Live 8 Concert
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The Rolling Stones - "We ain’t doing it, pal. You can do it, but I ain’t’."
The Rolling Stones include Mick Jagger, vocals, guitar, Keith Richard, lead guitar, Charlie Watts, drums - Ron Wood, guitar - Darryl Jones, bass
McCartney
most popular CDs and DVDs: A
Bigger Bang, Jump Back, 40 Licks, Sticky Fingers, Tattoo You, Goat Head
Soup, Their Satanic Majesties Request, Live Licks, It's Only Rock N Roll
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A Bigger Bang |
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40 Licks |
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Tattoo You |
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The Rolling Stones at Live 8
It was reported that 20 years after the original
Live Aid, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were asked to join in and support
the Live 8 cause. It was expected that The Rolling Stones would contribute
at least one song for the close of either the Live 8 USA event or the
Live 8 Canada event.
The Rolling Stones, who were rehearsing for an upcoming tour, declined
to show because it was reported that they wanted to focus on rehearsals.
Keith Richards was quoted as saying: "I didn't understand why everybody
who was trying to coax me in happened to be knighted. I got hit on by
Sir Bob and Sir Mick, but I said to Mick, 'We ain't doing it, pal. You
can do it, but I ain't'."
Both Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were present at the original Live
Aid event in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985. Keith Richards and Ron Wood
provided backing vocals and guitar to Bob Dylans disastrous set.
Mick Jagger was all the talk after his duet with Tina Turner. During their
set the world got a shock as Tina Turner was subject to one of the first
on-screen wardrobe malfunctions.
The Rolling Stones are a British rock and roll band who rose to prominence
during the mid-1960s. The Rolling Stones were original in weaving together
various strands of American composition into a new form of popular music,
and have been called "The World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band".
The Rolling Stones early history: 1961-1967
Early in their career The Rolling Stones played covers of blues, rhythm
and blues, country, and rock and roll music. Their first recordings were
covers of Chuck Berry, Robert Johnson, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Muddy Waters,
and Hank Williams songs, among others. Although founding members Mick
Jagger and Keith Richards are regarded as one of the greatest songwriting
teams in the history of popular music, the band never stopped being inspired
by other genres. Reggae, punk, and dance, country music and even Arab
music have leaked into their recordings. The Rolling Stones are the longest
surviving rock & roll band in history, and surely, in their own words,
the greatest too.
Guitarist (and original frontman) Brian Jones, although popular and charismatic,
was forced out of The Rolling Stones in 1969 and died soon afterwards,
despite being the driving force behind the formation of the band. Presumed
accidental at the time, accusations have since surfaced that he was murdered,
and a film based on his biography Who Killed Christopher Robin? is due
in late 2005. Jagger and Richards took over songwriting and performance
leadership, and under their stewardship The Rolling Stones began to hit
the big time. Jones had favoured sticking close to the blues base, although
he had also experimented with the sitar and Appalachian dulcimer, but
the canny Jagger and Richards broadened their approach and kept them more
in tune with current musical trends.
The Rolling Stones came into being in 1961 when former school friends
Jagger and Richards met Jones, who named the band after a Muddy Waters
song. At least two other bands (and one circus tumbling act) are believed
to have called themselves The Rolling Stones before the Jagger/Richards/Jones
band was formed. The original line-up included Jagger (vocals), Jones
(guitar), Richards (guitar), Ian Stewart (piano), Charlie Watts (drums)
and Dick Taylor (bass). Taylor left shortly after to return to art school,
and was later to form The Pretty Things. He was replaced by Bill Wyman.
United by their shared interest in rhythm and blues music, The Rolling
Stones rehearsed extensively, initially playing in public at The Marquee
Club in London, where Alexis Korner's blues band was resident. The soon
got their own residency at The Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, which was run
by Russian emigre Georgio Gomelsky, and began to establish themselves
as London's premier live act, even being honoured with a visit from The
Beatles. At first, Brian Jones, a guitarist who also toyed with numerous
other instruments, was their creative leader, despite Mick Jagger increasingly
becoming the focus during live performances.
