Guns n Roses, one of the biggest-selling bands the world has ever known, have taken to the Pyramid Stage for their first ever set at Glastonbury.
It is 36 years since Appetite for Destruction became the biggest-selling debut album in history in 1987 and the band have been through their share of troubles, with the core members separating for years, before finally reuniting.
On Saturday night, the band, with Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan in full flow, headlined Glastonbury. Earlier in the evening, Manic Street Preachers had performed a superb high energy set on the Other stage.
But while the sight of the Los Angeles rock band will have had fans ecstatic, for Glastonbury viewers watching the BBC coverage there was one question being asked: why did Axl Rose's vocals appear to keep dropping out?
While the rest of the band's sound appeared perfectly pitched, the vocals seemed to come and go. At times, it seemed like the problem had resolved as the set went on, but at other times, it appeared worse than ever, like during the song Rocket Queen. And viewers noticed. Writing on Twitter, Ricky Davidson said: "Seriously, it looks like axel is singing his heart out but the mic is not having it."
Rix Hendersen wrote: "Watching GnR on an OLED with Ambilight and in UHD is great, but I wish they’d stop cocking about with Axl’s mic. The mix is all over the place." Another wrote: "They’ve set that microphone lower than my current bank balance."
But others heaped praise on the band, who have sold around 85 million albums according to reports. The band formed in 1985 in Los Angeles and signed to Geffen Records shortly afterwards before releasing the enormous first album which featured songs like Paradise City, Sweet Child O Mine and Welcome to the Jungle.
Jessie GX wrote: "Say what you want about Axl but this is how you put on a show, he has given absolutely everything he's running about that stage and giving us his soul, they all are! Amazing set, incredible energy!"
Josh Knighton wrote: "Hats off to Axl rose here, not only is he doing lead vocals he's also doing a f***ing bleep test on the stage at 61 years old."
Axl told the crowd that when he walked too far from the centre of the stage, he couldn't hear the rest of the band and he wasn't "wussing out".
Update: On Sunday evening, an agency representing Guns n Roses said it had "dug deep" into the problem and discovered there were problems with the broadcast being streamed on certain TVs, resulting in poor sound quality. A spokesperson from the agency said: "Axl was in top form last night. We have dug deep into the matter, and it appears the broadcast had issues being played on certain TVs like UHDs. This was an unfortunate issue that the mix played through these TVs sounded so poorly; however, it was not the band’s fault but the BBC’s." You can read the full story here and the BBC has been asked to comment.
