In case you missed Part 1..click below ..
Once we got back to our hotel we were standing around waiting for the elevator in which it seemed to take forever.
We decided to take the 4 flights of stairs to our rooms. When we got up to the fourth floor I went to open the door and it seemed to be locked. What’s going on here?
Just then I seen a dude from our bus coming running out of his room with a fire extinguisher in hand and was unloading foam everywhere along the hotel corridor.
Oh man this is not going to end well….
Someone else noticed us so they let us in as they had the door jammed with a chair so thats why we could not get in.
This is really not going to end well…
The reason the elevator didn’t show up was due to someone who placed a garbage can in the elevator door preventing it from closing.
Did I mention this is not really going to end well?
It was a full out party and I’m sure you know where this was headed right?
We got the boot from the Holiday Inn very early that following morning as supposedly the cops were called.
This isn’t good as this was the day of the Guns show at Alpine Valley. We spent the whole day driving around looking for a hotel (none wanted us, maybe we were black listed) as Guy and Daryl tried to get us something to rest our heads in.
Guy and Daryl were classic guys and funny as shit. They slammed back beers at a massive clip yet when the bus would stop at other hotels they would drink mouthwash, fixing up their hair and Daryl would be seen carrying a briefcase before going into the next hotel to secure us a room.
In other words trying to look pro even though they were drunk basically the whole trip…
I still recall with a hearty laugh when Oink’s told his girlfriend Kathy at the time “Oh well guess were not going to any mall’s now” Oink’s got the death glare!
Bad time for a joke Oink’s..
We drove around for hours in that Greyhound looking for a place to stay or in other words..
“Looking for a place to happen. Making stops along the way..”
Finally around supper time Guy and Daryl came through. A hotel out by the airport took us 40 hungover Canucks and it was basically drop off your bag and back on the Greyhound for the hour drive out to Alpine Valley.
By this time it started to rain. We got to Alpine Valley and as soon we were entering the gates you could already hear Skid Row opening with the title track from there soon to be released album “Slave To The Grind”.
Myself, Oink’s, Kathy, Donna sprinted in and up a hill as the stage was at the bottom of a ski hill (or that seemed like it to me).
Alpine Valley is one road in one road out and as you may or may not know that is where Stevie Ray Vaughn lost his life in the summer of 1990 when the chopper he was on hit a ski hill…
Looking back it’s weird to think that both Skid Row and Guns were starting their tour together without they’re current albums being out.
“Slave To The Grind” came out a few weeks later in early June while Guns released the double CD “Use Your Illusion” set that September.
It was pissing down rain…speaking of pissing rain, Oink’s I can recall with laughter when I caught him taking a piss on a front bumper of a tour bus in the parking lot which was funny as hell…
I have reviewed this show in the past but I can say that at that time at that moment Guns were the biggest band in the world. 40,000 people that night (Guns sold out the first night as well at 40,000) would agree with me as it was Axl, Slash, Izzy, Dizzy,Duff and Matt who were phenomenal that night even though out of the 18 songs played there were 6 songs out of that 18 song set list the masses had no idea what they were..
Didn’t matter though…
The Bus ride home seemed to take forever as once we got to the Canadian Border our local border guards made everyone get off the bus and made the Bus operator pull out all the bags underneath for inspection!
For fuck sakes its 4:30 am I want to get home and go to bed..
Nothing came out of it as the border guards found zilch and from the border it was a 45 minute bus ride home as when we rolled into Thunder Bay. Better yet Guy and Daryl had to be at work at 6am! They had a half hour to spare!
It was a great show minus the rain yet a ton of fun that I can recall now with fondness…
Part 3 of 3 will be posted tomorrow.
Wait so Axl, didn’t get mad and storm off the stage?!?!
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Nope not at this show. He was well behaved for Axl 1991 lol.
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That’s good to know lol!
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Surprising eh? lol
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Definitely lol!
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Man, that is a mess of a trip but you got to see the show so I guess it did end well after all.
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Mess is the perfect word. lol. But it all worked out..
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Something tells me Guy & Daryl’s next day at work didn’t exactly set records for productivity!
And I like that strategy, a bit of mouthwash & a briefcase, transformation to respectable hotel guest = complete!
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lol. Yeah those two guys were fun and that transformation to respectable guest was funny to see.
But give them credit they would put these trips together.
The one guy that always deserved credit was the bus driver as Guy and Daryl would get the same guy for each trip.
So when we would get close to home we would all throw a few bucks the drivers way as that dude deserved some extra dough as he had mega patience…
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I like that tipping etiquette.