The Rolling Stones rapidly gained a reputation for
their frantic, highly energetic covers of the rhythm and blues songs of
their idols and, through their recently appointed sharp young manager
Andrew Loog Oldham, were signed to Decca Records (who had passed when
offered The Beatles). At this time their music was fairly primitive. Keith
Richards had learned much of his guitar playing from the recordings of
Chuck Berry, and had not yet developed a style of his own, and Jagger
was not as in control of the idioms as he would soon become. By the time
of their first single release; a cover of Chuck Berry's " Come On
", Ian Stewart was, at the insistance of Andrew Oldham, "officially"
not part of the band, though he continued to record and perform with them.
The band, although unhappy with this decision, agreed that it was neccessary
in order to maximise their chances of success. Another of Oldham's ideas
was to convince Keith Richards to drop the 's' from his surname to become
" Keith Richard ", presumably in a bid to give him greater pop
star credibility.
The choice of material on their first, self-titled EP, reflected their
live shows. Similarly, the album The Rolling Stones (England's Newest
Hitmakers) which appeared in April 1964 featured versions of such classics
as "Route 66" (originally recorded by Nat King Cole), "Mona"
(Bo Diddley) and "Carol" (Chuck Berry). The performances were
pivotal in introducing a generation of white British youth to rhythm and
blues music, and helped to fuel the "British Invasion" of America.
More importantly perhaps, whilst The Beatles were still suited, clean-cut
boys with mop-top haircuts, The Stones cultivated the opposite image:
decidedly unkempt, and posing for publicity photographs like a gang of
surly yobs. This made many girls go crazy for their bad boy image, and
soon made them a teen idol group. The follow-up album, The Rolling Stones
#2 (Now in the U.S), was also composed mainly of cover tunes, only now
augmented by a couple of songs written by the fledgling partnership of
Jagger and Richards, having been locked in a room by their manager, who
refused to let them out until they had written something they could release.
Encouraged by Oldham, the band toured Europe and America continuously,
playing to packed crowds of screaming teenagers in scenes reminiscent
of the height of Beatlemania. While on tour they took time to visit important
locations in the history of the music that inspired them, recording the
EP Five By Five at the studios of Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois.
Back at home these early years of success represented a rare period of
stability in the personal relationship between The Rolling Stones members.
Jagger, Richards and Jones shared a squalid London flat in Edith Grove,
Chelsea, throughout much of 1963 along with friend, reprobate, and later
biographer James Phelge. The three Stones became so fond of Phelge that
they used his name as part of the 'Nanker/Phelge' pseudonym to indicate
early band writing compositions. Two years later Brian Jones began to
see Anita Pallenberg, an actress and model who introduced them to the
circle of society in which she moved: a group of young artists, musicians
and filmmakers. Prompted by Oldham, who possessed sufficient business
acumen to see where money was to be made, Jagger and Richards became more
prolific songwriters and 1965's Out Of Our Heads contained much self-penned
material, including the classic "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction,"
and saw the dynamics of The Rolling Stones begin to change, with Jagger
and Richards starting to emerge as the perceived leaders of the band.
Jones, not unaware of his reduced importance, retreated into drug abuse,
alienating both Richards and Pallenberg, who began a liaison that would
last over ten years. During this period Pallenberg's opinions about the
music, as one of the few people the band trusted, should not be underestimated.
With the main songwriters maintaining their rate of production, Aftermath
(1966) continued the progression, consisting entirely of Jagger/Richards
compositions including "Mother's Little Helper," about pill
abuse, and the misogynistic "Under My Thumb," whereas on Between
the Buttons (1967) The Stones wore the influences of their many contemporaries,
including The Who and The Kinks.
Sex, Drugs, Death and Rock & Roll: 1967-1971
By now the The Rolling Stones had become almost synonymous with the rebellious
spirit of the 1960s, and in particular a more relaxed attitude towards
drug use. Brian Jones faced several court appearances during 1967, accused
of possession of drugs, and the pressure on him began to show. The British
Sunday tabloid newspaper News of the World targetted the Stones and their
perceived debauched lifestyles, and allegedly tipped off the police leading
to a search of Keith Richard's country home, "Redlands" in West
Wittering, Sussex. The February 1967 raid, now legendary in the band's
mythology, occurred during one of the regular parties held there, and
police discovered a moderate quantity of cannabis. The raid also served
as a source of apocryphal stories, mainly concerning the appearance and
demeanour of Mick Jagger's girlfriend Marianne Faithfull, which only served
to augment their reputation for debauchery. It was also rumoured that
the raid was delayed on police instructions to allow another guest, George
Harrison, to leave. Richards was charged and a few months later stood
trial for allowing drug use in his home. Jagger was charged with possessing
amphetamine tablets, which though bought legally in Italy, were still
obtained without a doctor's prescription. Amidst intense press interest
they were convicted. Richards was sentenced to a year's imprisonment,
Jagger to four months, prompting The Times newspaper to run an editorial
criticising the verdict. Beneath the title "Who Breaks A Butterfly
On A Wheel" editor William Rees-Mogg wrote:
"If we are going to make any case a symbol of the conflict between
the sound traditional values of Britain and the new hedonism, then we
must be sure that the sound traditional values include those of tolerance
and equity."
