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Jah Paul
As for the Stones, it's a bit too late for them to change the formula...they've put themselves in the position they're in, setlist-wise, and the audience expects to hear the same old stuff. The last twenty years could have been different, but they made their choice.

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Justin

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Gazza

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Justin

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SoulPlunderer
Guess what regular fans (not hardcores like us) want to hear when they buy a ticket to the Stones. Oh yeah, Brown Sugar, Satisfaction, Jumping Jack Flash etc. The songs they know and love from the radio and the Stones compilations.
It's supply and demand people, fans want to see the hits and who are the Stones to deny them that? Especially at the prices of the tickets!!!

People talk about challenging the audience and Mick underestimating them but really this is just hardcore fans wishing to hear more obscure songs live. But in all honesty, are fans going to react to say, Time Waits For No One in the way that they do to Start Me Up? No they aren't.

I get that people want to hear their favourites that casual fans don't know very much but hey only represent a small minority of the audience. Question their artistic integrity, but the fans now are different than they were in the past and they go to a concert for a good time, a night out and to see a show. Add intothe fact that people expect each tour to be the last, then if it's the last time they ever see the Stones, they'll wanna hear Brown Sugar.

They can still play Brown Sugar, JJF, Satisfaction, STU and HTW. Casual fans can at least hear these 5 tunes and walk away happy. That leaves at least 10-12 other vacant spots for other songs. But what do they do? Fill it up with second tier warhorses: IORR, YGMR, YCAGWYW, Sympathy and on and on and on. Every damn album contains at least 1 warhorse on it. So chances of fans having the albums, and listening to them the whole way through are very high. So why not include "Time Waits For No One"" Surely, they would connect the dots and go "Oh that's that song with "It's Only Rock and Roll" that's a cool song!

Close to 50 years later and we still assume that fans only know the 40 Licks stuff?? And if they don't...God forbid...could it be possible that they might enjoy what they hear? I"ve been to countless concerts where I heard an unknown song and said "What is that song?? Where can I find it??" And bam made me love the artist more. Hell, to some fans a song like "You Got Me Rockin" could be an unknown song...so why not switch that song for another lesser known song?

Unique band. 250 million records sold in 50 years, and the 6 million people who see them every tour only know and can only enjoy songs that were on a 2002 compilation. Otherwise they'll walk out.

If there was ever an example to follow, it was the "No Security" tour. A tour strictly based on deeper cuts, displaying how a show can survive without "Satisfaction" in the set. Still though, the 2nd half of the show was warhorse heavy.

Sadly, they can't do this kind of show in a football stadium. Additionally, NS worked so well because it was a "tag-on" tour after an incredibly huge and mostly greatest hits tour anyway.

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Stoneage
Even the "rarities" sounds boring when they play them now. Is it laziness, rust or lacking in abilities?