Guns N Roses gig London August 1991

Late summer of ‘91. I had left London in March of that year to return to Scotland after getting sacked from a customer support job which I hadn’t enjoyed doing. So I was glad to have the excuse to pack up my belongings and head north. But I came back down for a week’s holiday at the end of August staying at my sister’s flat in somewhere like Ladbroke Grove - not a part of London I knew. 

I had a ticket to see Guns N Roses at Wembley Stadium and on the day of the concert I met up with Cath, a Belgian friend who I’d got to know when I lived in Muswell Hill. Cath was a fine-looking woman, every bit the rock fan with her tight jeans, long hair and leather jacket. Basically, the sort of girl I’d seen at countless rock gigs, normally in the company of some big brute of a headbanger, who skinny guys like me could only dream of going out with. But Cath had made it clear when we first met that she was only interested in hanging out and going to gigs which was fine with me. Okay, maybe I did fancy her but in cases like this you have to respect the other person’s wishes and we had some good times going out for a drink or to the occasional gig at venues like the Hammersmith Odeon.

So Cath and I met up on the day of the GnR gig and then hooked up with a mate of mine called Mark who had come down from Edinburgh on the overnight coach. We headed up to Camden where we wandered round the market and one or two record shops before finding somewhere to have a beer. Later we got the Tube train up to Wembley, found a spot on the pitch and waited for the support bands to do their thing. First on was Nine Inch Nails who played an ok set with most of the crowd not paying them much attention. Next up was Skid Row and the crowd went mad for them. I hadn’t appreciated how popular they were but to be honest, neither Mark nor Cath or myself could see what all the fuss was about. While most of the crowd were on their feet we stayed sitting on the ground and made paper airplanes from merchandise flyers that were littering the ground.

I don’t remember much of what Axl & co played that day. Mark had drifted off into the crowd at some point, maybe to get a closer look at the band and Cath and I decided to head off before the end to avoid the crush at the Tube station. We actually bumped into Mark as we headed along a corridor in the stadium on our way to the exit. He said he was going stay until the end as he then had plenty of time to get to wherever his coach was leaving from for the return journey to Edinburgh.

I only saw Cath one other time and that was when she came up to St Andrews where I was working. She stayed in a BnB and the only thing I remember us doing was going to a falconry place and on the way we had an Iron Maiden compilation tape playing in the car. She did like her metal did Cath.

Here's the Guns N Roses setlist from that day.

Read more of my concert memories in my book "Drum Solos, Bottles and Bands - Memories of a Concert-goer 1981-1999"

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