jorge76 wrote:

johndivney wrote:

the root of the issue is an 11pm or even 11:30pm curfew is inherently wrong & people should be protesting the issue instead of letting it & rock n roll become standardised & homogenised. anyone who appreciates the freedom music, rock n roll, affords should be above nonsensical & detrimental rules that take away from the experience (that same rule of thumb applies to the setlist complaints btw).
rock n roll shouldn't be dictated to by money men, concert promoters or local councils. it should controlled by those who believe in it.

Those things apply to rock and roll at every level.  When I was a teenager my band decided we wanted to play in a Park, so we told a bunch of people, set up, and started to play.  The cops came and told us we had to quit, we couldn't just do that.  Even at 17 or 18 we said "Sorry Sir, We didn't know that" and went and probably played some more at somebody's house. 

Playing local clubs, if you don't do what the clubowners want, they aren't going to want you back.  You'll soon you'll start running out of places to play. 

"Money men, concert promoters or local councils", are all part of what makes it the music "business".

why can't we change it? why does it have to be the way these people say it has to be?
GnR have a platform, or rather axl has a platform, cause he's got a catalogue of outstanding songs behind him & a strong brand name. it should be expected of someone with that power to be questioning authority & the rules of the bizness. he should be applauded rather than derided. it's the normal people like bono & jon bon jovi who have by and large sucked all the value out of classic rock by their adherence to the status quo's rules; they've thwarted not only rock n rolls evolution but are killing it by having validated a standardised way of behaving that's as phoney and fake as your next pop-princess or boyband. what we've ended up with is a world of the killers, arcade fire, the hold steady.
GnR have always existed outside those parameters. GnR have always been about freedom of expression - no matter how petty it gets it's still a damn sight more honourable than any of the boring rule-abiding sheep that are held in such high esteem by their fellow flocks.

faldor wrote:

Unfortunately this was bound to happen.  MAYBE, things would've gone down differently if they weren't given an ultimatum through the press.  Probably not, but we'll never know.  But once that ultimatum was given, GNR was guaranteed to push the limits as much as they could.

Not that the band isn't at fault, because they are.  But the promoter handled this whole thing horribly.  Such is life when dealing with a band like Guns N' Roses I guess.  It's hard to handle things well.  Compare this though to Sturgis, where the organizer came out and took the blame for the late start.

The more I think about this, I don't think it was an ultimatum.  I think the guy realised he might have to do it, so he took it public. 

Imagine what the outrage would have been when he pulled the plug if no one knew of a possiblility it would happen.