Guns N’ Roses has been touring for decades, so it is possible there has been a mistake or two along the way when playing before packed stadiums and arenas over the years. One such slip of the tongue popped up at a recent performance in Australia when the announcer said Sydney, when the band was actually in Melbourne. Oops.
Getting the name of the city wrong is a big mistake when on tour. The last thing you want to do is show up in front of thousands of fans and call out the wrong city. It is quite the awkward moment, but at least nobody from the band on stage got the city name wrong. The problem was the fans were already probably getting a little restless after the band was delayed to taking the stage in the first place. And for Australians, Sydney and Melbourne are similar to New York and Boston in terms of rivalries. That’s a mistake you don’t want to make when down under.
Like Aerosmith in a classic episode of The Simpsons, the band played on and later issued an apology via Twitter.
Melbourne!
Accidentally after 30 years McBob made an error, we're truly sorry. Thank you for coming out tonight!— Guns N' Roses (@gunsnroses) February 14, 2017
Thanks for all the love Melbourne
You were Paradise City tonight!— Guns N’ Roses (@gunsnroses) February 14, 2017
The whole episode could have been much worse when you think about it. It’s not as though Axl Rose took out a piece of paper and started paying tribute to the wrong city before the performance, which served as a nice piece of a prank punishment in a previous episode of Impractical Jokers…
Unfortunately for Bruce Springsteen last March, there was no prank involved when he called out to the people of Pittsburgh while performing in Cleveland. Whoops!
The Guns N’ Roses slip is hardly the first of its kind. According to a report from BBC, Britney Spears confused Manchester for London in 2009, Usher mistook Manchester for Maidstone in 2008 and Robbie Williams called out Zagreb in Croatia while performing in Belgrade, Serbia.
If that was the one mistake the Guns N’ Roses announcer made in 30 years, he can be given a pass.
[A.V. Club/Photo: Dementesx]