During the furore, Decca shrewdly released Flowers in the United States.
Despite being a quickly cobbled-together collection of hits and studio
outtakes, it was nevertheless a hit. The Who also rush-released a single
covering two Stones originals "Under My Thumb" and "The
Last Time" in a show of solidarity.
With Richards and Jagger out on bail and shortly to be acquitted on appeal,
Jagger was immediately whisked off in a helicopter to appear on a BBC
television programme " World in Action " taking part, along
with members of the British establishment, in a live debate discussing
the morals of modern society. Maybe as a result of the pressure he was
feeling, he looked out of his depth and his arguments cut little ice with
his fellow participants. The Rolling Stones then set about recording a
new single "We Love You", officially as a thank you for the
loyalty shown by their fans, though privately it was seen as a barbed
attack on their perceived persecutors; the News of the World, the Metropolitan
police force and members of the British judiciary. The record featured
the sounds of footsteps and a cell door banging shut, and which it is
rumoured was taken from a secret recording from within Wormwood Scrubs;
the London prison where Richards was held overnight. Work then commenced
on a new psychedelic album, which Jagger envisioned as the group's response
to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper. The record, which would eventually be released
as Their Satanic Majesties' Request was recorded in difficult circumstances
with various members of the band living under the threat of imprisonment,
so much so, that Bill Wyman was able to get one of his songs " In
Another Land " onto the album. The resulting album received lukewarm
reviews observing that the songs and arrangements did not lend themselves
to the band's natural style, and the increasingly strung-out Brian Jones
contributed little. Despite Keith Richards later harshly pronouncing it
"crap", a number of songs showcased the improving songwriting
of Jagger and Richards, in particular the spacey "2000 Light Years
From Home", which has been revived for recent live performances.
Within The Rolling Stones, however, the two principal writers were steadily
wresting power from their former leader Jones.
After the excesses of Satanic Majesties, and with personal relations between
Jones and Richards increasingly frayed, The Rolling Stones returned to
the black music that had originally inspired them on 1968's Beggars Banquet.
Despite the tension, and aided by an excellent sound from an up-and-coming
producer named Jimmy Miller, Jagger and Richards produced some of their
most memorable work, including the distorted acoustic guitar-driven "Street
Fighting Man" and the anthemic "Sympathy for the Devil"
and the Stones entered the phase that would see them billed as "The
World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". The songs themselves were firmly
rooted in the blues, but tempered by the changes that occurred in 1960s
music and assimilating the imagery of Dylan and the emergent heavy rock
of Cream and Jimi Hendrix. In contrast to its predecessor, however, it
was a clear rejection of the hippie ethos, replacing the platitudes of
"free love" with a layer of sleaze. Two other events contributed
to the change in The Stones' sound. Firstly, Keith Richards played extensively
with Ry Cooder, and was taught his open-G guitar tuning (as used by John
Lee Hooker), later admitting "I took Ry Cooder for all I could get".
Secondly, both Jagger and Richards befriended Gram Parsons, who introduced
them to country music with which he had grown up. Music was not all the
Stones and the independently wealthy Parsons had in common: "We liked
drugs," Richards said later, "and we liked the finest quality."
An ever-incresing consumption of drugs, however, were making Brian Jones
less and less reliable. The ill-fated Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
was one of his last projects with the band. Increasingly, he was either
absent from recording sessions by choice, or simply not invited to attend.
