Posted on 05/10/2005 7:47:04 PM PDT by John Lenin
Rock megastars Rolling Stones announce world tour
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By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's only rock 'n' roll but they still like it.
The Rolling Stones, well into their fifth decade of playing rock 'n' roll, on Tuesday announced a global tour that will stretch into next year and laughed off suggestions that it would be a farewell tour.
"We never say this is going to be our last tour. We never think about it. We take each tour as it comes," singer Mick Jagger, 61, told a news conference at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
"I think that's a trap to try and get people to buy your tickets and say, 'Well, I'll never see them again."
Reminding the cheering crowd that not only are they far from elderly but one of the greatest bands in rock 'n' roll, the Stones kicked off the event with live performances of "Start Me Up" and "Brown Sugar" and a new song Jagger called "Oh No, Not You Again."
The wiry Jagger wriggled and strutted, while Keith Richards, also 61, grinned mischievously over his guitar licks in front of Lincoln Center's Juilliard School.
It was a relatively low-key launch for a band that once landed in a blimp in a city park to kick off a world tour in 2002.
"This is one of the earliest concerts we've been to in a while, actually,," Jagger said of the mid-day event. "We're calling it the cornflakes concert."
The Stones, who burst onto the rock scene in the early '60s in England, are putting together a new album, still untitled, that is "85 percent" finished, Jagger said.
"We tried to make it very wide-ranging and we tried to make it very hard-hitting, but it's got its sensitive moments," he said.
"It kicks some ass," Richards added.
The first tickets go on sale to the public beginning Saturday for the tour which opens August 21 at Fenway Park in Boston and continues in North America through early 2006, said tour director Michael Cohl.
The tour travels to Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Japan and "hopefully" China before heading to Europe in summer 2006, he said.
"There's a lot of other fantastic bands and a lot of old rubbish out there, and we hope it's going to be a wonderful summer of rock 'n' roll and we're going to be right in there," Jagger said.
"May God have mercy on your soul," added Richards.
Prices will average about $100 per ticket, and the shows will take place in stadiums, arenas and theaters, Cohl said.
Asked how much they might make on the tour, while Jagger paused, Richards jubilantly shouted out: "Millions!"
The band, whose shows can sell out in minutes, last toured in 2002-03. The Stones hold the record for the top two most attended North American tours, promoters said.
Jagger said the Stones are likely to choose old songs, new songs, blues and covers of other artists' work.
"Sometimes they choose themselves," Richards said.
The band has a history of staging elaborate stage sets and Jagger said the coming stadium tour will have some 400 people on stage behind the band.
"You'll get a great view of our bums, so we'll have to work on them a bit," he said.
Ah, that was the one where the Hell's Angels were the "bodyguards" keeping people away from the stage by stabbing them to death?
I love the 'Stones!
Can you name the song playing when it happened ?
I have no idea. A good trivia question...
The IMAX film At the Max of their Steel Wheels Tour (I think) is really all you need. You got amazing picture and sound and all for about $15 at the time it came out. Haven't seen it playing in any IMAX theatre since then though. There is a DVD or video of it out but of course it isn't the same. I think that will be the definitive record of the Stones in concert long after they have rolled away for good.
Say yeah!!!
Boston Garden. 1969. Mick Taylor was on board.
Wow. This is the first I heard of this tour. I just saw it mentioned on a classic rock web site. At least the Stones have most of their line up intact (granted, there have been changes over 45 years). It is certainly better than some of the bands that are touring with hardly any original members (or members of a "classic" line up).
Like Foreigner touring with only Mick Jones in the band (who knows what happened to Lou Graham. I thought Jones and he made up). Molly Hatchet touring with no original members. Styx touring with 2 original members. It really gets to be rather silly after awhile. Even Foghat continues to tour without the deceased "Lonesome Dave", and didn't their main guitarist just die recently?
Oh well. Gotta make a living I guess.
ROCK ON.....4ever.
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