72. Slash

wembley arena

2 December 2014

Once a late-'Eighties hair metal scuzz bucket, Slash has somehow morphed into a national treasure; the sort of bloke wheeled out at every other award show to sprinkle a bit of rock legitimacy over proceedings. Need to “rock up” a Simon & Garfunkel tune for an industry bash? Call Slash. Struggling with that difficult second album? No worries, just parachute Slash in for a guest solo and watch the credibility levels rise. He’s the rock equivalent of MSG; throw him into anything, and it immediately tastes better. Which is probably why he should have stuck to being the world’s most reliable gun for hire.

World on Fire, his grand solo effort, was less blazing planetary inferno and more slightly humid archipelago. Normally, I’d have skipped it entirely, but the presence of Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge’s vocal acrobat extraordinaire) tipped the scales. My mate is an Alter Bridge fan, and since I’m nothing if not a supportive friend and easily dragged into questionable gigs, off we went.

We had prime seats right by the stage at Wembley Arena, so close I could have counted Slash’s nose hairs. And from there, one thing became very apparent very quickly: When Slash and Kennedy played covers (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver), the place erupted. When they trudged through his solo material, the bar take went up. And so, the gig became a waiting game, a prolonged bout of endurance whilst keeping an ear out for “ooh, I know this one!” moments.

The highlight was Myles Kennedy belting out “Paradise City”, a moment so seismic that Wembley actually bounced, a crowd whipped into biblical levels of hysteria. The rest? A perfectly competent, slightly underwhelming excuse to stare at one of rock’s last great top-hatted icons.