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June 17th, 2004
Hollywood Rose review in RS + Additional VR European dates + articles + Updated AA European tour dates
The Hollywood Rose cd was reviewed in the latest Rolling Stone:

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REVIEW / REISSUES & ANTHOLOGIES)
First Bloom
Five rough early demos by Axl Rose’s pre-G n’ R band - hidden in this cash-in release - show his appetite for stardom. By Greg Kot

HOLLYWOOD ROSE / The Roots of Guns n’ Roses / Deadline Music * * (two stars rating)

On the first song of this 1984 demo tape, the erstwhile William Bailey of Lafayette, Indiana - soon to be world famous for raising his goblet of rock as W. Axl Rose - not only demonstrates he’s a first-rate screamer but also a prophet: “I’m doing nothing on borrowed time .../I make my living killing time.”

Rose has become better known in the last decade for what he hasn’t done: most notably, completing the still-unreleased album Chinese Democracy. But the five songs documented on The Roots of Guns n’ Roses remind us why Axl once mattered: an ill wind from the Midwest, ripping up the Sunset Strip. Straddling the fence between punk and glam, in scarves and leather, Rose and his fellow Indiana expatriate Izzy Stradlin put together the band that would eventually morph into the more spectacular, and star-crossed, Guns n’ Roses.

The original demos on this album are thrillingly underproduced, from an outfit that’s more about outlaw kicks than the MTV-courting spectacle of G n’ R. With their hyperventilating tempos and staccato guitars, “Killing Time” and “Shadow of Your Love” have more in common with L.A. punks the Germs than with Iron Maiden. “Anything Goes” runs on spite even as Rose fights for his right to be as kinky as he wants to be. “Rocker” ends with Rose out-cackling the Wicked Witch of the West - or was that Bon Scott? - as she melts down in The Wizard of Oz. The self-evident “Reckless Life” revs up like a Harley, then plunges into traffic with blinders on. “Don’t need your advice,” Rose screams as if he’s kissing off Lafayette for the final time.

The only problem with these demos - Hollywood’s answer to the Sex Pistols’ infamous Spunk bootleg - is that they weren’t left alone. Instead, gratuitous remixes and overdubs turn a potentially classic nineteen-minute EP into a bloated fifty-nine-minute cash-in. Sunset Strip semicelebrity Tracii Guns lays on some extra guitar, and ex-Cinderella drummer Fred Coury beefs up - what else? - the kick drum on a handful of tracks. All they do is magnify just how brilliant the raw and still-squirming originals remain.


Here are some European Velvet Revolver dates:

August:
Sunday 8th - Skanderborg Festival, Denmark
Tuesday 10th - Helsinki, Finland @ Kulttuuritalo (on sale next Tuesday)
Thursday 12th - Stockholm, Sweden @ Globens Annex
Friday 13th - Oyafestivalen Festival, Norway
24th, 25th or 26th - 2 Days a Week Festival in Wiesen, Austria

September:
Sunday 5th - Independent Festival, Bologna, Italy


VR mentiones in some Finnish magazines:
VR are on the cover of the latest issue of the Sue magazine.

Contraband was reviewed in Rumba magazine and got a 3/5.

The band was also mentioned on MTV's TRL on the 16th. On the back announce for the #2 video (Usher's "Burn,") VJ Damien said something like "Usher lost the top spot on the countdown yesterday, and today we found out that his album slipped to #2 on the Billboard chart. But congratulations to the new #1, Velvet Revolver, who sold over 250,000 copies in their first week."


If you want to see Eminem dressed up as Axl on the MTV Movie Awards, MTV Europe will broadcast the awards on 18th June at 5 p.m. They'll repeat it on Saturday and Sunday.


Updated Adler's Appetite European tour dates:

Fri 06/25/04 Duisburg, GER Pulp
Sun 06/27/04 Budapest, HUN Wig Wam
Mon 06/28/04 Belgrade, SER SKC Club
Tue 06/29/04 Zagreb, CRO Aquarius Club
Thu 07/01/04 Worgl, AUT Komma
Sat 07/03/04 Dusseldorf, GER Polo Bikerfest
Tue 07/06/04 Thessaloniki, GRE Mylos
Wed 07/07/04 Istanbul, TUR Bronx Club - Istanbul
Fri 07/09/04 Weert, NET Bospop Festival
Sat 07/10/04 Zoetermeer, NET Boerderij

 
 
Source(s): RollingStone Issue 952/953 July 8-22, 2004, Various magazines, http://www.pollstar.com  
  
Thanks to: Gypsy, Jani, Erjo, Norman, Mike, Thomas, Thomas, Niklas, Brian, Béla 
  
 
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