Chinese Democracy Tour

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Chinese Democracy Tour
Chinese Democracy North American tour logo
Tour by Guns N' Roses
Dates January 1, 2001 - ????
Legs 5 (so far)
Shows 2001 - 4 (cancelled: 26)
2002 - 22 (cancelled: 18)
2004 - 0 (cancelled: 1)
2006 - 57 (so far) (cancelled: 6)

The Chinese Democracy Tour is rock band Guns N' Roses' concert tour to promote, or at least run in conjunction with talk about, the group's legendary work-in-progress album Chinese Democracy. Befitting the history of the group and the album, this "tour" has taken place over large gaps in time.

Contents

[edit] 2001 Tour

There were plans for the band to tour Europe in May 2001 but because of illness to lead guitarist Buckethead all 26 shows where cancelled. The May shows where rescheduled to December but these shows were also cancelled. The bands management released the following statement in response to the cancellations.

Guns N’ Roses manager Doug Goldstein of Sanctuary Music Management has announced the cancellation of the band's upcoming "Chinese democracy" UK and European tour dates. The dates, which have sold hundreds of thousands of tickets in advance, were to follow Guns N' Roses extremely successful return to live work before an audience of 250,000 people at the Rock in Rio festival earlier this year.

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.

Guns N' Roses logo used during the 2001 and 2002 tours
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Guns N' Roses logo used during the 2001 and 2002 tours

The line-up for this tour consisted of:

[edit] 2002 Europe/Asia tour

Guns N' Roses World tour 2002 logo
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Guns N' Roses World tour 2002 logo

The band played six shows in August of 2002, headlining festivals and concerts throughout Asia and Europe. They made their way to New York for a surprise appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards in September.

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:

[edit] 2002 North American tour

Guns N' Roses World tour 2002 logo
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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. [1] 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 [2], promoter Clear Channel canceled the remainder of the tour.

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.

[edit] 2004 No Rock in Rio

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 of 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."

[edit] 2006 European tour

Guns N' Roses European Summer tour 2006 logo
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Guns N' Roses European Summer tour 2006 logo

In May 2006 the band regrouped and 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 is:

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.

[edit] Warm-up shows

  • 05/12/2006 - United States Hammerstein Ballroom (New York, USA)
  • 05/14/2006 - United States Hammerstein Ballroom (New York, USA)
  • 05/15/2006 - United States Hammerstein Ballroom (New York, USA)
  • 05/17/2006 - United States Hammerstein Ballroom (New York, USA)

[edit] European shows

Guns N' Roses logo used during the 2006 tour
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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' famous fall from a tree in Fiji, those shows were cancelled.

[edit] 2006/2007 North American tour

Chinese Democracy North American tour logo
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Chinese Democracy North American tour logo

A North American tour, again called the Chinese Democracy Tour, has been announced and will commence on October 24, 2006, preceding the alleged release date of the album by a month. 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.

A number of these shows were postponed until later dates in the tour, which led to rumours that this was carried out in order for the band to put the finishing touches on Chinese Democracy. This was seemingly denied by manager Merck, 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. More recently, the 20th October opening show has been post-poned until the 31st October and the 22nd October show being post-poned until January 2007 (Date TBA). The Tour now officially started on October 24th (As Axl said at the VMA's this year)

The Eagles of Death Metal opened for a concert in Cleveland, OH on November 24, 2006 although they were not well received by the crowd. When Axl Rose came out to perform, he asked the crowd if they enjoyed "the Pigeons of Shit Metal," and announced that the show would be their last with Guns N' Roses. The Eagles shortly 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."


[edit] Warm-up shows

[edit] North American Shows

[edit] Scheduled tour dates

[edit] 2007 South American, Oceanic tour?

While Sebastian Bach was performing in Australia he said, "I'm not supposed to tell you guys, but we will be coming back to Australia with Guns N' Roses in 2007 to kick your ass."

Richard Fortus said on his official website, "Perhaps we will play 'Civil War' in the future. We will be in Brazil in January of '07. We hope to see you there. Gn'R loves Brazil! Thanks for your support!"

[edit] External links

Guns N' Roses
Axl Rose | Dizzy Reed | Robin Finck | Tommy Stinson | Chris Pitman | Bryan Mantia | Richard Fortus | Ron Thal | Frank Ferrer
Former Members: Ole Beich | Rob Gardner | Tracii Guns | Steven Adler | Izzy Stradlin | Gilby Clarke | Slash | Matt Sorum | Duff McKagan | Josh Freese | Paul Tobias | Buckethead
Discography
Albums: Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide | Appetite for Destruction | G N' R Lies | Use Your Illusion I | Use Your Illusion II | The Spaghetti Incident? | Use Your Illusion | Live Era: '87-'93 | Greatest Hits | Chinese Democracy
Related articles
Use Your Illusion Tour | Adler's Appetite | Neurotic Outsiders | Slash's Snakepit | Velvet Revolver | UZI Suicide
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