The irony is that with time and distance, the (one-sided) feud between GN'R and Nirvana seems laughably irrelevant and petty (and, of course, like most of Nirvana's negative points, was exacerbated by That Bitch Courtney).

For all Cobain's posturing about being "anti-industry", he ended up becoming the mainstream. All the guff about "grunge changing the face of music forever" has, over time, ended up with grunge just being another "swing of the pendulum", a phase music went through. As far as the kids listening to both bands are concerned, they both fall under the broad church of "rock".

And, yes, irony of ironies, Grohl has ended up churning out bland, cookie-cutter mainstream rock. I really hope Chinese Democracy emerges from the wilderness and blows him away.

Rockstar For A Day
Wasted Away
Time
Overloaded
Breaking Away
Shadow

Actually, just d/l the Normal album; it's got a really great narrative running through it, and each song contributes to it.

Absolutely. Hell, the wider world didn't really notice when Gilby replaced Izzy back in the day; only fanboys really notice who the rhythm guitarist is - even if he was probably the most important member of the band in terms of songwriting ability!

I've always said that bands usually have two iconic members, and nine times out of ten they're the frontman and the lead guitarist; Tyler/Perry, Mercury/May, Page/Plant, Axl/Slash, the brothers Gallagher and so forth (RHCP are a rare exception, where the frontman and the bassist are the key players). In the eyes of the general public, the ones who'll be buying the majority of the tickets, every other member of the band is disposable - however much the fans kick up a fuss.

As long as Axl and Slash (and, ideally, Duff) are up there, it's a "reunion" as far as the mainstream press and the ticket-buying public are concerned. If I were picking a "reunion" line-up, I'd go for a mix of old and new; Axl, Slash, Duff, Fortus, Frank* and Dizzy. Since Izzy dislikes touring, he could pop onto the stage for odd guest appearances, and contribute in a songwriting capacity.

*Just 'cause Matt's a complete douchebag, really.

'Course, it goes without saying that I'd rather see Axl's new GN'R sticking together, and Slash and Duff happy in VR (with Chester Bennington, in an ideal world!).

The thing is... the attraction of Robin's solos is their simplicity. BBF has an unfortunate tendency to add fretboard wankery to simple solos; compare his version of the first Nightrain solo with Bucket's more restrained, melodic version, for instance. I wouldn't want Ron wanking all over, for instance, Robin's sublime TWAT solo...