With only a minimal contribution to Beggar's Banquet, he found himself
forced out of The Rolling Stones for good after an infamous late-night
visit to his rural home from Jagger and Richards in May 1969, to be replaced
by the young, jazz-influenced guitarist, Mick Taylor, drafted in from
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
Jones retreated to his Cotchford Farm home in Kent, a house formerly owned
by Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne, drinking heavily in the local pub
and planning his comeback with a blues band. However, within two months,
and a matter of two days before the new-look band were due to play a free
concert in Hyde Park, London he was dead; found at the bottom of his swimming
pool which was surrounded by statues of Christopher Robin and Winnie the
Pooh. Although his death was recorded as being by misadventure, the cause
of the drowning to this day remains a mystery. A recent death-bed confession
to murder by Frank Thorogood, a builder employed by Jones at the time,
has only served to cloud the issue further. Despite the tragedy, the Hyde
Park concert went ahead, with an audience of up to half a million fans,
with Jagger reading from Shelley's "Adonais" and releasing hundreds
of butterflies by way of tribute to the late guitarist. The Rolling Stones's
performance, under-rehearsed and suffering from some of the remaining
members' narcotic intake, was somewhat shambolic and was captured by a
Granada Television production team, later to be shown on British television
as "Stones in the Park". The Rolling Stones had released the
first recording with the new line up, a single called "Honky Tonk
Women", which was recorded with Jones but had his guitar part edited
out and Taylor's part dubbed in at the last minute. It was released on
July 3, 1969, and remains the band's last number 1 single in the UK. An
album Let It Bleed followed in December and was rapidly hailed as another
classic, featuring the slow and brooding "Gimme Shelter," "You
Can't Always Get What You Want" (featuring a boys choir) and a further
nod to their roots with a cover of Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain".
It was to become the defining Rolling Stones album. Immediately, The Rolling
Stones set off on another US tour, characterised by the hedonism that
their position in rock's aristocracy afforded them.
This was like no other tour The Rolling Stones had yet undertaken. Away
from the stage since 1966, they found that live performing had moved on
since then. Rather than performing in small and medium sized venues to
audiences of screaming girls, they were booked into huge baseball and
football staduims with crowd sizes to match. They blazed a trail for a
multitude of stadium tours by the super-bands of the seventies, and which
continue to this day.
In an attempt to recreate the atmosphere of Hyde Park, and as a reaction
to the Woodstock festival, the tour culminated in a free concert given
at Altamont, a disused racetrack located about 40 miles east of San Francisco.
Originally, the Stones' appearance was to be a surprise for the festival
in San Franciso's Golden Gate Park. Jagger's decision to announce at a
press conference that the Stones would be performing at the event, possibly
to ensure a sufficient audience for the concert movie, resulted in the
city of San Francisco denying permits.
This lead to numerous problems as the event organizers had to scramble
to plan the event. As a result, on-site security was provided by the Hells
Angels at the suggestion of the Grateful Dead.
The concert was a disaster. Jagger's refusal to perform during the day,
again to ensure a better film with lighting at night, resulted in an escalation
of violence between fans and security. The running battles between fans
and security reached a head when Meredith Hunter, a young black fan who
had unwisely brought a pistol (and a white girlfriend) to the show, was
stabbed and beaten to death by the Angels during the band's performance
of "Under My Thumb". (The Altamont concert would be documented
in Albert and David Maysles' film Gimme Shelter).
Many cultural scholars of the time opined that Altamont marked the de
facto end of the 1960s decade.
The murder, coming so soon after the death of Brian Jones, had a harrowing
effect on Keith Richards, and his reaction to the events was to increase
his usage of heroin. He would spend the best part of the next decade as
an addict, taking occasional cures in private clinics but always returning
to the drug, and each subsequent tour would become a logistical nightmare
to ensure a regular supply in the face of trouble from the police and
customs officers. Richards has always maintained that the one facet of
his life that was unaffected was his live performance. Concert tapes,
however, including a time in 1976 when he fell asleep on stage, do not
bear this out. Sticky Fingers released in March (1971), the band's first
record under their own Rolling Stones Records label, continued where Let
It Bleed had left off, featuring "Brown Sugar" (another big
hit), the country-styled "Wild Horses" which caused a disagreement
between Gram Parsons and Mick Jagger over songwriting credits, although
the FAQ on www.gramparsons.com denies he contributed to the song, the
moody "Moonlight Mile" (featuring Paul Buckmaster's evocative
string arrangement), and a version of Marianne Faithfull's " Sister
Morphine ", about her own ambiguous relationship with heroin. Mick
Taylor collaborated heavily on this album with Jagger - probably because
Richards was unable to contribute as constructively as usual due to his
drug problems, and the sprawling " Can't You Hear Me Knockin' "
attests to Taylor's influence. However, all the songs were credited as
usual to 'Jagger/Richards' which frustrated Taylor.
