It's Only Rock'n Roll
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It's Only Rock'n Roll |
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Stones
NEWS |
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Tour 2024 |
Mick Jagger |
Keith Richards |
Charlie Watts |
Ronnie
Wood |
Band 2
Tim Ries |
The Pretenders (warmup) : 5:10pm - 5:50pm AC/DC (warmup) : 6:30pm - 7:55pm The Rolling Stones : 8:40pm - 10:50pm
The size of the crowd:
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Anyway, the show: the gates opened at 14.30 so we had some time to have a look at the merchandising stands, time to eat something until we could get in. In my opinion, it was ridiculous to take peoples plastic bottles of water with the temperatures (>30 �C) of today. We got a nice position not to far from the stage. The Pretenders were quite good, nice songs, and good performance. A bit later AC/DC, well. Not my kind of music. But apparently extremely popular in Germany. The crowd went crazy. Some songs were okay, but to me it all sounded the same. But at least the crowd was warmed up, not only from the sun but also musically.
The Stones hit the stage around 20.40, opening with Brown Sugar. And they went on with the typical stadium set, Start me up, You got me rocking, Don�t Stop (nice long version, the song is growing live), followed by Bitch. Then tempo went down with Angie and YCAGWYW. Both very nice. Absolute highlight was Rock me baby (yes, with AC/DC members). Tumbling dice is always a crowd pleaser, although I wouldn�t mind to hear another song. Then the band introduction. Mick said something to Charlie, but it was not clear what.
The Keith songs were beautiful played. Slipping away was absolutely great, very intense. You don�t have to mean it was a nice change to hear (was it the first time in this tour in Europe?). Sympathy was excellent, it was finally getting dark, so the stage lightning became more visible. The move to the B-stage was great, with a really amazing set. First, I just wanna make love to you, great track, followed by a rocking Street fighting man and Midnight Rambler. Back to the main stage with Gimme Shelter. At this stage the main screen was not working properly, so we had to do without it and the rest of the show with half a screen. Some greatest hits to finish off, Honky tonk women (without Chrissie Hynde), IORR and a rocking Satisfaction. One encore, Jumping Jack Flash and fireworks were the end of a long hot day in Hockenheim.
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Thank you Mick and Angus and Malcolm for giving us Rock Me Baby yesterday - another highlight in my personal 25-years collection
of the Rolling Stones. Angus really can play the Blues and Mick can sing it. What an absolute outstanding and great performance.
Icecold showers had been running over my skin and I wished the show would have stopped after it just to keep that magic moment.
Than we've got a great Street Fighting Man, but the rest was a stadium show which rank not more than average. Maybe Start Me Up
was good again. Forget the rest.
And shit security at the race track which even took my Tetrapak's away at 35 degrees while the bars were running out of Mineralwater and Sprite. |
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8.40: The Stones started their show with Brown Sugar and Start Me Up. After this two songs they started to play "You got me rocking" and at the stage opened a great screen and their powerful show went on. Then Keith ( he was also great) played two great songs (great,great,great). And after that there came the best: "Sympathy For The Devil". This was the most perfect song (with the lights and fireworks) .
B-Stage: whooow, three great songs but the "Midnight Rambler" was the best. I think they played it seven, eight minutes.
And then there came their superhits like "Gimme Shelter", "Honky Tonk Woman" , a great version of "Satisfaction" and "Jumpin� Jack Flash":
A great concert!
PS: Are there some pics from the show??? Please send it to me : [email protected]
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What an event at the racetrack! At first it seemed to be more than
60.000 visitors at the racetrack. I suppose about 70.000.
The Pretenders made a quiet good performance, but just for half an hour.
Then AC/DC came out and we could see a highly professional performance
with their greatest hits show. After a very hot afternoon in the fos
section, the stone came up and gave the crowd what they expected.
Unfortunately the setlist is nearly the same at all stadium shows. There
just 4 or 5 tracks on the setlist which they change from one show to
another. What a mess!
But for a stadium show we got a quiet good performance of all band members. Ronnies guitar playing was as good as on the former performances and Keith did also a quite good job! Specially on YGMR. The highlight for me this night was Rock me baby withe the special appearance by AC/DC 's Young brothers. The version they played killed!! Charlies drumming was excellent as ever and he made a special rhythm introduction for Keiths solo part, which gave us some raggae last night for the first time in Europe on this tour. Mick did also a good job, but his appearance is more expressive in areans and clubs. But in anyway it's the best Tour of the boys ever...... |
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The stage was build on some sort of small mountain in the Motodrom, the catwalk had extra steps and you had to go down to the b-stage. You had to look up very high to see the stage, which was higher than usual as well. We were at the same place as in Leipzig, in the middle between the stage and the b-stage.
