Axl Rose - Rose: 'Reading & Leeds Festivals Were No Fun'

Rocker AXL ROSE has spoken out about his disappointing festival weekend in Britain, insisting his experience of headlining the Reading and Leeds concerts was "no fun".

The Guns N' Roses frontman staged an online war of words with festivals boss Melvin Benn after the band's sets were cut short because they failed to observe a curfew.

In a post on Twitlonger.com, Rose writes, "Don't know what it is with us or these last two shows. Takes the fun out it for everyone - fans, band and crew alike, but whatever.

"So you know, we allegedly had a deal in place pre-show with 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 was a con.

"Regardless, the nonsense just seems so unnecessary but without real management or industry presence is unfortunately beyond our control. We hope the fans feel they got at least what they could from us under the circumstances as for us all things considered that's the main thing. The rest is filler.

"Peace, thanks for understanding and what we did manage to get done out there was a blast! The crowds and fans were amazing!! And in our opinion (not that apparently it means much) you deserved better!! Thanks again!!"

Organisers of the festivals have maintained Guns N' Roses started its Reading festival performance more than an hour later than scheduled; the band was given an extra 30 minutes to play.

A statement from the festival bosses reads, "Guns N' Roses wanted to extend the new agreed curfew but were prevented from doing so in order to comply with the entertainment licence issued by Reading Council."

But the band has accused the festival promoters of having "a personal grudge" with them, stemming from eight years ago when the band last played the Leeds festival.

In a tweet on Monday (30Aug10), guitarist Richard Fortus wrote, "I don't think there is another band out right now that has the balls to do what we did last night. Axl insists on doing things his way and not playing by the f**king rules. You can love him or hate him for it, but the fact of the matter is... he's the real f**king deal... Deal with it or not, but it won't ever change."