Quote
Hairball
Keith is sitting down now for parts of the show?!!!

Man, I hope he can keep up with the pace and keeps up the spirit...GO KEITH GO!!!

Comments about "Keith sitting down" must have been made either by fans who have never seen the Stones live in ages, certainly not during "Rambler", or those who want to question the integrity or health of Keith.

FACT:
Keith and Ronnie often sit down when they perform Rambler. During the slow parts of the song they do it like that, many times.

FACT:
Keith was sitting down with his 12 string acoustic guitar in Lucca when they played "Con Le Mie Lacrime". Not because he was sick or old, but because sitting down with an acoustic guitar makes sense.

FACT:
If you are of age 73 and you are on stage for two hours plus then I can't see any problem with sitting down for five minutes if it is fitting into the performance.

Keith Richards is doing great at every show on this tour. I see him from show start to show finish. I do never feel like I have to comment on his guitar playing or sitting down or the way he dress or what he is saying, certainly not in a negative way. If you are a fan, i.e. fanatic, you love your band and their members, not blind, but still with respect.

Bjornulf

Just to put this one to bed...

I mentioned that I thought saw Keith sit down - not as negative thing but simply because in the 10 live shows I had been to personally, I hadn't seen him sit by Charlies drumkit on Midnight Rambler before..

I didn't mean it as anything bad or negative it was just a passing comment among other (very positive) comments I had made about the show... I really didn't think it would turn into a talking point to over shadow what was an incredible gig!

The MAIN point of my post was that we had an AMAZING time in Barcelona with some of the most excitable stones fans who were jumping up and down like I haven't witnessed before

Keith's playing in Barca was great, as were all the Stones... can't wait for my next gig in Paris now



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-29 21:07 by GJB.

Quote
bv

Quote
Hairball
Keith is sitting down now for parts of the show?!!!

Man, I hope he can keep up with the pace and keeps up the spirit...GO KEITH GO!!!

Comments about "Keith sitting down" must have been made either by fans who have never seen the Stones live in ages, certainly not during "Rambler", or those who want to question the integrity or health of Keith.

FACT:
Keith and Ronnie often sit down when they perform Rambler. During the slow parts of the song they do it like that, many times.

FACT:
Keith was sitting down with his 12 string acoustic guitar in Lucca when they played "Con Le Mie Lacrime". Not because he was sick or old, but because sitting down with an acoustic guitar makes sense.

FACT:
If you are of age 73 and you are on stage for two hours plus then I can't see any problem with sitting down for five minutes if it is fitting into the performance.

Keith Richards is doing great at every show on this tour. I see him from show start to show finish. I do never feel like I have to comment on his guitar playing or sitting down or the way he dress or what he is saying, certainly not in a negative way. If you are a fan, i.e. fanatic, you love your band and their members, not blind, but still with respect.

Yes, and as I said in my follow up post the following morning "Yeah much ado about nothing I suppose" - meaning nothing to worry about as he's been known to do this on occasion.
Just seemed the initial reports of him sitting were amplified it as if there was something to worry about:

A couple of times he was sat by Charlie's kit playing his guitar.... never seen that before... made me wonder if the weight of those Les Paul's is taking its toll...." - stonerolling

"One final point - I think Keith was sitting down playing on midnight rambler - maybe just to conserve energy a little - but hopes hes ok.." - GJB

Now GJB has clarified his perspective above - it was a non-issue.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-29 21:25 by Hairball.

Hi everybody, i'm just back from Barcelona. I will leave a comment during the week end. Anyway the concert was great.
Here are some foto's taken from Pista A, there are not great but as there are no foto's yet, let's be happy with these one taken by my partner.

Here is the flickr link :

[flic.kr]

Some of my shots.

























Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-30 20:31 by latvianinexile.

Quote
with sssoul
Thanks for the interesting theory about that Rocks Off moment, and for the information.

Not official, obviously:

Funny: I was just going to post a photo of that balloon myself.
Whoever made them did a clever job.


- 2017, courtesy of Cristiano

I'm a firm believer in everyone's right to share their opinion, that's what a forum like this is all about. But i'll be honest, I don't know what some of you expect. From what I can tell Keith is pretty much the same as he's been since 2007...some nights are rough, some are good, and some are in between. Is there a major difference between Keith now and Keith in 2013? I just watched the SFM from Zurich and they sound fine. The other thing that completely perplexes me is the complaining about the pace of the songs. I'm a huge fan of the 1969 tour when lots of songs were played slow. Go listen to UMT or JJF from 1969. One thing I will say is that Ronnie Wood has been absolutely stellar since they got back together in 2012.