Letting it bleed: 1972-1981
As Keith Richards removed himself from society, Mick Jagger began to move
in more elevated social circles. He married the Nicaraguan model Bianca
Perez Moreno de Macias, and the couple's jet-set lifestyle put further
distance between himself and Richards. Pressured by the UK Inland Revenue
service about several years of unpaid income tax, The Rolling Stones were
forced to leave for the South of France, where Richards rented a gothic
chateau "Villa Nellecote", which had been used as the headquarters
for the local Nazi SS during the Second World War, and sublet rooms to
the band members and a multitude of assorted hangers-on. Using the recently
completed mobile studio, they set about recording the double album Exile
on Main Street (1972) in the basement of their new home, reputedly using
electricity purloined from nearby railway lines. Dismissed by some on
its release as sprawling and self-indulgent, the record is now considered
among the band's (and Rock & Roll's) greatest. The film Cocksucker
Blues (never officially released) documents the subsequent American tour.
By the time Exile on Main Street had been completed Jagger had made the
other band members aware that he was more interested in the celebrity
lifestyle than working on its follow-up, and increasingly their records
were made piecemeal, with tracks and parts laid down as, and when, the
band, Jagger and Richards in particular, could get together and remain
amicable sufficiently long enough to do so. When it finally arrived, Goats
Head Soup (1973) was disappointing, and memorable largely for the hit
single "Angie," popularly believed to be about David Bowie's
new wife, but in reality another of Richards' odes to Anita Pallenberg.
Interestingly, the popular ballad "Waiting on a Friend" was
recorded during the Goats Head Soup sessions, but not released until Tattoo
You, nearly ten years later. The making of the record was not helped by
another legal battle over drugs, this one dating back to their stay in
France. But the tour of Europe in fall 1973 showed the Rolling Stones
in top form, particularly Taylor, who played extensive solos on songs
like Midnight Rambler and You Can Always Get What You Want in an exciting
interplay with Richards on rhythm guitar.
A The Rolling Stones live recording made in Brussels on 17 October was
intended for an official release, but due to legal problems it only appeared
only on bootlegs (Nasty Music, "The Bedspring Symphony" and
Brussels Affair). Many fans and critics regard these as the best Rolling
Stones concert recordings.
By the time The Rolling Stones came to the Musicland studios in Munich
to record 1974's It's Only Rock'N'Roll, there were even more problems.
Regular producer Jimmy Miller was not asked to participate in the sessions
because of his increasing unreliability and drug use. Critics generally
wrote the album off as uninspired from a band perceived as stagnating,
but both album and single of the same name were huge hits, even without
the customary tour to promote them.
Intra-band strife continued. Ironically, "It's Only Rock'N'Roll"
was a return to form, being more akin to the great albums the band released
between 1968 and 1972. Mick Taylor's intricate lead style lent itself
well to the hard-rocking record though his shy persona never quite matched
Keith Richards' outspoken image and basic, Chuck Berry-inspired rhythm
work. By this time Richards was reportedly berating Taylor during recording
sessions, and he contributed little to the album. Irked by perceived mistreatment,
and a small share of the band's royalties, Taylor announced he was leaving
the band shortly before sessions commenced for the next album, Black and
Blue (1976). The Rolling Stones used the album's recording sessions (again
in Munich) to audition possible replacements. Guitarists as stylistically
far-flung as Humble Pie lead Peter Frampton and ex-Yardbirds impressario
Jeff Beck were auditioned. American session players Wayne Perkins and
Harvey Mandel appeared on much of the album, but the band settled on Ron
Wood, a long time friend of Richards' and guitarist with The Faces, whose
singer Rod Stewart had recently gone solo.
Wood had already contributed to It's Only Rock'N'Roll, but his first public
act with the band would be the 1975 United States tour. The shows featured
a new format for the Stones with their usual act replaced by increasingly
theatrical stage props and gimmicks, including a giant inflatable phallus
and a cherry picker on which Jagger would soar out over the audience.
This represented a further breakdown in Jagger and Richards' relationship
—the pragmatic Richards considering it entirely superfluous and
distracting from the music.
Again, Jagger was, if nothing else, shrewdly interpreting market trends
—the mid-1970s were the era of flashy stage acts such as Queen and
Elton John, and the band's tours were to become even more expensive and
elaborate in the years to come.
