The Rolling Stones

Shine A Light (12A)

"MY luck hasn't run out I guess," beams Keith Richards when asked the question he always get asked in the new Stones documentary - just how does he keeps going?

The 64-year-old guitarist adds with a smile: "The trick is not to keep asking how you do it, but just to keep doing it."

Anyone who sees Shine a Light, by Martin Scorsese, would not begrudge Richards playing on beyond pension age.

Of course, the band's years are given away by their wrinkled, weather-beaten faces and the manner in which white-haired drummer, Charlie Watts, is occasionally spotted gasping for breath.

But their driving rock and ramshackle blues sounds so good you could be forgiven for thinking it's their 1970s' heyday.

It was filmed over two nights at the intimate Beacon Theatre in New York in 2006, with Scorsese putting together an all-star crew of cinematographers to capture the band's raw energy.

The cameras come at the Stones from every possible angle, swooping in and out on Mick Jagger and capturing every jolt and jerk of his performance.

Scorsese has worked with some testing characters during his career, perhaps none more so than the Stones.

At the start of the film, we see footage of a beleaguered Scorsese struggling to get hold of the band's set-list.

Half an hour before the Stones goes on stage, the diminutive director is pacing around like a tetchy Woody Allen.

"I would really like to know what the first song is going to be, that's all I'm asking," he says.

The band, ever the jokers, succumb by handing Scorsese a sheet of paper with just minutes to go.

The lights go on, the cameras whirr and the band break into a raucous Jumpin' Jack Flash.

So begins a rapturous hour-and-a-half journey through the rock, blues and country of the Stones' bulging back catalogue.

Jagger is joined by a string of guests, including a clearly blown away Jack White, of White Stripes fame, on Loving Cup.

He twists and preens around blonde bombshell Christina Aguilera for Live With Me and duets with blues legend Buddy Guy on the Muddy Waters song, Reefer & Champagne.

"Keef", who looks like a gypsy Grim Reaper in lashings of mascara, glittery black bandana and earrings, looks delighted to get a stab at singing two songs himself.

Afterwards, Jagger emerges from the back of the auditorium chanting "Hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo" - cue a magnificent Sympathy for the Devil and an encore of crowd-pleasers, Brown Sugar, Satisfaction and Start It Up.

After the gig, Scorsese pans the camera back out of the concert hall and over the New York skyline.

Backstage Richards gazes across at bassist Ronnie Wood, who looks about a decade younger than him with fashionable indie hair-do.

"I am starting to wear him out," he laughs.

Stones' fans will adore Shine a Light - all the better if you can catch it at the huge screen at the IMAX cinema in the South Bank.

BY PETER SHERLOCK.

Start It Up ????

Bassist Ronnie Wood ??????

Young (or not knowing) journalists, I tell ya

BTW - what's an 'indie hair-do?'

Good review though

Yeah - the chap's got the basic details a bit messed up, but I think his eyes and ears are workin. At least as well as those of the x-tremely controversial Sunday Times writer. (who probably has a small, but serious dysfunction that some very creative people have. A dysfunction that speeds up aggressivity and gets'em into trouble all the time)

Agree Addicted. The Sunday Times review is utter garbage - just someone who is out on a bent and out to be a punk writer in today's journalism. That guy is a twit

He must be!
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Addicted
At least as well as those of the x-tremely controversial Sunday Times writer. (who probably has a small, but serious dysfunction that some very creative people have.

Sounds like a polite way to say that size matters!

Quote
peter wilson
Start It Up ????

Bassist Ronnie Wood ??????

Young (or not knowing) journalists, I tell ya

BTW - what's an 'indie hair-do?'

Good review though

Those lapses are easily forgiven with that kind of enthusiastic review - unlike the other prat from the ST.

about the "indie hair-do" - maybe the writer considers that everything his hairdresser isn't allowed to do - to him. lol.

I actually don't think the Stones spend their bucks on expensive ladi dadi posh hairdressers. Thank god!

I dont know about the Hackney Gazzette but the Hackney Burger is one of the best in Chicagoland...

chelskeith, I met you at Pac Bell in 2002 and you know about the Hackney Burger?

I would say that generally the press over here in UK have given the film a good series of revues from what I have personally read ,I read a good revue last Friday in the Manchester Evening News for example then I turned my car radio on and the guy reviewing it on Radio Two tore it to bits, I didn't bother to listen to it all needless to say

Everyone from the burbs knows about the Hackney Burger- where did we meet?

I sat behind you and your wife on what I think was the second night at Pac Bell in 2002 and know one of the people from Milwaukee who had approached you about the ST name...you gave me your card...small world, isn't it?

I remember now.

Nice to meet you again.

John

My pleasure and here's hoping you have a comparable burger in California.

i remember Hackney burgers and i am delighted to hear they still exist.
now in true iorr tradition someone just needs to prove
they're still as good as they used to be and not merely a nostalgiaburger