Axl Rose sacked and re-hired his entire stage crew between performances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals this weekend.

The 'Guns 'N' Roses singer was furious when organisers cut the band's sound before they had finished and fined them for taking to the stage late on Friday (27.08.10) at Reading - even though the reason for the delay was because Axl was asleep backstage.

A source told the Daily Star newspaper: "Axl has a very firm rule that he is not to be woken up whenever he is asleep. That proved costly at Reading.

"Axl was furious. He refused to take responsibility and blamed his team, so he sacked them."

However, this move left the band without a crew for their headlining slot at Leeds on Sunday (29.08.10), meaning Axl had no option other than to continue employing them.

The source added: "Then he realised it was too late to fly in anyone else from America so he had to rehire them for Leeds."

Things did not go to plan for the band at Leeds, as the 'Welcome To The Jungle' singer overslept again and started 30 minutes late.

Axl then claimed the band had agreed a deal with organisers to play past their curfew and that no-one in the surrounding area would be upset by the noise the band was making.

He said: "We were guaranteed to play till 11.58 but they are telling us to end our set. The festival promoters just want to f**k you.

"We're 35 miles from Leeds in a field in the middle of nowhere, who cares?"

Writing on his twitter page after the performance he said: "So u know, we allegedly had a deal in place pre show w/the city at least at Leeds to do a bit longer performance that was either miscommunication, someone wasn't informed, changed their mind, didn't care or it was a con (sic)."