A bump on the head costs the Stones £5m
By Robin Stummer
Published: 14 May 2006
Keith Richards's brain surgery could cost the Rolling Stones more than £5m in show cancellations, industry sources said yesterday.

The 62-year-old guitarist's recovery over the next few weeks, following an operation to relieve pressure within his skull after falling out of a tree, means up to six shows could be pulled from the start of the European tour until he is fit enough to rejoin the band.

The Stones' team is still negotiating how to reschedule the tour and fit in the axed shows, which should have kicked off in Barcelona a week on Saturday.

An industry insider said: "The Stones can make up to £1m per show. Obviously the tours are a real money-spinner, so they will be very keen to make sure they can keep the losses to a minimum."

The band's 2003 dates gave them the year's highest-grossing tour, taking $300m from 116 shows.

Richards fell from a coconut tree while holidaying in Fiji last month. He was taken to Auckland, New Zealand, where he underwent surgery on Monday, which a spokesman said was "100 per cent successful", to ease pressure after he complained of headaches.

He has checked out of Auckland's Ascot Hospital and is spending some time recuperating.

Inside Keef's brain: An exploration by John Walsh

On Wednesday, a tabloid newspaper told its readers how a blood clot was causing Keith Richards's brain to swell against his skull, and explained the process with the help of a cross-section cranial diagram. It didn't help much. What fans of the rock'n'roll vampire really need is a map of his brain after four decades of excess, a lifetime of tours, booze, groupies and more mood-altering chemicals than are stored in the warehouses of GlaxoSmithKline. What's it like to be inside Keith's ravaged, bandanna-ed cerebrum?

You can imagine a lot of brain energy devoted to the acquiring of the same sustenance and stimulants - the daily diet of shepherd's pie (it's the only thing he eats on tour), the Marlboros, the Jack Daniel's. You can intuit that whole sections of tissue are mildewed with toxic abuse. But don't be too certain. For years interviewers were told: don't bother him with questions about the 1970s and 1980s. Waste of time - he remembers nothing. It's not true. Woe betide the hack who got a date, a gig, a detail wrong about the Stones' back catalogue.

Keith has a few hundred songs washing around somewhere in his frontal lobes - maybe only the opening chords in some cases, but that's where his skill as the world's most exciting rhythm guitar player is best deployed. Locked in his head are the 12-bar Delta blues that first vamped him when he was a teenager - Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, and the unique sound of Elvis's guitarist Scotty Moore, that Keith could never quite replicate.

Along with the music, we can infer, is the foggy memory of a few thousand undifferentiated gigs - same view of the chaotically demented first 20 rows, same view of Michael Jagger's back, same duets with Ronnie Wood. But if would be odd if among them, two didn't rank high: the concerts at the Station Hotel Richmond in 1962-63 when the Stones were having their extended eureka moment, discovering how rock'n'roll could transform audiences, generations, eras; and the welcome-home concert at Brixton Academy at the end of their 1995 world tour, a gig at which half the posers in London pretended to have been present.

With his 60s has come a wheezy family sentimentality: he dotes on his daughters Theodora and Alexandra ("Little T and A") by the model Patti Hansen with whom he lives in Connecticut, and on his son Marlon, who disobligingly made him a grandfather in 1996.

And over in the memory corner, right at the front of the vast queue of songs and girlfriends, will be a large aide-memoire: "Coconuts. Don't climb the trees, man. Just buy a Bounty."

Comment from bv: The article was listed twice here. I took away the duplicate article.
Thanks BV for the editing ..it was late ... and I was tired.LOL
[enjoyment.independent.co.uk]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2006-05-14 13:49 by Riffbuk.

>> his daughters Theodora and Alexandra ("Little T and A") <<

hey, someone's picked up on that! :E
thanks Riffbuk (there are two copies, for some reason, but ... thanks!)

Keith, be well - all the way, baby, all the way

with sssoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >> his daughters Theodora and Alexandra ("Little T
> and A") <<
>
> hey, someone's picked up on that!

