Guns N’ Roses’ first shows outside the Continental USA were in June 1987 at London’s iconic Marquee Club and it was in Britain that ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ charted in the autumn of 1987, making it their first success on the singles chart anywhere in the world. In fact, its rise to the top of the album chart started in August 1987 but it only reached No.1 a year later. The band signed to Geffen Records in March 1986 and by the time their album came out, there was not a massive following to catapult it into the charts. With sales in excess of 30 million around the world, the album features the classic Guns N’ Roses line-up – Axl Rose on vocals, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan on bass and drummer Steven Adler. It became the band’s first single, but the second one to chart after the iconic, and wonderful, ‘Sweet Child o’ Mine’ topped the Billboard singles chart for two weeks in the summer of 1988.

Few debut albums have signalled their intent with a better opening track than ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ from Appetite For Destruction that had its release in the third week of July 1987.

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