What were the releases of the UYI albums by GNR like? Also, their rep in 1993-1994?

Not sure of the date but I saw that 28/5/93?.
Still have a "mint" white "Dust & Bones" t-shirt which i bought at the venue , probably medium & probably won't fit now.

Meant to reply to the UK person whom had saw them on that date/tour.

 

I wasn't a big fan but liked them and remember anticipation was high. You Could Be Mine was a tie-in with Terminator II so there was a lot of attention. I remember a review in Q Magazine which lambasted the lyrics and questioned whether they were the "new Stones" or drug burnouts.
By the time the Spaghetti album and then the Sympathy cover rolled around there wasn't that much attention given to them, the moment had passed and people were sick of the soap opera.

 

I first heard Guns N' Roses sometime in 1988. It's not just that the songs rocked hard and were catchy as hell, it's also that this band seemed to have bags of attitude. They were instantly appealing. Getting Appetite For Destruction was a happy occasion, and when I managed a videotape of their 1988 Ritz show it only solidified my enjoyment of this band. They were simply awesome. Not a wasted second with these guys, whether live or on record.

Lies was a stopgap of a release I never much cared for. By that time I'd already got myself a copy of Live Like A Suicide through tape-trading with friends, and a few acoustic tracks just wasn't enough to get me excited. I awaited their true second album.

It was a long time coming, back then a gap of two or three years between albums seemed like an eternity. I finally heard a new track from Guns N' Roses in June 1990, when a local radio station played Knockin' On Heaven's Door. It wasn't what I wanted from them, but it made me excited for the new album which I thought was just around the corner. But no. I would still have to wait more than a year!

The release of Use Your Illusion did feel like a proper event. It wasn't just the lonnnnng wait, it was also the fact that they were coming out with two double albums (I still had a vinyl sort of mindset back then, it was my reference format). Funds being limited, I'd normally get new albums through friends and homemade tapes before I'd make the investment, so my first contact with Illusion was just the music, I had no other information than the song titles. I did enjoy both albums from the start, and enjoyed them more the more I listened and became familiar with the songs, but it was clear this was no Appetite For Destruction Vol. 2. There definitely were some songs in that vein, but there were other styles too, a variety of different arrangements, and certainly a feeling of ambition in these albums. I never got to love both albums in their entirety, but I enjoyed most of the tracks and overall I found both records to be good to great, I played them a lot. On the downside, the band sounded way stiffer than they had sounded on Appetite. Yes, they were still very good, but something had changed.

Over the following months and especially during 1992 it became apparent just how much things had changed. When I finally got to see the album credits I realised Steven Adler was out. And then there came the videos, the touring troubles, Izzy's departure, Axl's antics... I kept enjoying the music, but I started disliking them. I got the feeling that making great rock music and playing for the fans wasn't their priority anymore, and that soured me on the band a bit. It was as though now they were more preoccupied with being divas and playing the celebrity game. They believed their own hype and got high on their own stardom.

Use Your Illusion was one of the biggest and best releases of the 1991/1992 season for me (along with the new stuff by Nirvana, U2, Metallica, etc.), and it certainly made Guns N' Roses huge. But that was it. It was all downhill from there. Through 1993, what with the departure of what I considered to be key members (Adler and Stradlin), the I'm-such-a-rock-star attitudes and pretensions, the many reports of the band consistently late on stage and Axl causing trouble, etc., I started to think they were becoming a joke. When The Spaghetti Incident came out I had the feeling it was over. I felt The Spaghetti Incident was another stopgap release designed to have something else to sell, just like Lies had been - minimise effort and maximise profit. It was as though things had come unraveled for all to see and I for one didn't much care anymore.

Next I heard by Guns N' Roses was that Stones cover when I went to watch Interview With The Vampire. It was merely okay. I wondered if they were working on something, though. But more years passed and there was no more music coming. I think I had to wait until 1996 or 1997 to hear anything from them, and that was the news that Slash and Duff were out, confirming my feeling that the Guns N' Roses I'd known and loved had been dead for quite a while.

To this day I still have the feeling that Guns N' Roses, as successful as they were, kinda sorta wasted what they had. They came in blowing the doors off, but then ballooned up and quickly proceeded to disappear up their own backsides, only to fizzle out in a very disappointing way. To this day I still wonder what a follow-up to Appetite (say, around 1989) would've sounded like.

Having said all that, they were absolutely brilliant for a while, and their 1987-1991 period gave us three classic albums.

