Rolling Stones

MIST

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We have threads about Beatles,Paul McCartney and John Lennon and they reminded me of Rolling Stones.
Beatles or Rolling Stones?Well,.you can like both of them.

Sometimes I want to paint the world in black


Angie
 
They started 1962 and after 50 years there are still 3 original members left, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts.
Bill Wyman was there the first 30 years......
It has been ups and downs with the relations in the band over the years but they have had the ability to get over it and work together again.
i read that Satisfaction was there first international hit
live 1969


They still play satisfaction in concerts almost 40 years later
 
I can´t call myself a Rlling Stones fan, they have done so many albums and there are many of their songs I haven´t heard.
They have done some great songs and Mick Jagger is great showman.
I´ve most familiar with the older songs but they have played them later years too
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THE ROLLING STONES ANNOUNCE THEIR RETURN TO THE BLUES WITH NEW ALBUM ‘BLUE & LONESOME’ OUT ON DECEMBER 2

Five decades in the making and just three days to record

On 2nd December 2016, The Rolling Stones will release Blue & Lonesome, their first studio album in over a decade. Recorded in just three days in London, England, ‘Blue & Lonesome’ takes the band back to their roots and the passion for blues music which has always been at the heart and soul of The Rolling Stones.

‘Blue & Lonesome’ is available in various formats and will be released on December 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] by Polydor Records. It was produced by Don Was and The Glimmer Twins and is available for pre-order worldwide from today, October 6th, at 9am EST in the USA and 2pm in the UK (equivalent times worldwide), go to rollingstones.com/blueandlonesome.

The album was recorded over the course of just three days in December last year at British Grove Studios in West London, just a stone’s throw from Richmond and Eel Pie Island where the Stones started out as a young blues band playing pubs and clubs.
Their approach to the album was that it should be spontaneous and played live in the studio without overdubs. The band – Mick Jagger (vocals & harp), Keith Richards (guitar), Charlie Watts (drums), and Ronnie Wood (guitar) were joined by their long time touring sidemen Darryl Jones (bass), Chuck Leavell (keyboards) and Matt Clifford (keyboards) and, for two of the twelve tracks, by old friend Eric Clapton, who happened to be in the next studio making his own album.

‘Blue & Lonesome’ sees the Rolling Stones tipping their hats to their early days as a blues band when they played the music of Jimmy Reed, Willie Dixon, Eddie Taylor, Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf – artists whose songs are featured on this album.

The tracks are – Just Your Fool, Commit A Crime, Blue and Lonesome, All Of Your Love, I Gotta Go, Everybody Knows About My Good Thing, Ride ‘Em On Down, Hate To See You Go, Hoo Doo Blues, Little Rain, Just Like I Treat You, I Can’t Quit You Baby.

“This album is manifest testament to the purity of their love for making music, and the blues is, for the Stones, the fountainhead of everything they do.” Don Was, Co-Producer of ‘Blue & Lonesome’
 
Ride 'Em On Down

This is the 1st video from their new album
 
by ABC News Radio | December 27, 2016
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Two recent Rolling Stones-related movies, the documentary The Rolling Stones Olé! Olé! Olé!: A Trip Across Latin America and the concert film Havana Moon, will get their television premiere in January on the Starz cable network.

Olé! Olé! Olé!: A Trip Across Latin America will debut on Sunday, January 15, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, while Havana Moon‘s premiere screening is scheduled for Sunday, January 22, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Both films also will be available for streaming and download starting January 15 via the Starz app.

Olé Olé Olé, which got its theatrical premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, follows The Rolling Stones’ early-2016 América Latina Olé tour through 10 cities, culminating with the band’s historic free performance in Havana, Cuba, on March 25 in front of hundreds of thousands of fans. The documentary also takes a behind-the-scenes look at the band’s Cuba show via interviews with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood, as well as the tour’s promoter and other people involved in the production.

Havana Moon focuses solely on The Stones’ Havana concert, and includes footage of the band playing such classic songs as “Brown Sugar,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Paint It, Black,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” The film premiered in a variety of theaters in September as a one-night-only screening event, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in November.

Both movies were directed by Paul Dugdale.

Meanwhile, The Rolling Stones have posted a message on their official website and YouTube channel wishing fans “Happy holidays!” The post is accompanied by a photo of The Stones and audio of their new cover of “Ride ‘Em on Down,” from the recently released blues album Blue & Lonesome.
 
By Michael Gallucci May 25, 2017 Ultimate Classic Rock
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Ronnie Wood is recovering from surgery that removed a small lung lesion found during a recent routine screening.

According to a post on the Rolling Stones‘ Facebook page, the surgery was a success and no additional treatment is necessary. “I’m so grateful for modern screening which picked this up so early, and would like to thank all the doctors who treated me,” Wood said.

The post also notes that the surgery and Wood’s recovery will not affect the Rolling Stones’ upcoming European tour, which is scheduled to start on Sept. 9 in Hamburg. The six-week run includes more than a dozen shows in Germany, Switzerland, Spain and France, where the No Filter tour will conclude with a pair of shows in Paris.

“Hey guys, here we come,” guitarist Keith Richards said at the time of the shows’ announcement. “See you there!” Singer Mick Jagger added, “I’m so excited to be touring Europe this autumn and returning to some familiar places and some we’ve never done before.”

The concerts will most likely include a song or two from the band’s most recent album, Blue & Lonesome, a record of vintage blues covers that arrived late last year and was the Stones’ first studio LP since 2005’s A Bigger Bang.

The group has promised another new album, this one with all original material, sometime too, but that record’s completion and release date are still up in the air.

