The Rolling Stones Fan Club of Europe
It's Only Rock'n Roll

Monte do Gozo
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Tuesday June 15, 1999

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Review by Fernando Luaces, Ferrol, Spain

Last night was one of the best ones in my life. I arrived in Santiago at 6 pm and I walked to Gozo mount for 30 minutes. As long as me and my friends approached to the stage we could see people getting into the auditorium trying to get the best seats to see the band in a good position. I could see people from all parts of Spain and from several countries, specially Portugal but also UK, France and Germany.

We had to wait for the stones for several hours without any shade under the sun in a hot evening but it was worth doing it. When the stones appeared a feeling came to us and we couldn't help jumping and singing every songs one by one. Jumping jack flash was the first one and it was a good start but every song had its personal feeling. The crowd was very excited all the time so there were no highlights but the whole concert was a big highlight. Great experience.

Start time:  22:32
End time  :  00:36

The set list:

Jumping Jack Flash
You Got Me Rocking
Bitch
Respectable
Gimme Shelter
Ruby Tuesday
Honky Tonk Women
Saint of Me
Out Of Control
Paint It Black
-- Introductions --
You Got The Silver (Keith)
Before They Make Me Run (Keith)
Route 66 (B-stage)
Like A Rolling Stone (B-stage)
Midnight Rambler (B-stage)
Sympathy For The Devil
Tumbling Dice
It's Only Rock'n Roll
Start Me Up
Brown Sugar
Satisfaction (encore)

Review by Bj�rnulf Vik, Norway

Just one hours drive from the previous year's show in Vigo, Spain, they did another one this year, at the famous pilgrime place Santiago de Compostela. The fans came in from Gijon (four hours by car), where the Stones played in 1995, and from all over Spain, it seemed. The sun was down shortly after 10pm, and the temperature was finally going down, below the daytime peak of approx. 30 C.

The Stones were on shortly after 10:30pm. Late start, but on schedule. This was an amphi setting, with the stage approx. one meter higher than normal. The front area was small, and the rest was like a hillside with concrete seating rows in an arch. Perfect place for a Stones show. And the crowd proved to be perfect as well.

I was at the small stage, and as soon as the show started, evrybody was jumping up and down, dancing and singing like crazy. What a great crowd! The difference from other shows I have seen, was that this dancing and singing went on all through the show, and up to and including the encore. When they came down to the small stage, everyone in m area crushed up, packed together, and went crazy. Not much space for going wild, but it was a great time.

Paint It Black was one of the highlights. It was played well, and the crowd was great and wild all through the song. Mick spoke quite a bit of Spanish, and even if I could not understand much, it seemed to make sense to the local fans.

Start Me Up was another highlight. People had been jumping up and down, dancing all through the show, but now everyone had their hands in the air as well, just like Mick. Whatever Mick did, we did the same. Best crowd of the tour so far, and great show!

Review by J. L Perez

I�m back from the Stones� show last Tuesday on Santiago de Compostela at the Auditorio do Monte do Gozo. ...Well, what can I say? Once again it was a thrilling show. Last year I saw them at the Estadio de Balaidos in Vigo (July 18th 1998) and I felt that this time it was a much better show. For a chance this time I decided to place myself in front of the small stage in the middle of the arena and as you can imagine those three songs ("Route 66", "Like A Rolling Stone" and "Midnight Rambler") were a mind-blowing experience, really really impressive to see them playing so close, to hear Charlie�s drum without the need of being amplified, to smile at them and know that they were able to see you ... Amazing is a poor word applied to this experience.

Being a huge James Brown fan as well I was very pleased (and surprised too!) to hear J.B.�s "The Popcorn" played over the PA as an interlude between the Keith Richards� songs and the small stage set.

Keith played "You Got The Silver" and "Before They Make Me Run". Specially the first one was GREAT and in my opinion sounded pretty tight and clean ... a perfect version. Another highlights of the show were "Ruby Tuesday", "Respectable" (I always enjoy seeing Mick playing guitar) , and "It�s Only Rock n�Roll". From "Voodoo Lounge" they played "You Got Me Rocking" (the second song of the night which drove the audience crazy) and from "Bridges To Babylon" the usual "Saint Of Me" (with the crowd into the common and never-ending singalong at the end) and "Out Of Control". Right after "You Got Me Rocking" Mick spoke some words in Spanish and Galician ("Boas Noites, Santiago!" = "Good Night, Santiago!"), which was very funny.

During the band introductions the audience cheered a lot at Ronnie, surprisingly even more than at Charlie. This time Mick talked a bit more in Spanish. Refering to Lisa he called her ironically "La bella y timida Lisa" (= "The beautiful and shy Lisa!") and called Charlie "Silencioso" ("Silent").

In conclusion I�ll say that is fantastic seeing them in such big shape after nearly three years on tour. I�m not talking about their age and that shit; any band of youngsters probably couldn�t bear their pace show after show, giving away the best of them, sharing their charm and talent from town to town all over the world. Everything is said about them and their magic is undecipherable. I know, it�s only rock n�roll, but I like it and it will always be right in my heart. Thank you, Stones.

Review by Isabel Garc�a

Santiago de Compostela. What could I say ?. It was the perfect day, the perfect place, the perfect hour, the perfect weather, the perfect crowd... I took a bus for more than seven hours, after I took a train and then another bus. I ran to the door, I waited for another hour and I ran to get the front row and all this time I was feeling that concert was going to be as it really was. I could see perfectly the smile on the face of The Stones, I am sure they were surprised by the extremely warm, wild and happy attitude of the people in front of them.

When I saw them in Madrid in the Urban Jungle, for instance, I could see Ronnie a little bit tired and non very concentrate. But this time, gosh, he was great. Everybody was great. 30.000 people dancing, jumping, singing, screaming. Hundreds of teenagers around me I could hear them singinng all the songs, from Saint of me to Brown Sugar or, mamma mia, You got the silver.

There were some evidences that the people who is in charge of the organization of the show thought that people in Santiago were a pack of spanish yokels (i.e. behaviour on stage of some people of the crew, the absence of stage effects that we can see in glamourous european cities) but the Stones, I�m sure, are thinking now that nights like Santiago�s night are the reason for what they are doing. It was one of my happiest nights in my life. For sure.The only problem was that I thought I was in a five minutes dream, every thing was so short, too short.

Sorry for my bad english. And let me tell you a secret: in the Judgement Day I will say that Mick sang well. But in Compostela night you and me we know how Mick sang. Well. Thanks a lot.

The press reports:

Thanks to each and every one of you for supplying links to online newspapers, and reviews, of course!