i met ian stewart in 1981 in barnes, london and at dingwalls, had a pee next to him, met keith richards coming out of l'escargot restaurant in 1984, he was charming and smiley, i saw this big black daimler, like a mayor uses and just 'felt' it had to be a member of the stones, his whole family just laughed at the drooling fan, and charlie watts at ronnie scotts in 2003, i shook his hand, which was rather limp, but I got his autograph, think he is very cool.
I've been a fan since 1977, and I heard Mothers little helper, what a melody, used to love the beatles, still do, but the stones really had the edge, also my bro had half of exile, thought it was so boring, took me years to 'get it'. From 77 on it was a total love affair, everyone else seemed to hate them, year after year i'd wait for news of a new album, the gaps got longer but the excitement/anticipation never really died, but every year the albums whilst having the odd good track would always disappoint, so i was very nervous about abb, but it is, to be simple, without doubt the best work they've done since sg, probably going much further back than that, perhaps exile, and even the poorer tracks db, ssmc,I,lwtcdi all hang together, there is an aggression, a passion, a raggedness and above all there are moments like the slow bit in Rocks off before it gets fast again which explain why they are just are so bloody exciting as a band and abb is full of them, the album is all of a piece, rude and aggressive, provocative and sometimes there are simple beautiful moments, i always think there could be more of them, jagger could be simpler, more piano, less percussion on ballads etc BUT they'll always go their own way. I've seen them every time they've been here since 1981/2, and at brixton academy, sheperds bush empire and i have to say their last perf at Wembley in 2003 for sheer energy was right up there. I just love SFM and WTWCD from Live licks, both those versions have so much balls. I'm a theatre director and I long to find a story to make a musical out of their songs a la we will rock you(which is not my cup of tea at all), the songs of the stones are so beautiful they deserve a wider audience, and they tell great stories. The stones are to rythm what the beatles are to melody(not to say they can't do melody as well!!!!!

Good post!

If you make a musical, my tip is: Check out the best bootleg versions of the songs - they are often much better than the official studio versions. The one who's heard the best bootleg versions, will never be the same person again!