Guns n' Roses Live Radio Shows '88 & '92

I did not think about it at the time, but I do remember that Guns n Roses was considered a gamechanger in the metal scene back then. Both fans and critics were getting sick of pop metal bands that seemed so formulaic and here came these guys sounding somewhat raw and a bit dangerous.

One of the few bands that both fans of Metallica and Poison could share, except for weirdos like me who liked them both.

Bump for some new info regarding the 'Live at the Ritz 88" concert.

As best as I can figure, the concert was released this past June in Europe only on vinyl and cd from a company called Radio Silence which specializes in "rare unauthorized concert recordings" ie BOOTLEGS. It's a limited release of 500, but I don't know if that meant vinyl, cd or both. It's not an official release and certainly not authorized by the band or label (duh!). You can find import copies on ebay and Amazon for around $20+.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CD-Album-Guns-N-Roses-Live-At-The-Ritz-NYC-1988-Slash-Westwood-One-Sealed-/361398614019?hash=item5425093803

I don't know the source of these recordings, so the sound could be total sh*t with edits and whatnot. I haven't found any actual reviews to verify the quality.

Buyer beware I guess.

Thanks for the update, MG.

It would appear as though this is getting a US release this Friday (11.13.15)...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OU049H6/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1YY4NLP7T11YP&coliid=I2NB51S962AKR7



I'm still a little hesitant, but I might have to spring for this one for nostalgia sake.

Digging deeper into the GnR archives, looks like Axl's pre-Guns band Rapidfire and their ep, Ready To Rumble is finally going to see the light of day...

Quote :

Early tracks featuring Axl Rose in Rapidfire prior to Guns N’ Roses

Rapidfire was based in Los Angeles, USA and featured Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose under his real name Bill Bailey before he co-founded Hollywood Rose which later morphed into Guns N’ Roses.

The band was comprised of Bill Bailey on lead vocals, Kevin Lawrence on guitar, Mike Hamernik on bass and Chris Gordon on drums.

Rapidfire recorded an EP on May 25, 1983, just three days before the band apparently broke up. After several years of legal action with respect to the release of the album, guitarist Kevin Lawrence was finally able to release the Ready To Rumble EP commercially on November 15, 2014.

Track List for Ready To Rumble EP:
01. Ready To Rumble
02. All Night Long
03. Prowler
04. On the Run
05. Closure



Listen to clips on Amazon or search YouTube for complete songs
http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Rumble-Rapidfire/dp/B00RDLIB4G/ref=tmm_acd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

It appears this Rapidfire EP is on Spotify, so I'm listening to it now. Thanks for the heads up--never knew about this pre-Hollywood Rose band.

It's interesting to hear, and certainly isn't bad...but outside of like a collector/preserved for posterity type of thing, I can't imagine listening to it regularly.

The Rapidfire website, which I got to by way of looking them up on discogs, has a link to a 35-page PDF written by the attorney of the dude who put out the EP. I skimmed through some of it--sounds kind of interesting from what I did read.

I think the Rapidfire stuff was discussed here a few years ago when the tracks originally popped up on YouTube. There was talk of them being released but they had to cut through miles of red tape. I guess guitarist Kevin Lawrence finally got it all hammered out.

I'll probably grab a copy at some point. GnR fan till the end!!

Wow! I had no idea of a pre Hollywood Rose band having anything on record. Gotta check this out, thanks, MG.

Sleeze Roxx has posted a review of the GnR Live at the Ritz album...

http://sleazeroxx.com/reviews/guns-n-roses-new-york-new-york/

I'm still awaiting my copy's arrival in the mail.

Not a bad review. Excellent track list. I am def grabbing this at some point soon.

I am very pleased to report that my copy of the Ritz '88 finally arrived (2 sellers and snail-mail delays nonwithstanding) and I'm extremely happy with it. It's just about everything I hoped it would be.

As far as I can tell, there are little-to-no edits from the original radio/tv broadcast. The one minor edit I noticed right off the bat was at the beginning. In the live video, the band is introduced by someone on stage. That part is cut, just fading the crowd noise up until the band kicks in. No big deal. All other stage banter between songs is intact including band intros, no bleeping or editing of f-bombs in the performance.

The sound quality is good. You have to play it a little louder than a regular cd, but when has that been an issue? The live video has louder crowd-noise, especially in their participation on some songs, but this recording, the band is heard loud and clear over the audience. Again, not a big deal to me. This is a pure, unedited band performance. There are bum notes, missed cues, dropped vocals, etc. Warts and all. Just like a live album should be. It's not perfection, it's rock n' roll.

It's a standard jewel case and the liner notes are sparse, just a folded-over insert with a small write-up and a few vintage pics of Axl and the boys. Pretty standard for a bootleg release I guess. Mine is credited to Gossip Records (who?) copywrite 2014.

The set-list is pretty much all of Appetite for Destruction (3 songs omitted) and 2 covers, Aerosmith's 'Mama Kin' and Dylan's 'Knocking on Heaven's Door'.

Overall, I couldn't be more pleased with this release. As mentioned before, this original show was my first real glimpse of Guns 'n Roses back in '88 and I've been a life-long fan since then. Despite what they've since become or what the future holds, they will never hold a candle to this performance. I'd highly recommend this to any GnR fan. It's worth every penny. Get it before it's gone.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Digging deeper into the GnR archives, looks like Axl's pre-Guns band Rapidfire and their ep, Ready To Rumble is finally going to see the light of day...

Quote :

Early tracks featuring Axl Rose in Rapidfire prior to Guns N’ Roses

Rapidfire was based in Los Angeles, USA and featured Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose under his real name Bill Bailey before he co-founded Hollywood Rose which later morphed into Guns N’ Roses.

The band was comprised of Bill Bailey on lead vocals, Kevin Lawrence on guitar, Mike Hamernik on bass and Chris Gordon on drums.

Rapidfire recorded an EP on May 25, 1983, just three days before the band apparently broke up. After several years of legal action with respect to the release of the album, guitarist Kevin Lawrence was finally able to release the Ready To Rumble EP commercially on November 15, 2014.

Track List for Ready To Rumble EP:
01. Ready To Rumble
02. All Night Long
03. Prowler
04. On the Run
05. Closure



Listen to clips on Amazon or search YouTube for complete songs
http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Rumble-Rapidfire/dp/B00RDLIB4G/ref=tmm_acd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Bump for yet another death in the music world. Rapidfire guitarist and founder Kevin Lawrence has passed at age 51...

http://sleazeroxx.com/r-i-p-kevin-lawrence-ex-rapidfire-with-axl-rose-1963-2016/

Shame he went through all the legal hassle to get these tapes released then up & dies.

Yeah, I saw that on SR the other day. Pretty sad that he passed after all he went through to get the music released. I thought the article was very good and props to Lawrence for moving on and exploring other types of music.

As for the Gn'R concert, I still haven't run across this in the local record shop and I still need to grab this one. So much music and so little cash.