As some of you already noticed, I love those little stories about the Stones,urban legends or ..fairytales .
Here are some of them.


Rolling Stones Rock The City of San Francisco with A Big Bang Beat
November 17, 2005

Look what four British cats dragged in. On Tuesday, November 15th, Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood brought themselves to San Francisco along with a brilliant Brooklyn-born vocalist by the name of Lisa Fischer, a stellar bass guitarist Darryl Jones and a killer keyboard player Chuck Leavell, to name only three of nine in the Rolling Stones band!

"Look What The Cat Dragged In" is actually the title of the band's fourteenth song of sixteen on their new "Virgin" album, A Bigger Bang.

"A Bigger Bang" was released on September 6th, 2005 during the Stones' current World Tour.

Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wood and Company are on their 2005-2006 world tour with Fischer, Jones and Leavell, as well as Bobby Keys on sax, Bernard Fowler and Blondie Chaplin singing back-up, Tim Ries on saxophone and keyboard, Kent Smith on trumpet and Michael Davis on trombone.

Remember these names because any one of them deserves their own stage. And very well may get one, one day.

In fact, after a little research, I learned that Fischer had been a back-up vocalist for Luther Vandross for years. She's also performed with Billy Ocean, Al Jarreau, Randy Crawford, Dionne Warwick, Roberta Flack, Maria Carey, Teddy Pendergrass, Aretha Franklin, Patti Labelle, just to name a few greats. In 1991, Fischer came out with her own CD called So Intense.

The legendary four and the nine talented musicians who support them, along with their promoters, producer, personnel, director, Next Adventure folks (whatever that means), production design team, fashion designers and stylists, steel crew, bus drivers, truck drivers and fan club, etc., etc., etc., "brought it" on Tuesday night. They brought it with a BIG bang.

Over 40,000 fans got to hear them play twenty-one Stone classics and new tunes. On the inside of SBC Park it was over two hours of bliss, especially when the stage moved toward center field, twenty feet from where we were standing. Tim and I were almost close enough to catch Jagger's guitar after he finished singing "Miss You".

I'd always wanted to go to a Stones concert growing up. As did Tim. For his 46th birthday, he got what he wanted.

While Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood did not perform their "cat" song on Tuesday night at SBC Park in San Francisco, the tunes they did sing had every dog in San Francisco howling at the nearly full moon and every fan applauding high in the air.

Now, finally I understand why Mick Jagger & Company are the musicians to witness -- live in concert.

The guy is 61 years of age, but he doesn't look a day over 49 on stage.

In fact, with the way he moved, you'd think he was still in his twenties. Inspiring, to say the least.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Among the more than 40,000 Evergreen, Metallica and Rolling Stones fans in the house on Tuesday night, there was a fan waving her Connecticut "STONES" license plate.

Half the fun of the evening was getting to people watch. I've never seen so many tongues printed on garments in my life. On pants, shirts, head bands, leather jackets, they were all over. And then at the end of the show, there was a colorful blown up tongue three stories tall.

Bill Walton was also standing tall in the crowd.

Behind the band, in what I called the Butterfly Wings section, VIPs sat with a bird's eye view and became part of the dramatic show behind the stage.

At one point in the show, I said to Tim, "It looks like The Stones are getting closer." And they were. The center part of the stage was literally rolling from its original location in center field to our seats near home plate. What a joy it was to see The Stones "up close and personal" from twenty feet and not just via the huge video screen hundreds of feet away.

In between each "wing" was a huge sixty-foot tall video screen. This production alone was worth the price of admission. It was richly retrospective, diverse in style, very hip and high energy, from start to finish.

We also loved their "rugged elegant" rock star attire. Of course, Mick gets the award for most outfits that shine. Keith also had the look going.

From their sound, to their look, to the staging, to Mick's dancing and prancing, to the feeling that remains now that these legendary rock 'n rollers have rolled out of San Francisco and headed to Vegas, the Rolling Stones delivers a Big Bang that reverberates more than seven miles from the perimeter of their stage.

It's now Thursday, and I am still basking in the glow of the Stones beat on Tuesday night.

Yesterday morning, I couldn't stop singing "Honky Tonk Woman" and the last song in their encore, "Satisfaction".

It was well worth the $164 per person price tag. So was the $25 official program.

If you're lucky enough to have tickets for one of the upcoming concerts in Las Vegas (11.18.05 and 3.4.06), Fresno (11.20), Salt Lake City (11.22), Denver (11.24), Glendale (11.27), Dallas (11.29), Houston (12.1), Memphis (12.3), Montreal (1.10.06), Boston (1.13 and 1.15), New York City (1.18, 1.20 and possibly 3.14), Chicago (1.23 and 1.25), St. Louis (1.27), Omaha (1.29), Baltimore (2.1), Detroit (2.5), Inglewood (3.6), North Little Rock (3.9), Ft. Lauderdale (3.12) and possibly Atlanta, San Antonio and Honolulu in March, you will not be disappointed. In fact, you're likely to be very "satisfied" -- just as we were!

Way to go gentlemen and Ms. Fischer! And thank you, all of you!!


[www.ruggedelegantliving.com]



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-01 11:27 by SwayStones.

I quite like 'Look What the Cat Dragged In'....great solo and some lyrics that at least I can relate to

Hey I was at that show. Good show,nice review. Except it was Everclear,not Evergreen that opened.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-06-26 19:30 by sweetcharmedlife.

and there's more than just the one honky tonk woman....

yeah it's plural - womens.

Quote
sweetcharmedlife
Hey I was at that show. Good show,nice review. Except it was Everclear,not Evergreen that opened.

Nice to hear it was a faithful review .thanks for your comments.

Chic Mick
February 5 2003




What does a mega-famous, 59-year-old lead singer with a tiny waist wear onstage? Ian Parker follows Mick Jagger into the dressing room.