You can find ticket info, as well as a complete list of dates, for the No Filter tour at the band’s website.
 
By Variety Staff | February 26, 2018
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The Rolling Stones, who have toured every year since 2012 and whose principals are all in their 70s, have announced another set of concert dates, this one a summer stadium run through the U.K. and Europe. The 11-date “No Filter” tour launches May 17 in Ireland and is likely to be another set filled with greatest hits, to judge by the video clip announcing the tour. The tour began last year; full dates are listed below.

“NO FILTER! The news you’ve all been waiting for!” the announcement reads. “The Rolling Stones are bringing the No Filter tour to the UK and Ireland this summer, with some additional European shows! #TheRollingStones #StonesNoFilter #Tour”

In the initial run of dates includes five in the U.K., two in Germany two, and France, and one each in the Czech Republic and Poland. Rather than doing months-long campaigns as they did over the past few decades, the group’s strategy over the past five years has been to do a dozen-odd shows per continent every few months.

This tour was teased by founding guitarist Keith Richards in a Tweet a few hours before the dates were announced.

“We haven’t finished yet. It’s still too early to talk about the Stones’ legacy. There’s one thing that we haven’t yet achieved and that’s to really find out how long you can do this. It’s still such a joy to play with this band that you can’t really let go of it.”

In a press release announcing the tour, the four principals said:

Keith Richards – “It’s such a joy to play with this band there’s no stopping us, we’re only just getting started really.”

Mick Jagger – ‘‘This part of the ‘No Filter’ tour is really special for the Stones. We are looking forward to getting back onstage in the summer and playing to fans in the UK and Ireland. Its always exhilarating going to cities we haven’t played for quite a while and also some new venues for us like Old Trafford & The London Stadium.’’

Charlie Watts – “The Stones audience is the glue that keeps us together. The best and most satisfying moment is when you are reaching the end of the show and they are all going nuts.”

Ronnie Wood – “When I look out at the sea of people when we play all I can see is smiles. It’s heart-warming and I’m glad we make people happy. Music makes me happy, and it makes them happy…. its infectious.”

May 17 – Croke Park, Dublin
May 22 – London Stadium, London
June 5 – Old Trafford Football Stadium, Manchester
June 9 – BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh
June 15 – Principality Stadium, Cardiff
June 19 – Twickenham Stadium, Twickenham
June 22 – Olympiastadion, Berlin
June 26 – Orange Velodrome, Marseille
June 30 – Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart
July 4 – Letnany Airport, Prague
July 8 – PGE Narodowy Stadium, Warsaw
 
by Randy Lewis Nov 28, 2018 Los Angeles Times
[video=youtube;GFcMFDgrY_U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFcMFDgrY_U[/video]
There are plenty ways to get a handle on what to expect when the Rolling Stones come to the United States next spring with their No Filter tour. The recently completed European leg offers some clues, and no doubt even casual fans can rattle off a number of the band’s well-known hits that will no doubt be in the performance queue.

But there’s an art to arranging a set list, and Mick Jagger says there’s plenty to consider before penciling in any numbers.

One challenge facing those fortunate few rock acts who have stuck around long enough to build a catalog that stretches back more than half a century is figuring out which songs are still relevant. No doubt some may have been rendered passé by cultural shifts and modern-world realities such as increased pop-art scrutiny amid the #MeToo/#Time’sUp movements.

Jagger, as one of the writers of songs such as “Under My Thumb” and “Bitch,” says he’s far from oblivious .

“You have to be aware of changes in society to a certain extent,” Jagger said.

He added, with a laugh, “If I find something [objectionable], I can always change it up a bit.

“Sometimes you get to rehearsals and you find ‘I don’t think this is working.’” he said. “You try and go into the back catalog and you always want to find unusual stuff, but sometimes it doesn’t sound right. Sometimes you have to reject them because it doesn’t feel right for some indefinable reason, or it may feel dated, or feel too light or something else.

“Then sometimes you find something that really works that you never thought you’d do,” he said. “We started doing ‘She’s a Rainbow’ [at two shows in June] and found that people really like it, and they really requested us to do it. We find that sort of song goes down really well.”

The No Filter tour will land in Southern California on May 11 with a stop at the Rose Bowl. It will be the act’s first appearance in the area since co-headlining in the Desert Trip rock superstar concerts in Indio two years ago, alongside Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, the Who, Roger Waters and Neil Young.

Those who kept tabs on the European leg won’t be surprised to learn that the 75-year-old rocker says the U.S. edition will be “somewhat similar.” The artist was talking via phone earlier this week while “catching up on a bit of work” in Paris. As workplace environments go, he admitted, “It’s not bad.”

As for details on the U.S. edition of the No Filter trek, “The stage design will be somewhat the same, but I don’t know about the set list. We haven’t gotten around to that yet.

“The thing about the European shows was that it was like midsummer, and the first half of the show was in sunlight basically, the lights didn’t really read into half of these shows,” Jagger said. “I had to approach it more like it was cheerful festival vibe.

“When it’s still light at the beginning, it affects the way you somehow choose the numbers, the attitude, your demeanor and the way the audience behaves,” he said. “It’s outside.

“I thought it was going to rain all the time. We did a lot of gigs in the U.K. and I had ordered a lot of rain clothes but then never used them,” he said. “I was actually rather dreading this early spring-summer tour in northern Europe. We were thinking, ‘Why are we doing this? It’s going to be terrible.’ But it was beautiful, and very unusual. I think it only rained a little the day we played Dublin, and by the time we went on it was finished.

