by S. Graveson

Created on: May 19, 2009   Last Updated: May 20, 2009

It's been a while for Axl and Co. It's been even longer than most of us though, in fact their last studio album was "The Spaghetti Incident?" in 1993 and that was an album of covers, meaning the last fresh G N R album was back in 1991 with the 2 "Use Your Illusion" Albums. With the best of album released inbetween the "The Spaghetti Incident?" and now ("Greatest Hits" was released in 2004, consisting of work from the previous albums).

So let's welcome G'N'R back, with hugely anticipated "Chinese Democracy" album, well I say G'N'R but of the original line up of Axl Rose (the only current member to have been there from the start) on vocals Izzy Stradlin (rhythm guitar), Tracii Guns (lead guitar), Ole Beich (bass) and Rob Gardner (drums). This line up was soon to change for the first of many times, thought this is the 1985 line up.

Soon after formation Slash took over lead guitar, and Duff McKagan took over bass, the final change was to be Steve Adler took the drums from the departing Gardner. This line up would take G'N'R to arguably the best period in their history, including their debut album "Appetite for Destruction" in 1987 followed up by "G'N'R Lies" in 1988.

Next came the dual released "Use your Illusion" albums I and II and the next band line up: Adler left due to drug problems, with Matt Sorum replacing him and Dizzy Reed became the sixth member joining permanently as a keyboardist.

The success of "Use your Illusion" left them at #1 and #2 in the US Billboard charts at the same time, ane lead to one of the most infamous tours in which during the 28th month tour the band reaped the awards financially. The same tour lead to riots, band walk offs and Axl diving into the crowd to have effectively a fight with a fan who was taking photos in an incident known as "The Riverport incident". Whilst on the same tour Izzy left the band due to tensions over alcohol (he'd recently stopped drinking and found the others excessiveness rather stressful) and was replaced with Gilby Clarke.

The tour ended in 1993, in Argentina, the last time the line up of: Axl, Slash, Duff, Sorum and Clarke would perform together.

"The Spaghetti Incident?" followed and in comparision to the "Use your Illusion" albums was a bit of a flop despite debuting at #4 on the Billboard chart. The album lead to tensions and by the end of 1997 the band was Axl Rose, Tommy Stinson on Bass, keyboardist Dizzy Reed, multi-instrumentalist Chris Pitman, and guitarist Robin Finck.

So now we'll fast forward

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