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The Rolling Stones: the greatest rock and roll band in the world? That's a bit rich
Their latest shows prove the Rolling Stones can still work a crowd, but their music is of a time long gone


By Mick Brown8:50PM GMT 26 Nov 2012135 Comments

On Sunday night, while the Rolling Stones were performing for 20,000 people at the O2 in London – the first of five concerts they will be playing in London and New York to mark their 50th anniversary – one of their early heroes was also making an appearance a few miles across town, in the somewhat shabbier surroundings of the Kentish Town Forum.

Bobby Womack is the veteran soul singer who wrote, and with his group The Valentinos recorded, the original version of It’s All Over Now, which gave the Stones their first number one hit in Britain in 1964. Womack once recalled his chagrin at his mentor Sam Cooke giving the Stones his song, and depriving him of having the hit himself. “I was still screaming and hollering right up until I got my first royalty cheque. Man, the amount of money rolling in shut me right up.”

Womack, 68, who styles himself as “the Soul Survivor”, has survived drug problems, near-penury and cancer. He was performing songs from a new album, The Bravest Man In The Universe (modesty was never his strong suit), produced by another, younger admirer, Damon Albarn.

The Rolling Stones, who started out as a rhythm and blues covers band, borrowing heavily from black artists such as Womack (a debt which, to their credit, they have always warmly acknowledged), are now among the wealthiest entertainers in the world, a thriving corporation, steered by a CEO – Mick Jagger – who has demonstrated a mixture of shrewdness and business acumen that makes him the peer of any more strait-laced captain of industry.

The Stones are reportedly being paid more than £15 million for their five shows. Ticket prices for the London performances range from £95 to £375, with a “VIP hospitality” ticket priced at £950, and no concessions for the pensioners who are the group’s most devoted audience, many of whom will doubtless have travelled to the O2 on their Freedom Passes.


We can put aside Jagger’s blithe explanations that when it comes to ticket prices the group are merely hapless victims of market forces, or Ronnie Wood’s shrugging dismissal that “we’ve got to make something”.

The Stones long ago set the benchmark for shameless cynicism when it comes to exploiting “the brand”. Among the luxury items on offer when the box-set of Exile On Main Street was released two years ago was a limited-edition box of three lithographs, “signed individually by Mick, Keith or Charlie”, priced at £1,999.99. Note, that’s “or”, not “and”.

By one account, the biggest crush of the night at the O2 was not at the front of the stage but at the merchandising stand, where eager customers were spending £200 on a poster of a gorilla’s face – the artwork on the cover of the the band’s newly released greatest hits, Grrr!. Of course, one should not begrudge a handful of pensioners a few bob in their declining years, but as Johnny Rotten once said, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”

It is not only the price of the tickets, but the online lottery by which they have been dispersed that leads older – and poorer – fans to feel hard done by. In an earlier age, the devoted fan camping outside the theatre on the night before the show would have seen his loyalty rewarded with a ticket.

Now, devotion requires very deep pockets, faster broadband speeds and, ideally, useful corporate connections.

This tour has been accompanied by a marketing campaign – a veritable deluge of radio and television appearances, photographic exhibitions and documentaries – that has pitched the Stones’ appearances as akin to the Second Coming. (Jagger is much too canny to have spelt out that these could be their last ever appearances, although the feeling that they might be can’t have hindered sales.)

“The greatest rock and roll band in the world” has become one of the greatest advertising slogans of all time – not unlike a man coming on to tell me how white my shirts can be, but he can’t be a man ’cause he doesn’t smoke the same cigarettes as me. Hang on, there might be a song in there somewhere. Although the Stones, to everyone’s dissatisfaction, were unable to perform it on Sunday night due to an 11pm sound curfew.

