I'm not a doctor, but saw somewhere (perhaps BV wrote it) that Mick needs maximum 4 days to recover from laryngitis. If that's correct, in Europe 2007 they should do one gig EVERY FOUR DAYS. Why not? This would be very good...
(A)...For Mick's voice.
(
...For the band- more breaths, more time for rehearsals, etc.
too.
(C) ...For the fans- very important! Since 1997/98 Stones fans very often have much trouble with cancelations and a huge part of them refers to Mick's laryngitis. Fans need to see that the band respects them, as they deserve!
Do you think "one gig every 4 days" model is unrealistic? Why? This plan allow them to do 25 shows, probably in stadiums, during 100 days- May 20/Augoust 31. Well, 25 stadium gigs mean 1,200,000 - 1,300,000 people. The Stones already have played to 910,000 during european leg 2006.
Do they want to play to even more people? Fine. Before May 20 and after Augoust 31 they hardly can find available stadiums (due to football games), but there are a lot of fields! In the last years, every time the Stones play at fields, the gigs are very successful.
As for the other factors, honestly, i don't see how "the current mess" could affect Europe 07. First of all, even the current leg of the american tour included a lot of successful gigs. Actually, they had serious problems in cities they played earlier, on this tour, three or four times. Add 1-2 more cases (like Seattle) and that's all. So, what exactly have the current american leg and Europe 2007 in common? Are they planing to visit Barcelona, Madrid, Athens, Zagreb, Brussels, and Rome 4-5 times, each city, as they did in N.York, Boston, Chicago and LA??? I don't think so...
Europe 2006- a "shattered" tour, with World Cup taking place in Germany: They attracted 910,000 people, doing 19 gigs, selling the 87% of the tickets available. Who really considers these numbers as ""daunting"? And IF they offer lower prices... maybe thinking that they already have in their pocket the @#$%& "grosses record"... I say, IF...