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paulywaul
It's a sunny spring day and I was just thinking (for no obvious reason) about the forthcoming Stones album, which according to blabbermouth Ronnie is in part going to be a collection of blues covers and perhaps their own compositions. Something to look forward to. And then my thoughts turned to a multitude of other good things that we've had out of them in recent years; lots of stuff 'out of the vaults', Mick Taylor on stage with them for the 50 & Counting tour and 14 On Fire tour, even Bill Wyman putting in an appearance some 20 years after he left them, and so on and so on.

All of which got me thinking, that perhaps to some degree they do actually listen to what a certain proportion of their fans are 'clamouring' for. Not only listen to, but actually respond to. OK, there's a lot one could pillory them for, exorbitant ticket prices is the obvious one. Also, a high degree of setlist repetition ... etc. But all in all, victims of their own success as they are, attracting huge audiences incorporating several generations and therefore people that have never seen them before right up to people that have seen them hundreds of times ... they have done (and continue to do) pretty bloody well in terms of striking a balance between all of these different forces tugging at their coat tails. Or so think I at any rate.

54 years and still going ! It's astonishing by any standards. Long may they roll ....

Anyone else share my point of view that on the whole, they actually do appear to respond to what a certain proportion of their fans (us nutcases on here we can safely assume I'm referring to) say they'd like to see or hear them do ? Personally, I think they've given us an absolutely extraordinary ride to date ... can't wait for the new album, the Totally Stripped DVD, the CUBA DVD, and heaven knows what else they've got up their sleeves and in store for us.

How lucky are WE ???

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dcba
They do listen but when fans suggest they should play "Slave" And "TWFNO" (aka "live double borefest") they must have a good laugh.

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paulywaul
It's a sunny spring day and I was just thinking (for no obvious reason) about the forthcoming Stones album, which according to blabbermouth Ronnie is in part going to be a collection of blues covers and perhaps their own compositions. Something to look forward to. And then my thoughts turned to a multitude of other good things that we've had out of them in recent years; lots of stuff 'out of the vaults', Mick Taylor on stage with them for the 50 & Counting tour and 14 On Fire tour, even Bill Wyman putting in an appearance some 20 years after he left them, and so on and so on.

All of which got me thinking, that perhaps to some degree they do actually listen to what a certain proportion of their fans are 'clamouring' for. Not only listen to, but actually respond to. OK, there's a lot one could pillory them for, exorbitant ticket prices is the obvious one. Also, a high degree of setlist repetition ... etc. But all in all, victims of their own success as they are, attracting huge audiences incorporating several generations and therefore people that have never seen them before right up to people that have seen them hundreds of times ... they have done (and continue to do) pretty bloody well in terms of striking a balance between all of these different forces tugging at their coat tails. Or so think I at any rate.

54 years and still going ! It's astonishing by any standards. Long may they roll ....

Anyone else share my point of view that on the whole, they actually do appear to respond to what a certain proportion of their fans (us nutcases on here we can safely assume I'm referring to) say they'd like to see or hear them do ? Personally, I think they've given us an absolutely extraordinary ride to date ... can't wait for the new album, the Totally Stripped DVD, the CUBA DVD, and heaven knows what else they've got up their sleeves and in store for us.

How lucky are WE ???

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Harlem Shuffler
Surely it's clear that they listen to their marketing people more than anyone else. If they do lsten to fans it certainly doesn't take up a lot of their time.
Yes, we wanted stuff from the vault but so do the money-grabbers, i.e. marketing people and the band themselves.
Charlie recently said he's less than enthusiastic about playing Brown Sugar for the fiftieth time (if I remember correctly) and, allowing for the fact that he must have done it for more like a thousand times, the lack of change in the set list is unforgivable.
As for their rip-off ticket prices for the same old show, I would like to thank the Stones for saving me a fortune. I haven't seen them since they did the O2 on the Bigger Bang tour. How many songs did they play from A Bigger Bang? Oh yes, one. So the concert was very similar to the previous time I saw them and also to the concerts they've done up to the present day which I haven't bothered with.
And now there's talk of releasing a DVD of the Cuba concert - big deal!

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paulywaul

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Harlem Shuffler
Surely it's clear that they listen to their marketing people more than anyone else. If they do lsten to fans it certainly doesn't take up a lot of their time.
Yes, we wanted stuff from the vault but so do the money-grabbers, i.e. marketing people and the band themselves.
Charlie recently said he's less than enthusiastic about playing Brown Sugar for the fiftieth time (if I remember correctly) and, allowing for the fact that he must have done it for more like a thousand times, the lack of change in the set list is unforgivable.
As for their rip-off ticket prices for the same old show, I would like to thank the Stones for saving me a fortune. I haven't seen them since they did the O2 on the Bigger Bang tour. How many songs did they play from A Bigger Bang? Oh yes, one. So the concert was very similar to the previous time I saw them and also to the concerts they've done up to the present day which I haven't bothered with.
And now there's talk of releasing a DVD of the Cuba concert - big deal!

I have to say, the interest in this DVD lies not in the performance as such (same songs we've all heard/seen a thousand times), it's in all the background stuff. And so with a bit of luck the film will offer some decent insight into how the concert came about, how it was organised logistically, how it was received by both the incumbent government and ordinary Cubans etc ...

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DandelionPowderman
All you guys who don't wanna hear Brown Sugar in concert anymore, are you also done with listening to the studio version?


I know what you mean, of course