Page Six Of The New York Post reports that Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose lost his cool for the second time this weekend after ending a U.K. music festival with a foul-mouthed tirade against police and promoters, Sky News reported Monday.
The iconic U.S. rock band arrived on stage 35 minutes late for its set at Leeds Festival in northern England on Sunday night, and sound was cut at around 11:15pm local time.
An enraged Rose told the crowd, "We come here to play for you, but the cops and the promoters wanna f*** us in the a**. We would like to play a few more songs for you, but we'll just play one."
The band then played "Paradise City," and Rose finished the performance by saying, "Be safe, good night and to all the cops and promoters -- f*** you."
The group's late arrival was a slight improvement on its performance at the festival's sister event Friday night in Reading, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) outside London, where it staged a sit-down demonstration after organizers pulled the plug on the band's set.
Rose threatened to boycott the Leeds festival after the incident although appeared to have calmed down by the time he got the chance to tweet.
He wrote on his Twitter page: "We r in constant talks to ensure the fans attending Leeds get what they paid for w/out undue bureaucratic interference. We thank you for your understanding. Peace!! In regard to Reading we feel at the very least the fans deserve an apology from those responsible for the nonsense. We'd also like to thank the fans for being so great, singing along n' not tearing the place apart!!"
Guns N' Roses was previously warned not to repeat its performance at the festival in 2002, when they kept fans waiting for nearly three hours.
In other Guns news, Axl Rose has commented on the band's appearances this past weekend at the U.K.'s Leeds and Reading festivals, the latter of which was cut short by the festival organizers due to curfew issues. In a message on Twitlonger.com, a related Twitter site where one can post messages longer than 140 characters, Rose wrote, "Don't know what it is with us or these last two shows. Takes the fun out it for everyone — fans, band and crew alike, but whatever.
So you know, we allegedly had a deal in place pre-show with the city at least at Leeds to do a bit longer performance that was either miscommunication, someone wasn't informed, changed their mind, didn't care or was a con. Regardless, the nonsense just seems so unnecessary but without real management or industry presence is unfortunately beyond our control. We hope the fans feel they got at least what they could from us under the circumstances as for us all things considered that's the main thing. The rest is filler.
Anyway, enough rambling. Peace, thanks for understanding and what we did manage to get done out there was a blast! The crowds and fans were amazing!! And in our opinion (not that apparently it means much) you deserved better!! Thanks again!!"
Professionally filmed video footage of the Reading performance (courtesy of the BBC) can be viewed below.
Guns N' Roses reportedly started its Reading festival performance at 10:30 p.m. — more than an hour later than scheduled — and was given an extra half hour to play, until roughly midnight.
In a statement to BBC News, the Reading festival organizers said, "Guns N' Roses wanted to 'extend' the new agreed curfew but were prevented from doing so in order to comply with the entertainment licence issued by Reading Council."
Guns N' Roses played the final song of its set, "Paradise City", with no guitars and the crowd shouting along despite the lack of sound with Axl Rose singing through a megaphone, according to BBC News.
