At 09:08 AM 3/1/2005, you wrote: 
Hi, I just want to post a few things for you to put on your website if you want them.
The first is a zip file of my photos from the first SYdney show which is located at:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/gnrlies/velvetrevolver.zip
The second is a summary of my week which I suppose you wont need to put up, but I want to say 
ive ahd the time of my life.
The first sydney show was absolutely amazing. The crowd was so cool. They were passionate fans 
who knew their stuff without being too over the top, or being diehard 80's junkies. They were cool, 
modern and I was proud to say I was a GNR / Velvet fan with people like this around. Lining up all 
day was a pleasure. When we got in we waited through the screaming jets which were rubbish. They 
didn't play hardly any of their hits instead trying to plug their new album. They are has beens and david 
gleeson is dirty. Anyway, the anxiety of seeing slash was becoming amazing. Then the lights dimmed. 
My heart was pumping. Then the most amazing thing. I started seeing sillohettes of people. I saw a 
sillohette of scott, dave then saw duff and though "OMG its an ex GNR member!" then I saw Matt and 
thought "OMG AGAIN" and then last walking in, after the rest of the band, I see the sillohette of Slash 
with his hair hanging out. I nearly cried. 15 years of passionately admiring him without ever seeing him 
came to this. Slash right in front of me (I was on the barrier right in front of him). The Duff got on the
 main step in the middle of the stage playing the intro to sucker train blues. I could make out his face. 
It was another amazing moment. Then the explosive riff came in and the lights rightfully shined on slash.
 I saw my man. I saw the hair, the guitar, the face (when his hair was parted). It was incredible to have 
this iconic figure right in front of me.
I wont go through the set too much because im sure youve all experienced much of what I have but 
if you havent be sure that they are amazing. Some of the highlights included the crowd. It was the 
roughest crowd ive ever been in (and ive been in a few). Even on the barrier it was amazingly rough. 
I was being jerked from side to side everytime slash would come to one side of the stage. He was 
on fire like you could never imagine. Slash at one point said that we were one of the best crowds 
hes ever played to in VR. Then about 20 mins later he corrected himself to say that we were the 
best crowd hes played to and that hes gonna remember this for the rest of his life. Scott was 
brilliant, Duff was amazing - ive never seen a better bassist. He has so mnuch stage vibe. One of 
the highlights came when fall to pieces came on. When the higher toned guitars came on the big 
VR sign lighted up and the crowd cheered. Magic moment. During illigal I, slash played the solo
 with the talk box. It was amazing seeing him do this right in front of me. During the encore slash 
played a solo with his double guitar, and then launched into you got no right. Thats one of my fav. 
songs of the album and comes off well after the encore. Another highlight for me was when its so 
easy was playing. I had slash and duff right in front of me for practically the whole song, solos and 
all. When the part said "i see you standing there, you think your so cool, why dont you just - 
FUCK OFF" I was right in front of them and I put my finger up like one is meant to at that part, 
and for that brief moment I thought I was at a GNR concert. I got plenty of eye contact throughout 
the night with Duff. I first pointed to my CBGB shirt and pointed back to duff, and he saw it and 
smiled and nodded his head at me. After that he kept coming back to my side of the stage and 
smiling at me and making eye contact.
The show itself finished and I was amazed by what I just saw. Me my mate and this lovely french 
girl we met in the line went around the city trying to find where they were staying. We were tipped 
the Mariott on hyde park and went searching there. We got there but it was too hard to know if 
anything was going on, so we went to kings cross where we were told they would be going 
(by this guy who we believed but I dont think he knew what he was talking about). We 
unfortunately didn't find them. It was ok though because I was seeing them the following 
day and I planned to go a little later (not line up all day and get barrier) and rather get the 
band while they come in the venue to get some stuff signed.
The next day I was still getting over it. But there was no sense of drawback because I was 
due to see them again. We got there around 6, and luckily they hadn't come in yet. We saw 
each member arrive, but unfortunately or fortunately depending on which way you look at it, 
only duff came to sign stuff. But thats cool cos I got my copy of contraband and my original 
banned Appetite on vinyl signed. I saw the show and through that they were as good as they 
were last night. The main difference came in one faggot in the crowd. In the second sydney 
show this one guy had an "Axl Rose" sign held up. Scott showed him where to go when he 
ranted about it. He said "that guy with the sign. Youve wasted your money. Youve come to 
the wrong fucking concert. Go home. If you want to see a fat bald man, wait 10 years then 
maybe we will see. Its a disrespect to the band, and a disrespect to our fans and our fans 
are our friends. Get the fuck out of here before I break your fucking neck." Im not sure if 
he went out or what, but it was good to see someone like that put in their place. I hope a 
fan kicked the crap out of him after the show or something.
That show ended and I thought my week was up. Then I thought - Hmm why dont I stake 
them out at the airport.
