It's Only Rock'n Roll
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It's Only Rock'n Roll |
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Stones
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Brainstorm (warmup) : - 7:10pm Olimpic (warmup) : 7:30pm - 8:05pm The Rolling Stones : 9:25pm - 11:35pm |
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It was as close to a rain show as you could get.
By 8:50 they replaced Mick's microphone stand by
another one, so something different would happen, we knew.
And we saw the stage was all ready, but the clouds on the sky
kept coming closer. The rain came just after nine.
A real short shower, made everybody wet, except those who
had raincoats. Luckily I still had my 3 Euro worth
rain poncho pack bought in Munich 8 weeks ago.
They worked like crazy with carpets and stuff to make the stage "rain ready". And by 9:20 we understood why they had the different microphone stand. Up there walked former president Havel, made a five minutes speach, and then the show was on. And also the rain was off... It was a big, big crowd. May be 80,000. Not 100,000, and not 60,000 like some paper said a couple of days ago. It was like 2-3 football stadiums filled with people standing, pretty packed. The crowd was singing "Happy Birthday Mick" both for Mick on the main stage, and also for him on the B-stage, and Mick smiled his best smiled, made some gentle bows, and said "thank you very much". So he liked our singing and saluting. They had been working hard to protect the two cardboard sheets Mick have to read from on the front of the stage. The plastic tape that should hold the plastic sheets was not doing the job, so while Mick was up there talking to us after Start Me Up, as he had just said "Ahoy Prague", one of the stage workers came out with a big staple machine to make it final. And as he was virtually stapling in front of Mick's shoes, Mick said: "What is going on down there", with a funny smile of course. We could see he was enjoying his 60th birthday show 100% tonight. Keith started "Midnight Rambler" with the riffs of Tumbling Dice, but they made him stop, and we got the real Rambler riffs. And Rambler turned out just great. The Nearness of You was first time outside the club stages. And Happy got a great wild second ending. I never understand who is doing these 2nd endings on Happy. It's not Keith. It's not Ronnie. May be it's Charlie, as I think he cranks up the song whyenever he feels like pulling out some extra drumming, much to Ronnie's surprise every time, and to Keith amusement. And Mick don't mind waiting for another minute when we have so much fun of course. May be he is puttin on a couple more of those blinking tongues while waiting. The rest was as great as the beginning, but some times I wonder if the Stones need may be half an hour to get at their best some times. The end is actually the hottest, with Gimme Shelter, Satisfaction, some great guitars and vocals. Now it is on to a 90 minutes set in Toronto, Canada on Wednesday, before they return back to Europe for the show in Benidorm, Spain six days later. IORR/Bjornulf |
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Thanks to Bjornulf you already have a very complete picture of this
brilliant show so I just contribute only a little bit.
It was a really magic night in Prague. After poor supports we have to wait for more than 90 minutes for the rain to come and I was wondering why they keep the side screens still on. It was because of Mr.Havel's nice introduction of the band (I can't remember any other show which has been started by some special guest recently). Then the lights went on and rain was about to end. Stones even managed to stop the storm !! With the opening chords of BS the rain has stopped completely and we were about to see one of the best stadium shows of FL tour. Mick has really enjoyed the ovation he received and Keith was awesome during the whole show. Even Ronnie was in one of his best form and Charlie has got a very long salute so Mick has pointed out that he should learn some czech :))). In my point of view, the glimmer twins were back for this night. Mick was cooperating with Keith the most I have witnessed this tour and it really paid off. Especially the start of MR was magnificent - Keith started it with Tumbling dice chords and then went to a very slow start accompanied with Mick's harp. Mick was trying to speak a lot of in czech, in general: Stones indeed love Prague. Even Keith has told us that he really loves to be back in Prague and maybe this was the reason why he played the lovely and great version of Nearness fot the first time outside the club. I hope this stays in because it is truly a great song. It was the surprise for me along with Neighbors for the B-stage set and a switch between JJF and Satisfaction for encore. It is hard to choose any particular highlight because the show was really magnificent at all. Just to pick some - double ending of Happy, which was led by Charlie, it was clearly visible from the Ronnie's FOS. And I really enjoyed Neighbors, it is a great song and I have not heard it live yet. Other funny moment was the end of GS when Mick was playing with Lisa as he did on Miss you - a lot of very sexy touches and looks ... :)))) Very unusual were also very looong endings of some song - for example JJF, SFM and Satisfaction which took about a century. And I should also mention DS with Mick doing a lot of hard rock moves with his guitar, it was funny and he obviously had a lot of fun doing it. I hope that Stones will keep on rollin' and they will return |
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We started on Saturday July 26th to Prague where we spend the whole night in bars and in front of the Four Seasons Hotel and the club where Mick's birthday was celebrated. I managed to get an autograph by Bobby Keys on my newly bought "Sticky Fingers" CD. Bobby said: "This is a great record" which I answered with "yes, and with a great sax solo on Brown Sugar". He smiled and thanked me before he awailed himself to the other waiting Stones fans.
Then I spoke with Bernard Fowler when he left the club at the Wenzel's Square. We talked a bit and he shook my hand (calling me "fiend"... hmm) and signed my newly bought "Under Cover". Yes, folks, I bought two CDs in Prague which are both signed now by people I really admire.
The concert was "business as usual" but nevertheless a very very special show. I always dreamt about singing "Happy Birthday" to Mick and now that it was his 60th made it very special. The setlist was not that spectacular, besides "The Nearness of You" (really great song), "Neighbours" and "Little Red Rooster" which I never enjoyed live before, even though it was my 16th Stones concert since 1990. "Midnight Rambler" was the highlight of the night. We had very good versions of "Wild Horses" and "SFM" (Mick forced the band to go on playing on the small stage, which made the song the hardest rocker of the night) as well as "Satisfaction". "Don't Stop" was a bit sloppy. The guys missed the second bridge but managed to hold the line. When Keith started the Tumbling Dice riff instead the MR riff everybody smiled like the boys did on stage. YCAGWYW was a geat singalong. It was amazing to be among all those Czech guys we really enjoyed a historic Stones show. They can be proud of their capital, because: What cities can say to have been the centre of the Stones world like Prague was on that precios weekend in July?
Thanks to Joelle Bonnet and Jan Viansk� 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