THAT is a revelation; always thought it stood for something else ! Wowee !

well, he did write the song long before either of those two were born,
and i doubt that they named the girls after the song - well, at least i doubt that Patti did :E
but when the question comes up why Keith doesn't do that number in concert anymore
i always imagine his daughters' initials may have something to do with it

Keith, be well - all the way, baby, all the way

The article is pretty damn good news if you ask me. I am not going to lose any sleep over them having to give up a few million bucks, but canceling "only" 5-6 shows sounds like a pretty good scenario considering how grim the situation looked a few days ago.

agreed - but i admit since my leg of the tour starts in brno, i'm personally relieved to hear this - so maybe it will be gothenburg afterall as the opening show? wherever it is, imagine the extra degree of insanity from the crowd when keith comes out on stage for the first time.

In an interview Keith said that his daughter's (or at least Theodora) were named after his grandfather Augustus Theodore Dupree....



ROCKMAN

well yeah, but it still comes out to Little T&A :E
(like i say i don't imagine that was deliberate, but ... )

Keith, be well - all the way, baby, all the way

Before I start: is it worth reading?

nothing crucial in it, Reptile, just some more vague speculation really.
and it's there twice, so it's not as long as it looks.

Keith, be well - all the way, baby, all the way

Libelous! - Keith was never heavily into groupies!

The Stones get a set amount of money per show from Cohl, so if one is loosing money it is Colhl. But of course, Cohl is insured for these kind of things, so the only ones loosing money is the insurance company.

Mathijs

yeah, it's not exactly a model of accuracy in journalism,
but at least it's not sensationalizing much.

Keith, be well - all the way, baby, all the way

In the end it is all a matter of how big the bottom line is. Every time an accident is happening the insurance cost is going up and the requirements for the tour are getting longer. I think everybody is loosing money when the tour is off. And the more shows they have to perform while the world cup in football is playing the play-off the less people will use their resheduled tickets. Big dilemma like where to place the Paris-1 show, knowing France will most probably be there etc. I don't think it is a good situation for anybody.

Bjornulf

The may 14th Sunday Express ( week end edition of the Daily Express ) says that 13 shows are endangered :

>> 13 shows are endangered <<

well, but it says that's based on what they found fans posting on the internet.
the speculation about the june-29th starting date might turn out to be right,
but it's not like they're quoting some informed/authoritative source on this.

Keith, be well - all the way, baby, all the way



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-05-14 14:05 by with sssoul.

with sssoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> well, but it says that's based on what they found
> fans posting on the internet....

Hope they don't do that too often!

As far as I know only some two-three dates are cancelled sofar.
We'll see about that.

Anyway I'd say oool' Keef have pulled in some dough too
during the years.

Even Uncle Scrooge - sorry, Jagger - has a heart.
Keef's health is his major concern in my naïve world.

Mathijs Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
so the only ones loosing money is the
> insurance company.
>
> Mathijs


Well, I don´t think so. Any insurance contract has got
articles which exclude the payment in a case of gross carelessness.
If you have a household insurance about fire, storm etc. it´s
just for the case that these damages have natural reasons. If you are drunk and
burn your house with a torch no insurance company would cover the damage.

So Cohl insured the tour against postponement due to natural diseases,
weather circumstances etc. it´s quite obvious that there is
no article saying that the company will pay for a tour if someone of the band falls from a tree while climbing and
fooling around (IF this is true after all).

But I don´t know if Cohl has "a fooling around" article in that contract
because of Woody and Keith. If yes (is it possible, btw?), he has to pay more
in advance to have that case covered and/or he doesn´t get the
same amount of money as if a more natural reason leads to a postponement.

>> Scrooge - sorry, Jagger <<

yeah, too bad the newspaper just had to take the kneejerk "mercenary Mick" angle -
of course he isn't happy - who is? it doesn't mean he's more concerned about the money than about Keith.
i imagine "wtf was i doing up there" has crossed Keith's mind as well ...

Keith, be well - all the way, baby, all the way

Baboon Bro Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >
> Anyway I'd say oool' Keef have pulled in some
> dough too
> during the years.
>
> Even Uncle Scrooge - sorry, Jagger - has a heart.
> Keef's health is his major concern in my naïve
> world.


Yeah. that's how I see it as well. That some fans joke on fan sites saying Mick must be mad is one thing, but that national newspaper go ahead and headline their article like that, I find it really crap. As far as I'm aware Mick hasn't made any statement about it, so noone knows what he thinks, and certainly not this paper. This is so caricatural and simplistic.