It is an odd paradox that while the Stones have not made an album worth listening to since Tattoo You in 1981, they are bigger business now than they ever were – the prime example of Sixties and Seventies rock music as heritage industry. The Stones performing their greatest hits, Brian Wilson performing Pet Sounds, Van Morrison performing Astral Weeks – these are rock music’s equivalent of the blockbuster Jackson Pollock or David Hockney retrospective.

Some manage this trick better than others. It is a tired and familiar trope to point out the irony of old rockers, who can barely make it to the stage unaided, singing the anthems of their rebellious youth: The Who, for example, singing My Generation at the Olympics closing ceremony (or to be more precise, half the Who, the rhythm half having sadly fulfilled the song’s prophecy).

Paul McCartney has become a national institution, wheeled out at state occasions to sing the creaking Hey Jude – the post-war generation’s We’ll Meet Again – with ever-diminishing effect. Surely it’s time to give it a rest?

The counter-argument is equally familiar. No one demands that the veteran bluesman B B King should hang up his guitar because he has reached a certain age. On the contrary, while the youthful fire may have gone out of his playing, there is still pleasure to be derived from a more relaxed and seasoned approach to his repertoire; and the blues are the blues, at whatever age you may be singing and playing them.

Both Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen continue to write and perform songs that reflect the people they have become, as much as the people they once were, and in so doing become peculiarly timeless.

But the Stones seem to be a special case, subject to the peculiar curse that no matter how much their artistry may hold up – and their performance on Sunday was, by all accounts, superb – their music is essentially and inescapably defined by the times in which it was made.

To listen to these songs is to immerse oneself in a legend of rock music as a vehicle of danger and subversion. Gimme Shelter and Sympathy for the Devil are potent reminders of our younger, more idealistic, more reprobate selves, when “bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven!” – or in the Rolling Stones’ case, with their delicious whiff of brimstone and debauchery, flirting dangerously with the prospect of going happily to hell. It’s the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions recollected not in tranquillity, but in a noisy attempt to hold on to the last, vanishing spectre of youth.

The songs still sound marvellous, of course, but it is the disjunction between the group who first performed them and the group who perform them now that seems so peculiar and incongruous.

Watching the splendid documentary Crossfire Hurricane, shown on the BBC over two consecutive weekends, reminded you of just how glamorous, how dangerous, how romantic the Stones were in their prime; a different species altogether from the cadavers who emerged, as if from creaking coffins, on to the O2 stage. Jagger is, as they say, marvellous for his age but nobody would describe him as “a soul survivor” – unless one counts surviving the inconvenience of tax exile, two expensive divorces and, by his own account, “dozens” of paternity suits.

It was always said of Jagger that his ambitions were to mingle with the aristocracy. He achieved that and more; in a sense, the Stones became the aristocracy themselves, in the process exhibiting some of the more disagreeable characteristics of their caste, with all the air of entitlement and the barely concealed disdain for the paying punter.

Another song comes to mind. “Let’s drink to the hard-working people/Let’s drink to the lowly of birth/Raise your glass to the good and the evil/Let’s drink to the salt of the earth.”

The song is Salt of the Earth by … the Rolling Stones. It was not a song they found time to play at the O2. They did, however, perform It’s All Over Now. Surely now, it’s really time it was.

the telegraph uk.

^Good article, thanks for posting tax.

Stones concerts have been akin to corporate shmooze-fests since the 90's. A bit like ManU home games, really.

Originally Posted by taxexile

Bobby Womack is the veteran soul singer who wrote, and with his group The Valentinos recorded, the original version of It’s All Over Now, which gave the Stones their first number one hit in Britain in 1964.

Uploaded by retrogradevids2 on 1 Jul 2009
As a left handed upside down guitarist , this guy was the FIRST player I ever saw that played the same way I do.

Quite an inspiration. The man who penned Looking For A Love , J.Geils Band's first hit , performs a song most people will recognize as a Stone's staple.

The World's Most Dangerous Band supplies the more than adequate backup.