One afternoon last August, Mick Jagger stood in front of a full-length mirror in a windowless room in downtown Toronto, plucking at the cloth of a pair of narrow, black satin trousers that had been made for him by Hedi Slimane, the designer at Christian Dior Homme.

"They’re a bit, a bit — for want of a better word — feminine," Jagger said, assuming the over-enunciated, borderline-camp accent of a Soho drag queen.

Looking at the trousers from one angle and then another, he said: "They’re all right to wear for pictures and that. But I don’t like the way they fall." They fell straight.

Jagger in the flesh is incredibly slight. One fashion stylist who worked with him said he had "the hips of a Spanish waiter".

"If you use thin material, it doesn’t have a flow. It’s too flimsy," Jagger said. Then, with faux impatience that did not quite disguise real impatience, he said: "OK, what else?"


The Rolling Stones, in preparation for their current Licks world tour, had spent the American summer rehearsing five evenings a week in Toronto. On this particular day, Jagger was trying on a rack of stage outfits with the kind of fuss that marks a change of government in a small country. He had asked for his dressing room to be cleared of all but what he called "the minimum number of people" — this meant Jagger’s fashion stylist, Maryam Malakpour, myself and five others.

Malakpour, an Iranian-born woman in her early 30s, worked on the previous Stones tour in 1999, and has also styled Jagger in his solo career. For this tour, he wanted to commission pieces from Slimane at Dior, whom he had met socially. He had also been struck by the handsomely weathered T-shirts made by Buddhist Punk, a London company.

Malakpour had the task of calling these designers, adding ideas of her own, seeing the European menswear shows and then, in June, arranging a presentation and fitting session in Paris.

At strict 15-minute intervals during this first showing, in a fairy-tale scene that lacked only a small boy pointing an impudent finger, designers or their representatives laid out costumes for the approval of the newly knighted Sir Mick.

Jagger ordered 100 or so items, most of them versions of the latest collections, but made in stretchier fabrics or brighter colours or with extra crystals to catch the light. (A rock star has roughly the same fashion priorities as a six-year-old girl.)

The clothes had begun to arrive in Toronto, where, during this second fitting, Jagger had the manner of an easygoing but hurried customer being shown property by an estate agent. He was due at rehearsal any minute.

To change, he stepped into an adjoining bathroom, then reappeared, saying, "Is the neck too scooped?" or "We are as red as red!" or "It’s itchy, too itchy, very itchy, super-itchy".

He tried on a sleeveless Buddhist Punk T-shirt emblazoned with a variation of what Rolling Stones people call the "classic tongue" logo, and two Dior shirts studded with crystals that spelled out "Mick" on one and formed a tongue against a black background on the other. He tried on a pair of black leather Nikes, explaining he has the soles doctored so he can spin.

But, as Malakpour said: "In the end, it's all about the trousers." According to Jagger, the problem with stage trousers is that they need to have some give - allowing him to run around on stage like a teenager - but he wants them to be properly cut, not mere leggings.

"You're in them a lot, more than anything else," he said. "They've got to keep their shape. And the trouble is, stretch fabrics start to bag. Round your bum or wherever, it all starts bagging, and you're endlessly pinning."

He went into the bathroom and came back in a pair of loose, dark trousers by young German designer Dirk Schonberger. Turning from the mirror to Malakpour, Jagger said cautiously: "These are baggy enough to move about in. I might be able to wear them onstage. But they're a bit dull, aren't they? He could do other ones, in different colours apart from grey, he could do . . ."

"Exactly," she said. "Red."

"Blue. So it would be a bit more swishy."

Jagger has been dressing for the stage for 40 years. The band's first manager, Andrew Oldham, was a "clothes fanatic", Jagger said. "He loved clothes, and that's what managers did then - they dressed up the lads. One of his greatest pleasures was to take you to the tailor. We'd have our street clothes made and our stage clothes, and that was that."

In the '60s, Jagger wore suits and thin ties (briefly), then mod shirts and corduroy jackets, then scarves and devilish frills, and the Uncle Sam hat and the black "omega" T-shirt at Altamont, California. Later, the eyes of the fans were directed more towards the Jagger crotch, which was clothed in embroidered, unzipped Ossie Clark jumpsuits and tight-laced knee breeches during Jagger's sporty, gay-quarterback phase.

Throughout Jagger's career, one look has remained constant: the hard male core (tightly covered Nureyev abs and crotch) that is teasingly revealed beneath a layer or two of something more feminine. There are similarities between Jagger's recent stage costumes and, say, his celebrated outfit for the Hyde Park concert in 1969; a white "dress", as the newspapers called it, over white pants. (Jagger described it as "a funny, flouncy thing . . . sort of peasant blouse, gathered here". He pointed to his upper thigh.)

On the Licks tour, as before, Jagger is likely to take the stage in a three-quarter-length coat, then do a striptease during the first songs; later, he will leave and reappear in a more ornate coat, creating a moment of fashion drama. Malakpour and Jagger call this all-important piece a "fantasy coat".

One fantasy coat had been ordered from Dior; others were coming from Italian label Costume National, New York company Body Worship and Alexander McQueen.

Sliding into a long Hedi Slimane coat made of red satin, which had four lengths of fringe sewn horizontally into the lining, Jagger trumpeted "Da da da!" and then bent his elbows and waved his arms up and down in a familiar flapping dance. It was a gesture of due diligence, not exuberance. Jagger's coats all have extra material under the arms to make this kind of movement easier. "A gusset," Jagger said, savouring the word.

By now, he could hear Keith Richards singing Heart of Stone upstairs. He went to join the rehearsal. After he left, I passed Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones' drummer and a famously enthusiastic clothes horse, in the corridor. I told him I was writing about Jagger's stage clothes. "That will keep you busy for half an hour, that will," he said, feigning scorn.

