As seems to be inevitable outcome with Axl, i'd say he'll read way too much into the excellent sales outing of GH. On one side, I'm sure he's pleased that his band (all be it the old one) which he was such a big part of, can still give the Ushers of this world a run for their money in album sales, without a single too afetr over a DECADE.. F**king amazing really!!
At the same time, the other pole of Axls brain is probably shifting uneasily and worrying about what
exactly the the general public want from GNR in
this decade. I fear this question will present itself to him despite his best efforts to avoid it and will lead him down the rat holes in his mind that we have all discussed to death here. We are all aware of the changing styles of his music during the last seven years. We have read about the delays to CD due to newer songs arriving with newer band members bringing their sounds. This has contributed greatly to his perpetual hovering on the edge of the music scene, waiting for the right time to release his work to the world...
In fairness the signals that Axl must be trying to interpret are mixed; he popped his head out for a small part of 2002/2003 and the hacks had a field day. The fans gave mixed signals too with venues half full in some places yet packed and rabid in others. Some even called for Slash while others greeted BucketHead like an old friend. The new tunes got very mixed receptions across the net too. How the f**k can he know what will go down when he eventually creeps back to the limelight? I think that lack of control scares Axl since every other aspect of his life seems very carefully tied down, controlled and hidden away from public view. His desire for control of his mind, his life and in his music have led him to what must be a lonely enough place but one I feel he's comfortable in.
For the business end of things that move around the band; at least the sales of this album will probably go someway to calm down the bean counters at Universal (I'd say a few million $ will go back against the CD debt since, in relative terms, this is a cheap release - no recording costs etc). Also, these sales will serve to ignite the imaginations of a sense of purpose in the A&R and marketing camps associated with GNR. They now know that the world will at least
listen to the first comeback single from GNR and give it a whirl. If Axl has nailed it with the new guys that should get the ball rolling nicely. As for the label pressurising Axl, it seems he can face down the best of them which pleases and angers me at the same time since I want my CD as badly as the rest of you.
I live in Ireland where GNR have been No. 1 for a month, SCOM is on the radio again everyday and their videos are back on TV. This is a gift and a curse to the new GNR now, musically they are back in peoples minds but visually they may suffer an identity crisis as Joe Public looks at GNR and drawls 'Whaa??'. Goths, corn rows, make up, strange faces etc, it just might be too much to take. The irony is that if Axl just stuck on the leathers, the bandana and a GNR t shirt he'd be at the peak of todays rock fashions since the Darkness, The Jets atc are all after something from the Izzy / Slash / Axl classic look.
There are more questions than answers for Axl right now and I hope he has the balls to get out and get those answers, whether he can stomach them or not... The GH success must tell him that he has a valid place in music with or without the rest of the old gang.
I wonder how Slash and the rest of the guys feel in all of this too. A friend of mine in the business was at a listening party for VR and said it's very STP with hardly any solos in the songs. This upsets me as Slash
owned rock guitar for sooo long. Sadly, like Axl he too seems to be buckling to adapt to modern trends and loosing some of what it is about his work that we love so much. It's terrible when trend setters have a crisis and fall in behind the crowd. Lets hope CD and Contraband get these two gangs moving in same direction as the GH album...the No. 1 spot!!
Peace
Rubie
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