No copyright infringement intended. Just getting the music out to the people.

youtube.com

Rolling Stones 'Gimme' Gaga, Mourn Newtown at Final '50' Concert
December 16, 2012


Kevin Mazur, WireImage

Lady Gaga unleashed her massive pipes, as well as an oversized wig and footwear that was more stilt than shoe, at the Rolling Stones' final "50 and Counting" show on Saturday night at New Jersey's Prudential Center.

A minute and a half into "Gimme Shelter," Mick Jagger introduced Gaga, who proceeded to strut, mug, hop, swing and wave her arms in full gospel mode for the remainder of the "Let It Bleed" classic. If she was trying to respectfully harness the raw emotion of the song's original vocalist, Merry Clayton, then she succeeded.

Wearing a black-and-gold jumpsuit, Gaga shared verses and dance moves with the Stones frontman, who did his best to keep up with the clearly amped up pop star. [Watch a ripped version .]



"Gaga sang with voice-shredding passion, and danced like she was possessed, but wasn't able to top the original, definitive version," wrote the Star-Ledger on their live-blog of the show.

Two songs later, Gary Clark Jr. and John Mayer joined the band for a blues guitar-off on "Going Down." The Black Keys soon followed with the Bo Diddley staple, "Who Do You Love," and later Jersey's favorite son Bruce Springsteen blew in for a rollicking version of "Tumbling Dice."

Jagger joked that Springsteen "walked to the show," which was also a pay-per-view special.

There was also a somber moment during the show when Jagger dedicated "Wild Horses" to the victims of the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn, about an hour and 45 minutes away by car.

#RollingStones50 Before heading into Wild Horses, Jagger sends his condolences on behalf of the band to the victims of the #Newtown shooting
- Nadia Neophytou (@NadiaNeophytou) December 16, 2012

Mick Jagger just offered condolences to those grieving in CT, followed with Wild Horses. Seemed an appropriately somber tribute. #newtown
- Jennifer Gaie Hellum (@jghellum) December 16, 2012

While this was their fifth and final date of the "50 and Counting" mini-tour, it won't be the band's last. "This is our last show...of the 50th anniversary tour. Hope to see you again soon," Jagger said on stage. Former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, who also cameo'd at the Prudential on Saturday, told Billboard this week that the band's reformation is more about nostalgia.

"I think they just feel re-energized and possibly very enthusiastic about doing things in the future," he said. "I just have an intuitive feeling that if they want to do some more shows, they can. There's no reason why they shouldn't be able to."

Setlist From the Prudential:

"Get Off of My Cloud"

"The Last Time"

"It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)"

"Paint It Black"

"Gimme Shelter" [with Lady Gaga]

"Wild Horses"

"Going Down" [John Mayer and Gary Clark Jr.]

"Dead Flowers"

"Who Do You Love" [The Black Keys]

"Doom and Gloom"

"One More Shot"

"Miss You"

"Honky Tonk Women"

"Before They Make Me Run"

"Happy"

"Midnight Rambler" [Mick Taylor]

"Start Me Up"

"Tumbling Dice" [Bruce Springsteen]

"Brown Sugar"

"Sympathy for the Devil"

Encores:

"You Can't Always Get What You Want"

"Jumpin' Jack Flash"

"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"

billboard.com

Thanks.........those guys can still rock the place down ----- fking amazing!

Recording of the 29 Nov 2012 02 Arena Concert here plus many more

scroll to this one

the stones and an appreciative fan.

It'll be one hell of a funeral when one of 'em dies (notwithstanding Bryan's)


Have now got this down on my axe - open E is the key!

Keith playing with the band's hero (one of 'em)


Keith's thoughts on Chuck

The Rolling Stones’ kaleidoscopic new film, Crossfire Hurricane, that documents key periods of their career and their incredible adventures is released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 7th January 2013.

Directed by Brett Morgen, the film features historical footage, much of it widely unseen, and commentary from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and former Stones Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor, as well as rare interviews with Brian Jones. Period interviews, extensive live performance material and news archive footage will complete the documentary, which takes its title from the opening lines of ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’.

