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Chinese Democracy Tour

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Chinese Democracy Tour
Tour by Guns N' Roses
Chinese Democracy North American tour logo
Legs5 (so far)
No. of shows2001 - 4 (cancelled: 26)
2002 - 22 (cancelled: 18)
2004 - 0 (cancelled: 1)
2006 - 57 (cancelled: 7)
2007 - 70[?] (cancelled: 2)

The Chinese Democracy Tour is rock band Guns N' Roses' concert tour to promote the group's upcoming album Chinese Democracy.

2001 Tour

Between their appearances in Las Vegas and Rio de Janeiro, the band was already lined up to appear on several European shows that summer, including the German dual events Rock am Ring and Rock im Park. After Rock in Rio, a European tour for June 2001 was compiled, but all 16 shows were subsequently cancelled, reportedly due to the illness of the lead guitarist Buckethead. Some of the shows were rescheduled for December, if only to be cancelled again. The bands management released the following statement in response to the cancellations.

Doug Goldstein commented, "To ensure Guns N' Roses fans the album they deserve, Axl Rose has spent every waking minute of everyday during the past 5 years writing, recording, and producing Guns N' Roses' first album of all new material since 1991. Following the euphoria of Rock in Rio, I jumped the gun and arranged a European tour as our plan was to have the new album out this year. Unfortunately, Buckethead's illness not only stopped the tour but has also slowed progress on Chinese Democracy. As a result, touring right now is logistically impossible. I am very sorry to disappoint our fans but I can assure them that is not what Axl wanted nor is it 'Another page from the Howard Hughes of rock' as some of the media will no doubt portray it. I made a plan and unfortunately it did not work out.

File:Gnrlogo2.jpg
Guns N' Roses logo used during the 2001 and 2002 tours

The line-up for this tour consisted of:

2002 Europe/Asia tour

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Guns N' Roses World tour 2002 logo

The band played six shows in August 2002, headlining festivals and concerts throughout Asia and Europe.

The band then made their way to New York for a surprise appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The only line-up change for this tour was the addition of Rhythm Guitarist Richard Fortus, replacing the departed Paul Tobias. The line up for the 2002 tours of Europe, Asia and North America consisted of:

2002 North American tour

File:GN'Rworldtour2002.JPG
Guns N' Roses World tour 2002 logo

The band's first North American tour since 1993 (when the Use Your Illusion Tour concluded) was organized in the autumn of 2002 to support the supposed release of Chinese Democracy, and was announced on September 25, 2002 as the Chinese Democracy Tour, with 35 dates scheduled. However, the opening show at the GM Place in Vancouver on November 7 was canceled by the venue when Rose failed to show up in a timely manner and a riot ensued. This tour was met with mixed results. Some concerts in smaller markets did not sell well, while shows in larger markets such as New York's Madison Square Garden sold out in minutes. That Garden show, on December 5, was the last one played. On the following night of December 6 in Philadelphia's First Union Center, both opening acts appeared, but Axl Rose and the rest of the group did not, and after the resulting riot by fans[1], promoter Clear Channel canceled the remainder of the tour.

During the 2002 North American tour the bands opening acts were CKY and Mix Master Mike.

In all there were 16 shows actually played on the 2002 North American Tour, 2 cancelled at the time with riots, and the remaining 16 cancelled ahead of time.

2004 No Rock in Rio

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Rock In Rio logo

After the 2002 tour was cancelled the band went into hiatus until they were scheduled to play at Rock in Rio 4 in May 2004. However lead guitarist Buckethead left the band in March 2004 and their appearance was cancelled and Axl Rose made the following statement:

"The band has been put in an untenable position by guitarist Buckethead and his untimely departure. On behalf of Guns N' Roses and myself I apologize to the fans who planned to see us at Rock In Rio - Lisbon. The festival and its tradition mean a lot to me personally and I sincerely do not enjoy being robbed by one of our own of the opportunity to be the first artist to play it for the third time. I would also like to express my gratitude to those who chose to embrace Buckethead's role in Guns and support our new line up. We greatly appreciate Bucket's contributions and remain open to 'discussions' as there are obviously several issues to resolve. In the meantime rather than dwelling on the negative, Guns will be moving forward and surprisingly (without giving away any details) this unfortunate set of circumstances may have given us the opportunity to take our recording that one extra step further. Regardless we hope to announce a release date within the next few months."