Quote
mnewman505
I'm a firm believer in everyone's right to share their opinion, that's what a forum like this is all about. But i'll be honest, I don't know what some of you expect. From what I can tell Keith is pretty much the same as he's been since 2007...some nights are rough, some are good, and some are in between. Is there a major difference between Keith now and Keith in 2013? I just watched the SFM from Zurich and they sound fine. The other thing that completely perplexes me is the complaining about the pace of the songs. I'm a huge fan of the 1969 tour when lots of songs were played slow. Go listen to UMT or JJF from 1969. One thing I will say is that Ronnie Wood has been absolutely stellar since they got back together in 2012.

Good post. Ronnie Wood is at the peak of his Stones Career. His head is clearly in a very good place and he's playing the guitaring of his life. Keith does his best and ai thought he did well in Barca. He was smiling a lot on Wednesday night and clearly enjoying himself. In fact they all were.

Had a long sleep. Still haven't read the thread.
Read BV and Dean.
Never been to Argentina gigs. But hell, this was fun.
I survived in the pit till Rocks Off ended.
Headed up to a lounge, enjoyed the rest.

Pit overcrowded, UMT and RO made my day.

Will read tru it all, now sleep. Se ya Dusseldorf.

TE
Oslo

Well said Bjornulf....i have nothing to add.....i agree with you....i hope now the people stop about this....lets enjoy the rest of the Tour ....going now to Amsterdam

Quote
TE
Had a long sleep. Still haven't read the thread.
Read BV and Dean.
Never been to Argentina gigs. But hell, this was fun.
I survived in the pit till Rocks Off ended.
Headed up to a lounge, enjoyed the rest.

Pit overcrowded, UMT and RO made my day.

Will read tru it all, now sleep. Se ya Dusseldorf.

TE
Oslo

According to Beast, security squashed all the Pit people into Keith's side, with Ronnie's side almost empty. I was 2nd row in Pista A behind the end of the catwalk and slightly to Ronnie's side and could see not many heads that side. After a while they let more people into Ronnie's side. If you pay that much for a Pit ticket, you don't expect it to be overcrowded or receive that kind of treatment.

From what I could see, Security did well to manage the front of Pista A, artfully removing drunken fighters and one completely selfish, obnoxious arsehole who charged right up to the front of the catwalk, pushing everyone in his path out the way. Someone in the crowd next to me reported him and Security watched him until he repeated his behaviour. He was a big big guy and it took 2 of them to get him out!

As a Stones-Fan-Veteran I tell everybody who is a late Stones-beginner who want to dive into Stones-Land:

Go and see the Rolling Stones in Barcelona!

After Franco died in 1975 and his brutal regime left and the country and its people start to breathe and live again, guess who was the first band who was aloud to play in spain: The Stones.

In Barcelona.

When they came to Plaza de Toros Monumental on 11. June 1976 they released Catalonia und whole of Spain musicwise. Barcelona and the country where on there feet. People cried during the gig, sang louder than band,sang songs for them. It was outregeous excepional. They played:

Honky Tonk Women
If You Can't Rock Me / Get Off of My Cloud
Hand of Fate
Hey Negrita
Ain't Too Proud to Beg
(The Temptations cover)
Fool to Cry
Hot Stuff
Star Star
Angie
You Gotta Move
(Mississippi Fred McDowell cover)
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Happy
Tumbling Dice
Nothing From Nothing
(Billy Preston cover) (performed by Billy Preston)
Outa-Space
(Billy Preston cover) (performed by Billy Preston)
Midnight Rambler
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
Brown Sugar
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Street Fighting Man


Since than the Stones are the Nr.1 Heroes in the Spanish cultural life.
They are the Robin Hood´s of their music-life.

And whenever they come back, especially to Barcelona, where they adopted the
spanish people 41 years ago, the Stones are treated with so much passion and deep love that you have to see it to believe it.

Well...I have NEVER seen them sitting down playing MR...Strange facts indeed...My god...