Although The Rolling Stones remained hugely popular through the 1970s,
music critics had grown increasingly dismissive of the band's output until
the seminal late-1970s album Some Girls. Keith Richards would have more
serious concerns in 1977: Despite having spent much of the previous year
undergoing a series of drug therapies to help withdraw from heroin, including
(allegedly) having his blood filtered, Richards and Pallenberg were arrested
in a Toronto hotel room and charged with possession of heroin. The case
would drag on for a year, with Richards eventually receiving a suspended
sentence and ordered to play a concert for a local charity.
This motivated a final, concerted attempt to end his drug habit, which
proved largely successful. It also coincided with the end of his relationship
with Anita Pallenberg, which had become increasingly strained since the
tragic death of their third child (an infant son named Tara).
While Richards was settling his legal and personal problems, Jagger continued
his jet-set lifestyle. He was a regular at New York's Studio 54 disco
club, often in the company of model Jerry Hall. His marriage would end
in 1977. By this time punk rock had become highly influential, and the
The Rolling Stones were increasingly criticized as being decadent, ageing
millionaires and their music considered by many to be either stagnant
or irrelevant. The Clash vocalist Joe Strummer even went so far as to
declare "No Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones in 1977." What
people did not realise at the time was that many punk bands idolised The
Stones, Keith Richards in particular, and in hindsight this does not seem
surprising given the The Rolling Stones's earlier rebellious image.
In 1978 the band recorded Some Girls, their most focused and successful
album in years, despite the perceived misogyny of the title track. Jagger
and Richards seemed to channel much of the personal turmoil surrounding
them into renewed creative vitality. With the notable exception of the
disco-influenced "Miss You," (a hit single and a live staple)
and the droll, country-ballad "Far Away Eyes", the songs in
this album were fast, basic guitar-driven rock and roll or impeccable
ballads like "Beast of Burden", and the album was widely praised
as both a The Rolling Stones classic and a summation of late 1970s music
trends. Emotional Rescue (1980) was in a similar vein, but lacked the
redeeming features of its predecessor.
Tattoo You (1981), was composed partially by using new material and by
using unused songs from earlier recording outings (the ballad "Waiting
on a Friend" dated back to the Goats Head Soup sessions). It also
featured the hugely popular single "Start Me Up," showing that
Richards was still capable of writing monster guitar parts of the same
calibre as ten or fifteen years earlier. Tattoo You and the subsequent
tour were major commercial successes.
Mixed emotions: 1981-1999
Throughout the early 1980s the Jagger/Richards partnership continued to
falter, and their records would suffer because of it. 1983's Undercover
was widely seen as Jagger's attempt to make the Rolling Stones' sound
more compatible with current musical trends. The album's slick production
and violent political and sexual content were coolly received by both
critics and fans, though not without controversy (the video for Undercover
of the Night was said to include real assassination footage from Latin
America and the guilty-pleasure Too Much Blood was criticized for being
inspired too closely by slasher films and imagery).
To make matters worse, Ron Wood was now suffering from his own growing
drug habit. In 1982 Jagger had signed a major solo deal with the The Rolling
Stones's new label, CBS Records. This move angered Richards, who saw it
as a lack of commitment to the band. Indeed, Jagger was spending a great
deal of time on his solo recordings, and most of the material on 1986's
turgid Dirty Work was authored solely by Keith Richards. The album again
sold poorly, and sales were probably hurt by Jagger's decision not to
tour in support of the album.
To add to the The Rolling Stones's woes in 1986, longtime collaborator
and unofficial band member Ian Stewart (often called the sixth Rolling
Stone) died of a heart attack. The Rolling Stones' only live appearance
during this time was a tribute to Stewart. However, a bright spot that
year was when they were awarded a Grammy for lifetime achievement. But
by this point Jagger and Richards had begun openly criticizing each other
in the press, and many observers assumed the band had broken up. Both
quality and sales of Jagger's solo records (She's the Boss (1985) and
Primitive Cool (1987)) did not live up to expectations, but ironically,
Richards' first solo record, Talk is Cheap (1988), which he had been reluctant
to make because of his loyalty to The Stones, was well received by both
fans and critics.
A rapprochement was reached by Richards and Jagger, who decided to shelve
his own solo career and reform the group for 1989's Steel Wheels album
and massive tour.