The waiting began with the sun shining on us. I got burned, everybody else got burned, security was handing out water over the barriers, lots of water. Security was very strict, moving through the front of stage area to see who took pictures and took away cameras, chips and films. I don't see the reason in this, the Stones don't get hurt by fans taking pics, but it was all very tightly controlled.
The Pretenders started a bit early, sweating on stage, Chrissie tried to get the audience going, but not a big show. Nice set, this time she mentioned Mick waiting in the wings who would love to hear her play that special song. Don't ask me about the titles, they did "Talk of the Town", but that's all that I can remember.
AC/DC came on and it was the same set all over again, I got bored a lot, especially with the heat. I was glad their bit was over after 90 minutes. I watched it, but there's actually nothing really to watch, as I knew all of Angus' moves by now. I was just glad I don't have them as an opening act again.
The Stones started with the same setlist as in Oberhausen, but it was a very different show from Leipzig. Jagger missed a cue in Bitch, he even said "Sorry for that" during the song, there were some sound problems, Ronnie was quite loud, Keith was fairly low in the mix. YGMR in the 3rd slot made me a bit wary about what the show would be like.
Rock me Baby was the best version of the three I got. Angus was all over again, but even Malcolm now came to the front of the stage, all 4 guitarits, Daryll and Mick in front of Charlie for some time, very nice picture. Angus nearly on his knees, playing to Mick looked like praising the king. A very sharp delivery, Malcolm and Angus and Ronnie and Keith (who soloed as well) just happy to have delivered a truely beautiful song.
At one point during the show Mick thanked AC/DC and Chrissie Hynde (!) for the support act shows. Mick did a lot of talking during the show. But the show never really took of for me up to that point. When Keith came on, it was all different. He mentioned the heat and the breeze that was now coming up and then did Slipping Away. I always love this song, but there was something wrong with his microphone, his voice was way too low in the mix. YDHTMI was another first for me on this tour, beautifully done, although you coulnd't hear too much of Ronnie on the keyboards. It was a nice change from Happy or BTMMR. Keith's solo on Sympathy was sharp this time, as was Ronnie's solo on YCAGWYW. In Hockenheim it was up to the point, whereas in Leipzig he wanted to go on, but the band stopped. During the introductions Charlie banged his drums loudly a couple of times for him and even more for Keith, seems he's ggetting into the groove now. ;-)
When they made their way to the b-stage, someone from the audience handed Mick a hat, he put it on his head, went back to Charlie, who was following him and then put it on Charlie's hat. Charlie didn't know if he should laugh or not, he seemed a bit dry in his humour. IJWMLTY was another song I hadn't heard on this tour, it was great to get it. As the b-stage was down from our place, we had a perfect view and could see them playing there, which one can't very often. Crowd reaction was awesome near the b-stage, but the sound wasn't right, Keith' guitar was much too low in the mix. It was a shame, as it spoiled the song somehow, but I didn't mind too much. SFM was all Ronnie's guitar this time, Keith still having sound problems. MR was a very interesting version. The song nearly fell apart in the middle bit, as there seemed to be monitor problems as well, but then Mick just did a lot of "Ouhs" and "Oh Yeahs" and they got it going again. ONe of the strangest versions I had ever heard, but most interesting to see how they keep a song from falling apart.
Coming back from the b-stage, someone handed Daryll and envelope, which he tokk with him. The the videoscreen went blank, just some interference on there. Aftr GS Jagger said:" Seems like they lost my favourite TV station", as there was nothing to be seen onscreen, just black. I didn't come back during IORR, so after that Jagger apologized to everybody in the back about this and said they are going to replace it soon, but would play some more songs in the mean time. Then the video came back, at least part of it, so the crew decided to just use the right half. We did not get the HTW video, but Jagger went out on the catwalk to sing most of it on the b-stage for the people at the back. No Chrissie this time, would have loved to see her again. Satisfaction and JJF were ok and soon it was over.
