Meet Guns 2 Roses the international Guns N' Roses tribute band performing at Northampton Fake Festival 2022

As tickets are now on sale for Northampton's 'Fake Festival' starting in July this year, Chronicle & Echo spoke with the founder of Guns N' Roses tribute band 'Guns 2 Roses', which will be performing at the festival after 20 years in the business.

The band began in 2002 after its founder, Gavin Felvus, who had not long started out as an actor, auditioned for a Guns N' Roses-themed stage play, much like the 'We Will Rock You' play based on rock band Queen.

While the show ultimately never happened, learning the songs had left its imprint on the young actor and, sensing a gap in the market, he founded Guns2Roses along with some friends in honour of the legendary band.

Gavin said: "We were fans of the band and had realised there was no-one else doing it at the time. The idea of a 'tribute band' was a relatively new thing. This is talking 20 years ago here. So we thought it would only be for six months or so.

"We were all in the entertainment industry, either as entertainers or as musicians, and we thought it was something we could try out for a period of time. We never would have guessed that period would last more than 20 years."

The band founder said they were even able to play with members of the real Guns N' Roses. This resulted in a tour with Steven Adler (who is the band's former drummer and co-songwriter), as well as doing one-off performances with Gilby Clarke (their former guitarist) and Frank Ferrer (who is their current drummer).

The added clout has helped the London-based band perform in 26 countries around the world, including Hollywood and Boston in the United States, as well as India, Sweden, France, Denmark, Italy and more, with many appearances in the UK as well.

Gavin added: "When we started, it was hard to win people over. But as time went on it started getting easier. After we appeared on places like the BBC and other shows people started taking us more seriously.

"It isn't just about the performances. We also play the characters, so I play Axl Rose and will talk in his accent and perform as that person. But the best part is that over time we start to add our own spin on the performance to make it our own. Like, I'd talk about my morning in London as Axl and, so long as I keep the accent, people love it.

"That's how you can have multiple tributes to one band at the same time. Each one has their own flare that fans will gravitate towards. In our case, we've been very lucky to have them all over the world."

Yet their globetrotting was halted, albeit temporarily, by the outbreak of Covid-19. For the first six months of lockdown, the band founder treated it like an unexpected recovery after 'running ourselves ragged' from performing, especially in 2019. But they soon grew restless and wanted to get back out there.

Gavin said: "Fortunately, because we've stuck together as a unit, people soon started asking for us to do projects here and there and nowadays we're pretty much back to normal.

"Although it is a little bit different. Everything feels conditional and temporary and you never know when things might get changed back to what they were. Hopefully we'll get over it soon.

"We just hope that people feel confident enough to come out and see us when we visit Northampton and get to have a great day out. It's all about the positive thoughts now and we can't wait to perform there."

Guns 2 Roses will take to the stage at Northampton Fake Festival on Saturday July 30 at the Racecourse, along with tributes to the Foo Fighters, Kasabian, Green Day, Blondie and The Killers.

They will also visit Northampton a little earlier to perform at Roadmender Northampton on February 11.