Two weeks later, on the last day of rehearsals in Toronto, Jagger was with Malakpour in his dressing room, modelling his Body Worship fantasy coat. Constructed from a dozen pairs of shredded jeans, scraps of leather and silk printed with design motifs from previous tours, and featuring the new tour's logo - a Jeff Koons rendition of lips - the coat was a history of the Rolling Stones.

"We could put Miss Venezuela across the back," Jagger said, with a fractional movement of his eyebrow, referring to the patchwork complexity of his personal life and his former relationship with Vanessa Neumann. "Twelve pairs of jeans? Makes me sound fat."

Clothes were an integral part of his performing, Jagger said. "Part of the process of going onstage is to become a stage person. And even if I wore these trousers" - he had arrived at rehearsal in a T-shirt and Dirk Schonberger trousers - "on the day that I put them on for the stage they're stage trousers."

The only time Jagger performs without first dressing the part is when he is drawn into an impromptu guest duet. "My first worry is 'What am I wearing?' Say I go and see Lenny Kravitz or Sheryl Crow, there's always a great danger of them asking you. They may not. You never ask, 'Can I sing with you?' You wait until you're asked, and then if you're wearing the wrong thing you're in trouble. The clothes are important. Guitar players always think it's about what they play, you know. Lead singers have another attitude."

He looked in the mirror and asked Malakpour: "More crystals?"

"I would say, don't you think?"

"Yeah. A bit. Just a bit more sparkle."

- Telegraph Magazine



[www.theage.com.au]



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

Quote
T&A
and there's more than just the one honky tonk woman....

Well, actually no !!

Originally the title has really been: Honky Tonk Woman !

Rolling Stones Techie Shines A Light On Mick's Love Of The iPod



Richard Kerris, the chief technical officer of Lucasfilm, was also technical adviser to the last two Rolling Stones tours and in a recent interview with Variety's David Cohen he touted the Stones' technical adventurousness.

Kerris was the first person to show Keith Richards an iPod."I said ‘This can hold 4,000 songs.’ He looked at it and looked up and said ‘I better start writing.’"

Kerris says: "On the 40 Licks tour, which is where it started, they’d record every single show. They’ve done that for years, but what they’d do with the Licks tour, they would actually record it to a laptop. If you look at any of the old videos from that tour you’ll see a laptop, a Mac laptop sitting behind Charlie, everything’s recorded with these two stereo mics, so they have a rough, they have a full 48-track underneath, but everything goes into that laptop.
Everything’s connected to a little distribution amp with five Firewire cables hanging off of it. So while the band was doing their bows and the fireworks were going at the very end, the backline crew would plug in their iPods, synchronize the thing, and put in their bathrobes an iPod that had that night’s show, so when they came offstage, they’d grab their stuff, get in their car and they would have the show with them right then and there. No one had done anything like that at all."

Soon after the iPod came out, "Mick was right on it. He was like, 'I want to get every night’s show so I can listen to it that night and know what was good and what didn’t work, etc.' So they established this whole thing working with the background crew, I showed them where you could daisy-chain the iPods and synchronize them at once. So it was really fun.
From there they used GarageBand for their last album as they did all their demos. That was mainly Mick and Keith. Keith doesn’t use the computer as much, he just recognizes what part it plays."

There are two shots of Kerris in "Shine a Light" - he's stage left about 20 rows back. "Having seen the band as many times as I did, aside from rehearsals and backstage jamming, that was the best show they’ve ever done that I’ve seen. They were on fire."

On a personal note, a few quick thoughts on the superb Imax version of the film "Shine a Light." Great version of "Some Girls"; using the sound mix to emphasize the musician on the screen is a risky choice that works almost every time; camerawork is so tight and steady one could count Mick's noticeable number of fillings; intimacy within a performance is impossible for Mick and Keith; "Sympathy for the Devil" is the best shot tune in the pic; Christina Aguilera should record "Live With Me" on her next album; and it's time to retire "Far Away Eyes."


[weblogs.variety.com]



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

5:00AM Sunday Apr 23, 2006

By Mick Jagger wines, dines, opens up to a young lovely in his hotel room. The thing is and she was working undercover for the Herald on Sunday. Rachel Clucina reports on an enchanting four nights with a rock star.


So Mick Jagger is lying on the couch beside me in his enormous Auckland hotel suite. He's wearing socks - bright yellow, scare-the-horses socks.

"Mork and Mindy yellow," I suggest. He laughs his deep, horsey, sexy laugh. The night before they'd been black with hot pink and green stripes.

"I love loud socks," he'd said then. At that moment, I loved them, too.

I'm stretched out on the couch next to the most famous ladies' man in music, discussing art and Arsenal, the Kiwi cricketers in South Africa, girlfriends and marriage contracts, drugs and Chinese politics. It's surreal, but also bizarrely normal.

"I've got something special for you, Rach," he says, excitedly, dashing off to bring a bottle of Marlborough chardonnay he'd organised for our last night in this suite. Yes, I spent four fabulous nights with the legendary Mick Jagger - but it's not what you think. Sure there was copious amounts of flirting, numerous bottles of French champagne and lots of late-night laughs - but that's as rock'n'roll as it got. Well ... almost.

Was it easy be-friending a Rolling Stone? Not exactly. There was the burly bodyguard in a bulletproof vest I met the night before the band's Auckland gig last Sunday who said he was on the look-out for "prowlers".

"You know," he explained, "paparazzi, journalists and young women who want to meet Mick and get their picture in the paper." Oh God, I panic. I'm all three of those.

We're sitting in the lobby bar of the Langham Hotel, where Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie had arrived two hours earlier. I'll be honest - I was on an official undercover stakeout for the Herald on Sunday. Perhaps I might catch Mick flirting with a pretty girl. Maybe I'd see someone drink too much. Take drugs. It's gossip, not rocket science. There are 385 people in the Rolling Stones entourage and crew - something had to happen.

