/DC, you would not say that there was any chemistry between Young and his hired hand exactly – more a dance of necessity leavened by mutual respect. Johnson, meanwhile, has a state-of-the-art hearing aid and might theoretically be able to return to AC/DC in future. In the meantime, the combined effect of Rose’s clomp and Young’s stanky leg strut is unexpectedly moving, as though, against all material evidence, there really was some truth in AC/DC’s powerful illusion of indestructibility.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/12/acdc-review-etihad-manchester-axl-rose

London:

Another review of the show in Manchester; Manchester Evening News, June 10, 2016:
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Review: AC/DC @ The Etihad Stadium, Manchester

Seb Ramsay was at the Etihad to see if AC/DC – fronted by Axl Rose – still have what it takes to put on a show and a half

If ever a band wore its rock'n'roll heart on its fading full sleeve it’s AC/DC.

In their 43rd year and 8th line-up since Brian Johnson stepped up to the mic, the Aussie legends still find themselves packing stadiums across the globe. The tragic death of iconic frontman Bon Scott through alcohol poisoning and now the decibel-induced deafness of Johnson leave Axl Rose strapped to the front of this thundering juggernaut.

So, big boots to fill and 54-year-old Axl proved he had all the credentials by breaking his foot just days after news of the job began to surface. Tonight, some two-months on sporting a cast and limp, the former Guns n Roses wild man showed us exactly why Angus Young took him on.

Not too many bands give good stadium. AC/DC and Axl though, have absolutely nothing to learn. The band take the stage amidst a firework-laden CGI beaming us from outer space aboard an incendiary meteor.

Natch.

Straight into their Rock or Bust opener, Axl’s vocals are immediately astonishing. Such power and passion speak loudly of a musician who knows he’s enjoying a rare privilege.

Bowling into Shoot to Thrill, Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be and Back in Black, the atmosphere is full fiesta. Relief is one of many emotions filling the Etihad. Every time adversity tosses another curve ball at this band, guitar genius Angus manages to smash it out of the park and, even though Axl’s performances have been almost universally lauded, it’s palpable that I’m not the only one who needed to hear it for myself.

The leg cast anchors Axl slightly but there's nothing hampered about his vocal dynamism

At times his Bon Scott and Brian Johnson tones are uncanny. This is a talented man who can put over any song in any way he chooses.

Angus's nephew Stevie Young melds seamlessly into the band deputising for his sidelined uncle Malcolm in a way he probably dreamed of all his life.

I always wonder if Angus felt he'd made a rod for his own back with the whole school uniform look. Tonight, aged 61, he's rocking a velveteen jacket and short trousers and his legs are as white and skinny as ever. Could be ludicrous if he wasn't the virtuoso musician he undoubtedly is - battering his signature Gibson SG with precise abandon.

It's easy to get diverted by the changes up front but the bottom line is there'd be no replacing Angus. He's the essential strand in the AC/DC DNA.

And, however good Axl is, Brian Johnson is missed. When all's said and done, the American is a stand in, albeit an excellent one. And what fans - including the Guns N' Roses frontman - want to see, is the Geordie back.

In black of course.

Then there'll be a party.

For now. This will do nicely.



Image: Andy Lambert

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/review-acdc--etihad-stadium-11452544

Aarhus, Denmark, June 12











Axl with fans:

Düsseldorf, Germany (last show that was added later):

Unknown show(s) in Europe:

Another review of the show in London; Evening Standard, June 6, 2016:
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AC/DC, tour review: Axl Rose and Angus Young a match made in rock heaven

Axl offered up air-raid siren vocals while Young wrestled gigantic riffs from his Gibson SG, says Rick Pearson

4/5 stars

A crowd dressed in devil horns, a grown man in school uniform and a wall of Marshall amps: it could only be AC/DC at the Olympic Stadium.

With lead singer Brian Johnson at home nursing hearing problems — a lifetime of standing inches away from Angus Young’s amplifier will do that to you — the Aussies have recruited Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose for their “Rock or Bust” world tour.

It was a match made in hard-rock heaven. Axl — plaid shirt, assorted bling, leg cast — offered up air-raid siren vocals while Young wrestled gigantic riffs from his Gibson SG.

Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be was bellowed back at them by a crowd not composed entirely of teetotallers. Back in Black was arena rock at its foundation-shaking finest and You Shook Me All Night Long rejoiced in its sing-along chorus and single-entendres. The ghost of Spinal Tap stalked Hells Bells, a spooky rocker, while Young’s guitar-solo-with-a-school-tie added to the general silliness.

Like an antipodean Status Quo, AC/DC have forged a decades-long career out of about three chords. This is both impressive and limiting. Impressive because they’ve written several stone-cold classics within the format; limiting because many of the songs inevitably end up sounding a little too similar.

But this was not a night for chin-stroking contemplation. This was cock-rock in excelsis — and AC/DC and Axl proved themselves masters of the genre.

https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/music/ac-dc-tour-review-axl-rose-and-angus-young-a-match-made-in-rock-heaven-a3264526.html