Review of Guns `n` Roses: Use Your Illusion World Tour 1992 In Tokyo Vol. 1

Introduction

Ahh, the Roses (as Guns`N`Roses were often called round our way - this was before the Stone Roses became just the Roses). They always take me back to being in the sixth form at school, and watching the so called "future of the country" all down on their knees in the middle of a dance floor somewhere, playing air guitar to Sweet Child O`Mine or Paradise City. Some of these people are now teaching your children or working on major engineering projects in your area. A chilling thought?

And was I one of those in the middle? Well, no, because I was the one repsonsible for playing the songs to them that caused these reactions. But the image above is how Guns`n`Roses will always be remembered for me. They`re supposed to be coming back, but with only W. Axl Rose left from the line up, it`s not going to be the same, and he should just grow old gracefully. Do we really want to see him prancing around in hotpants or cycling shorts nowadays?

Here then is the first part of the band`s concert, recorded in Tokyo in 1992 (they were massive in Japan). The tracklisting on this disc goes like this:-

Nightrain, Mr Brownstone, Live and Let Die, It`s So Easy, Bad Obsession, Attitude, Pretty Tied Up, Welcome To The Jungle, Don`t Cry, Double Talkin` Jive, Civil War, Wild Horses, Patience, November Rain.

Volume 2 of this DVD is reviewed separately (although the content of the review is rather similar to this one!)

Video

A bog standard full-frame concert transfer. It`s a 1.33:1 affair, and pretty much the norm for most concert footage filmed in the last millenium. It does appear to be a fairly straight copy of the VHS release though, which is a little bit of a let down.

There are some men on stage, playing instruments. There are some lights. There`s a crowd. It`s not exciting to watch, unless you really like watching grown men prancing around in cycling shorts and hotpants, attempting to sing into microphones that have massive foam ends on them (the Axl trademark).

Audio

Oh dear. The real point of music DVDs is that they bring you whatever music it is in excellent quality, thus allowing you to replace your awful VHS copy of the concert, or to improve on your CD recording or similar.

But the sound quality here is awful by DVD`s standards. A rather muffled soundtrack, and I`ve heard better bootlegs recorded by audience members. It just sounds like they`ve transferred the VHS to the DVD without paying any attention to what it sounds like. This basically stops this DVD in its tracks, and therefore there`s no real reason to buy it.

Features

Given what I`ve just said do you expect any? Correct. None.

Conclusion

I was really hoping to be able to recommend this for those of you nostalgic for those old Guns`N`Roses days, anything to escape the awful modern day parody/tribute act The Darkness. But I can`t recommend this DVD as the sound is awful. Imagine playing a VHS tape, or audio cassette that`s a bit worn out, and you get the effect of the DVD. So there`s really no need to buy this DVD at all. If you want some Roses on DVD, you`ll have to go for Welcome To The Videos instead.

My advice would just be to buy the band`s CDs instead!