Just after midnight Mr Jagger makes a low-key entrance into the bar - the others, I later learn, prefer to party privately in their rooms. "They've got wives and family," it's explained.

My girlfriend and I stay to drink Bollinger Reserve with the entourage while Mick is two seats away and, though I never get to speak to him, it's all terribly exciting.

Next day, the bodyguard - Paris Hilton's former protection - calls. Nice to have met me, he says, and would I like a couple of VIP tickets to the concert? We could catch up afterwards. At Western Springs, I get a text wondering if I'm happy with the seats. Happy? I was a personally-invited guest, sitting a handful of rows from the front and I'm partying with the Rolling Stones later. Happy was an understatement.

Back at the hotel bar, post-concert, Jagger's bodyguard whisks me aside and whispers that Jagger would like to come down - would I mind sitting and talking with him? "He likes pretty girls," he winks. Within minutes, guests were turfed off a couch, chairs had been drawn up and I was being beckoned to sit and await His arrival. Beside me is my undercover sidekick, Olivia Hemus, former model, social photographer, a snappy little camera sitting pretty in her bag. We wait.

The wiry man in the disheveled shirt and jersey around his shoulders looks little like the rebellious, arrogant, peacock showman I'd seen earlier on stage. He meanders around the bar then lounges on the couch next to me. And so the fun begins.

Mick Jagger is a talker and the banter never stops. Was the Easter bunny good to him? It was better to his kids, as he'd sent luxurious chocolate eggs all over the world.

"I have seven bloody kids," he laughs. "I could have my own basketball or volleyball team." He brags about his lavish holiday home in the Loire Valley, where he goes to "relax and unwind, though all my friends like to holiday on the Dalmatian coast at the moment". Vacation name-dropping. Bless. I'm impressed.

There's no doubt Jagger loves the company of women - young women particularly. He is an incessant flirt, but charming with it. And there is that Peter Pan complex. He's smitten with our youthful enthusiasm and likes a bit of attitude. Though there is a universe of difference between our lives, he'll compare his various exploits with mine. On my New York travel tales: "Oh yeah, the Chelsea Hotel. I used to visit Dylan when he stayed there but that was before he made his money."

Mick is nothing if not cool but there's still an appealing vulnerability about him. He's theatrical and tactile; he recoils into his thin frame, crossing his outstretched arms across his chest.

He commissions Alexander McQueen and Dior menswear designer Hedi Slimane - master of the thin androgynous look - to make his stage costumes. "I'm getting new ones from Hedi when I get back to Europe," he says. "But I always have to stipulate to him not too thin, I have to be able to move on stage."

He calls the waiter for more champagne. But not for him, he's on water. "Three's my limit and I've guzzled them back already tonight."

And that is just one of the surprises about the debonair but disciplined Mick Jagger.

Over the next few nights, I learn that the man infamous for sex, drugs and Marianne Faithfull never touches cocaine because he can't keep up that lifestyle anymore. He bought champagne for us but won't touch the stuff himself. He hates the bubbles.

His thirst, these days, is for good conversation, a good workout and his own creative work. But that's not to say he doesn't like a laugh. We're sitting side by side on the couch and our thighs are touching.

"Oh my God," I shriek. My thighs are twice the size of his.

He roars with laughter.

He hates going out with people who don't eat. Karl Lagerfeld, he says, never eats.

Despite that tiny frame, I can attest that Mick Jagger eats. Though he spent the next three days in Wellington ("are you coming?" he'd asked - like I was a bonafide groupie. But no, I had to work) his bodyguard rang on Wednesday night to say Jagger would like to go to dinner. We went to Cibo (he makes the booking under the name "James" with Olivia and Victoria, the Welsh woman who runs his LA film production company. The rock star ate quail salad and duck confit - and most of my chocolate dessert.

He drank merlot, sparingly, and water. We talked about, well, tabloid journalism. Jagger's making a film about it and he reckons Rupert Murdoch is worse than George Bush. No accountability, apparently.

Mick knows that I own a marketing company, but he has no idea of my other job - for the Herald on Sunday. Olivia has told him she's studied photography. And, thankfully, he doesn't hate all journalists. Mick prepared for last month's historic tour to China by ringing his old mates to ask what he should know about Chinese censorship.

"I rang Bill Clinton for some advice on what to say to the media," he says. And then he was miffed none of the Western journalists were interested - they just wanted to know what songs he'd had to cut. "I don't care [that the Stones had to cut four songs] - we've got 400 to pick from!"

Mick has flown back to Auckland to film a cameo role in an ABC comedy pilot - the rest of the band, he says, has scattered. "Ronnie's gone to Fiji - he keeps calling himself an Islander," he laughs. He cannot understand why the Americans in the entourage flew straight back to the US. Mick wants to travel - he once ate raw puffin meat in Iceland and is off to Cambodia and Laos with his backpack and Lonely Planet guide for the next two weeks. Daughter Elizabeth, he confides, is holidaying in New Zealand with friends. One of Mick's holiday homes is in Mustique and a rave about the West Indian diet becomes a conversation about Type-2 diabetes and Maori.

Olivia, the undercover photographer, requests a snap. Jagger refuses. He confesses he's been burned recently by a woman he met in a hotel lobby. She wanted a picture with him. He obliged, and found himself front-page news and in a supposed relationship. Olivia begs, saying my mother would love to see it on her birthday next week. Jagger relents, a bit. "Oh sweetheart, let me write your mum a note instead, eh?"

Jagger's paranoia about girls is well founded. There has been the long, long list of lovers and wives and one-night stands but Jagger is still a romantic. He talks about the "beautiful little church in France" where he married first wife Bianca but says, without irony, that people don't always realise the significance of a marriage contract.

"There are two legal contracts - one to your partner and one to the state," he says. Business contracts are more his thing, these days.