That’s D-Day by this september 27, 2017 and i leave Belgium with my partner early in the morning, arriving in Barcelona at 1.00pm. Going straight to our Studio where a nice and friendly lady were waiting for us. On the way we could see here and there some Stones fans mainly from Holland.
The weather is quite good, sunny, dry and not too hot, that’s perfect for an open air concert.

We reached the stadium around 4.15pm as we had to pick up our lucky dip tickets. I was a bit anxious and it took about 35 minutes to get them. More anxious because the lady at the office couldn’t find our envelope, finaly after another 5 minutes i got it. Wao, Pista A, it was like in dream as we were on budget. Anyway, i think i that moment there were some stars shining in my eyes...
I wanted to go our for a while but impossible to leave the stadium, need to fall in line and wait until the doors open. It was 5.45pm when they opened the doors and we could enter the stadium. Nobody was in hurry for the best place, so we didn’t run and we had a good place in front of the stage, some meters at the right. All was perfect for us. We couldn’t expected much more as i didn’t want to be in the pit.

Comparing with other tours it seems that the audience is hot in Barcelona, mix of generations but many young boys and girls compare with some other countries...

We have to wait until 7.30pm for Los Zigaros. Impossible to sit down while waiting at the place we were. People around us were from Barcelona, other places from Spain (and it is important), some from Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and even from East Europe.
But i was surprised that at 9.15Pm just before the Stones started the show, there were a lot of vacant seat in the upper tribune at the back but also at our right and left upper side.

Then came Los Zigaros, they played well for about 45 minutes but i was shocked to hear a long copy of Status Quo’s song and 2 other songs made me think of the French band TELEPHONE. They talk much with the audience unfortunately only in Spanish, no some English words for the international audience. So, ok no problem!
Anyway they deliver a good set and Spanish people around us seems to enjoy them.

After a break, came the Stones between 9.15 and 9.20pm, the audience was already hot singing Highway to hell (ac/dc) and also another song that i forgot which one.
For Stones fans, it was strange, nobody sang a Stones song! Obviously, the people at 20meters around us preferred guitars and hard rock.

Back to the Stones, they delivered a great show and sorry if i’m just repeating the words of other fans. The tempo of all songs was back to normal, nothing to do with Hamburg. The sound was raw, hard and realy the people were enjoying.
Sympathy as an intro sounds good and makes people crazy especially in the begining.
When they starting to play Under my thumb, i knew that they wouldn’t play Dancing with MR D, i was expected it some days before but i will not get this chance.
The blues songs were great and for this time i have enjoyed Tumbling Dice especially by the end when the audience was hot and claps hands and chant which usually i never heard like that. Maybe i’m the only stones fan who like to hear the studio version of this song and prefer not to hear that one in concert. But this time, i’m on the same wave with everybody!

The other highlights are Under My thumb as the new arrangements sounds well in my ears and go straight to my legs.
Midnight rambler was great with this kind of impro and the interact with the audience.

The other great moment was the band intro, the ovation to Ronnie (yes) and the long ovation to Keith. From where we were we could see the emotion on his face and sure he had now to prove he’s at the top and than he started Happy, the audience at the Pista A was helping him especially at the end when almost out of voice. It was clear!
Sleping away which is basically a good song is not my favorite in concert.
For those that wrote keith was sitting during a song or a part of a song, we didn’t see it, maybe it was while Jagger was entertaing the audience but if so it was realy not shocking. During past concerts i saw Ronnie and keith sitting for a cool song even Jagger on Saint on me if i remember well.

Rocks off was a the big surprise, it’s a pity Keith cut off Jagger, i don’t know the reason why but it created also a little trouble in the area i were. From where we were we felt that it tooks to Jagger about 40 seconds to enter well in the song and to forget this incident even he acted as a professional and probably most of the people in the audience didn’t see it.
I have watched several time the video of this song on youtube and i can see that Keith even don’t look at Jagger but well at Ronnie when Jagger is no more in sight...

The rest of the show is traditional, Gimmie Shelter become slowy but surely a reference in the show, i ‘ve always enjoyed this song. In concert, i prefer Lisa Fisher for her voice than Sasha.

People were hot jumping out and down on a few songs only and not during all the gig as i could read, many chants, clapings hands and singing loud.
The quality of the sound where we were was a bit saturated and some mixing at a limit but still great.

At the end of the Satisfaction, people expected more but we all know it never happens.

