Axl confirms Chinese Democracy is finished at last (1 Viewer)

[oscar_merkx]

Rose finishes Guns 'N Roses album - Yahoo! News UK

UK's Classic Rock recently tracked down Beta Lebeis, personal manager of Axl Rose, who confirmed to the magazine that GUNS N' ROSES' "Chinese Democracy" album "was finished before Christmas."
She added: "Everybody knows that."

Lebeis said Axl is currently "in negotiations" with unspecified parties to arrange to album's on-sale date.
However, Classic Rock believes that "Chinese Democracy" may not be "released" in the traditional sense — at least not initially.
The magazine suspects that GN'R may follow the RADIOHEAD route of pay-as-you-like downloads. But the publications stresses that this has not been confirmed.
Another source close to the GN'R camp also suggested that "Chinese Democracy" may gain a conventional release in late summer, with a view to it becoming "a big Christmas album."

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Exactly. Haven't we heard all this before? But I will certainly be interested to hear what Mr Rose has spent over 15 years to come up with.

 

[Ron Reda]

A lot of people wanna hear it, but is this even signifcant any more? The musicians that recorded these songs aren't even in the band any more, correct? I don't know, I'll check it out, but to me, G'nR consists of Axl with (at least) Slash, Izzy and Duff.

 

[GuruAskew]

The cool thing about it if this is indeed true (and I'm not holding my breath) and they're using the Radiohead release as a blueprint we could have an official copy within like a week of an official announcement.

I can easily see Axl getting hung up on the idea of someone paying nothing for his album though. I just don't see his ego allowing that, and unlike Radiohead I think most people are skeptical so "pay-as-you-like" could translate to "I'll get it now for free and if it's good I might buy the hard copy". That happened with Radiohead too (that's basically what I did, though I always planned on buying the CD) but the reputation of GnR/Axl vs. Radiohead is so different I'm fairly certain the results would be equally different.

Then there's the fact that GnR/Axl is still aligned with Universal Music Group whereas Radiohead didn't have any obligations or affiliations to any record label when they did their online release. Radiohead supposedly made an amount of money comparable to their previous releases off of "In Rainbows" but it certainly didn't make as much money altogether, they just didn't have to spit it with a label. If the record label is still part of the equation I don't see the "pay-as-you-like" download idea working. Then there's the obvious issue of the album being practically incapable of being profitable given all the money that was dumped into it.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see, and I stress the word "wait".

 

[Ruz-El]

I think you nailed it right there. This was an important release when it was first rumored... 12 years ago? now it's a curiosity. I can't imagine this being a huge album outside of the first week of release. Don't get me wrong, I liked Guns N' roses, but none of their albums are really all out classics that changed the worlds, simply good rock albums. The hype on this one is going to kill it before it's out of the gate sadly.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

I bet it sucks. Too much of a troubled history in and out of the studio.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I think it could be a good release, for those interested. Conflict breeds creativity, I have long believed.

 

[oscar_merkx]

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Axl Rose responds to album task

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Axl says: "We are surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr Pepper with our album Chinese Democracy."

OK ... What about a release date?

 

[allprolab]

I would throw my can of dr pepper at axl, thus prompting him to pout for another twelve years.

 

[Rhett_Y]

That made my day........... thank you.

 

[TravisR]

I hope this record comes out this year because I'd love to get a free Dr. Pepper.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

What the $*()@#*@ has he spent $13 million on?!?!?!

 

[oscar_merkx]

Dr Pepper perhaps

 

[Yee-Ming]

Sheesh, reading that final bit in the BBC report, that Use Your Illusion I & II were the last new GNR releases back in 1991 reminds me, that when it came out, I was still in college, heard about the releases from my room-mate, and we hopped on the bus, headed downtown to the CD shop and bought copies. Which was bloody ancient history.

 

[Matt Birchall]

This three-year-old New York Times article is where the $13 million figure originally came from:

The Most Expensive Album Never Made

It's a fascinating read.

 

[Greg_S_H]

They meant the Illusions were the last ones with original material. They also did The Spaghetti Incident?, which featured covers. Still, that was 15 years ago now and doesn't take anything away from your story.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Heh, I have a copy of Spaghetti, and just plain forgot about it. Shows how relevant it was, I suppose.

 

[oscar_merkx]

Guns N' Roses album release to be turned into reality show? - Yahoo! News UK

I suppose this would make great viewing