August 28, 2010 0:05

Axl Rose in onstage protest after Guns N' Roses arrive late at Reading Festival

Band play on 'acoustically' after sound is cut

Photo: Dan Dennison/NME

Guns N' Roses' Reading Festival set ended in chaos tonight (August 27), when the sound was cut after the band overran by more than an hour.

The band, led by Axl Rose, took to the stage over an hour late, at 10.30pm (BST), to play their headline slot at the festival. Despite earlier warnings from festival organiser Melvin Benn that he would not tolerate the band playing past 11:30pm, they still managed to play the majority of their set until roughly midnight - when they walked offstage after playing 'Nightrain'.

However, as the band tried to return for an encore, the sound was cut. Led by Rose, they still tried to launch into 'Paradise City', though only the drums could be heard as all other instruments had been switched off. As the crowd started to sing the track, Rose tried to greet members of the audience while singing through a megaphone - watch fan footage of the incident on the right now.

The band continued in this way for roughly five minutes, before finally coming together on the stage to bow and walk off.

Earlier in the day, Rose had tweeted: "Bkstage at Reading. Tour's ON! Our apologies 4 any inconvenience. Peace!"

However, he failed to apologise to the crowd for being late, and barely spoke to the audience during the gig. He received a hostile reaction from some parts of the crowd, with some booing after every song and repeatedly chanting, "What a twat."

Guns N' Roses played:

'Chinese Democracy'
'Welcome To The Jungle'
'It's So Easy'
'Mr Brownstone'
'Sorry'
'Richard Fortus Guitar Solo'
'Live And Let Die'
'This I Love'
'Rocket Queen'
'Dizzy Reed Piano Solo'
'Street Of Dreams'
'You Could Be Mine'
'DJ Ashba Guitar Solo'
'Sweet Child O' Mine'
'Instrumental Jam'
'Axl Rose Piano Solo'
'November Rain'
'Nightrain'
'Paradise City' (with the sound cut)

Watch video footage of Guns N' Roses' protest on the right of the screen now and stay tuned for a video featuring the fans' verdict on the performance.

NME is coming live from both sites at Reading And Leeds Festivals this weekend. Head to NME.COM/festivals for full coverage including news, reviews, videos and picture galleries.

Plus make sure you buy next week's issue of NME to get the definitive review of Reading And Leeds Festivals, either on UK newsstands from September 1 or digitally worldwide.