Guns N’ Roses<\/a>‘ infamously shambolic, zero-out-of-five-K!-rated 2006 Donington headliner, few would have bet them to be the ‘safe’ booking at Download 2026. Indeed, a decade on from the first reunion of core trio Axl, Slash and Duff McKagan, the ‘original’ GNR have established themselves as one of the hardest touring, most reliable bands in heavy music.<\/p>\nThat is very much a double-edged sword. Yes, it’s nicer to see the intro tape beginning to roll a few minutes early than to be left kicking rocks not knowing when the headliners might turn up for half the night. And, sure, it’s reassuring to know that Axl probably won’t storm off because of piss-ripping punters hurling debris onstage. But Guns got to this point by being the most dangerous band in the world, and, frankly, you’d face more peril in the bogs tonight than smashing pints at the front of the stage. Welcome To The Jungle’s iconic opening riff staggers out of the PA. It’s So Easy feels weirdly like filler. Even the potentially dazzling early one-two of Mr. Brownstone and You Could Be Mine feel threadbare, worn thin by far too much recent touring.<\/p>\n
Then things get better. In earnest, Axl and the gang sound much tighter than last summer. Songs are played in time, and the singer’s decision to lower his vocals slightly helps them hit the mark. The obligatory cover of Bob Dylan’s Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door doesn’t drag out like a lunch interrupted by a work email, either. Their version of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is bloody brilliant. And Axl looks great, trimmed down and repeatedly changing shirts, from bejewelled plaid numbers to a black leather one unbuttoned almost to his belly button.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“It’s good to be back,” grins Axl Rose, flashing his megabucks pearly whites to an audience stretching right…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-638138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}