I will post day by day here. Mostly from my own point of view, sort of a blog. If you have question or comments then feel free to post. This will be the story of the Rolling Stones 2013 tour as seen from my side. Not show by show but snapshots in time.

Had to leave Norway in a hurry. Was supposed to have farewell party with family and grandchildren, as I will be more or less away for some 2 1/2 months, but when rumours about an LA club shows grew stronger I had to go.

Jan - April 2013:
How great it was to have four months of work, knowing the Stones would not tour until June. Later in the spring it turned out they pushed the tour start into early May, so things got more busy.

Rehearsals:
The rehearsals on Friday are relaxed. I can hear Mick Taylor on "Can't You Hear Me Knocking". They do "Emotional Rescue", "Heard It Through The Grapewine", "You Got Me Rocking", "She's So Cold", "Live With Me", "That's How Strong My Love Is", "Little Queenie" and a few more. Many instrumentals i.e. Mick is not singing much tonight, saving his voice. As they leave Mick is our hero. He is stopping the car, signing for some 20-30 fans, almost like a Buenos Aires fan mania in the air for a while. Then he drives off. Two large Upstaging trucks are here so I know they are moving out, last day of rehearsals here...

Chasing LA:
Rumours of a club show. Can't sleep. Checking out all options, clubs, possible sites. Important Echoplex info is valuable. All the years of chasing shows and secrets are valuable experience at this stage.

Queuing at El Rey:
Arriving early. Not much sleep. Later it turns out it is a lottery. Out of 1500 or so fans in the queue only one out of four are lucky, as they have only 350 tickets for sale. But hanging around not giving up is the thing to do, they have some 50 extra tickets, and people walk in at 3pm or even 4pm and get tickets, even without the blue lottery ticket. It takes until 5:30pm or so until all tickets are gone at the El Rey, a slow and very secure process involving ID papers etc.

Echoplex:
Many, many TV stations outside the venue. The 350 open admission tickets are queuing at the Echo door, a 2nd floor smaller club in the same building, while the 80 or so VIP's are arriving at the Echoplex entrance. The 430 fans get lots of attention from reporters. I am stripped of mobile phone and camera, absolutely nothing with me. Inside I grab a Coca Cola for thirst and energy. Then into the crowd. Good position Keith side. I will try to make a real report on the Echoplex reports pages later this week. What a show, and what a crowd!

Sunday April 28:
Little sleep unfortunately. Jretlag... I need to sleep! Trying to catch up. Then moving into Woodland Hills. The Stones are now in production rehersarsals, secure place, so can take a few days off Stones stalking. Biking the Santa Monica Topanga hills every day. The MTB rental company are worried about the expensive mountain bike so I have it in my room! And great thing is there is a good old English pub nearby, here in the greater LA area. They have fish'n'chips, London Pride, Stella, Kronenburg, domestic beers, all draft, and a great outdoor seating. Perfect waterhole in-between work. And the hotel has got perfect hig speed internet, essential both for real work and IORR reporting.

Wednesday May 1:
Today is public holiday in Norway. Biking all over to the Santa Monica pier and back. Hard work, took six hours, and I ran out of water halfway home, too bad when it is +30 C i.e. 90+ F and sunshine, with steep hill climbing. I have been biking next to a hugh deer, rabbits, snakes and squirrels. Typical for LA! Two days until tour start.





Bjornulf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-05-02 07:04 by bv.

Thank you for allowing us to live vicariously.

The White Harte is 2 blocks from my house!

hope you have a great time! well deserved.

Quote
BluzDude
The White Harte is 2 blocks from my house!

Please e-mail me at: iorr@arena.no
If you have time then we could take a beer there.
I am here until Friday morning, moving into downtown LA then.

Bjornulf

Thanks BV for your reporting. Great job of staying fit on the road. Looking forward to the next installments. Cheers.

Great reporting bv - thanks!

Thanks so much for the posts and all you do to help us get our Stones fix.
Much appreciated!

Biking to the Santa Monica Pier--what a great life! Thanks for the info, too. Get rest.

Dude - You are The KING KONG Man!

Great reporting..Thanx Bjornulf

thanks for this - keep the reports coming.

Bjornulf, I truly admire you.

You are one of the X-men of the Stones fans.

Nice one BV

Thanks BV and I look forward to reading your blog ahead of Hyde Park on July 6th.

Impressive wheels by the way!

bv,you are something else man! Looking forward to your 2013 Stones journey.

many thanks, BV, for all your dedication and hard work, and keen observation.

looking forward to your review of the Echoplex gig, unless I'm missing it somewhere..

Can you make this thread a sticky?

Very cool. If I had your time and money, I would be doing exactly the same thing! Thanks for the info.