On Thursday my phone rings at 11pm. "Hi Rach, it's Mick," he says. (Ohmigod, Mick Jagger just phoned me.) We had planned to go dancing but Mick's tired after filming. Would I like to come over to the suite? "I'm under Mr Cameron."

Tonight he is at his most relaxed. There are those yellow socks (topped by extremely tight grey trousers) and he's jovial, proud he chose wine he thought I'd like and keen to know if I can pick its region. His bags are packed for Friday's flight out, Sade's latest song is on his iPod and he's joking about the differences between his many children.

When Georgia was 9, he tells us, she insisted on going to his local cinema to see the Spice Girls' movie. Jagger didn't want to go but his daughter won. And when she wouldn't carry her soft toy, Spot, he did. "She goes 'oh Dad, I can't be seen walking in with Spot', so I have to walk into the movie carrying a stuffed dog."

He obviously loves his kids, but he doesn't mind poking a bit of fun. Will they reciprocate? "Oh yeah," he says. But his second wife Jerry Hall cops more. The kids aren't always enamoured with what Hall wears, telling her she 'can't go out dressed like that'. Jagger says he tells his former wife she should wear what she wants.

Hall this week told the Daily Mail in Britain that women should stay away from rock stars.

Me, I'm glad I didn't. Sure, Mick didn't know about my other job, writing for this paper. If he had, chances are my four nights would have been barely four minutes. But the subterfuge was necessary to meet the real man, to find out what a famous rock star is really like.

Jagger was simply the most fascinating man I've ever met. He's sexy, intelligent, learned, enormously funny and passionate. He also never laid a sensual hand on me; always the perfect gentleman, even thanking me for the fabulous time together.

It's 2am now and we're tired. Mick hugs and kisses me goodbye and invites me to visit him in Europe this summer. "Ooh, I'd love to," I confess. London and the Loire Valley, I dream. And wouldn't that be the most perfect follow-up story? ..



[www.nzherald.co.nz]



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

They used GarageBand to make the demos for A Bigger Bang?

Quote
skipstone
They used GarageBand to make the demos for A Bigger Bang?

Mick Jagger may push his music through any digital music system going, but he's an iPod user when it comes down to personal choice. And the Rolling Stones used Macs and GarageBand to help create their most recent album.

Variety has an interview with the band's tech guru, Richard Kerris - yes, that Richard Kerris, the man who bought Maya to Macs, who led Apple's video application teams and now works at Lucasarts. Kerris spills the beans on the Rolling Stones' Mac and iPod usage. Each live performance during the band's 40 Licks tour was filmed and pumped into a Mac, with stage crew then transferring the footage to the band's personal iPods. When the band left the stage, the iPods containing their performance were popped into their pockets as they walked to their cars, and the band would then watch the footage back at their hotel. Soon after the iPod came out, "Mick was right on it. He was like, 'I want to get every night’s show so I can listen to it that night and know what was good and what didn’t work, etc.' So they established this whole thing working with the background crew, I showed them where you could daisy-chain the iPods and synchronize them at once. So it was really fun," Kerris explains. Kerris also reveals the 'Stones used GarageBand for their last album as they did all their demos.
[ww.9to5mac.com]

Does it sound lame ?



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

I was looking at what all is on GarageBand and it seems like a lot of work to deal with that shit. I don't really need to make it sound like some sampled thing and then loop it. But I'm guessing maybe that's what Mick did with, I dunno, Rain Falls Down.

What happened to just playing the drums and recording it on 2 mics? Has anyone here used GarageBand to record songs with, as in, YOUR guitar, YOUR piano, YOUR drums, etc...

Been using reaper; for demo stuff.

I am struck by the fact that there are boots of every show; (in existence at least). I wonder how far back this habit of their's goes to record every note. I have often read when it comes to Stones that they love to keep the record button 'On'. In the studio, and live. Doesn't this go as far back as '72?

The Rolling Stones
A Bigger Bang" tour 2005-6 & beyond...
Between a rock & a grey place...
copyright 2005 by www.montenordstrom.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Rolling Stones continue their amazing reign as the elder monarchs of the Rock World. Their massive "A Bigger Bang" world tour is the hottest ticket on the market & with good reason. The Stones are a guaranteed commodity & they deliver the goods every time.
The Rolling Stones retain their massive popularity through sheer hard work, despite occasional mis-fires. Its a legacy that continues to grow with each passing recording & tour. God knows they don't need the money. What makes them so inspiring to me is their passion & drive, not to mention their well of creativity, professionalism, marketing savvy & trend-setting stylism.
I know I won't miss another Stones tour. Age is not a factor here. It's an honour to see these grizzled warriors displaying their craft. Personally I hope they continue to perform into their 80s, like the old blues singers that inspired them in the first place.