My opinion about “the pit”. It may be confortable for some people right front of the stage but it cuts the ambiance as from the rest of the Stadium we cannot see what happens there.
It’’s like a huge empty hole . It was beter to create 3 grades of prices (ground A, B and C for exemple). With this pit configuration it requires from Mick to work realy hard to maintain the ambiance at the top. That’s my opinion as organizer of parties of any kind of genre.
For what i could see from time to time during the concert, the people in the pit seems to be very quiet which is not suitable at the front of a rock stage.

Finaly, i’m without word to talk about the energy of Mr Jagger, he hold the show as nobody can do, i’m a very lucky dipper, my dream has come true, i have spent one of my best Stones concert in my life, i will remember this moment until Mr D comes and fetch me.
I’m sure Amsterdam shows will be great as the audience in Netherland is 100% Stones for decades..

Quote
Bjorn
Well...I have NEVER seen them sitting down playing MR...Strange facts indeed...My god...

One of the best, if not the best, singular moments of any Stones show I've attended was seeing them play Midnight Rambler on the B-stage at the free L.A. Staples show in'03.
I was on the rail apprx. five feet from Keith and it was mind boggling and mesmerizing. And he definitely didn't sit!

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Quote
grzegorz67

Quote
TE
Had a long sleep. Still haven't read the thread.
Read BV and Dean.
Never been to Argentina gigs. But hell, this was fun.
I survived in the pit till Rocks Off ended.
Headed up to a lounge, enjoyed the rest.

Pit overcrowded, UMT and RO made my day.

Will read tru it all, now sleep. Se ya Dusseldorf.

TE
Oslo

According to Beast, security squashed all the Pit people into Keith's side, with Ronnie's side almost empty. I was 2nd row in Pista A behind the end of the catwalk and slightly to Ronnie's side and could see not many heads that side. After a while they let more people into Ronnie's side. If you pay that much for a Pit ticket, you don't expect it to be overcrowded or receive that kind of treatment.

From what I could see, Security did well to manage the front of Pista A, artfully removing drunken fighters and one completely selfish, obnoxious arsehole who charged right up to the front of the catwalk, pushing everyone in his path out the way. Someone in the crowd next to me reported him and Security watched him until he repeated his behaviour. He was a big big guy and it took 2 of them to get him out!

Had some fun tru security. They just say RUN... Well, I did...

TE
Oslo

Great shot taken by Cristina Calderer



[www.instagram.com]

The Timeless Universe of The Rolling Stones (review from a Catalan newspaper)

[www.instagram.com]

Back in Greece, from Barcelona. Tired, but incredibly happy... Excellent, powerful gig. A real "wall of sound". And an excellent crowd. And it was my son's first Stones concert... My son is 8, still hard to believe that he anticipated a Stones gig!...

Details? Maybe later. Or tomorrow.

PS: guitarbastard asked: "where any FC Barcelona players at the gig? Messi likes rock music...."
They were playing against Sporting, in Portugal, on the particular night.

BV wrote: "FACT: Keith was sitting down with his 12 string acoustic guitar in Lucca when they played "Con Le Mie Lacrime". Not because he was sick or old, but because sitting down with an acoustic guitar makes sense".

And he did the same in 2006, in Milan, when they played "Con Le Mie Lacrime". And he was sitting down sometimes during the "Stripped" gigs, in 1995. And, and, and...

I was hanging out on the beaches near Tarragona for 2 weeks, checked the Olympic Stadium and Picasso Museum prior a week before the Stones concert that was amazing, the raw sound was really great from where I was dancing and one of the best crowds in the world. Thanks Stones and Catalonië stay cool.

Hi @ all,

some nice photos and a video from Barcelona Gig
go [www.facebook.com]

Quote
laertisflash
BV wrote: "FACT: Keith was sitting down with his 12 string acoustic guitar in Lucca when they played "Con Le Mie Lacrime". Not because he was sick or old, but because sitting down with an acoustic guitar makes sense".

And he did the same in 2006, in Milan, when they played "Con Le Mie Lacrime". And he was sitting down sometimes during the "Stripped" gigs, in 1995. And, and, and...

And in 1973 with 'sweet virginia'

[/code]

And in 1994 with "Sweet Virginia", if I remember correctly the video from Miami gig. Right?

magnifique!!!!!!!

Thanks on behalf of all Stones fans, in particular those who went to the Barcelona concert! Fans for fans!

Thanks! Barcelona concert was great!