Exploring Guns N’ Roses History In Australia

As one of the biggest rock bands of all time, it’s fair to say that Guns N’ Roses have established a successful legacy in every corner of the world. However, Australia is a place that has enjoyed special significance to the rockers over the course of their 35-year career. Some of the band’s most memorable live performances have been delivered in Australia, and fans here will be hoping that we haven’t seen the last of the band in the country.

The band’s Not in this Lifetime… tour was epic in every sense of the word, lasting from April 2016 to November 2019 and becoming the third-highest grossing concert tour ever. The tour comprised of 175 shows spread across over 40 countries, so you would forgive the members of the band and their team for not being able to pick a few clear stand-out gigs. However, their international booking agent Rod MacSween selected the performance at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in February 2017 as one of the highlights from the entire year, which maybe shouldn’t be a surprise given that it is a memorable venue in a memorable city.

As is customary for Guns N’ Roses, the venue was filled to capacity as 73,144 headed to the MCG. Angus Young of the legendary Australian band AC/DC joined the band on stage in a cameo that thrilled the crowd. That demand for tickets saw that night alone gross just short of $9 million – not bad for a night’s work. The Not in this Lifetime… tour was particularly notable for reuniting a trio of members from the band’s classic line-up: vocalist Axl Rose, guitarist Slash, and bassist Duff McKagan.

That trio hadn’t performed together at an Australian venue since the band’s 1993 Use Your Illusion tour, a tour which featured dates in Sydney and Melbourne. Use Your Illusion was notorious for its controversial side, characterized by delayed concert starts, and the inciting of riots in the crowds. While Australia wasn’t treated to the worst of the tour’s controversy, those gigs might not be remembered as fondly as the smoother operation of Not in this Lifetime….
Guns N’ Roses most recent concert tour is their appropriately named Guns N’ Roses 2020 Tour, although none of its planned dates venture as far as Australia. While South America and Europe are both expected to witness the band in action as the tour extends into 2021, Australia remains overlooked. However, the scale of Guns N’ Roses’ popularity means that you’re never too far away from ways to enjoy the band, even if they don’t tour near your city.

That’s because Guns N’ Roses have spawned a range of different products and media based on their career and discography. There are multiple Guns N’ Roses-inspired releases in the physical gaming genre, from playing cards emblazoned with their logo to jigsaw puzzles based on classic album covers. The band has also influenced the digital side of gaming, with the Guns N’ Roses Video Slots hosted by NetBet UK utilizing some of their most famous hits as the soundtrack to the reel-based action. The reels’ symbols also pay tribute to the classic Guns N’ Roses line-up that thrilled fans at the MCG.

There has been plenty of speculation about a potential movie inspired by Guns N’ Roses, which wouldn’t be short of drama. While that hasn’t come to fruition, fans still have Guns N’ Roses: The Story to fall back on, a documentary that provides insight into life on and off stage. Further depth can be found in Mick Wall’s book, Last of the Giants: The True Story of Guns N’ Roses. Wall’s work explores the stories behind the band’s massive success and gives informed descriptions of some of their controversies.

If Guns N’ Roses don’t come back to Australia, fans will at least have the memories of the Melbourne visit and plenty of media inspired by the band that they can enjoy. Oh, and of course they have Guns N’ Roses’ stellar discography. Given the success of Guns N’ Roses relatively recent stop-off in Melbourne, it’s reasonable to expect that the group which produced hits like ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine’ will return to these shores.