Bonus features on the DVD and Blu-Ray include previously unreleased concert footage - ‘Live in Germany ‘65’, a new interview with director Brett Morgen, ‘The Sound and Music of Crossfire Hurricane’, and the theatrical trailer.


Crossfire Hurricane | The Rolling Stones







youtube.com

Rolling Stones and Michael Eavis close to Glastonbury decision
Alice Vincent
31 Jan 2013

The Rolling Stones are deciding on whether to play this year's Glastonbury festival after Michael Eavis has offered them the headline slot.


Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones perform at the O2 arena
Photo: Joel Ryan/Invision/AP

The organisers of the Glastonbury festival have said that the option of the Rolling Stones playing at this year's festival is "now in the band's court" after formally offering the band a slot late last week.

The Sun has reported a source from the Somerset festival saying, "It wasn't an option previously but in the last seven days things have moved quickly." They said the decision was now for the band to make.

Speculation over the Rolling Stones playing at the festival has been rife since October, when Michael Eavis was reported as being "desperate to get the band confirmed" and had apparently made contact with them regarding it. The Rolling Stones expressed interest at the same time, with Keith Richards saying he'd "love to".

In an interview with NME, Mick Jagger discussed the festival saying he was looking through possible future performance dates. He said, "There are other things in the world, you know, apart from Glastonbury! But then again, Glastonbury is very important. It seems to be very important to my children – highlight of their year!"

He added: "But is it going to be rainy on the Sunday? Isn't it nearly always rainy on the Sunday?" regarding the rumoured Glastonbury closing headline slot.

If the band does play, it will be the first time since the festival's creation in 1970. The Stones went on tour for the first time in five years to play two 50th anniversary shows last November, followed by two gigs in New Jersey. 2013 sees the band up for a Brit award for the first time in 17 years, for best live act, and there is speculation that they will be playing at the award ceremony in February.

All the tickets which have been released so far for Glastonbury 2013 have sold out, although another batch are being released in April. The festival will be returning this year, after a year off in 2012.

ariacharts.com.au

The Rolling Stones Australia 2013 Tour -- Mick Jagger Confirms
4 months ago



After the Rolling Stones announced they would play four shows at the end of the year to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first ever show, the Australian rumour tours went into overdrive.

Following the announcement of two shows in both London and New York, The Age is now reporting that Mick Jagger has confirmed the band are bringing their half-decade anniversary tour to Australia sometime in 2013.

Jagger recently spoke to the press at the world premiere of the new Rolling Stones documentary ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ about when the Stones would come down under, “Not this week, but I hope to come to Australia. I haven’t been there for ages. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Keith Richards also fuelled rumours when he to the BBC that he was in support of an Aussie tour and “wouldn’t be surprised” if the tour plans expanded. He added, “Nobody’s actually given a heads up on that, but I don’t think that this band is gonna wind up all of this for four shows. I think they want to do something for the end of the year, and I think next year probably looks like it’s on,” he said.

A visit down under from the Stones will mark the first from the group since 2006.

ariacharts.com.au

Simply amazing how those boys look at their advanced ages..
Kudos to the Stones!

I read that Keith Richards only ever used pure drugs and mixed his own actually becoming quite an accomplished chemist.

That is the reason he is still alive and so he claims.

Oz rumour mill bubbles along

Rolling Stones may visit Australia on tour
April 06, 2013

@ Steevee

"Waiting on a friend" is my favourite track as well.

Your one isn't playing though. Copyright issues.

I like em in small does but really they are just white guys who pinched ideas from the blues and made a career out of it. I'd rather listen to the real thing.

The old gang's back!
Fay Strang
17 April 2013

The Rolling Stones get together to rehearse in LA ahead of upcoming tour

They are gearing up to mark 50 years together with a North American tour and a few UK dates.

