Guns N’ Roses Are Bringing Stadium Rock Back to Australia

It’s been a long time coming, but just six months out from one of the year’s biggest concert tours, it’s clear that Guns N’ Roses are well and truly bringing stadium rock back to Australia.

Set to kick off in the middle of November, Guns N’ Roses’ forthcoming tour of the country has been in the works for some time. Having last visited the country as part of their ‘Not in This Lifetime…’ tour back in 2017 (which is itself the third highest-grossing concert tour of all time), it’s been a while since the iconic rockers have last showed Aussie fans what it is that makes them so great.

Selling over 350,000 tickets during their last local tour, guitarist Slash promised fans that Guns N’ Roses would return to Australia once again, though no details were specified at the time. Since the tour, the band have been rumoured to be recording a new album, with Slash confirming that new material was being written during a 2019 interview.

Now, the group are on track to ensure that their long-awaited return is a welcome one, with their forthcoming tour set to ensure that not only is stadium rock back on Aussie shores but that it’s here to stay.

Kicking off with a show at Perth’s Optus Stadium on Friday November 18th, the upcoming tour will see the group visit Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast, Sydney’s Accor Stadium Australia, and Adelaide Oval, before concluding the Australian tour at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The group will also travel across the Tasman to New Zealand landing at Sky Stadium in Wellington on December 8 and then Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday December 10.

Easily set to be one of the biggest musical events on the Australian calendar this year, the forthcoming tour also takes place just a few months before the 30th anniversary of one of the most iconic concerts in local history, Guns N’ Roses’ 1993 performance at Melbourne’s Calder Park.

Equally described as being both “notorious” and “the wildest rock gig Australia has seen”, the performance took place at the height of Guns N’ Roses’ fame as one of the biggest bands in the world. Only their second visit to the country, the show found itself becoming somewhat due to reasons beyond the band’s control. Wild weather, overbearing security, high prices, and poor infrastructure meant that the 75,000 fans in attendance at the Victorian speedway were bound to remember those gigs, but not necessarily for the best reasons.

However, close to three decades on, it’s remembered as one of the most famous moments in Australian concert history, with almost everyone in attendance that day happily stating that despite the poor organisation on the day, the band’s blistering performance meant that they wouldn’t trade it for the world.

30 years on though, organisation of gigs is far better, and it’s been quite a while since Guns N’ Roses’ shows have been remembered for little more than the stellar live performance that they put on. Of course, if the group’s 2017 trek to Australia is anything to go by, their forthcoming visit is set to see one of the group’s most enduring and iconic bands still performing at the peak of their powers.

Sure, it might be a few years since they last released an album, but if you need any proof that Guns N’ Roses are still the masters of stadium rock that they always have been, one need only head along to their Aussie tour this November.