2006 European tour

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Guns N' Roses European Summer tour 2006 logo

In May 2006 the band launched a European tour, headlining both the Download Festival and Rock In Rio-Lisboa. Four warm-up shows preceded the tour at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, and became the band's first live concert dates since the aborted 2002 tour. The shows also marked the debut of virtuoso fusion guitarist and composer Ron Thal (a.k.a Bumblefoot) on lead guitar, replacing Buckethead. During the course of this tour, Izzy Stradlin and Sebastian Bach made frequent guest appearances. The European dates played to over 700,000 people during 32 shows in 18 countries. The line up of the European and North American Tours was:

The only line-up change for this tour was that of guitarist Ron Thal replacing the departed Buckethead. Also, drummer Bryan Mantia missed the second half of the European tour because of the birth of his daughter in early July. He was temporarly replaced by session drummer Frank Ferrer.

During the 2006 European tour the bands opening acts were Bullet for My Valentine, Shakerleg, Avenged Sevenfold, Melrose, Towers of London and Sebastian Bach

Warm-up shows

European shows

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Guns N' Roses logo used during the 2006 tour

In addition, Guns N' Roses were supposed to open for two dates of The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang Tour in Germany on the European leg of the tour, but because of Keith Richards' infamous fall from a tree in Fiji, those shows were cancelled.

2006 North American tour

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Chinese Democracy North American tour logo

On August 31st, 2006, Axl Rose appeared on MTV Video Music Awards as a presenter, noting that the band would go on a North American tour on October 24th. Five warm-up shows for the tour were held in September 2006, with two at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas two at Warfield Theatre in San Francisco and one show in Devore for KROQ's Inland Invasion 2006.

Following the band's appearance at Inland Invasion on September 23rd, a handful of subsequent warm-up shows were postponed, which led to rumours that this was carried out in order to finalize the work on the new album. The rumors were seemingly denied by manager Merck Mercuriadis, who stated that the shows had been merely moved to "fit in with the main body of the tour". He did, however, once again state that Chinese Democracy would be out before the end of the year. The actual tour, again called the Chinese Democracy Tour, was now scheduled to begin on October 20th in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Jacksonville show was moved to October 31st, with the October 22nd show in Nashville, Tennessee postponed up to January 2007, until being cancelled in December. The tour commenced on October 24th in Sunrise, Florida, now ringing true to Rose's prior statement.

During the 2006 North American tour the bands opening acts included The Suicide Girls, Papa Roach, Sebastian Bach, Die Mannequin and Helmet. The band were also joined onstage by former Gunner Izzy Stradlin[2] and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich[3] both making one of appearances. Long-time drummer Bryan Mantia took a leave from his touring responsibilities before the October tour dates to spend more time with his family. He was replaced by his understudy Frank Ferrer. Since then, Ferrer has apparently been granted an official membership in the band, which fueled speculation that Mantia had resigned. During a Florida show in October, Ferrer was introduced as "our newest member" by Axl Rose. Regardless, the bands management has stated that both Mantia and Ferrer are official members.

Eagles of Death Metal were recently supposed to go on tour with Guns N' Roses. On November 24, 2006 in Cleveland, Ohio, during their first concert with Guns N' Roses, the band was not well received by the crowd. When Axl Rose came out to perform, he asked the crowd whether they enjoyed "the Pigeons of Shit Metal", following with an onstage announcement the band wouldn't open for the Guns during the remainder of the tour. Soon after, Eagles of Death Metal released a statement regarding the incident:

"At first the audience refused to welcome us to the jungle, but by the time we took our final bow, it had become paradise city. Although Axl tried to November rain on our parade, no sweet child o' mine can derail the EODM night train. We say live and let die."

Warm-up shows

North American shows

Cancelled dates

The below 2007 shows were cancelled in order for the band to complete the album in January to have a March 2007 tentative release date.[6] This, of course, did not happen. As of May 11, 2007 the album remains unreleased.

2007 World Tour

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Chinese Democracy World tour 2007 logo

On February 8 the band performed two songs at Rodeo Drive's Walk of Style ceremony in honor of Donatella Versace.


Starting June 2nd, Guns N' Roses will embark on their 2007 Chinese Democracy World Tour which is rumored to include a total of 70 dates.

Cancelled Dates

References

  1. ^ "Guns N' Roses History" - www.heretodaygonetohell.com
  2. ^ "Izzy jams with GN'R in Los Angeles" www.gunsnroses.com - Doug Miller, December 28, 2006
  3. ^ "Lars Ulrich joins GN'R on stage" www.gunsnroses.com - Doug Miller, December 18, 2006.
  4. ^ http://web.gunsnroses.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061106&content_id=a1&vkey=news&fext=.jsp
  5. ^ http://web.gunsnroses.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061128&content_id=pr1&vkey=news&fext=.jsp
  6. ^ "An Open Letter From Axl Rose". Guns N' Roses. 2006-12-04. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Guns 'n Roses pull out of My Coke Fest" www.tonight.co.za - April 20, 2007.
  8. ^ http://undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=1964
  9. ^ a b c d e http://web.gunsnroses.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070411&content_id=a1&vkey=news&fext=.jsp>
  10. ^ a b [1]
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