(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) —
Guns N' Roses' four warm up shows at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom on May 12, 14-15 and 17 have sold out in less than three minutes. The European leg of the band's forthcoming tour starts on May 25 in Madrid at Juan Carlos Arena.
"New York has always been so great to Guns and myself," said Axl Rose, the group leader and singer. "The response to our last show at Madison Square Garden was nothing short of amazing. I've spent the last couple of months here in New York. I've had a great time, met a lot of great people and the band and I are excited that we get to play New York City and play for the friends-both old and new-that we've made before we head to Europe."
"GN'R is as hot a ticket in NYC as anything I have seen in recent memory," said Live Nation promoter Randi Henner. "It blew out in three minutes."
The band is playing a mixture of headline festival appearances including Rock In Rio in Portugal, Download at the UK's famed Castle Donington, Rock Am Ring in Germany, Gods Of Metal in Italy, Novarock in Austria, Graspop in Belgium, Roskilde in Denmark, and A Heavy Day In The Park in Holland as well as their own headlining indoor shows in Madrid, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, Paris, Zurich, Stockholm, Oslo, and Helsinki, most of which have been instant sellouts.
Following their strongest ticket sales for the event ever, Download promoter Stuart Galbraith of Live Nation enthused, "The comeback of GN'R into the UK live market place has been quite phenomenal. GN'R along with Metallica and Tool will be headlining the biggest Download festival ever at Donington that for the first time in its history will sell out and in addition will also play to a sell out audience at Download Dublin – it's been a very long wait but it's certainly been worth it – GN'R are back!"
Guns N' Roses have sold over 65,000 tickets in Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki in just a couple of hours. Promoter Thomas Johannson of Live Nation commented, "Guns N' Roses, the cornerstones of Rock, will forever and ever do sell outs."
As part of the European tour, Guns N' Roses will also be reunited with the Rolling Stones as special guests for shows in Germany: July 10 in Nurnburg and July 12 in Leipzig. They last played together in 1989 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. –Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen
