| June 30: No Satisfaction for Mick in St. Etienne |
| Mick Jagger took the day off during their Amsterdam stay, and left for the Argentina vs. England world cup game in St. Etienne, France. Mick was shown four times on the worldwide television broadcasts from the game; first two times after the ordinary break at 2-2, then at the 15-minutes overtime break, and also at the overtime finish, as he did some extra prayers for England. Well, England lost 4 - 3 in the penalty shoot-out, so there was no big satisfaction for Mick in the end. But tomorrow, he will be back in Holland and do Satisfaction for 50,000 more fans... |
| June 29: The winning street of Holland |
| The first Rolling Stones concert at the Amsterdam ArenA in Holland went on at the same time as Holland played the world cup game against Jugoslavia. The crowd enjoyed both the show and the Holland victory. Keith said "You are on the winning street" when Holland made it to 2 - 1. See the Amsterdam ArenA June 29 concert reviews. |
| June 28: The Phelge's Stones book |
| The Phelge's Stones book is out now, and Stones fans seems to just love the book, with all the stories from the Edith Grove flat back in 1963. James Phelge, the author, who shared the flat with Mick, Keith and Brian those days, will be signing his book in Amsterdam next week, at the Paradiso on July 4 and at Atheneum Bookstore that same afternoon. The book is available from BA Books, April Cottage, Alcocks lane, Kingswood, Surrey KT20 6BB, England. Tel or Fax 0044 1737 370409. Price �15 (approx US $25) plus postage inside Europe �3.94, outside Europe �7.66 maximum. Visa or Mastercard accepted. |
| June 25: Italian show may be due on Sept. 19th |
| The postponed show in Milan, Italy may be moved from the San Siro stadium into an ex-airport in Reggio Emilia, 50 km north of Bologna, 150 km south of Milano) where U2 played their last Italian gig in September 1997. The date they have mentioned is Sept. 19, but this is still not confirmed. |
| June 25: Athens concert on Sept. 16 |
| The Stones concert in Greece has now been confirmed to the Olympic Stadium in Athens on Sept. 16. There is an optional date on the 17th, and Thessaloniki is no longer planned for, even if that city is still on the official tour T-shirts on sale now. Tickets for Athens go on sale next week. |
| June 25: Dusseldorf rocked with Little Red Rooster |
| The Rolling Stones were back in Germany last night, when they visited the Rheinstadion in Dusseldorf, and another big crowd for the summer, this time about 70,000 people. They came, rocked, and pleased a great crowd. On the small stage the biggest surprise: Little Red Rooster! |
| June 20: Mick was just perfect in Werchter |
| For some weeks everybody was really worried about Keith and his ribs. But then Mick got his voice problem, and the greatest tour on earth was again at halt. But tonight's show in Werchter surely proved that Mick is ready. He sang like he never did before, did a perfect version of Out Of Control, and The Last Time worked great on the small stage. The sound had improved from Nuremberg, and Keith, well he was just as good as he can get. Also, they did a great and bluesy version of Love In Vain, and Dead Flowers brought up some great solo playing by Ronnie. Charlie? Well, he made the biggest and most deserved applause during the presentations. Great show. See complete reviews and setlists here tomorrow morning... |
| June 19: New dates for Milan and Bilbao in September |
| The postponed shows in Milan and Bilbao will be rescheduled for some time in September. So that month will be real busy, as it is supposed to be the last month of the 1998 tour. |
| June 18: Bilbao postponed |
| Sorry, more bad news! The Bilbao concert has been cancelled too, due to Mick's laryngitis. The news were out in Bilbao late afternoon the day before the show, and before midnight, all of the stage had been moved out, on it's way to the next destination. Charlie went to the Guggenheim museum, and made it to the front pages of Spanish press, while Keith and Ronnie stayed in their hotel. Mick has been staying behind all the time, close to his doctors. The Rolling Stones left San Sebastian, their base in Spain, once the show was cancelled, and are now in Brussels, Belgium. Hopefully Mick will be fit for the Werchter shows! |
| June 16: Milan concert today postponed |
| The Rolling Stones show at the San Siro stadium, Milan, Italy today has been postponed. A new date will be available soon. The reason for the cancellation is Mick's voice not being good - sore throat. See the N�rnberg review about how his voice broke during the show. |
| June 16: Poland concert changed from Warsaw to Chorzow |
| The unconfirmed Rolling Stones concert in Warsaw, Poland has been changed into the city Chorzow. This city is approx. 300 km south of Warsaw, and the concert is planned for the Slaski Stadium, a football stadium with a capaacity of 70,000 people. |
| June 15: More N�rnberg reviews |
| As Stones fans driving home to Germany, Holland, Austria and other places, more reviews are coming in from the opening show. See the N�rnberg reviews. Some press references are in there too. PS. For the record: It's Nuremberg in English, and N�rnberg in German... |
| June 15: "Honest I Do" in "Hope Floats" soundtrack |
| Honest I Do is appearing on the new Hope Floats soundtrack in USA. The track was recorded by the Rolling Stones at the Toshiba-EMI studios, Tokyo during their 1995 tour. It is a bluesy version with nice guitar, harp and Keith backup vocals on top of a slinky Mick vocal in classic style. Hope Floats is a recent U.S. released movie featuring Sandra Bullock. |
| June 15: SAT-1 broadcast facts |
| The German SAT-1 broadcast featured some interesting takes from the Munich rehearsals, Keith explaining how he feels, Lisa massaging his ribs (!), interviews, pieces from the press conference in Munich June 11, plus some pieces from the Nuremberg concert. Nice work! PS. Please email if you have more facts about SAT-1 and/or TV4 broadcasts, as the IORR editor is still on the road... |
| June 13: Bridge opens in N�rnberg |
| The Bridges To Babylon bridge re-opened for Europe today, as the Rolling Stones played a big crowd in Nuremberg, Germany. Even if Mick had some troubles with his voice, the show was great, the crowd was good, and Keith was just as good as he use to be, if not even better! Surely no sign of broken ribs or whatever - as this was pure rock'n roll all the way! |
| June 13: Nurnberg show broadcast on SAT1 and TV4 |
| There will be a one hour broadcast by SAT1 in Germany from 22:15 of the Nurnberg show. They will show two songs live (may be Satisfaction and Out Of Control?), and probably add in lots more off-stage, archive stuff etc. TV4 in Scandinavia/Sweden will broadcast from 23:05 until midnight, so tune in your recorders, folks! |
| June 12: Tour to finish in Athens Sept. 20 |
| The Rolling Stones will finish their 1998 leg of the Bridges to Babylon tour in Athens, Greece on Sept. 20. Then they will have been constantly on tour for close to one year. Dates of Athens, Turkey etc to follow later today, see the 1998 tour dates list. |
| June 12: Rehearsals in Munich |
| The Rolling Stones did extensive rehearsals in Schwazing, Munich last night. They sounded great, and Keith was absolutely in top shape, no worries about moving around or anything. Some new songs were tried out, and worked perfectly. The Nurnberg show will be great, and wherever you will see the Stones this summer, you have something great to look forwaard to. |
| June 11: Press conference in Munich - Keith is fine! |
| The Rolling Stones held a press conference in Munich at 5pm, with about 200 journalists and camera people aiming at the best spots and shots. The opening question was again, like in New York last year, done by Mick, as he asked: "Keith, what was the book ....?" Keith replied "Leonardo da Vinci's book on anatomy". Lots of laughs. Keith was asked by the press if he was ready. He replied: "Yeah, I'm cool. Thanks for asking". Then he did his famous bows twice, to show he was perfectly fit. As they left, Keith signed a record sleeve, bowing deeply, to really prove his ribs were fine. So no worries, Keith is fit, and the Stones are all ready. |
| June 9: Prague show due in August |
| The official Rolling Stones Tour Site is now confirming that a show in Praha will definitely happen in August. The date of Aug. 16 has been in the IORR 1998 tour dates list for a long time, but Aug 18 and 24 are now available as well. The final Prague date is expected to be announced later this week. |
| June 9: Who`s to blame, and should we hate the Stones? |
| There's a lot of frustration around these days among Stones fans, and especially in Germany, France and UK. Did they really have to cancel all these shows, and do they take all our money? Is it really worth being a Stones fan in such a mess? Please, if you have anything to say in defence of the Stones, or if you feel bad about it, send your opinion by Email to IORR. I will do my best to sort out the opinions, and pass them via the IORR pages. For facts about the problems, see these pages (the IORR news section), and the UK references listed below. |
| June 9: UK cancellations making headlines |
| The cancellations of the four UK shows, scheduled for August, then postponed until June 1999, made big headlines in major newspapers in UK, as well as large press inserts in many other countries. UK headlines yesterday includes Jumping Jack Stash, Moaning Stones and Taxman gives no satisfaction. The original Reuters report tells the facts, while The Independent explains and fills in in a very good and sensible way, while papers like The Mirror does it the tabloid way. The truth and the plain fact is that new tax laws introduced this spring in UK would have dramatically changed the paycheck for each and every UK living crew member involved in the Stones tour, and even if Mick offered to play for free, he knew that his crew all have families to feed, budgets of their own lives, and rather than being nice to his fans, he paid respect to the crew, i.e. 270 or so people who makes this tour posasible. And as a bonus, next year we will get more shows, smaller shows, and shows in new UK cities. |
| June 8: Zagreb show resheduled for Aug. 20 |
| The Zagreb show is the last one of the postponed shows to be resheduled, and the new date is August 20, according to the official Rolling Stones Tour Site. For a complete list of tour dates see the IORR 1998 Tour Dates page, updated up to the minute, by the help of dedicated Stones fans all over the world. Thanks! |
| June 8: The Stones in Reykjavik Aug. 22 |
| The Rolling Stones will play in Reykjavik, Iceland, and the most probable date is August 22, i.e. the cancelled 2nd date of Wembley. They will play at an outdoor place called Sundahofn, a new docking area, with a capacity of 30,000 people. The total population of Iceland is approx. 250,000. So finally, good news for all Icelandic Stones fans! |
| June 8: All UK shows cancelled, new dates for 1999 |
| All of the four Rolling Stones shows in UK this summer have been cancelled, including Wembley (both), Edinburgh and Sheffield. New dates have been set to the two week-ends in the summer of next year, i.e. 1999, to Friday June 4 in Edinburgh, Sunday June 6 in Sheffield, and Friday/Saturday June 11/12 in London. The reason is said to be the new tax laws imposed in Britain this spring, that would introduce a big loss of the entire European Tour if they were to continue with the British dates as planned. Mick Jagger also promise they will do arena shows and club shows next summer in Britain, so in all these bad news, at least there are something to look forward to as well! More news to follow. |
| June 7: New date for the Berlin show on Aug. 26 |
| The last postponed show in Germany to be re-scheduled is the Berlin show, once planned for the tour opening, and now given the new date of August 26, according to the promoter CoCo Tours. And what about the Don Valley show in Sheffield on the same day, you might ask... Well, I have been afraid to tell, but it seems to be more than just rumours in the talks on the streets about the UK shows being in danger... Problems we will know more about in a couple of days time. |
| June 7: The World Cup is bad luck for ticket sales |
| When the Stones played Italy in 1990 shortly after the World Cup finished, the ticket sales were extremely bad. In fact they were so bad, that for the next tour in 1995, they did not play Italy at all. Now the same happens again in France for 1998. Lyon had only 14,000 sold, and Marseilles 40,000 out of the 60,000 capacity (unconfirmed figures). Only one large 70,000 capacity show in Paris is left for the French. |
| June 6: Ticket sales for the Hague show "slow" |
| Compared to the huge and fast ticket sales for the Amsterdam shows, the ticket sales for the Hague show on Sept. 5 went relatively slow today. Only 34,000 tickets out of the available 80,000 tickets were sold during the morning. Bad weather with thunderstorms was told to be a reason for the slow sales. One sales office had to open at 7am, 90 minutes prior to regular hours, in order to handle "wild fans". The rest of the tickets are expected to be sold on Monday. |
| June 5: Marseilles show on July 22 cancelled |
| Bad news again... sorry! France lost their 3rd show for the summer when the Marseilles show on July 22 just got cancelled! So all that's left for France is the Paris show on July 25, plus the World Cup in football, of course! All these cancellations in France leads to speculations if France would be the target for an arena size show. Only time will tell... |
| June 5: Paris 2nd show on July 26 cancelled |
| The 2nd Stones show in Paris on July 26th has been cancelled. So there won't be three shows in a row anyway that week-end (Paris 25th, Gelsenkirchen 27th). Unconfirmed info say the reason is poor ticket sales. Re-scheduling the Gelsenkirchen show is another good reason for the cancellation. So France lost two out of four Stones shows this summer, with Paris-2 and Lyon both bein cancelled. Too bad! |
| June 5: Official tour video in Europe |
| The official Bridges to Babylon tour video will be released next week in Germany. It will most probably be on sale at all the shows in Europe, like it appeared first time in April this year during the delayed US/Canada shows. The video is 120 minutes VHS PAL from the St. Louis show on Dec. 12. It is published by Soundhouse in Germany (phone 0049 5272 371750, fax 0049 5272 371790), who also handle worldwide mailorder. The price is DM 39 (approx US $ 21). |
| June 5: Barcelona new date; Gijon cancelled |
| The Stones show in Barcelona, Spain has been re-scheduled to July 20. The postponed show in Gijon Spain has been cancelled, due to poor ticket sales (only about 11,000 tickets sold). |
| June 4: Gelsenkirchen show on July 27 |
| The postponed Stones concert in Gelsenkirchen has been re-scheduled to Monday July 27, i.e. the day after the two Paris shows on July 25 and 26, and two days before the Copenhagen show on July 29. Unless they change the Paris dates, this will be the first time in many years the Stones play 3 complete shows in a row. The new Berlin date is now sealed and ready, but will not be officially announced until Sunday June 7, as they need to organize other changes first (i.e. other shows may be changed to make space for the Berlin show). |
| June 2: New tour dates available |
| Tour start in Nurnberg as scheduled on June 13. Next is the re-scheduled Milan show on June 16. Gijon, originally set for that date, will be re-scheduled for September. Munich is re-scheduled to July 13, and Mannheim has got the new date of September 12. The new Berlin and Gelsenkirchen dates will be available tomorrow. The 1998 tour dates list is updated to reflect these changes. |
| June 2: Tour start in N�rnberg June 13 |
| The delayed European Tour start will be in N�rnberg (Nuremberg) on Saturday June 13th. A press conference is to be held in Germany two days earlier. German TV Sat1 will broadcast two songs live from the show. |
| The old news file: | The IORR magazines: |
It's Only Rock'n Roll 1998 -
© The Rolling Stones Fan Club Of Europe