“For me it became a two-part show,” he said. “The first half was sunny and bright, the second half more dark.”


That translated to such upbeat numbers as “Street Fighting Man,” “Tumbling Dice,” “It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll (But I Like It)” and “Honky Tonk Women” during the early moments of the European dates.

The more ominous likes of “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Miss You” and “Midnight Rambler” were representative of the second half of the concerts, before the group turned again to such motion-motivating numbers as “Start Me Up,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” to close things out.

“For the U.S. shows,” Jagger said, “at least the first two-thirds of them, it’s all going to be in darkness, so I don’t have worry about that” shift in tone as the shows progress. “I don’t anticipate much rain when we get to California.”

Another difference could be whether the Stones have new music ready to incorporate into the 2019 concerts.

The band’s most recent album, “Blue and Lonesome,” emerged from what originally were supposed to be rehearsals for work on their first studio collection since 2006’s “A Bigger Bang.” But in warming up with many of their favorite vintage blues and R&B songs, Jagger, Keith Richards, drummer Charlie Watts and guitarist Ron Wood decided to go whole hog and record a full album of those songs.

It was enthusiastically received.

The Times’ Mikael Wood wrote in a review that album presented the Stones as “seasoned peers’ with the blues greats they once emulated, and added that while “Blue and Lonesome” wasn’t “a guitar-hero record with complicated, athletic soloing meant to showcase hard-won technique,” it was “often amazing” in that it captured “a kind of ruined virility.”
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The Rolling Stones, guitarist Ron Wood, left, singer Mick Jagger, drummer Charlie Watts and guitarist Keith Richards, shown in 2016 at Desert Trip in Indio, will bring their No Filter tour to the U.S. next year. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Since “Blue and Lonesome” was released in 2016, the group has been chipping away at the new material between other commitments.

“Before we go on tour next year, we’ll do some more work on that,” Jagger said, stopping short of promising that a new album will be ready when the U.S. leg of No Filter tour opens April 20 in Miami. “We’ll see how that goes.”

Like a number of other pop musicians, the Stones have also found themselves in the position of asking political candidates to refrain from using their songs prominently at campaign stops. In particular, while still running for president in 2016, Donald Trump regularly played the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” at his rallies, prompting the group to request his campaign to stop.

Some politicians ignore such demands, however, citing blanket licenses they pay for to allow them to play music at campaign events.

Pop singer Rihanna took the issue a step further recently when Trump operatives programmed her hit “Don’t Stop the Music” at a rally earlier this month in Tennessee.

In addition to a cease-and-desist letter sent to Trump by her attorneys, the performance rights organization Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) that represents her also notified the president’s campaign that the song was being pulled from material covered under the Political Entity License his campaign acquired for avoiding problems of copyright infringement.

“The copyright law in the U.S. is pretty wide-ranging,” Jagger said. “If I have a restaurant and I play ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ in the restaurant, it’s OK if I have that blanket license. It’s the same thing if you play it in Madison Square Garden — it’s very difficult to stop people from using it. There are a lot of ways around it. We have looked into it. I’m not totally up on where that stands.”

Of course, politically, Jagger said simply that “I think I’ve made my decision pretty clear on where I stand.”

Approaching a half-century since he famously said he could not envision continuing to sing “Satisfaction” after he turned 30, Jagger chuckled when asked just how long he and his cohorts might remain on the road.

“We haven’t really had that conversation,” he said. “We’ve been quite happy doing these shows the way we’re doing them. Nobody’s really talking about stopping. But sometimes it’s hard to believe you’re still doing it.”
 
Dave Lifton December 12, 2018 Ultimate Classic Rock
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For all the chatter in recent years about whether or not rock is dead, we may now have definitive proof of its impending demise: Keith Richards said in a new interview that he doesn't drink much these days.“It’s been about a year now,” he told Rolling Stone. “I pulled the plug on it. I got fed up with it.”

The Rolling Stones guitarist added that he still occasionally consumes a glass of wine or beer, but felt that “it was time to quit. Just like all the other stuff. ... I don’t notice any difference really – except for I don’t drink. I wasn’t feeling
. I’ve done it. I didn’t want that anymore.”

Bandmate Ron Wood, who has been sober since 2010 and offered "full support" to his friend, gave his thoughts on Richards' decision. “It just wasn’t working anymore, you know,” he said. “I think the Keith that we used to know and love had this cutoff point where if he had one more, he’d go over the top and he’d be nasty. The cutoff point became shorter and shorter, and he realized that.”

Wood said the decision to not drink as much has made Richards “a pleasure to work with. Much more mellow. He’s open to more ideas, whereas before I’d kind of grit my teeth and go, ‘He’s gonna give me some shit for saying this.’ Now he’ll say, ‘That’s cool, man.’&#8201;”

Richards tried out this new approach to life on the Rolling Stones' No Filter tour of Europe this past summer, noting that it was "interesting to play sober.”

Wood said he noticed that their well-established dynamic has since improved onstage. “We’re weaving [guitar parts] a lot more conscientiously now," he said. "We’re much more aware of the gaps and the spaces between. We’re in our seventies, but we’re still rocking like we’re 40-year-olds, you know?”​
 
Sway is probably my favorite song of theirs. I love the whole Sticky Fingers album
 
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[h=2]30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Box Set Featuring Newly Remastered Album On 180g LP/CD; Accompanying 180g LP/CD with 6 Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks, a Pair of 7" Singles & Extensive 80-Page Hardback Book![/h] release: April 1, 2019

In 1988, on a break from his band the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards released his first ever solo album, Talk Is Cheap. This universally respected debut is an 11-track masterclass in everything that's good about rock 'n' roll and features guest appearances from an all-star cast including Sarah Dash, Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, the Memphis Horns, Patti Sciafia and Mick Taylor. Co-writing every song, Richards teamed up with Steve Jordan to co-produce the album which also included backing from his band the X-Pensive Winos. The Gold-certified effort is home to the Top 5 hit "Take It So Hard," the Top 20 "You Don't Move Me," and fellow standout single "Struggle."

Remastered from the original tapes by Jordan
, the album's joyous swagger is re-energized and permeates through each and every song. Talk Is Cheap sounds as good today as it did thirty years ago; in Keith's own words: "As fresh as the day it was made." This Deluxe Edition box set includes: the remastered album on 180g vinyl LP and CD; an accompanying 180g LP/CD featuring six previously unreleased bonus tracks with Mick Taylor, Bootsy Collins, & Johnnie Johnson; a pair of 7" singles; an extensive 80 page hardback book; and a handful of accessories. It all comes housed in a handsome deluxe folio pack.


Features
:
• Remastered 180g LP album (from the original tapes by co-producer Steve Jordan)
• 180g LP of bonus material – Features 6 never before released tracks featuring Mick Taylor, Bootsy Collins, & Johnnie Johnson
• Remastered CD album
• CD containing bonus material
• 7" single Take It So Hard / I Could Have Stood You Up
• 7" single Make No Mistake / It Means A Lot
• Extensive 80 page hardback book with Anthony DeCurtis written essay featuring a new interview with Keith, including extensive rare and unseen photos from personal archives
• Tour laminate
• 2x lyric sheets
• Reproduction Talk is Cheap playback invite
• Talk is Cheap tour guitar pick
• 2x posters
• Cased in an exquisite deluxe folio pack


LP1 - Original Album Remastered

  1. Big Enough
  2. Take It So Hard
  3. Struggle
  4. I Could Have Stood You Up
  5. Make No Mistake
  6. You Don't Move Me
  7. How I Wish
  8. Rockawhile
  9. Whip It Up
  10. Locked Away
  11. It Means A Lot

LP2 - Bonus Material

  1. Blues Jam
  2. My Babe
  3. Slim
  4. Big Town Playboy
  5. Mark On Me
  6. Brute Force

CD1 - Original Album Remastered

  1. Struggle
  2. I Could Have Stood You Up
  3. Make No Mistake
  4. You Don't Move Me
  5. How I Wish
  6. Rockawhile
  7. Whip It Up
  8. Locked Away
  9. It Means A Lot

CD2 - Bonus Material

  1. Blues Jam
  2. My Babe
  3. Slim
  4. Big Town Playboy
  5. Mark On Me
  6. Brute Force

7" Single

  1. Take It So Hard
  2. I Could Have Stood You Up

7" Single

  1. Make No Mistake
  2. It Means A Lot
 
By Daniel Kreps March 30, 2019 Rolling Stone
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The Rolling Stones have postponed their upcoming North American tour due to Mick Jagger&#8217;s need for medical treatment.

&#8220;Mick Jagger has been advised by doctors that he cannot go on tour at this time as he needs medical treatment,&#8221; the band&#8217;s publicist said in a press release. &#8220;The doctors have advised Mick that he is expected to make a complete recovery so that he can get back on stage as soon as possible.

Jagger added in a statement, &#8220;I hate letting our fans down and I&#8217;m hugely disappointed to have to postpone the tour but am looking forward to getting back on stage as soon as I can.&#8221;

A rep for the band declined to elaborate on Jagger&#8217;s medical condition.

The 17 postponed concerts span from an April 20th gig in Miami to the band&#8217;s July 29th show at Canada&#8217;s Burl&#8217;s Creek Event Grounds. The postponed shows include two concerts at New Jersey&#8217;s Metlife Stadium, two concerts at Chicago&#8217;s Soldier Field and football stadium gigs in Denver, Washington DC, Seattle, Philadelphia and Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Fans are encouraged to hold onto their tickets as they will be valid at the rescheduled shows, tour promoters AEG Presents/Concerts West said.
 
[video=youtube;6igVA_Ny1wo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6igVA_Ny1wo[/video]
release: November 1, 2019


The Rolling Stones’ groundbreaking multi-platinum selling album Let It Bleed was released in late 1969, charting at #1 in the UK and #3 in the US. The Rolling Stones, at this point already a critically and commercially dominant force, composed and recorded their eighth long player (tenth for the U.S.) amidst both geopolitical and personal turmoil. The second of four Rolling Stones albums made with producer Jimmy Miller (Traffic, Blind Faith), Let It Bleed perfectly captures the ominous spirit of the times with “Gimme Shelter,” the opening track. The 2019 remaster has been engineered by eleven-time Grammy®-winning mastering engineer Bob Ludwig.

Let It Bleed (50th Anniversary Limited Deluxe Edition) includes the remastered album in Stereo and Mono on both vinyl and Hybrid SACD, and a reproduction of the 1969 7” mono single of “Honky Tonk Women”/ ”You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” in a picture sleeve. The box set also comes with three 12” x 12” hand-numbered replica-signed lithographs printed on embossed archival paper, a full-color 23” x 23” poster with restored art from the original 1969 Decca Records package, and an 80 page hardcover book with never-before-seen photos by the band’s tour photographer Ethan Russell and an essay by journalist David Fricke.

