London, Dec 2 Lead vocalist of American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, Axl Rose' has been blamed for the group missing out on the No 1 album after he disappeared for two months.

The album the group was gunning the top spot for was their latest release Chinese Democracy, which took them 15 years and 15million pounds to record.

But they lost out to The Killers' Day and Age in Sunday's UK album chart rundown, with Brandon Flowers' group notching up sales of 200,000 during the week, 80,000 more than Guns N' Roses.

Bosses at label Geffen are blaming unpredictable Axl for the disappointing sales after he disappeared for two months before the release date, and staff could not contact him to get him to promote his rock epic.

"Everyone knows Axl is a bit of a maverick genius and won't do anything he doesn't want to do," the Sun quoted an insider as saying.

"The label is really glad to have him back. But it is frustrating because the album would have had a much better chance of going to No1 if he had only been prepared to show his face.

"People have been trying to contact him for two months and he's been completely AWOL.

"You would have thought after spending 15 years on an album you might do a few weeks promotion," the insider added. (ANI)