A brief & obvious history: Jagger & Richards first met as school-mates in short pants when they were in primary grades in 1954, the year I was born. By the time they got a band together with Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman & Brian Jones in 1962, they had know idea they'd be spending the next 43+ years rocking together. If they continue for another 7 years they'll be celebrating 50 years as a band!
When the Stones first started rolling, they were a largely derivative unit of Blues/RnB mimicking upstarts, riding the Beatles first wave of the British Invasion into the TV sets of North America & eventually the world. Many people will disagree on this point, but John & Paul did lend the Stones their first hit with "I Wanna be Your Man".
More ragged & blues-oriented than the Pop-starry Liverpudlians, London's young Rolling Stones gave us a dangerous alternative to the Beatles cherubic image. And once Jagger & Richards charted with their first self-penned hit "Tell Me", they seldom leaned on anyone else. Their legendary hits proferred on "High Tide & Green Grass" in 1966 already revealed the group's greatness as songwriters.
The album "Their Satanic Majesty's Request", (the Stones' 1967 response to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper) has long been considered an embarrassment. I disagree. The album did feature brilliant artwork & two classic songs: "She's a Rainbow" & "2000 Light Years From Home", but in retrospect it should have contained the singles "We Love You" & Dandelion", as well as the lesser known period piece, "Child of the Moon". With this augmentation the album would stand in much higher regard as a progressive document of the psychedelic 60's.
After all, the Beatles remarketing machine recently had the revamped "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" released to great acclaim. And besides, the Beatles followed up Pepper with the disjointed "Magical Mystery Tour", while the Stones roared back in 1968 with a dark vengeance on "Beggar's Banquet", followed closely by "Let It Bleed" in 1969, both legendary albums, fusing acoustic roots-rock with electric blues.
We all know that Lennon & McCartney permanently parted ways in 1970, so you have to give the edge to the venerable Stones with their jaw-dropping catalogue of hits. If the Rolling Stones' legacy only consisted of their 60's output, which ended with the live, "Get Your Ya Ya's Out", from the ill-fated Altamont tour, they would still have to be considered with the Beatles, as one of the two greatest acts of that explosive decade. As it is, in 1971 the Stones, despite rampant unhealthy lifestyles, managed to give us the magnificent "Sticky Fingers" as their introduction to the dissolute 70's.
Scandal has come to be expected from these bad boys of R&R. Jagger's ongoing amorous peccadilloes & Keef's notorious drug busts/Swiss blood exchanges, for example. Almost every post-'72 album from the Stones has been released to scathing disregard. They soldier on in spite of jibes from the media, which has delighted over the years in ridiculing their efforts, writing them off as passe or out of focus. Most artists would wither from this treatment, but the Stones have always taken it in stride & it simply adds to their mystique.
When "Exile on Main Street" first came out in 1972, it was panned by critics. The dark sprawl of the recording even confused many of their long-time fans. Now it is considered to be the best double album in rock history. Talk about revisionism.
Some people say that "Exile" was their last great album. I don't think this is true, although the consistancy of each subsequent album in the 70's & 80s would have to be questioned. "Goats Head Soup" & "It's Only Rock & Roll" both contain several important songs that continue to retain their vitality. A major turning point here was 1976's stylistically strong, "Black & Blue" which introduced Ron Wood to us all, as the new Stone Apparent (guitarist Mick Taylor's replacement).
While Woody injected new life into the group's dynamics, by 1978 the "Some Girls" album was looked upon by many as a desperate attempt to stay current. It presented the Stones with a punked-up sound that was out of sync with Jagger's Pop-tart posturing of the day. (BTW: It's consider a classic now.) By 1980's "Emotional Rescue", it seemed like the group was exhausted of creativity & devoid of meaning. The 80's were somewhat of a forgotten decade for the Stones, starting strongly with "Tattoo You", floundering slightly with "Undercover" (a good song & kooky video), then skidding into internal dissolution with "Dirty Work" in 1986. Even this album had it's moments with the funky remake of "Harlem Shuffle" & the battling rocker, "One Hit to the Body". But by 1989 the Glimmer Twins had sorted out their various differences & got back to focusing on writing & performing. With their massive "Steel Wheels" tour as a model, the Stones continue Rolling to this day.
In time many of the Stones recordings of the last 20 years will be reinspected & also found to be of a more significant stature. Even "Steel Wheels", "Voodoo Lounge" & "Bridges to Babylon", have been slagged by pessimists as hollow echoes of the Stones' former greatness. I see these recordings as vital documents of the Glimmer Twins remarkable, continuing songwriting skills.


The Rolling Stones newest studio CD, "A Bigger Bang" is yet another journeyman recording that codifies the Stones' unique & recognizable sound. Most concert goers pay to hear the greatest hits, & while this band does not disappoint them in that department, the Stones are not merely content to simply rework their substantial back-catalogue as a nostalgia act. The Rolling Stones continue to be inspired to create new classics & deliver them with no-nonsense style.
Between defining trashy rock & delivering sweet balladry, Jagger & Richards must be commended for pulling off yet another recording of merit. "A Bigger Bang" adds a few more instant classics to that ever growing setlist. It's not that they need the money. They obviously love what they do. Writing is their passion.
The ballad "Streets of Love" with its confessional falsetto delivery is an instantly recognizable hook, along the lines of "Fool to Cry". And on "Biggest Mistake" when Jagger tenderly delivers the chorus lyric "and I think I just made- the biggest mistake of my life...", he is perhaps reflecting on his relatively recent parting from Jerri Hall. This sentimentality is nicely balanced with a gritty acoustic blues, "The Back of My Hand", featuring Jagger's snarly harmonica & vocals, which harkens back to the early Stones cover of Slim Harpo's "I'm a Kingbee".
Keith Richards' standard gruff offerings are both here, a sandpaper ballad called "This Place is Empty" & a bit of self-mocking wordplay on the rocker "Infamy". In my opinion Keith's rough-hewn ability to reach out & touch your heart is the Stones' secret weapon. That & the anchor of drummer Charlie Watts unerring backbeat.
Turgid thumpers like "Rough Justice", "Dangerous Beauty" & "Oh No, Not You Again" display the bruising ferocity of Keef & Ronnie's guitar intermeshings, while both the moody reggae-inflected "Rain Fall Down" & the lascivious skank of "She Saw Me Coming" would have fit nicely in the "Black & Blue" period.
The least cohesive track on the new CD is "My Sweet Neocom", a swipe at the George Bush regime. It's just not a good fit with the rest of the album. Maybe it'll grow on me more after GWB self-destructs. These days with CDs getting crammed with up to 80 minutes of programming, it is hard to get excited about every cut of anybody's release, let alone the Rolling Stones. I think that recordings just feel better with 10 to 12 cuts, but thats' my observation & I've broken that rule myself. Another gripe is the CD packaging which is badly laid-out & hard to read. Don't tell me I need glasses. That print is way too small!

