10 Greatest Music Gigs You Wish You Could Have Been At

3. Guns N Roses - The Ritz - New York

This show from 1988 saw the live GNR experience beamed into the home of MTV viewers, most of whom would only really have seen the band's promo videos. This is the classic GNR line-up, with Stephen Adler on drums and guitarist Izzy Stradlin adding his Stonesy vibe.

Guns were really taking off at the time of this gig and would soon be playing stadium shows, rarely to return to a venue the size of The Ritz except for a handful of special events. The up close and personal perspective is the best way to experience something as visceral as GNR in their prime and, fortunately, we have the footage to prove how monumental this gig was.

Drawing on the bulk of 'Appetite For Destruction' and with the less essential 'Use Your Illusion'' albums way ahead of them, the set list ensured that this was truly an 'all killer, no filler' event. Slash is on fire, and Axl has never seemed more manically wired, with 'Out To Get Me' being one of the very best examples of his excoriating vocal style.

 
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Lifelong music obsessive, regular contributor to US guitar magazines, sometime radio presenter, singer/guitarist in Star Studded Sham, true believer in the power of rock'n'roll and an amp turned up to 11, about to publish first novel, The Bulletproof Truth.