I watched MTV Italia yesterday and it was a topic on the building of the Bigger Bang stage at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium in Milano.
The (very) beautiful young lady that presents the news said that "following Keith Richards brain surgery, the show will be shorter than the previous one of the Bigger Bang Tour".

What means "shorter" ?
Some shows in USA lasted 1h50 or 1h55.
Shorter ? 1h40 or 1h30 for europeans ?
How many songs ? 15 or 16 with the encores ?
Only one encore ? How many songs on the little stage ?
How many KR songs ?

I'm very worry learning this...
130€ for a shorter show is a thief.

Uf... let´s hope not!! But you got me really worried... if Keith is ok, is ok for play 2 hours... what´s half hour every 2 or 3 nights?? Not a lot...

I think, no wait, hope she said the tour is shorter, because if the show is shorter, I'm gonna start cutting peoples heads off, starting with Michael Cohl!!

I saw on a message board (I don't remember if it was IORR or Rocks Off) some days ago that the setlists for a probably US fall 2006 tour 'll be shorter.
Now I ask myself if it'll be the same for the european tour to preserve more rest for Keith.

Massimo, I hope you misheard and what Lizard said is correct. Or perhaps even MTV Italy mistook the less shows with less time? I don't know.

a compromise for me would be a 15-20 minutes break before the B-Stage songs in order to get some rest for keith. maybe some solo songs from ron and mick would be also ok. anything that changes the setlist apart from shorten it.

dump Keith's solo spot.
Mind you, if they did that, the midshow beer and t-shirt sales would be dramatically reduced.

if they dumped Keith's solo, I'd really reconsider many things....
can't picture a Stones gig without it. we're talking about making things BETTER, not worse.

MTV Italy is famous for being sloppy about news and reports.
They get all the translations wrong, so I wouldn't be surprised if they got "shorter" as a shorter show when the actual news they were reporting really meant a shorter tour (less dates).

That's what I'm thinking too dunhill, it'd be "easy" to confuse if they didn't do their research right.

Not to mention I'd be surprised if a piece of "news" like that would leak at this time and MTV Italy would be the first and only one to have it.

When they're still selling ubelivable expensive tickets, they have no other choice than deliver good concerts.

Just my 2 cents worth, but I think that if they anticipated needing fewer dates AND shorter concerts, than that would mean that they don't expect Keith to be fully recovered before the start of the tour, or at any point during the tour.

If that really was the case, I think they would probably have postponed the entire tour until next year.

I seriously doubt the Stones would dare to reduce stadium and arena shows to less than two yours. 19-21 songs will be the minimum.

"make up your mind, 'cause I gotta go"

The Stones are like hookers, the less coin you contribute, the less time you get.

they were less than 2 hours on the last European tour, Bob! (and generally just short of 2 hrs on the US shows on THIS tour)

I agree with Brad, however - considering they (and Keith) have specifically stated that hes fully recovered, raring to go, etc etc then they DONT have the health issue to hide behind if the shows are significantly shortened. They dont even play on consecutive days for goodness sake!

Gazza, are you sure of the time? :-)

shush, you.....LMAO

how the hell would MTV Italy have any idea about this? smells like Napoli Pizza (i.e. fishy) to me . . .

nikkibong Wrote:
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> how the hell would MTV Italy have any idea about
> this? smells like Napoli Pizza (i.e. fishy) to me
> . . .

Not a very nice remark about Italy nikki ...

nikkibong Wrote:
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> how the hell would MTV Italy have any idea about
> this? smells like Napoli Pizza (i.e. fishy) to me
> . . .

Moggi (ex-Juventus) locked Mick Jagger up till he told him

dunhill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> nikkibong Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > how the hell would MTV Italy have any idea
> about
> > this? smells like Napoli Pizza (i.e. fishy) to
> me
> > . . .
>
> Not a very nice remark about Italy nikki ...

how so? i love italy - but doesn't Napoli pizza have anchovies on it? no offense intended!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-07-04 14:13 by nikkibong.

I have on DVD a Boston reporter saying before opening night at Fenway that "Mick Jagger will sing a whopping 14 songs and be on stage for 80 minutes", so dont believe everything you see/hear.

Keith could have some EPO or blood doping - he could ask Basso or Ulrich where to get it..... then we will still have 2 hour shows...

The show will probably last 1:50 or so like they did earlier this year.

Bjornulf

bv Wrote:
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> The show will probably last 1:50 or so like they
> did earlier this year.

I think they should play at least 2 hours...because of their great song catalogue and because they used to play 2 hours and even more the last tours.

by the way...I do not see the point, playing 1 hour 50 minutes instead of ..lets say...2 hours and 15 minutes..I mean whats the difference for the band playing 30 minutes more...if you have a day off between each gig.

Its just 2 or 3 songs more for the band....but a great and welcome pleasure for the fans...

My wish would be:

Not less than 22 songs

Not less than 2 hours

Not less than 2 blues numbers ( BomH & Rambler) should be a double 1-2 punch evry show.

Play more 60`s tunes on the b-stage..such as Around & Around, Mothers little helper. etc.

Skip Miss You and You got me Rocking and replace them by more ABB tunes..at least 5 ABB songs each gig IMO.

But who am I....what can a poor boy to?
Just an ordinary fan...

salar

That sounds like a plan.I expect some more than 1:50 but,if they go below that,it will be an outrage.

In regards to the prostitute theory,I dropped quite a bit of money in Boston January 13th and got twenty songs.Since then they have played 21 songs at some shows with a less expensive average ticket price.It would be cool if they told us in advance how much time and/or how many songs the tickets they are selling will get us.

They could drop down to 13 songs and there would still be set list apologists out there complaining about the well founded objections people probably would have.

When I say that I expect more than 1:50,I don't mean that we are very likely to get it.

Personally, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they're down to only about 18 songs for the Europe tour.

I seem to remember that they seem to trim down the playing time as the tour goes on.. maybe they get bored of playing the same tracks (cue: moan about set lists) or they just get plain exhausted.

Being on the road is not just a physical drain, it will have a mental toll as well.

Theif in the Night Wrote:
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> That sounds like a plan.I expect some more than
> 1:50 but,if they go below that,it will be an
> outrage.
>
> In regards to the prostitute theory,I dropped
> quite a bit of money in Boston January 13th and
> got twenty songs.Since then they have played 21
> songs at some shows with a less expensive average
> ticket price.It would be cool if they told us in
> advance how much time and/or how many songs the
> tickets they are selling will get us.
>
the general rule of thumb seemed to be, 20 songs if they play 'Midnight Rambler' and 21 if they dont

> They could drop down to 13 songs and there would
> still be set list apologists out there complaining
> about the well founded objections people probably
> would have.

LOL....yeah "look how long they played in 1966 - 30 minutes a night/1973 - 14 songs/ etc..

well if we get shorter shows will we be able to get a refund on part of our ticket prices ?

surely before keith's accident we were going to get 2 hour plus shows.. if that's now changed then the price should too

although i can't see that happening :-)