The Rolling Stones in concert: November 1st, Rosegarden, Portland Oregon:
Opening act Motley Crewe had their work cut out for them from the start here. Its always hard to open for a legend & the Stones' fans have been known to be vociferous & impatient at times. The Crewe did their nasty best to hold the fort for their set & managed to do quite well, despite having a guitarist that makes Keith Richards look like a young health nut.
Drummer, Tommy Lee kept the beat pounding, while lead singer, Vince Ready exhorted the Stones fans to "make some F-ing noise M-F-ers!" Add a hellish roar from the cadaverous guitar maven, a bit of pyrotechnics & some typically obnoxious rock posturing & the audience was suitably warmed up for the headliners.
After a quick turnaround by the roadies, which allowed a visit to the beer-line up & merchandise tables, the stage was set for the Rolling Stones. The air was electric as they took the stage, opening with "Start Me Up"(of course), which provoked thunderous adulation & we never looked back for solid two hours of sheer magic, which was effectively augmented by a video camera crew, feeding live footage to the jumbo screen on the back of the stage.
Fully expecting a healthy slice of new material, the Stones waited til song 5 (after "It's Only RnR"; "She's So Cold",& "Tumbling Dice") to introduce "Oh No Not You Again" from the Bigger Bang CD. Next they toned it down with a seldom performed "Angie", a lovely rendition, probably replacing "Wild Horses" which I wished they'd have played instead.
Next up was the heavy grind of "Midnight Rambler", with Mick giving his harmonica an effective workout. Charlie's drum shots boomed like a cannon, as Keith slashed into "All Down the Line" which brought the concert to a departure from the usual setlist, with a Ray Charles cover, "The Night Time is the Right Time", which had us all on our feet singing on the choruses again.
Mick welcomed visitors from Vancouver, Canada at this point & introduced the backing band, which was augmented by long-time sidemen, Chuck Leavell on keyboards; the solid & attentive, Darryl Jones on bass; the brilliant vocal trio of Blondie Chapman, Bernard Fowler & Lisa Fisher & finally a horn section led by the Stones' inimitable saxophonist, Bobbie Keys.
Mick then turned the stage over to Keith, who opened his spot with a ballad from the "Steel Wheels" album. This performance inspired me to research & revisit the band's later recordings & I'm glad I did it. Believe me, there wasn't a dry eye in the house after Keith's performance of "Slipping Away". Feel the LOVE! Keef followed this up with "Infamy" from Bigger Bang. Keith & Charlie are so locked in, it is impossible not to groove on every song they play.
We knew something was up when the vocal trio & horn section exited & the core group clustered in mid-stage. As the unmistakable intro to "Miss You" started, the centre section of the stage began to roll slowly forward into the middle of the Rosegarden Arena, which is already an intimate 3-tiered NBA basketball venue.
This brought the band eye-to-eye with the crowd & was a very effective "upping of the ante" performance-wise. The core group then broke into the new song, "Rough Justice", a typical Stones thumper that had the crowd on its feet. This was quickly followed by "You Got Me Rocking", from "Voodoo Lounge", before opening into the unmistakable intro of "Honky Tonk Women". As this song progressed, the stage slowly returned to its original location & by the second verse the horns & vocal section were back in the mix & the place went wild when Bobbie Keys took his sax solo!
"Sympathy For the Devil" followed before Keys got another chance to freak everybody out on "Brown Sugar", where Mick did some sexy interplay with singer, Lisa Fisher's earthy dancing. The last song of the main set was "Satisfaction", which was gritty & intense & set the audience up for some serious hollering.
The crowd roared for about 5 minutes straight before the band returned for two encores, "You Can't Aways Get What You Want" & finally "Jumping Jack Flash". Two hours of bliss & too soon it was over. As the crowd filed out in a satisfied & envigorated stupor it occurred to me that I had never seen such an orderly exit from a rock show. Everybody was peaced out & exhausted by participating in the event.
On the walk back to the hotel I realized they hadn't played "Paint it Black". This fact alone makes me want to see them again ASAP. I just found out they've added a second show in Las Vegas on March 4th. That happens to be my birthday, so I'm just crossing my fingers & buying more 6/49 tickets, just in case...

As a performing band the Rolling Stones continue to have what it takes. There are other mature artists of note still kicking the can & doing a bloody good job of it (eg: Dylan/Bowie/McCartney/Neil Young) & not to disregard any new artists' youthful stars shining. Come to think of it ZZ Top & ACDC are also up there in years as cohesive units, but even they can't match the Stones variety of styles, talents, impact & longevity. For sheer tenacity, the Stones have proven that age is not a factor in pure rock coolness.
Third generation acts like U2 & Madonna can take large bows for their ongoing monolithic endeavors, but who knows how long they'll manage to continue. They are a product of the largely vacuous 80s & to echo the Stones achievements, they'll have to keep it happening for at least another 17 years. Hmmm, a Garbo-esque Madonna singing "Material Girl" in 2025? She could pull it off. Hopefully Bono fulfills his manifest destiny of saving the world by then.
At that time I hope the Stones are still singing "Wild Horses" in their rocking chairs. All I know is that my retirement home will have to have a killer sound system & a recording studio...




[www.montenordstrom.com]



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

Quote
SwayStones
5:00AM Sunday Apr 23, 2006

By Mick Jagger wines, dines, opens up to a young lovely in his hotel room. The thing is and she was working undercover for the Herald on Sunday. Rachel Clucina reports on an enchanting four nights with a rock star.

I still think this girl sucks for doing what she did.

Quote
CindyC

Quote
SwayStones
5:00AM Sunday Apr 23, 2006

By Mick Jagger wines, dines, opens up to a young lovely in his hotel room. The thing is and she was working undercover for the Herald on Sunday. Rachel Clucina reports on an enchanting four nights with a rock star.

I still think this girl sucks for doing what she did.

Because she was working undercover , Cindy ?



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-21 16:40 by SwayStones.