Just read the article. As I presumed, Mick is really pissed.
Nice that the FANS are noticed here.

13 shows? A nightmare, the tour is in danger as is the relation
between Mick and Keith as it seems.

Again, I don't think that a shrill tabloid newspaper like this should be our source of information on the relationship between band members. Note that when you visit their website, the title of the page is "The Daily Express: The World's Greatest Newspaper." The horoscope is the fourth item on their main menu...

Also, I find the recurrent drumbeat about Mick's greed to be a bit hypocritical. Seems to be that if the Stones have had such a long ride, and even relatively young guys like me (I was 1 when Some Girls came out) have gotten the opportunity to see them live again and again, it is probably thanks to Uncle Scrooge and his willingness/ability to basically carry the band on his shoulders through the worst times. Sure, I might cringe at some of his decisions (like unveiling the video of Streets of Love on a soap opera), but I am not going to fault him for wanting to make money. I am not sure that any of the other, more pure hearted band members have ever refused to cash a check.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-05-14 16:35 by Raoul Duke.

Raoul Duke Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Again, I don't think that a shrill tabloid
> newspaper like this should be our source of
> information on the relationship between band
> members.

If these are the only sources (as the Stones camp doesn´t say anything)
we have to deal with that. And btw: It´s pretty realistic what one can
read there.

Why would the Stones camp say anything about that? It's noone'sbusiness what's going on between them.

"If these are the only sources (as the Stones camp doesn´t say anything)
we have to deal with that."

wow....that beats me....

>> If these are the only sources (as the Stones camp doesn´t say anything) <<

but Too Tough honey: the 13-endangered-shows estimate in the article is based on what they found on internet fan sites.
they're recycling guesswork, that's all. no one will know what the rescheduling entails until Stones Inc announces it -
that's just the way it is.

Keith, be well - all the way, baby, all the way

True, we do have to deal with it. But I don't think that what we read there has any more value than the speculations that any of us may venture to put forth - especially considering they have a clear financial incentive to emphasize any conflict that might or might not be taking place. I agree that the story is "realistic," but it is also the case that the difference between "realistic" and "real" is often the difference between true and false.

with sssoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >> If these are the only sources (as the Stones
> camp doesn´t say anything) <<
>
> but Too Tough honey: the 13-endangered-shows
> estimate in the article is based on what they
> found on internet fan sites.

sssoul honey, a pity that the Stones themselves can´t
end the guesses, because they don´t know how Keith´s
injury will heal. He can´t even fly home. So the longer it
takes, the more realistic "the 13" is. If not, why just put it up
on RS.COM: "Tour begins June 16th!" Because they don´t know
anything. As long as they don´t know WE or the tabloids
have to guess.

And Mick being pissed is quite realistic either!

How idiotic. To quote fans on the internet as your source of information. We could post all kinds of crap here, and they could pick it up.

"According to Dr. Bryant, a regular internet commentator on group activities, the Rolling Stones have cancelled all stadium shows in June and replaced them with shows at more intimate venues across the continent. It is said that for these shows, all backing members have been dispensed with, and the four Stones (supplemented only by Daryl Jones on bass) will play entire shows consisting primarily of obscure acoustic numbers and blues-based material that they will alternate on a nightly basis. The shows will be performed on a small stage "in-the-round" so that Richards does not have to exert himself."

If its only 5-6 shows being affected, they'll be able to reschedule that many with minimal disruption to the schedule, or else they'd be able to fit a few in after Cardiff.

The "Sunday Express" story seems more a case of tabloid nonsense than anything else, ("Mick was privately fuming" - how do they know? and conversations from unnamed 'friends'. Gimme a fúckin' break...)..plus Keith 'bizarrely' wearing a couple of hats is nothing new, and hardly a sign that he's lost his marbles

and fans merely debating things or starting gossip on the internet is not a reliable source for a story. In the last two weeks, I've read everything from Keith being in a coma in a Cleveland hospital and been given the last rites to others stating that he just had a little bump and will be ready to play by June 1st

For the record, I havent read anywhere that Paris at the end of June would be the first show. That would also indicate that Barcelona and Madrid, the only shows which are so far COMFIRMED as being off, will be cancelled. Not the case, it seems. They're officially 'postponed'.