SLANE SPECIAL: Slash: I can remember the Castle just not the performance

Guns N’Roses were two hours late arriving on stage in Slane in 1992, but the crowds were more forgiving then than in 2010, when Axl Rose was two hours late appearing at the 02 in Dublin, and then threw a hissy-fit because there wasn’t quite an adoring crowd waiting for him. Having redeemed themselves at another Dublin concert in 2012, Slane is the only Irish date on the ‘Not In this Lifetime’ tour of the reunited GNR core of Axl, Slash and Duff McKagan.
Looking back on the 1992 Slane concert for Hot Press magazine, Slash said: “I remember the place, but not the performance, which is indicative of how blurred my life had become. It was certainly important in terms of us making the step up to outdoor venues, which we hadn’t seen coming. One minute you’re the perennial support band, and the next you’ve got 80,000 people coming to see you.”

 

They were supported by Faith no More and Irish band My Little Funhouse 25 years ago. Duff’s memories of that night are far more vivid.
“I don’t remember a lot of things but I remember that because it was the first time I’d met my family,” he said. “I’m Irish American, but I’d never been to Ireland to see my cousins up until we played Slane. My mum’s entire family, the Harringtons, are from County Cork. The day before the gig we had a day off so I went down there and had a big party by the beach. My cousin Joe had taken me to every pub on the way down, so by the time I got there, I was completely out of my mind!”
He said the band being two hours late often had a lot to do with his drinking, too.
“Because the band would be there waiting for Axl to show up. You could hear the crowds getting pissed off and chanting “bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.” That didn’t feel too good to say the least. You had 50,000 fans or more out there, who’d paid good money to see he band, and they had to wait two to four hours to see you play. It’s not good.”
On this Not in a this Lifetime Tour, Guns N’Roses have been treating audiences to 25 song sets running the full gamut from Appetite for Destruction to Chinese Democracy, with covers from The Who, Pink Floyd, Johnny Thunder, The Rolling Stones and The Damned thrown in.