That plan worked amazingly as I got to meet the whole band with only 2 other there. I met 
slash, duff, and dave who arrived in one set of tarago's they were very nice down to earth 
guys who signed my guitar, appetite, use your illusion 1, and contraband. I got photos with 
dave and slash but unfortunately missed duff, but thats ok because I met him before and he 
signed my stuff. Hes now signed my contraband twice! haha. Scott was meant to be on that 
flight but unfortunately he was arriving a little late. We waited for him and he was very quiet 
and soft spoken. We were told before he arrived that he would probably not sign anythiong, 
but scott was awesome. He signed contraband, and was willing to have a few photos. He 
was very quiet but still im very gratefull that he spent the time to do that for us. Matt was 
apparantly making his own travel arrangements
Here is a look at my photos of the airport:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/gnrlies/slash.jpg 
http://users.bigpond.net.au/gnrlies/kushner.jpg 
http://users.bigpond.net.au/gnrlies/weiland.jpg 
http://users.bigpond.net.au/gnrlies/guitar.jpg
One would think that leaving on such a high was amazing. But it got even higher.
at about 7:30 on saturdsay night, I thought.. Hmmm I crave VR. So I looked up some 
flights to melbourne, and saw some tickets on ebay, and next thing you know it, im flying 
down to melbourne to see them. So im here waiting in melbourne and I was the VR 
veteran in the line. I had seen them twice, and had met all the members in the band 
except matt. Everyone was very impressed by my feats, and realistically so was I. The line in 
melbourne wasn't as good in melbourne. The people I was talking with were great people, 
but the down point were when these 16 year old bogans who flew in from tasmania came 
with a case of beer. They came and got drunk whilst waiting in the queue. My line was 
very civilised (the waiting was divided into two lines) and the people were great, but this 
line was just full of drunk people. My line of getting in was starting to get edgy because this 
group of bogans were lurching forward and taking completetely over the line even though 
we got there way before they did. The security was hopeless. Vodafone arena didn't even 
have any security out until like 1 minute before they let everyone in, so the resulting line was 
not a line but rather one big mess. The drunken yobbos were smashing bottles and everything 
all over the place, and it was really not on. Then to make things worse, this guy with a 
moustache who was meant to be a head security guard jeered them on by saying he was 
a huge ac/dc fan. I though he was very unprofessional and should be fired for not cleaning
 the mess out. Then to make things even worse, they let the yobbos in first without even 
opening the civilised line of people that had been there since 7 in the morning. It was 
absolutely crap. I would say nothing good about vodafone arena. Fortunately I rectified 
things myself by pushing through everyone and getting to the front to rightfully be the first
 let in, but it was still not good enough. When let in, the shamozle continued when there 
were a million and one steps to finally get to a door. Up stairs, down stairs, up some 
more stairs. It was stupid. They really need to clean their act. Anyway all that said we 
got in the venue and after all that it was ok. Then my next problem and point of injustice. 
We had these mexican morons who thought they were gods because they came from LA 
(prolly crossed the border illigally on the back of a pickup truck). They were living in 
the 80's with these gay snakeskin boots, and they were just these fat arseholes. They 
got to the venue quite late, they were behind me. As we were all in the venue sitting 
down before we were told to stand up at the barrier, one of them stood up and started 
talking to the security guard right in front of me, where I was meant to go for my barrier 
spot. He kept standing there while we were all meant to be sitting. The his fat brother got
 up and again stood up in front of me. I then was getting stressed out and I politely told 
them that I wish to stand where they are, and they laughed at me saying that I was a fool if i
 thought they were going to move. They are absolute arseholes who have no respect for 
anyone else except themselves. Fortunately when it was time to get up I got barrier and 
was comfortable, but again it highlights how bad security was for not telling them to sit 
down even though that guy said he wasn't going to sit down right in front of the security 
guard. These mexicans were also the same guys jeering up the bogans outside. I wish 
someone would shoot them and If they were reading this I would like to say a big 
FUCK YOU. (if this ends up on the website). Anyway, VR was once again amazing. Melb 
wasn't as good an atmosphere as the first sydney show but it was good to watch because the 
barrier didn't have much crushing or movement on it. The vocal mix up the front wasn't very
 good, but in all the hype it wasn't really that annoying. It was the same set except for an 
aerosmith song.
After the show we got a tip off that the band was staying at the hyatt in melbourne. We went to 
get the band after the show. I got to meet matt which was brilliant cos I missed him in sydney. 
There were quite a few people at the hotel though so it wasn't as intimate as the airport, but I 
got a photo with him. we waited there for slash and duff but apparantly they went in a side 
entrance. Scott went in the front but wanted to go straight into the hotel and didn't sign anything.
me and my mate were buggered. We had a long day, and even longer to go. We had to stay 
the night at the airport and getting there was a bitch at 3 in the morning. I had about 4 hrs sleep 
at the airport before catching an 8am flight to sydney. All in all it was an amazing experience.
And an amazing week
and after all that, I found myself thinking - "wow, I just saw Velvet Revolver" - rather than -
 "wow I just saw 3 ex members of GNR". A testament to the greatest rock n roll band in 
the world...