For me, it has to the 1981 US tour.

I was just getting into the Stones in 1981 (due to Start Me Up, of course) and must have listened to STILL LIFE and watched LSTNT a bazillion times as a student.

I've been lucky enough to see them many times since the Steel Wheels tour and know of course how legendary the '72 tour was but, for me, it's got to be the '81 tour.

The looked so frigging raggedly cool, and sounded great.

I'd have loved to see them in 69, 72 and 78. Those seemed like really awesome shows and the best 3 tours.

75 and 81 are a bit too sloppy and extravagant.

Then 89 and on, while good, were more corporate affairs. Feels like you saw one you saw them all.

1972 1973 and 1975

The 1983/84 tour. Or maybe the 1985/86 tour. That would have been something...

1972

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Stoneage
The 1983/84 tour. Or maybe the 1985/86 tour. That would have been something...

Hilarious. What about 1980, 1987-88, 1991-93, 1996, 2000-01, 2004, 2008-11 and 2020?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025-07-11 01:36 by NashvilleBlues.

1989. I was 13 years old. It was a big cultural phenomena. Started listening to my dad's Hot Rocks cassette and bought Steel Wheels. That's when I became a fan. Didn't get to go see the show, however. My first show was Voodoo Lounge, a long five year wait!

seventy two for me

the first american tour in 1964 would have been incredible to see

and of course 1972

Anything with Brian, and ‘69

1972

MSG specifically

1975

1972 I was extremely fortunate to have gotten tickets to when I was just seventeen

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TheBluesHadaBaby
1975

1972 I was extremely fortunate to have gotten tickets to when I was just seventeen

Awesome! Which one(s)?

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NashvilleBlues

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TheBluesHadaBaby
1975

1972 I was extremely fortunate to have gotten tickets to when I was just seventeen

Awesome! Which one(s)?

Norfolk. Start of the three-day Norfolk-Charlotte-Knoxville run that reportedly in some crew and Stu's opinion were the technical high point of the tour. Not that I had the ability to recognize that as I was hearing it.. I was just kinda in awe the whole show I think.

But the day before had been the crazy July 4th RFK stadium show in DC. Gate crashing attempts, crush in front of the GA stage. People injured. In the smaller southern cities we were relatively better behaved. There were fewer arrests happening outside Scope arena, just less chaos, and the band had fewer distractions and could focus better.

72, 78.

Seen every US tour from 81 on (Bigger Bang and Hackney Diamonds twice).

Too young and not into the Stones yet to have seen the 69 MSG shows. I also couldn't work my schedule to attend any of the 99 No Security shows.

69 Champaign, IL. Any show on the '72 tour. My favorite tour.

1971

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Send It To me
1989. I was 13 years old. It was a big cultural phenomena. Started listening to my dad's Hot Rocks cassette and bought Steel Wheels. That's when I became a fan. Didn't get to go see the show, however. My first show was Voodoo Lounge, a long five year wait!

I'm the same age. My 8th grade teacher had tix and it was all she talked about the last few weeks of school. On the last full day of school we watched 25×5. I was too young in '89. But Voodoo Lounge tour '94, I was 18 and a High School grad! Didn't get to see Floyd in 94 though. Spent my money on the Stones. Saw Gilmour but never got to see Floyd.

I saw STEEL WHEELS.

At that point I had seen enough video, somehow, to understand the severity of what I witnessed.

It wasn't until much later I understood the culture of tours: design, lighting, the people that made it all happen.

I saw the cobra (or whatever it was called) for VOODOO from a open air parking garage in East Lansing, MI a day before the show and thought...

Holy shit, that is HUGE.

But. Given aspects via live releases on record and video, I wished I'd seen:

1969
1971
1972
1973
1975
1978
1981
1997

Given my age and where I live post the East Lansing, MI VOODOO show, I saw them just a little while later in the Louisiana Superdome, my second day of having moved to New Orleans, LA.

At the time it really seemed to be all about the Stones. The popular music was in transition from "grunge" to...other. Kurt Cobain had died. Tom Petty was all over radio. NIN was getting huge. Pink Floyd released their last album and toured. Pearl Jam were pissed off. The Eagles...whatever.

Jeff Buckley. Suede. Sheryl Crow. Prince. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. STP was riding high. Soundgarden ruled (rightfully so). Tom Petty.

It was an interesting year for music. A lot of change going on. U2 finished their gargantuan ZOO TV tour in late 1993.

Things really started to change from what started in (especially September) 1991 with Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The Cult, Temple Of The Dog, RHCP, REM, Lennny Kravitz,GNR, NWA, U2, Prince, Alice In Chains and STP.

FLASHPOINT came out in 1991 and was the rage for about one week.

By early 1994 the music world had no idea what it was.

Yet there were the Stones, playing in US football stadiums again. As successful that tour was not all the shows were great: several shows were not sell outs, the New Orleans show attended with such low numbers they didn't return until 2019 after U2 came through in 2017 (their 1997 show was poorly attended as well) and "sold out" the Superdome.

1966

I think every tour has it's charms and would love to see every one of them. I am happy I began seeing the Stones when it was realisticly possible for me. Otherwise I would have had big regrets. Now my only regret is not seeing enough shows in that period.

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Send It To me
1989. I was 13 years old. It was a big cultural phenomena. Started listening to my dad's Hot Rocks cassette and bought Steel Wheels. That's when I became a fan. Didn't get to go see the show, however. My first show was Voodoo Lounge, a long five year wait!

very similar to my experience. Paint it Black was re-release on single when Tour of Duty series became populair in Holland in the late eighties. My dad told me that this band had a lot more great music and he bought me Hot Rocks 1 (my first CD). Long story short, I became a fan for live. But when the Urban Jungle tour rolled in two years later, I was only 12 years old and my dad hates crowds and he obviously would not let me go alone.

So I had to wait five more years for my first Stones show. I the meantime I played my Live at the Max VHS so many times, the tape started to wear out



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025-07-11 10:44 by Jalfstra.

1999 and 2013 of the ones I've been alive for. 1969 and 1972 for sure overall.

Honolulu 1973 and MSG 1975.

Mathijs

Oslo 1965, June 24.

I wasn't born then, but I would have loved to follow the 1970 European tour!

I would've loved to see '73 and '78. My barber went in '73, oddly enough he didn't enjoy it as much as later Vegas era-tours....

1981 while I was alive and old enough to enjoy, and probably a 60s tour, maybe the first.

Would have been wild to witness the energy.

The Invicta Ballroom - Chatham, Kent, U.K. - 1964

Any of the Steel Wheels or Urban Jungle shows.