I’ve been saying recently that there’s no patience quite like Elementary School Teacher Online Learning Patience – but perhaps Bus Driver for Rock Fans Patience might be right up there too!
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Hahaha. Exactly fora bunch of adults who should have known better. Myself included! lol
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Wow…you all are probably still banned from all of the Holiday Inns…just like The Who! Moonie and Deke in the same book.
That Oinks dude…sounds like a lot of fun.
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BAHAHAHA…well if thats the case then I’m in some cool company with Moon.
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Yes you are…there is no better when you are in trouble. Looking forward to the 3rd part dude!
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That goes up in a few hours well midnight here 11 pm at your place…3rd part is a little more tamer ..lol
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Ah man…I hope you talk about the 6 songs by Guns and Roses…what the hell? Why only 6 songs?
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Sorry 6 songs from Use Illusions played which the masses did not know about..I gotta fix that in the post as I’m not Fox News lol
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Ok…that makes sense….It was me dude…I thought it was only 6 songs….and no one ever heard of them lol. Probably the way I read it.
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No dude thanks for proofreading that is how it came across…lol I fixed it…
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I’ll look up your review of that show man
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It was one of the first reviews I wrote 8-9 years ago. Its sloppy like now but a cool sloppy…lol
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https://superdekes.wordpress.com/2014/08/14/apettite-for-alpine-valley/
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Cool dude thank you…It would have taken me forever to find it.
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No worries that clip posted is from the same show
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This sounds like a perfectly planned and executed tactical mission, well done. lol
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hahaha…whut? lol
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Er… I mean… LOL
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drew me right in. even felt tired at the end when you posted the time!
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I feel tired as well that 30 years has passed but it really doesn’t seem that long. Funny how the brain works!
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it’s not gonna end well.
Bloody long haired rock fans making a mess of hotels.
Did GNR start on time?
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I remember they made us wait a bit. Not to sure how long but I recall the crowd was getting a bit antsy as the rain was coming down pretty good.
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2 hours…
We waited for GnR to start in Australia.
When the band was meant to start Axl was still in Melbourne in his hotel because he wasn’t feeling it. He then got helicoptered in which took about 90 mins and by the time the band started playing their encore, most of us were walking out because if we didn’t catch the 1am train out of the suburb we were stuck there.
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What year was this?
Funny back than I think they did that to rile up the crowd before they came on..but yeah to wait around all night was goofy to say the least. That behaviour won’t fly now..
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30 Jan 1993
You would think by then they would have worked out their lateness
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I think it only got worse as the tour went on… When I saw the Guns/Metallica/FNM show there was a 1 am curfew and Guns finished with 10 minutes to spare..lol
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Yeah well most of us missed the connecting train for home so we had to stay the night and didn’t get home until 7am… and I’ve refused to watch em since.. but I’ve seen Slash a few times.
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Fair enough.
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Sucks that you got kicked out of the hotel for some other jackass’s shenanigans. And Oink’s GF couldn’t go shopping because of it!
That’s right Skid Row did start touring before anyone had heard the news songs too. Word spread fast though. A lot of people talked about that show when it hit Toronto a few weeks later. A few people I knew were pissed that they didn’t know 2/3rds of the set. I said “Oh well, I guess you’re not a fan.”
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I was used to seeing shows before the album dropped. The other one was in the fall of 90 when me and Tbone caught ZZ Top in Winnipeg a good three weeks before Recycler came out.
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Wow that’s wild. Did the new tunes go over well?
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for ZZ you mean? Yes but like all those bands when the hits were played people would o bonkers…
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Very cool that you had a Beatle with you. Always knew they were regular guys.
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BAHAHAHA….. we could have used a Ringo on that ticket to ride! lol
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Ringo with the bus mike leading everyone in a rousing version of Yellow Submarine. Pissed to the gills.
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Man that would have been epic.
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Man, always some folks messin around and causing trouble for everyone else. Glad it worked out ok in the end, tho.
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Yeah it was a crazy but fun trip Jeff. 30 years later it lives on lol
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Yeah, when I saw GnR, some a-hole tossed an M-80 off the balcony and it exploded at my feet. I was just grateful I wasn’t injured. If the jackass had waited two seconds longer before tossing it would have exploded in my face. But the Rock Godz protected me đŸ™‚
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Oh man. No wonder you don’t want to go back.. People are idiots at time and this one takes the cake Jeff.
Glad you weren’t hurt.
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Thanks man!
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Starting the tour before the album comes out is a good way to build hype for it! I don’t think many bands are confident enough to do that today. This story is something else, Deke! There is a movie script for a comedy here!
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HAHAHA. Thanks pal.
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