And while The Rolling Stones have a wealth of experience and live performances behind them, they still understand the importance of a bit of practice.

The legendary rockers were spotted heading into a rehearsal studio in Los Angeles on Tuesday looking as cool as ever and happy to be reunited once more.


Cig break: Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood were seen enjoying a cigarette as the group get together to rehearse in LA for upcoming tour

The gang Charlie Watts,71, Keith Richards,69, Mick Jagger,69, and Ronnie Wood ,65, all arrived in separate cars and showing he’s still got that frontman attitude Mick arrived twenty minutes after the rest of them.

As they exited their cars with blacked-out windows the Brown Sugar stars all flashed a smile for the cameras and the waiting fans.

Drummer Charlie, who looked particularly dapper in jeans and a tweed blazer with a scarf wrapped around his neck, was clearly excited about getting back behind the drums.


Here he comes! Sir Mick was seen arriving after the others and rushing into the studio





A little older: Charlie (L) and Ronnie (R) have developed smarter styles over the years but still look like cool rockers

Throughout the day Keith and Ronnie were seen popping out for cigarette breaks and took the time to greet the devotees who were hanging around hoping to catch a glimpse of their idols.

Keith looked his usual rock ‘n’ roll self wearing black jeans, a grey T-shirt and with a head scarf wrapped around his unruly locks.

Ronnie, who has embraced a more mature style in recent years, wore a casual looking turquoise shirt, tucked into a pair of jeans.


Hi there! Ronnie waves to fans who waited outside to see them while he enjoyed a cigarette

The wrinkly stars will be kicking off their North American tour, which is called 50 & Counting in May and will play in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Jose, Las Vegas, Anaheim, Toronto, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.

They have also now added Montreal on to their list of tour dates.

It’s not just America who will be treated to the rock stars, they will also play at Glastonbury festival and two dates in London’s Hyde Park.

Tickets for their Hyde Park show on July 6 sold out within just five minutes, which led them to set up another date.


Happy: Keith Richards looked like he was enjoying himself as he got together with his old bandmates


Arriving in style: The group all arrived in separate cars with blacked out windows

When they headline the Hyde Park gig in July, it will mark almost 44 years to the day they played a famous free concert in the central London park.

Their first ever concert in Hyde Park, which was on 5 July 1969, was just two days after the death of founder member Brian Jones and marked the live debut of his replacement guitarist, Mick Taylor.

Guitarist Keith Richards said he hoped there would be 'some emotion involved' in the new gig.


Cool: Keith looked as a cool as ever wearing his trademark style including a head scarf


Getting ready: The group, who are celebrating 50 years together, will play dates in America and the UK

He said: 'Not going to turn this into the funeral, but any more than that, I think it's a celebration. I think that it's a celebration for everybody really, for Brian, for everybody that was there and hopefully for loads of people that were not there the first time round.

'I'm really looking forward to it, it's an exciting piece of news when I got the news that we were going to play the park again.'

Jagger – now Sir Mick – who turns 70 three weeks after this year’s concert, said: ‘Hyde Park holds such great memories for us and we can’t think of anywhere better to perform to our UK fans this summer.’

Rolling Stones North American Tour Dates

Early May: Los Angeles, Staples Center
May 5: Oakland, Oracle Arena
May 8: San Jose, HP Pavilion
May 11: Las Vegas, MGM Grand Garden Arena
May 15: Anaheim, Honda Center
May 25: Toronto, Air Canada Center
May 28: Chicago, United Center
June 9: Montreal, Bell Center
June 12: Boston, TD North Garden
June 18: Philadelphia, Wells Fargo Center

dailymail.co.uk

Tomorrow, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones turns 70.

I know this, mainly because only two months separates us in achieving that age.

It's a different generation now, that unlike its fathers, refuses to retire quietly at 65 and fade away.

Keep going Mick.

"It's Only Rock and Roll but I like it!!!!"