Cheers.

Nice report. Enjoy the ride!

Hi BV,

Good work with the two-wheels: dead right about keeping the liquids going. And I do include ale in that...afterwards, natch!
Looks like fun!

Cheers,

Simon.

Great writing BV.....You should think about writing a book about your experiences on this (possible LAST) tour....that could be a seller!!!!!

Wednesday and Thursday in the Santa Monica trails got really hot, with +37 C in the shade, which is like 99 F. I had to slow down on the speed and intensity, as it is dangerous for the body to work hard when the cooling options are limited. Still, I made like 15 hours of biking in 4 days, which is great for my big race in approx 3 weeks back home.

Friday morning and it is Stones day - LA Downtown time. Moving into a downtown hotel for the night, easy access to Staples. Meeting fiends from The Netherlands, Chicago, LA, Philly Japan, UK, France and many other places. STONESLAND! Walking in the streets of LA and meeting Rockman and his Aussie travel mate was great. Then you know you are in the right city for the Stones!

Time to go. New procedure with one Powerade just before entry works perfect. I am in as the doors open at 7pm. Two hours waiting is nothing. At 9pm sharp they are on. The house is packed. Ignore the false rumours about not sold out show. May be there were one percent or less empty seats, but it was a full house.

GIMME SHELTER is always great, and with the REAL singer LISA it can't be any better. Please forget other guest singers on this song. Lisda is just the best here. And this is where Keith is doing his great great riffs, wild look in his eyes as he is hitting the strings and looking for the reactions in the croiwd. He don't wait any long - the crowd just love it.

FACTORY GIRL with Mick almost over-doing the contry singing bit. But it works great. Good version. It's only plkaed a dozen or so times in the past, I have ben lucky to see them live at most of these performances, this version is standing out for sure.

RESPECTABLE with Keith Urban turning the song into a guitar event, sure he can play the guitar!

I could write on and on, but there were two more highlights, wile the rest of the show was great of course...

MIDNIGHT RAMBLER with Mick taylor adding his unique guitar style. The rest of the band simply let Mick tsaylor shine, just like they use to let Ronnie shine on Can't You Hear Me Knocking.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL is Keith, Keith, Keith. Keit simply own this song, and his guitar playing is as strong as it can get, the master of the Stones riff is left, right, expanding into the crowd as he is playing, smiling, enjoying being back on the big stage.

The show lasted for almost two and a half hours. Few weak points, Mick looked strong and his voice was strong, always a worry at the opening. Charlie came forward during the intros. Ronnie walked up to the front spotting fans many times, and Keith liked it best with Charlie.

If Oakland is as good as Staples then I have nothing to worry about!





Bjornulf



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2013-05-06 00:44 by bv.

What did you think about Emotional Rescue bv?

I am not a big fan of Emotional Rescue, so I don't really have an opinon on it. I have noticed that those who love it say it was great. It was an extended funky version, the band seemed to enjoy playing it, while the crown was like blank faces. It might be out of the show unless Oakland makes a better feedback to the band on the song. Like Mick says, they need a great feedback from the crowd in order to keep songs in the setlist.

Bjornulf

This morning I walked into Mick Taylor in the streets of San Francisco. He was really nice and said Hi. Probably recognized me from numerous shows I have been to on his many solo tours in Norway, Denmark, UK and so on, plus the Stones of course. Always nice, a true gentleman for sure.

Bjornulf

Great stuff - keep on rolling!!

Bjornulf, your review of LA looks exciting than the London and Newark's shows... Was the LA show less good than the last tour??

Benjamin.

Oakland was a mess really, the venue is old and queuing was endless. I stayed in three different queues until I finally was inside long time after 8:15pm or so, very unusual for me. I like to be both at the venue and inside early. Once inside, I managed to get a great position still, next to the tongue inside.

Every time Mick came down on the tongue walkway I reached out to make contact. He did actually see me several times, but he rarely make contact, max one time per show at the most. A handshake with Mick is rare these days - too much security and barriers. But during "Start Me Up" I finally made it. I did my best to get the attention from Mick, and he slapped my hand with a solid touch. I was happy with that, and I did of course get lots of attention from the fans arpound me which I had talked to amd made contact with as well.

Oakland was a great show and once again the band was with high energy, so were the crowd, but the crowd did not say much until "Emotional Rescue". That was the wakup call for San Francisco.

Last night was a big celebration here in San Jose. I went to the game here in San Jose, same venue as the Stones will perform at, with a hockey crowd of 17,500 last night. The Sharks scored the winning goal vs Canucks in overtime, and the entire arena exploded as the game was over with a Sharks winning, meaning the Sharks are now in the next playoff rounds. Mick will probably mention that tonight...

Bjornulf