LP 1 - Stereo
Side 1
1. Gimme Shelter
2. Love In Vain
3. Country Honk
4. Live with Me
5. Let It Bleed

Side 2
1. Midnight Rambler
2. You Got the Silver
3. Monkey Man
4. You Can’t Always Get What You Want

LP 2 - Mono
Side 1
1. Gimme Shelter
2. Love In Vain
3. Country Honk
4. Live with Me
5. Let It Bleed

Side 2
1. Midnight Rambler
2. You Got the Silver
3. Monkey Man
4. You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Hybrid Super Audio CD 1 - Stereo
1. Gimme Shelter
2. Love In Vain
3. Country Honk
4. Live with Me
5. Let It Bleed
6. Midnight Rambler
7. You Got the Silver
8. Monkey Man
9. You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Hybrid Super Audio CD 2 - Mono

1. Gimme Shelter
2. Love In Vain
3. Country Honk
4. Live with Me
5. Let It Bleed
6. Midnight Rambler
7. You Got the Silver
8. Monkey Man
9. You Can’t Always Get What You Want

7” vinyl single - (Mono)
Side A – Honky Tonk Women
Side B – You Can’t Always Get What You Want
 
by Chris Willman | April 19, 2020 | Variety
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You can sometimes get what you want — even an attention-grabbing appearance by the separate-but-united Rolling Stones — when you’re Global Citizen and there is seemingly no global superstar too big to turn down “One World: Together at Home.” Saturday night’s prime-time show included turns from a Beatle, Paul McCartney, too, as well as currently mania-inspiring performers like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Lizzo and the mutually sheltering Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello.

Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans has pulled off big, all-star charity projects before, including annual Central Park gigs, but nothing like pulling together eight hours of programming (the two-hour prime-time TV show was preceded by a six-hour web live-stream) in a matter of… we’ll let him say how many days. Variety spoke with him Sunday afternoon about waiting on a friend in the form of the Stones’ last-minute contribution, plus the trickiness of settling on a right tone amid the coronavirus crisis, how it worked out to have CBS, ABC and NBC holding hands, and his feelings about the recent politicization of the World Health Organization.

Anyone who’s interviewed him knows he’s more likely to go fanboy over health care workers than he is about the pop stars he rubs elbows with in the regular course of his work, but even a philanthropist as dedicated to keeping his eye on the philanthropic prize as Evans couldn’t contain his enthusiasm about the Stones.

VARIETY: Did you have the program locked in well enough ahead of time that you felt confident it’d be smooth sailing going on the air?

EVANS: To be really honest, it was extremely hard to stand up a program of this nature in two and a half weeks. We literally only started producing it two and a half weeks ago. And so the edit, all the sound mixing, graphics, everything was down to the wire. But we didn’t leave ourselves a choice. It was sink or swim. And I was so thrilled with the result. I didn’t even get to watch a lot of it last night, because we were working the whole night around it. But just the bits that I saw, I was so moved by the powerful stories of the community health workers and how their lives were touched by the pandemic and how they’ve been serving the community so diligently… and by the songs and the artistry and the messages of hope from world leaders that were a part also. It felt cohesive, which I was thrilled with, when you’re trying to pull together more than seven hours of programming in two and a half weeks from a standing start.

The Rolling Stones
were the last announced, on Friday. Would they count as the artist you were sort of most holding your breath to see if it’d come off?

It definitely was the Rolling Stones that I was holding my breath for, because as you saw, their performance was about five minutes and 12 seconds or thereabouts, so that’s a fairly decent chunk of the show. And we only got final confirmation on the Wednesday beforehand. Every day was like a week for us this past week. [Laughs.] That was definitely the one that I was most… I wouldn’t say anxious, but just most conscious of. And when David Joseph from UMG and Joyce (Smyth), who’s their longtime manager, called and said that they were completely confirmed and fully in, our whole team was so thrilled. There’s really only one band in the world called the Rolling Stones, so that elevated the power of what was achieved in an already magnificent night.

Did you wait till you actually had the piece in hand from them to announce, or did their piece come in even after that?

We waited until we had the piece in hand before we announced it. Because we didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves.

Did you talk with people in the Stones’ camp about how they accomplished it?

Well, they told me a funny story about it, but I probably shouldn’t give it away, because I don’t know if I’m allowed to. I wish I could tell you, but it’s their news to tell. But logistically, I don’t even know how they pulled it off in time, with extraordinarily mixed vocals, and yet they did it from four entirely different parts of the country with very, very, very limited technology.

Did you worry at all about having an inconsistency of tone with so many artists involved each making their own choices?

We wanted to give them some direction just about tonality, but you know, artists have this amazing ability to have their finger on the pulse of the sentiment of society, and so we didn’t want to over-direct what people did. We just wanted to provide some initial direction. We encouraged some artists in terms of their directionality. But I think they all struck a perfect time, whether it was Eddie Vedder’s performance in his room, which was fully spectacular and so moving, or whether it was Lizzo’s performance, which I thought was breathtaking, or when Sam Smith and John Legend performed together… I also think the performance of Christine and the Queens that was in the stream, as well, for the six hours (before the prime-time telecast)… We’ve gotten as much positive feedback about the stream, globally, as we have about the broadcast.

Adding six hours of live-streaming on before the two hours of TV was biting off a lot.
It seems like there were different demographics that were engaged. I think we had a younger demographic around the world tuned in for the stream, also because it was a bit earlier in the day. We’ve heard stories of families around the world that tuned in for the full eight hours, or some that tuned in for the six-hour digital and then the kids went to bed…. The reason why we wanted to do the full six (additional) hours was because we thought it was really important that people all around the world could be part of this. If we did it from 8 till 10:00 p.m. eastern in the U.S., then that was obviously already too late for people in Europe and across Africa, and also potentially extremely early for Asian time. And so I think that the power of this interesting mix between digital and linear worked, because even though they felt like slightly different shows, they felt like they were brother and sister to one another. They came from the same value-set sensibility and outcome of trying to make sure that we were telling stories about the powerful work of community health workers, while at the same time educating and informing the audience about what can be done to stop COVID-19 and what can be done to fight and end the coronavirus.
We also wanted to make sure that the stream was available to everyone all around the world over the next 72 hours. And that’s why the BBC’s highlights tonight was so important. That’s why it aired in Germany this evening as well and across Europe.

Going back to the overall tone: A few weeks ago when Fox did a music special, there was some criticism that some of the performances were too frivolous for the moment. And we saw some opposite responses about your show. Looking at reader comments, there were a few from people who said it felt depressing to them when they tuned it just wanting to hear something that would cheer them up. Ultimately it seems like most people who watched loved it, but in a moment like this, you’re going to get at least a little criticism no matter what approach you land on. You had to be consciously going for a delicate balance.

Well, I’m a big believer that you can’t tell people how to feel. And so all I think we can do in our job is to provide a platform for people to be able to express creatively the various range of emotions that everyone’s going through. Some people are devastated [and want music that takes that into account]. And as you say, some people do want to be cheered up, and that’s okay as well. And so when Jimmy Fallon created his beautiful song with the Roots [a spoof version of Men Without Hats’ “Safety Dance” featuring choreography from medical workers], I think that certainly cheered up a lot of people. Whereas I think that Taylor Swift song (“Soon You’ll Get Better”), which was referencing the (cancer) battle her mum was going through at the time, was undoubtedly going to be extremely hard, because it was so deeply personal. Circumstantially, we knew that this time was going to be a time where there were peak deaths in the United States, and peak layoffs. So you’re going to have some people who are dealing with the utter devastation of that, and some people wanting to be cheered up. I think we gave people a bit of both.

As you said, you didn’t even have a chance to watch the entire show in continuity as it aired. But were there highlights for you?

I found two songs to be extremely moving for me. I loved the song by Burna Boy, because it reminded me of why Nigeria’s response to COVID-19 will be so important for the next wave. I thought his voice there was essential. And I also loved the Rolling Stones, because for me, what COVID-19 has taught me is that you can have all the best plans in the world, but unless we have strong health systems, all those plans crumble overnight. And so I think what they sang, “you can’t always get what you want” — that’s it, to me.

Let’s talk about the World Health Organization. What a moment to be extolling their work and be raising funds for them. (Lady Gaga and Global Citizen helped raise more than $125 million, from corporate and philanthropic sponsors, without ever asking viewers for money.) It’s really just this past week the WHO became a headline-making political football in America, with the president going on the attack and threatening to withdraw funding. You were never going to do a politically targeted or divisive show. So how did you feel as you watched the WHO become a controversial, polarizing thing, where normally it would have been something almost everyone could agree about?

I think Lady Gaga put it really well when she and I together with Dr. Tedros did the final press conference the day before the event. She said that the whole goal was that this would be a love letter to the world and a love letter to the community health workers. And it was great because we had a team meeting earlier today with all of our Global Citizen staff on it, and we just had everyone go around and share the feedback they’ve had. And so many of the staff had received calls overnight from nurses and doctors and midwives and lab practitioners from all across America and around the world saying that they felt that love; they felt that attention on them. And if anything, that’s what the WHO is designed to do. It’s designed to strengthen health systems so that healthcare professionals can do their job more effectively. And so I’m just glad that that outcome was felt. I had this beautiful, lovely tweet from a healthcare worker in Seattle who said how moved she was by the show, and for me, she’s the true hero. So I wrote back to her immediately and just said I’m so thankful that it did exactly what we wanted it to do.

As for the politicization of the WHO, when you are the key actor in a major global crisis, then it is not uncommon for world leaders of all stature to try to point fingers, because politics is in some instances about survival. And so I think that it’s not so surprising that it has become a political football. But I think that what we have to remember is that there’s no second World Health Organization. There’s only one. It’s auspiced by the United Nations to be the multilateral institution to help respond. And it’s got the entire backing of the United Nations general assembly. And in 2019 it had its record fundraising year, ever, so there’s clearly a lot of support for it as an institution. So I think that with that support, they need to continue their efforts to provide personal protective equipment, investment in vaccines and immunizations, and the best-in-class research so that we can fight COVID-19 immediately.

Finally, how important was giving equal weight to the three big broadcast networks — CBS, NBC and ABC? They were each represented with their newscasters participating as well as Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert co-hosting. Did they feel the balance worked, so they didn’t have to worry about being competitive this particular night?

Oh, absolutely. I spoke last night — and I’m going to speak to them in three minutes, actually — to Doug Vaughan, to Jack Sussman, and to Scott Iger at the three networks; we’re about jump on a call together and do a debriefing. We formed a real bond amongst the group. It’s amazing. There’s a genuine sense that we all are fighting a common enemy. You definitely felt that through the unity of the three hosts, but the networks equally — across all their daytime programming, their evening shows, their morning shows — consistently showed up in support of the campaign. I don’t know if you saw the ratings, but I think between them they got over (15 million) viewers last night, and that’s just just linear, the first count, not including any of the cable, not including any of the digital. So it’s a testament to their hard work.

It’s very hard to pull numbers across the board from cable and streaming, but would you hazard a guess at how many people might have tuned in altogether?

