I'd love to be able to sit here and tell you that Appetite for Destruction was the first record I ever bought but that would be a lie, it was of course 10 Good Reasons by Jason Donovan.
But Guns n Roses were the band that made me pay attention to what I was hearing if that makes any sense, as a kid in the late 80s, living in full on bumpkinville, about 20 miles from a town, the choices being the rock n roll meccas of Andover or Salisbury, there was only the stuff that Dad was listening to in the car, mostly Queen and a Top 40 style station Atlantic 252, bonus points if you remember that.
Listen to the full show where I get to play some of my selections on MIXCLOUD
I'm not entirely sure when I first heard them, either Paradise City on the radio or round at a friends house who had an older brother who would hang out with the tough boys, or as tough as you can be in a village of 200 people in rural Wiltshire. There was also a really clever school yard parody that swapped out the 'girls are pretty' line with something about big tiddies so of course 10 year old me was desperate to get in with the cool kids. Spoiler .... that never happened
The Illusion albums came out a couple of weeks too late for my birthday but as we approached christmas, my friend Derricks foster brother had a mate who'd copied them for him and listening to it through a thin wall while playing Double Dragon on a commodore 64 was as close as I got while badgering Mum for them as christmas presents.
Christmas day rolled round and the old girl had come through, well kinda half way through as I unwrapped Use Your Illusion 2 alongside a couple of other things, Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet I believe but she also got me a CD walkman thing to play them on, most probably because I couldn't be trusted with Dads hifi system or she just wanted it contained to my headphones.
Anyway I rinsed it, and properly fell in love with the band. The following year, as Dad mourned the loss of his beloved Freddie, I was so excited to see Guns n Roses playing at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert at Wembley, and even though I was starting to listen to bits of the seattle stuff that was leaking through...remember we had a rural delay to the good stuff to deal with, and would also have major dalliances with bands as diverse as The Doors and Iron Maiden, Guns n Roses were my band
Anyway, once you’ve listened to the show drop your own Top 5 Guns n Roses songs in the discussion below….lets see if we can get than cool kid gang up and running
Ranked! The Top 5 Songs from Guns n Roses