Will Guns 'n' Roses ever top Appetite For Destruction

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A.� The informed opinion on Guns 'n' Roses is that the band has managed to enjoy their stardom in reverse. Having struggled as penniless wannabes, one of dozens of LA hard rock bands out there trying to get a break, the band hit pay dirt with their debut album, and it was all downhill from there, artistically, and eventually financially.

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Q.� Was the album that good

A.� All groundbreaking albums exist in context. The context of The Gunners' album debut is 1988�- believe it or not! Heavy metal was always a musical force, but it had become fairly tame, at least compared with the LA street scene the Gunners lived in. Down there it was sleazy dirty and dangerous. People drank a lot to forget the surroundings they lived in, violence was routine, and romance was hard to find. When Guns 'n' Roses released Appetite For Destruction, the disaffected youth of LA, and beyond, found a voice telling them that the band understood where the youth cam from, because the band lived there as well, at least until the serious financial rewards lifted them out of the streets into the millionaire condos that looked down from the Hollywood hills.�

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Q.� What are the best songs on the album

A.� The opening song Welcome To The Jungle seems to sum up the tone of the album, and the band in general, and lead singer Axl Rose in particular. It's all out there, but there is a way out, if you have the energy and guts to take it. The band do show a softer side with Sweet Child O' Mine which was a massive hit single�- heavy metal has always been easily tipped into sentiment, and this song struck a chord with all the hard boys around the world.

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Mr Brownstone sums up the approach to heroin addiction that all the band were to experience in varying degrees, on the album there's a hint of the danger and excitement that drugs appear to hold, although the tabloid press was to expose the appalling reality as the band steadily imploded in a morass of personal and legal disputes which still rage on today, thirteen years on.

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Rocket Queen tells a tale of a jaded individual, who is happy to upset his potential partner, and wants his own way, but would like a relationship out of it all. It's that kind of contradiction which both characterised and eventually destroyed the Guns 'n' Roses that made this album.

Q.� What went wrong ��������

A.� If you take a group of individuals strong enough to win through against the competition, which was the young mean and hungry Gunners back as far as 1986, when they first released a commercial record, and give them so much money and fame they no longer know which way is up, you have a recipe for disaster, you really do have an appetite for destruction. The result of artistic friction fuelled by the vast amounts of drugs, available and freely indulged by the band members, meant that they could never work as a cohesive unit with that original hunger and strength of purpose ever again.

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Q.� That's nothing new though is it

A.� Far from it. The tabloids, and obituary columns are full of rock stars that got it all, but too much, too soon. The philosophy of Guns 'n' Roses seemed to be that they had struggled long and hard enough to get their success, and they were going to seize it with all hands. Over indulgence became their watchword, and as the record label tried desperately to protect its investment, the tabloid headlines simply grew longer as the musicians fell out with each other, and more or less anyone else who crossed their path.

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Q.� But it was all there to begin with

A.� It was�- and Appetite For Destruction captured the mood and vigour of the band at that time, and the sound backed up that feeling perfectly. Axl's screaming falsetto echoed Robert Plant, and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, the twin guitar sound of Slash and Izzy Stradlin echoed the best of Keith Richards and Brian Jones, it was moody with a definite nasty undertone. The songs talked of looking for action�- and trouble�- and above all, escape from the LA mean streets. The irony is that they ever sought escape, for Guns 'n' Roses simply swapped one set of problems for another. As difficulties finding enough food to live on, and company for the night, walked out of the door, the camaraderie and 'us against the world' ethic that created the album flew out of the window.

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Q.� What now

A.� Gun 'n' Roses have had so many line-up changes that even their record label is unsure of exactly who is in, or out, of the band at the moment. Axl Rose, the one remaining constant member, has just cancelled yet another set of proposed tour dates in Europe, and the 'new' album shows no sign of appearing in the shops. It's possible that the reputation and kudos created by such a massively influential and unit-shifting debut will carry Guns 'n' Roses forward for a bit longer, but as ever in music, times move on, new and hungry bands come up and take over, and time must surely be running out. It may be that Appetite For Destruction will turn out to be one of the most prophetic titles for an album, and a band career that took it all just a bit too literally for its own good.

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Andy Hughes

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