keef at play
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.
Keith passed away in 1972. As soon as he comes down, he'll realize it.
...there are some places even the Grim Reaper refuses to go... Also accounts for helen thomas' longevity.
Blood transfusions.
Oh Gawd. Tell Mick to put on a shirt and give it up.
You mean Rock-n-Roll is still around? I quite listening after DLR left Van Halen.
keef at play
The "Steel Wheel Chairs Tour"!
Geez. Is Geritol still a product? What about Doans Pills?
I'm thinking trade school here. Richards would make a great funeral home director, IMHO. Already embalmed.
When he dies, I want his immunity system !!
Unlike when John Holmes dies several years ago, I told a friend he had AIDS, and he replied "Let's just cut off the infected part. There's still plenty left I could have. I'll get it sewed on !"
P.S. I'll get tickets also. Those old guys still kick rock and roll ass !!
Merely the simple fact that there is no longer anything organic in his bloodstream... He can't die. He's been kippered. :-)
As unbelievable as this is... I saw them a couple of years ago on the last tour, in Tacoma WA... and they still put on one of the best rock shows ever. Not much in special effects, no lasers, no 'splosions... just good old fashioned straight-up rock and roll. Masterfully done.
I think what it comes down to is that they've been doing it longer and better than anybody else. They have the concept down.
Time Was On My Side
Saw them later in that decade also. Great show ... I think, don't recall much. It was the '70s after all.
I once read that the Stones had an inferiority complex regarding The Beatles during the 1960s. Well here it is nearly 35 years since The Beatles broke up and this band is still going strong. So far as rock artists are concerned, I believe they are only matched by Bob Dylan in longevity (and recording success).
How do they still jump around like that?
WHY do they still jump around like that!?!?!
True, the ass may be a bit wrinkled but it still gets kicked.
Yeah. "If you remember the 70's, you were't there."
Nothing against Bob, but I think the Stones passed him decades ago.
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