But even as the house lights dropped and the Looney Tunes theme song played out to mark the band’s onstage arrival, the surreal sense of the occasion wasn’t lost on the fans around us, many of whom had travelled across state and even country lines. Between opener It’s So Easy and the curtain-closing Paradise City, that feeling never dissipated. The three hours in between saw Appetite For Destruction classics played for a renewed swagger, Use Your Illusion epics restored to their full splendour, and Chinese Democracy cuts reborn as true Guns material. They might not have been able to turn back time, but for die-hard fans, so starved of their favourite band for so many years, there were plenty of moments it almost seemed to stand still.
And there, sat at the heart of it all, was the sight of a seated Axl Rose – humbled, taking the whole thing for grace and humour, rather than rage and indignation. “It is certainly his greatest performance in 25 years,” read the lengthy K! review filed five hours later, with the next day’s sunrise (and the mother of all hangovers) emerging.