It was a last minute decision, as my plans for the weekend fell through, but last night I decided to relive my youth by seeing tribute band Guns n’ Yorkshire Roses at The Old Fire Station in Carlisle because I saw the classic original line up of Guns n’ Roses at Newcastle City Hall in October 1987 (ticket below). It was an enjoyable night and the band was fun to photograph – I have always said it is good when the singer spots you and plays up for the camera as in the shot above.

Some people are quite dismissive of tribute bands and claim the original is best but, with ticket sellers resorting to dodgy practices such as dynamic pricing in the case of the Oasis reunion gigs where the cost rises due to increased demand leading to extortionate prices for fans, it is a more affordable option – bear in mind I only had to pay £5 to see the original band in 1987.

And I was quite pleased that each of the band members made the effort to look like their Guns n’ Roses counterparts rather than being a soundalike band and it was good to see a band having a good time on stage.

REVIEW: Guns n’ Yorkshire Roses at The Old Fire Station in Carlisle on Saturday, September 12, 2026.

Despite it being almost 40 years ago I remember the gig well as I caught the original line up of Guns n’ Roses at the Newcastle City Hall when they were promoting their Appetite for Destruction album with fellow LA glam/sleaze band Faster Pussycat in support.

However, I was reminded by a friend, who was also at the gig in 1987 before I knew him, that at the start of the concert it was in complete darkness and there were five cigarette ends coming onto the stage before the support band launched into their set but bear in mind that was when you could smoke indoors before they banned it in the UK.

I was a fan of both bands at the time and as I recall Axl Rose was customarily late to the stage and the headliner’s set was unusually short of just over an hour. Having said that I did manage to get a member of Faster Pussycat to sign my ticket after the gig as he was hanging out in the foyer.

It was after that tour that the band exploded onto the music scene but unfortunately I was unsuccessful in getting a press pass on their subsequent tours before the band ultimately imploded.

Having said that at the last minute I jumped at the chance of catching tribute act Gun n’ Yorkshire Roses when they played in Carlisle as part of their Appetite for Yorkshire Puddings tour.

However, it could have been called off because the guy who is Slash lost part of his finger in an industrial accident but luckily his counterpart from Glasgow-based Guns MacRoses stepped in for him and turned in a more than decent performance.

It was a gig of two halves with the first filled with tracks from the Use Your Illusion albums – which I always felt could have made a very good single album rather than two as it came across a tad self-indulgent – as well as other hits.

Hitting the stage at 8pm they launched into You Could Be Mine complete with added sound Terminator sound effects from the film in which it featured on the soundtrack.

Personally speaking the highlights included Civil War, the epic sounding Live and Let Die, along with Velvet Revolver track Slither and Patience. The band then announced that they were taking a 20-minute break and would return with the Appetite album in its entirety, which is how it was meant to be according to the band.

I have always felt that their debut, which has to one of the best debuts in musical history, because it was very raw and sucker punched you with its thinly veiled aggression when it was first released almost 40 years ago.

It is still one of my favourite albums and it was good to hear tracks like Welcome to the Jungle, It’s So Easy, Nightrain, Paradise City, Sweet Child O’ Mine and Mr Brownstone before rounding off their set with Knocking On Heaven’s Door.

The band do a good job of looking like their counterparts in the classic Guns n’ Roses original line up and the musicianship was so good that I was immediately transported back to that October night in Newcastle in 1987. And, I am happy to report that the set was sell over an hour long, probably because they had a lot more tracks to choose from, and the crowd looked happy as they left around 10.30pm.

While the future of the band looked uncertain due to the unfortunate industrial accident, which resulted in the loss of a finger, I really do hope they manage to move on with a positive outcome for sure.