Three years after Guns N’ Roses performed in UAE, one of the world’s bestselling bands of all time is coming back, this time with the original line-up, on March 3 at the Autism Rocks Arena in Dubai. The band will bring its historic Not in This Lifetime Tour, which features members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan performing together for the first time since the seminal Use Your Illusion Tour in 1993.
More info on the announcement here.
Ahead of their arrival, here are five things to know about the Not in This Lifetime Tour:
The reunion: Blame it on Coachella
Late last year, reports began to swirl that the members of Guns N’ Roses, one of the top-selling bands in history, were going to reunite for the annual Coachella music festival in California in April 2016. Guns N’ Roses, the band, was still active, but without Slash’s intricate metal guitar, they were considered largely incomplete. The news, first reported by Billboard, sent rock music fans into a tizzy.
The confirmation: Welcome to the jungle
In January this year, Guns N’ Roses made the formal announcement about their Coachella appearance on their website via a video of a giant concert reminiscent of the band’s heyday. Rose is heard — with a profanity added — singing one of the most famous lines from the band’s repertoire: “You know where you are? You’re in the jungle, baby.”
Two months later, the band announced a 21-date tour of North America listing 20 major US cities and Toronto as destinations for the summer tour. In July, they announced 10 shows in Latin America starting on October 27 in Lima, Peru. The concerts notably included a November 4 show at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires — the scene of the last concert of the band in July 1993 before Slash and Rose parted ways. Japan and Australia were soon added.
The band’s tour production manager, Dale Skjerseth, then announced the tour would continue into 2017, with new dates to be announced.
“I’ve been told there’s no end date,” he was quoted as saying. “I’ve seen plenty of dates going into next year, far into next year,” he told reporters in Atlanta ahead of the band’s show in the city, according to footage on local television station WXIA. “Everybody’s working together to keep a common goal and common direction — keep the machine going.”
The setlist: Classic G N’ R
The band’s reunion has seen them perform some of the biggest hits that defined them as a band. From Welcome to the Jungle to November Rain, It’s so Easy, Rocket Queen, Don’t Cry, Paradise City, Patience and, of course, Sweet Child O’ Mine. They also played songs from Chinese Democracy, which came out in 2008 after persistent delays and without Slash.
The reviews: Making history again
After a few hiccups, including Rose breaking his leg at the start of the tour, the band soon found their rhythm and received wide acclaim for the reunion. Rolling Stone, reviewing the Detroit show in June, called it a “triumphant return of one of the most important bands to cross rock music history”. The show “was so deeply steeped in electric energy that a couple mechanical flaws couldn’t chip at its magnitude,” it wrote. “This night was history being made, and there was no taking away from it.”
Special appearances: Rock icons on stage
The tour has featured a number of rock icons joining the band for performances. Canadian heavy metal icon Sebastian Bach joined them on their April 9 concert performing My Michelle from the album Appetite for Destruction. Other guest stars include Angus Young, from AC/DC, and former Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler.