 

BY the time UYI came out, Guns were a circus, and Axl was an egotistical clown. Going from playing to Hammersmith Odeon in 1987, to then headlining Wembley in 1991, it always felt to me that GNR missed an important step on the rise to the top : an arena tour in 1989.

From someone who only knew the band at the time from TV and radio broadcasts and interviews, they seemed to be putting the Fun into Dysfunctional - Axl and his monster ego storming off stage, refusing to do his job, turning up late, breaking shows in two with infinite rants about tiny grudges or storming out after turning up gone midnight, whilst Izzy seemed to be barely tolerating the circus, and Slash/Duff seemed too whacked out to care. By the time the bloated, flabby UYI came out, I was bored with it all and barely bothered with the albums. I don't ask for much from my bands, but doing your job, turning up on time, doing what you are paid for, and refusing to do one of the best jobs in the world because you don't feel the vibe, looks like ungrateful, arrogant egotism to a 18 year old working on a factory floor who earns less in 10 years that Axl would in a night.

GNR forgot that the reason anyone cared about them was the music : we tolerated the drama, and after two 11.15pm starts with shows ending past 2am, I vowed to never see GNR again. They were good shows when they happened, but seeing them playing "Paradise City" at 2.10am on a weeknight to an arena where 14,000 people have gone home and maybe 2,000 are left .... that's just a D!ck Move. GNR forgot the music.

And Axl telling us "There's A Lot Going On!" during a video and hanging out with The Dolphin Of Enlightment was just ridiculous.

 

Absolutely enormous releases and all over MTV - totally unavoidable with all the singles coming one after another. Since you weren't around Roger, and it may not be in books is that alt. rock radio that played Nirvana and Pearl Jam also had time for Guns n' Roses. There were only a handful of classic rock artists - or straight rock artists making it to modern rock radio - Guns n' Roses was still considered cool but a little less so cause some didn't like Axl's 'Elton John' style at times. I'd hear Neil Young, Ozzy Osbourne solo on alt rock radio as well. By 1993 Kravitz was also on modern rock - maybe the last of the old straight rock guard.

Still GnR was totally cool until 'The Spaghetti Incident?' and Axl's behavior like others are saying. Then there were fans who thought they were a joke, fans who thought they issued too much at once and supersaturated their fame, fans who were sick of them cause they were being played on all radio stations - modern, mainstream rock, top 100, MTV - some excused 'The Spaghetti Incident' as a holding record for the next true album.

Little did we know there was no new album coming anytime soon. After the grunge Stones cover 'Sympathy For the Devil' people got impatient and by 1995/1996, they barely could hold the band together and people got the sinking feeling it might be over for good.

I loved mostly everything from both Use Your Illusions - got them just before Nirvana and Pearl Jam,etc. On this forum and in many fans hearts, Appetite For Destruction is everything and the Illusions take a lot of criticism as you're seeing in this thread.

 

I loved Chuck Kloistermans writeup on the video trilogy, particularly that the Estranged video was expected to explain it all...then Axls relationship ended in explosive fashion and the video took us to Sea World instead.

 

I also think that shot of Slash taking the car off the cliff and the camera panning back to him at the top of it for the solo is extremely hilarious (November Rain maybe?)

 

In terms of songwriting Izzy did a lot, but his guitar is buried in the mix. He was slowly departing from the band; he refused to show up to the shooting of both the Don’t Cry and YCBM videos. He also was traveling separately from the band. He later said that pretty much from the moment he got clean of drugs (1989) his interest in being in the band slowly dipped away.

The last straw was a band meeting held in November 1991.

Axl and Slash told him he needed to contribute more or he would be demoted to a non legal partner status. Essentially, he would be demoted to more of a “hired gun” status. Out of the GNR legal partnership.

The next day, Izzy announced to the band through the management office that he was out.

 

also that was the last song to feature Steven Adler, and the first to feature Dizzy Reed

 

Except that came several months after.

 

As a nine year old kid who was just beginning to be music obsessed, UYI and the Black Album releases were talked about as gigantic. I had older friends who went at midnight to get both.

For the music…Axl was starting lose his mind. While the singles for Appetite were STILL being played on rock radio, the UYI singles came and went really quickly.

By Spaghetti Incident, I was 12. I remember seeing a couple of the videos on MTV but was way more into the alt rock of the time. GNR aged really quickly and sort of imploded

 

you remember incorrectly