The challenge we’ve got is it was in 120 odd countries linearly, and then you had every digital player. Like, if you just take Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu in China alone, that number would be insane just in that country, because there’s a billion people there. And then it was in Indonesia, and on all the major stations in India, which has a billion people. So if I gave you a number now, it would just be hyperbole. … Also, Facebook alone had more than 20 million uniques, and so did YouTube, 20 million uniques. That’s just two platforms. … You can’t be on every single media on the planet at a time when the entire planet is indoors and people are consuming media at record rates and not have extraordinary numbers.
 
You Can't Always Get What You Want: One World Together At Home (April 18, 2020)

 
By Chris Morris, Jem Aswad | August 24, 2021 | Variety
charlie-watts-rolling-stones.jpg

Drummer Charlie Watts, whose adept, powerful skin work propelled the Rolling Stones for more than half a century, died in London on Tuesday morning, according to his spokesperson. No cause of death was cited; was 80.

A statement from the band and Watts’ spokesperson reads: “It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts. He passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family.

“Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also a member of the Rolling Stones one of the greatest drummers of his generation.

“We kindly request that the privacy of his family, band members and close friends is respected at this difficult time.”

On August 4, Watts abruptly withdrew from the Stones’ upcoming pandemic-postponed U.S. tour, citing the need to recover from an unspecified but “successful” recent medical procedure. A spokesperson said, “Charlie has had a procedure which was completely successful, but I gather his doctors this week concluded that he now needs proper rest and recuperation. With rehearsals starting in a couple of weeks it’s very disappointing to say the least, but it’s also fair to say no one saw this coming.”

Watts had generally been healthy throughout his entire career with the Stones. He was stricken with throat cancer in 2004 but successfully recovered, and suffered from substance abuse in the 1980s but beat that as well.

Universally recognized as one of the greatest rock drummers of all time, Watts and guitarist Keith Richards have been the core of the Rolling Stones’ instrumental sound: Richards spends upwards of half the group’s concerts turned around, facing Watts, bobbing his head to the drummer’s rhythm. A 2012 review of a Rolling Stones concert reads in part: “For all of Mick and Keith’s supremacy, there’s no question that the heart of this band is and will always be Watts: At 71, his whipcrack snare and preternatural sense of swing drive the songs with peerless authority, and define the contradictory uptight-laid-back-ness that’s at the heart of the Stones’ rhythm.” Watts was never a flashy drummer, but driving the beat for “The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” for a two-hour set — in a stadium, no less — is an act of great physical endurance that Watts performed until he was 78.

His last concert with the group took place in Miami on August 30, 2019, although he did appear with the band during the April 2020 “One World Together” all-star livestream early in the pandemic.

The wiry, basset-faced musician was a jazz-schooled player who came to the Stones through London’s “trad” scene of the early ‘60s. He was the missing piece in the group’s early lineup, joining in January 1963; with Jagger and Keith Richards, he remained a constant with “the World’s Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band” on record and on stage for more than 50 years.

He provided nimble, energetic support on the band’s long run of dirty, blues- and R&B-based hits of the early and mid-‘60s. He reached the pinnacle of his prowess on a series of mature recordings, made with producer Jimmy Miller in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, in which his sharp playing caromed off Richards’ serrated guitar riffs.

In the 2003 oral history “According to the Rolling Stones,” Richards said, “To have a drummer from the beginning who could play with the sensibility of Charlie Watts is one of the best hidden assets I’ve had, because I never had to think about the drummer and what he’s going to do. I just say, ‘Charlie, it goes like this,’ and we’ll kick it around a bit and it’s done. I can throw him ideas and I never have to worry about the beat…It’s a blessing.”

A flexible player, Watts displayed his malleable chops on the Stones’ forays into off-brand styles – psychedelia, reggae and (on the 1978 hit single “Miss You”) disco.

Though he grew weary of the bandÂ’s touring pace as early as the 1980s, he soldiered on with the Stones for three more decades, in what was arguably the most comfortable and lucrative drumming gig in music. He prevailed through bouts with heroin addiction and a battle with throat cancer, quietly addressing these challenges as the spotlight shined more brightly on his more flamboyant band mates.

Watts remained a picture of domestic bliss and tranquility amid the soap-operatic lives of his fellow Stones: He wed his wife Shirley in 1964, and the couple remained together, even amid rough patches, for the duration.

He maintained a love of jazz throughout his life, and from the ‘80s on would record regularly with various ad hoc lineups of his Charlie Watts Quintet, essaying the hard-swinging instrumental music that fired his early interest in music.

Watts was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Stones in 1989.

He was born June 2, 1941, in London; his father was a truck driver for the English rail system. Raised in Wembley, he gravitated as a youth to the music of early jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton and bop saxophonist Charlie Parker. He was an indifferent music student in school, but began playing at 14 or 15.

In “The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones,” Watts told Stanley Booth, “Fortunately my parents were perceptive enough to buy me a drum kit. I’d bought a banjo myself and taken the neck off and started playing it as a drum… played newspaper with wire brushes. My parents bought me one of those first drum kits every drummer knows too well.”

He emblazoned the bass drum head of his early kit with the name “Chico,” after saxophonist Gerry Mulligan’s drummer Chico Hamilton. In his teens, he worked in various regional jazz groups.

He was schooled as a graphic designer at Harrow Art School, and worked for a London ad firm. In 1961, he illustrated and wrote a fanciful tribute to Charlie Parker; it was subsequently published in 1964, after the Rolling Stones’ rise to fame, as “Ode to a High Flying Bird.”