Widely heralded as a return to form, the album even included a song called
"Continental Drift" which featured the musicians of the Morroccan
mountain village of Joujouka, who had previously been recorded by Brian
Jones during the ill-fated 1967 trip to North Africa with Keith Richards
and Anita Pallenburg. 1989 also saw Stones inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1991 Bill Wyman finally left The Rolling Stones after years of deliberation
and had published Stone Alone, a frank autobiography. After his departure,
the band continued as a foursome. Charlie Watts was asked to choose a
bass player, and he selected the respected session musician and Miles
Davis sideman Darryl Jones, who played bass on Voodoo Lounge (1994) and
Bridges to Babylon (1997) , both highly praised, and toured in support
of both record releases.
The Stones' song "Start Me Up" was used by Microsoft to launch
their Windows 95 operating system. Some critics noted that the group who
epitomise the way that rock and roll commercialised earlier rhythm and
blues by delivering it to a global audience provided the soundtrack for
the corporation who did the same with software. (Critics of Windows also
noted the song's lyric "You make a grown man cry.")
The Rolling Stones had previously never licensed their music for commercial
use. According to legend, Microsoft founder Bill Gates asked Jagger how
much the rights to the song would cost; rather than refuse outright, Jagger
replied with $13 million — a sum that he thought would be self-evidently
outrageously high. Gates, however, immediately agreed to the amount.
Don't stop: 2000-present
In 2002, the Rolling Stones released Forty Licks, a greatest hits album
that spanned their career, that contained four new songs. The same year,
Q magazine named The Rolling Stones as one of the "50 Bands To See
Before You Die". On July 30, 2003, the band headlined the Molson
Canadian Rocks for Toronto concert in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to help
the city recover financially and psychologically from the effects of the
2003 SARS epidemic. It was attended by an estimated 450,000 people, the
largest concert in Canadian history. On November 9, 2003, The Rolling
Stones played its first ever concert in Hong Kong as part of the Harbour
Fest celebration. In November of 2003 the band exclusively licensed the
right to sell their new 4-DVD boxed set, Four Flicks, recorded on their
most recent world tour, to the U.S Best Buy chain of stores. In response,
other music retail chains (including Tower Records, Virgin Megastore and
HMV) pulled all Rolling Stones CDs and related merchandise from their
shelves and replaced them with signs explaining the situation.
The Stones completed sessions with Don Was as producer for a new studio
album in Paris in December 2004, with Jagger and Richards writing and
recording new songs. It was said the Stones would reconvene after the
Christmas holidays and that the tracks recorded so far were significantly
different to anything he has worked on with The Stones before. Charlie
Watts also attended the Paris sessions and was reported to be in excellent
health after being treated for throat cancer. On July 26 2005, coinciding
with Jagger's birthday, the band announced the name of their new album,
A Bigger Bang, which will be released September 6th. On May 10 2005 the
Stones announced plans for another world tour starting on August 21st
at Fenway Park in Boston. The tour is expected to include dates throughout
the USA and Canada before going to South America, Asia and Europe. Launching
the tour at the Julliard School in New York, Mick Jagger told reporters
that it would not necessarily be their last and declared that work on
a new album was "85 percent" complete.
In the last few years, Toronto, Ontario has been chosen as a pre-tour
venue for the Rolling Stones. They have played at smaller venues such
as the Palais Royale and The Phoenix prior to the full tour. In the wake
of the SARS outbreak, the Stones came to Toronto to host a relief concert.
They have become somewhat of a headquarters for the Stones and even considered
as Toronto's stepchild of rock and roll.
They most recently have performed a show at the historic Fenway Park
This article about The Rolling Stones is posted under the GNU Free Documentation
License. It uses material from this Wikipedia
article.
The Rolling Stones music CDs and Live 8 DVDs.
Other Artists that did not play Live 8
50
Cent
Blur
David Bowie
Julien
Clerc
Sheryl Crow
Eminem
Johnny Hallyday
Lauren Hill
Michael Jackson
Jamiroquai
Nena
Oasis
Pascal Obispo
Prince
Renaud
The Rolling Stones
Diana Ross
Spice Girls
Alian Souchon
Status Quo
Vasco Rossi
More artists at these venues:
Live
8 Canada
Live 8 Eden Project
Live 8 France
Live 8 Germany
Live 8 Italy - Rome
Live 8 Japan - Tokyo
Live 8 Russia
Live 8 South Africa
Live 8 UK - London
Live 8 USA