After the nearly perfect Leipzig show this show that had lots of problems, caused from whatever, but gain they made something special out of it, leaving the routines and trying to save the show. Much more interesting sometimes than a perfect show. And even the setlist was outstanding from other field shows. I loved most of it, mostly the second part. As I said: it was weird but good.
It took us about 2 hours to get back to the house where we stayed, I had to make the journey back in the boot of the van, as there were some more people in the car, but it was ok. We stayed up until 5, only to get up at 7.40 again to make our journeys home to either Berlin or to my place. Hope everybody got home safely.
For me it was 7 shows in just more than 2 weeks. Fine, I just loved it to have them playing in front of me again! Now it's some shows I will miss. I will be back on the tour in Paris Stade de France for another couple of shows in Paris, Stockholm, Hamburg, Hannover and Holland.
I wanted to go to Hockenheim because of the venue. The famous Hockenheimring is located 15 km from Heidelberg and 20 from a city called Mannheim. I went to the track on Saturday and I was able to see the construction of the stage. There was even an empty truck driving on the circuit with an audience of around 100 persons screaming to see more. In most of the cases to go to see the Stones but you can't really imagine how many people are working backstage to put up a rock 'n roll show every time. I would like to congratulate those people for their hard work, especially in rain or with temperatures above 30�C.
What about the concert? First of all I found it a wise decision of the organisation to open the gates around 2.30 pm but the security was crap because some people came inside with cameras and bottles of beer (although this was officially forbidden). And I noticed some more hardcore ACDC fans than in Oberhausen around. And I must admit that the Pretenders were good as well as ACDC with Angus Young stealing yet again the show with his dirty playing and cool signs.
The Stones opened with "Brown Sugar" and it was the beginning of an unbelievable HOT show. Hot because it was 30+ degrees in Hockenheim. I was standing right of the B-stage where you could escape of the sun most of the time. From a certain distance, you start to like the Jumbotron. The screen was sometimes the usual rectangular shape that showed the whole band but sometimes it split into 4 vertical screens and each one showed a different band member so you could watch each one on this big screen. I think that the audience at the very back with their expensive seating tickets only watched this screen.
I would like to complain about the security in Hockenheim, they didn't give a damn about the comfort of the audience and they only concentrated their whole efforts on nailing people with cameras, audio devices and so on. I understand that there are rules to respect but some undercover security men jumped into the front of stage area to confiscate batteries, cameras as well as cheap cameras. I saw several security men with bags full of stuff. At a certain time a person was looking to the audience and stood in front of him. I made him a sign that I came to see the show and that I was not in Hockenheim to see his body. He understood it, walked away and stood before another person. Excuse me but it's very annoying to see security persons chasing around.
Hockenheim was far similar in setlist to Oberhausen until Keith came over and did two different songs. And he was right, it was HOT. "Sympathy for the Devil" was great. The Jumbotron went black with the tongue logo in flames with Mick in a long coat with glittering tongues. The Hockenheimring was bathed all in red and during the song some huge HOT flames went off from the top of the screen - it was AWESOME! They were so hot and shot so high that almost everybody could feel the heat.
After this came the B-stage and there was a row, a person wanted to stand next to someone who started to shout. It was a misunderstanding, it was only an undercover security with some batteries and a tape in his hands... unbelievable.
The Stones didn't played Undercover although but I Just Wanna Make Love, a very strong Street Fighting Man and Midnight Rambler.
After the break, one of the videoscreens was stuck and this was sort of a nightmare for the Stones because during two songs, there was no video at all and only the left side worked properly afterwards... pity for those at the very back who will only see one show!
After the last bow, already one third of the B-stage had been in steel cases, good work of the Rolling Stones crew and they didn't disturb during their work what I couldn't say of the security men. One thing is for sure, the Stones won't put out an album called NO SECURITY this year but let's hope, a brand new CD and a DVD with songs from stadium, arena and theatres shows.
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The day before the show... |
Building the stage... |
The B-stage... |
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Click on the small pictures to get a bigger one...
Thanks to Klaus Lauterbach for all the great photos.
Thanks to
Joelle Bonnet
Glenn and
Iris
for news links.
This page will change over the next few days, as you and other fans send reviews, set lists and reports. Please send your e-mail to IORR. Thanks! For details and great photos from the Rolling Stones and their World Tour get the IORR magazines.
It's Only Rock'n Roll 2003 -
© The Rolling Stones
Fan Club Of Europe