In 1962, Watts first encountered some of his future band mates at LondonÂ’s Ealing Club, a subterranean venue where first-generation trad-to-blues players like Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies took early stabs at replicating American R&B and blues.
After a stint doing design work in Copenhagen, Watts returned to London and accepted an offer from Korner to drum in his group Blues Incorporated, which for a time had featured Jagger as its singer.

Jagger was in the process of establishing his own blues-based band, originally called the RollinÂ’ Stones, with Richards, guitarist Brian Jones, bassist Bill Wyman and pianist Ian Stewart. The weak link in the unit was drummer Tony Chapman, and, after pleas from Richards and Jones, Watts replaced Chapman in the nascent group; he was replaced in KornerÂ’s band by Ginger Baker, later of Cream.

Watts later admitted, “It was from Brian, Mick and Keith that I first seriously learned about R&B. I knew nothing about it. The blues to me was Charlie Parker or [New Orleans jazz clarinetist] Johnny Dodds playing slow.” He schooled himself by listening to recorded performances such drummers by Earl Phillips, Jimmy Reed’s accompanist, and Fred Below, who powered many of Chess Records’ major blues hits of the ‘50s.

He proved an apt pupil, and he forcefully completed the sound of the Stones (who soon subtracted Stewart from the permanent lineup and employed him as a sideman and road manager). From the band’s debut 1963 single, a cranked-up cover of Chuck Berry’s “Come On,” he pushed the unit with seemingly effortless power and swing.

Watts lent potent support to the R&B- and blues-derived material recorded in the era when the purist Jones enjoyed parity in the Stones with Richards and Jagger. However, he was much more than a four-on-the-floor timekeeper, and flourished as Jagger-Richards originals pushed the band to the top of the U.S. and U.K. charts.

He stood out on the Stones’ first U.S. No. 1, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (1965) and on latter-day exotica like “Paint It Black” (1966) and “Ruby Tuesday,” “Dandelion,” “We Love You” and “She’s a Rainbow” (all 1967).

He came into his own with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Street Fighting Man” (1968) and “Honky Tonk Women” (1969), convulsive singles produced by Miller that marked the end of Jones’ tenure with the group (he died in 1969) and the arrival of guitarist Mick Taylor.

Those numbers and the subsequent “Brown Sugar” (No. 1, 1969) and “Tumbling Dice” (1972) – respectively drawn from the Stones’ landmark albums “Sticky Fingers” and “Exile on Main St” – all exhibited the trademark sound of the Stones at their apex, with Watts bouncing hard off a lacerating Richards guitar intro.

From 1971-81, Watts appeared on eight consecutive No. 1 studio albums by the Stones, and appeared on three of the biggest-grossing tours of the era. From 1975 on, he brought his design skills to bear and worked with Jagger on configuring the elaborate stage sets that became a hallmark of the actÂ’s later tours.

In the late ‘70s, he began using heroin, and his addiction became so acute that he nodded out in the studio during the recording of “Some Girls” (1978). He later said in an interview with the BBC that Richards – an enthusiastic abuser of the drug – shook him awake at the session and counseled him, “You should do this when you’re older.” Watts said he took the guitarist’s advice and stopped using the drug.

Despite his difficulties during that era, Watts smoothly navigated the dancefloor backbeat that propelled “Miss You,” the Stones’ last No. 1 single, released in ’78. During the ‘80s, he brought his whipcracking skills to the band’s top-10 hits of the period, the perennial show-opener “Start Me Up” (1981) and the dark fusillade “Undercover of the Night” (1983).

He again grappled with alcohol and drug issues in the mid-‘80s, but once again discreetly and successfully shook off his addictions, cleaning up for good in 1986.

In his 2002 book “Rolling With the Stones,” bassist Wyman (who exited the Stones in 1993) claims that Watts’ enthusiasm for working with the band waned in the late ‘80s, when conflict between Jagger and Richards over direction of the group threatened to run it aground permanently.

He increasingly recorded and toured on his own as a jazz band leader. He cut a big band album for Columbia in 1986; four sets with his own quintet from 1991-96; and worked on a collaborative project with fellow drummer Jim Keltner in 2000. In 2004, an album featuring his tentet was recorded at Ronnie ScottÂ’s famous jazz venue in London.

Watts still dutifully clocked in with the Stones after Jagger and Richards reconciled: Their four studio albums between 1989-2005 were succeeded by mammoth tours that broke records internationally. His tour duty was not broken by a siege of throat cancer, diagnosed in 2004 and treated successfully.

At the half-century mark, the group made successful treks in the new millennium without any new product in stores, hitting the road for arenas in 2012-16.

In October 2016, the act filled the Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif., site of the annual Coachella music festival on a double bill with Bob Dylan, as part of the three-day “Desert Trip” festival featuring ‘60s classic rock acts.

Watts is survived by his wife and daughter Serafina.
 
Anyone see this? An ad ran in Hackney Gazette for a company called Hackney Diamonds teasing Rolling Stones song titles. Their est. date is 1962, same year Stones formed. Website seems to be run by Universal Music, the Stones’ label. A clue their long-awaited new LP is on its way? pic.twitter.com/DFSnb2WE48
— Simon Harper (@Simon__Harper) August 21, 2023
 

"However, the advert contained several clues: A miniature version of the Stones' famous lips logo appeared as the dot above the letter i, and the glass repair business was established in 1962, the same year the band was formed.

The company's name, Hackney Diamonds, is believed to be the title of their new album - and uses the same font as the band's 1978 album Some Girls."
 
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Doom and Gloom in 2012 was great, One More Shot was nice.
I had hopes for a new album. Now the wait is over.
Jaggers work on SuperHeavy was not bad.
 
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