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN


SEPTEMBER 26, 2002


THE ROLLING STONES


Early in the month of May 2002 the Rolling Stones touched down in the Bronx’ Van Cortlandt Park via a huge, yellow zeppelin emblazoned with the familiar icon of a huge red tongue & lips.


Without nearly as much drama as a zeppelin landing but packing a punch nonetheless by launching with “Street Fightin’ Man” from the 1968 album Beggars Banquet, the Stones touched down once again in New York.


The night was mainly dedicated to delivering powerful renditions of familiar and less than familiar songs from their deep catalog of recordings. While not exactly a tit for tat set list, familiar songs like “It’s Only Rock & Roll” and “Tumblin’ Dice” were accompanied by deeper album cuts such as “If You Can’t Rock Me” and “Lovin’ Cup”. The only new song performed tonight was “Don’t Stop” which actually was quite good in spite of what was the first of several microphone outages noted during the evening.


In keeping with a familiar theme on this tour of “featuring” several cuts from a classic Stones album, tonight’s offering was from 1972’s “Exile On Main Street”. Charlie D saw the Stones back in ’72 and also was with us last night. We all agreed that the Rolling Stones performed songs from this era better today than they did when the songs were brand new.


The band and accompanying musicians were properly introduced by Mick Jagger after performing 13 songs, which had included “Live With Me”, “Wild Horses”, the never-before-this-tour-performed-live classic “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’” and “Rocks Off” followed by “Rip This Joint”.


Long time Stones sideman Bobby Keys drew the greatest applause for an unofficial band member. Charlie Watts arguably received the most affectionate crowd response of the entire band. I thought that the applause for Ron Wood seemed to build into a long, steady roar while Keith Richards met the “we are not worthy” crowd reaction to Mick’s introduction of him with an odd combination of humility and arrogance. Mick than took a well deserved stage break at this point of the show.


This brought Keith to center stage for a beautiful version of “Thru and Thru” from 1998’s Bridges To Babylon. This was a tour-de-force lead vocal and guitar performance of a little known gem by the original rock & roll pirate. An “only Keith” episode followed with a “where the hell am I??” version of “Before They Make Me Run”. Keith had blown the lyrics in the first verse and just never recovered his vocals on this song. A teleprompter might not even have helped him out, as he was so far gone. BUT this being KEEF RICHARDS, the lyrical mishap just seemed so endearingly characteristic of the man that you couldn’t help but love ‘im even more.


The funny thing to me about this was that the rest of the band (and backing vocalists Lisa & Bernard) just kept hammering away without missing a beat while Keith just kinda wandered around the stage, slashing at his guitar with a guilty grin on his face!!! What a rock and roll god!!!!


Looking like a skinny pimp character from a ‘70’s blaxploitation movie, Mick Jagger returned to the stage wearing a long white coat with floppy hat as the Stones played a cover of the O’Jays disco classic “Love Train”. I’ve got to say that although not as great a cover as say “Just My Imagination” or “Like a Rollin’ Stone” (numbers which they did not perform, btw), somehow they did succeed at putting their stamp on this golden oldie and rocked the crowd at Madison Square Garden off of our feet. Another great “keep ‘em on their feet” number immediately followed with the FM radio and Windows ’95 staple “Start Me Up”.


At this point and in the spirit of the 1998-99 “Bridges To Babylon” tour, Mick led the core band of Ronnie, Charlie, bassist Daryl Johnson, keyboardist Chuck Leavell and finally Keith across a long runway to a secondary stage located at the opposite end of the arena from the main stage.


The concert featured great use of live and interspersed video backdrops throughout the entire night, particularly early in the show during “Wild Horses”. But when a superstar band like the Stones can get down from huge & “heavenly” stages and perform on a comparative milk box stage while fully surrounded on all sides by their appreciative fans, you realize that they don’t need to rely on big lights, theatrics and fireworks as much as one might assume.


This closing segment of the night’s performance started with the Muddy Waters classic “Mannish Boy”. Playing electrified delta blues while being fronted by a charismatic lead vocalist and harmonica player is what set the Rolling Stones on their 40 year path to rock and roll immortality. This will sound cliché-ish but the band played this song as freshly as if only their tenth time rather than their ten millionth time. Following this with show stopping versions of “Shattered” and “Brown Sugar”, the Stones did stop the main portion of the show from the small stage. I thought it cool that rather than go back to the main stage, the Stones left the Garden through a side entry to backstage. This gave some fans more “close up” time, even if just for a few, very cool moments.


They returned then with nothing less than stellar versions of “Sympathy For The Devil” and “Jumpin Jack Flash” before calling it a night. It was becoming evident to me during the performance and more so during the curtain calls of the physical distance maintained by Mick and Keith. I’ll bet most people in the audience didn’t notice but I pointed out to Charlie and usual suspects Eddie & Ralph Carulli that Mick & Keith seemed to be “stalking” each other during “Satisfaction”. At one point, it looked like Mick backed off because it appeared for a moment that Keith might “accidentally” swing his guitar into the lead singer. From that point, certainly the Carulli Twins were not in full agreement that the Glimmer Twins were not in full agreement, but a little tension in the air is not the worst thing to have in a creative environment now, is it?


The Pretenders were the opening act tonight, never an enviable task when the headliners are the Rolling Stones. I saw the original Pretenders back in 1980 or so at Stony Brook University and think that Chrissie Hynde still has what it takes to make the R& R Hall Of Fame. Highlights from their performance included “Up The Neck”, “Night In My Veins” and “Brass In Pocket”. The evenings only surprise appearance was by John McEnroe who joined the Pretenders for “Middle Of The Road”, in which Chrissie indeed played a mean harp!


So where does this leave us now, having seen a show that put nearly 20,00 people on their feet for the entire 2 hour + performance? In fact this leaves us looking forward to Saturday nights appearance at Giants Stadium in front of 50,000 fans (or so)!


I.O.R.R.


But I Like It

[www.hollreiser.com]



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .