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The Rolling Stones
Brussels rehearsals
May/June 2007

Two years after their tour announcement at the Juilliard School of Music, Lincoln Center, New York May 10, 2005, the Stones are yet again gathering for rehearsals. They are preparing for the final part of the tour A Bigger Bang - the rescheduled shows in Europe.


Songs rehearsed   Fri May 25   Sat May 26   Sun May 27   Mon May 28   Tue May 29   Wed May 30   Thu May 31   Fri Jun 1   Sat Jun 2   Sun Jun 3   Mon Jun 4  

Complete list of songs rehearsed

  1. 19th Nervous Breakdown
  2. All About You
  3. All Down The Line
  4. Angie
  5. Back Of My Hand
  6. Beast Of Burden
  7. Before They Make Me Run
  8. Bitch
  9. Brown Sugar
  10. Can't Be Seen
  11. Can't You Hear Me Knocking
  12. Dead Flowers
  13. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
  14. Far Away Eyes
  15. Get Off Of My Cloud
  16. Gimme Shelter
  17. Happy
  18. Heartbreaker
  19. Honky Tonk Women
  20. How Can I Stop
  21. I'll Go Crazy (James Brown)
  22. I'm Free
  23. Infamy
  24. It's All Over Now
  25. It's Only Rock'n Roll
  26. Jumping Jack Flash
  27. Just My Imagination
  28. Let It Bleed
  29. Let's Spend the Night Together
  30. Little T&A
  31. Live With Me
  32. Loosing My Touch
  33. Love Is Strong
  34. Loving Cup
  35. Memory Motel
  36. Midnight Rambler
  37. Miss You
  38. Monkey Man
  39. Nearness Of You
  40. Oh No Not You Again
  41. Out Of Control
  42. Pretty Beat Up
  43. Respectable
  44. Rip This Joint
  45. Rocks Off
  46. Rough Justice
  47. Ruby Tuesday
  48. Satisfaction
  49. Shattered
  50. She's So Cold
  51. She Was Hot
  52. Shine A Light
  53. Slipping Away
  54. Some Girls
  55. Start Me Up
  56. Sway
  57. Sweet Virgina
  58. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) (Sly and the Family Stone)
  59. The Worst
  60. Thief In The Night
  61. This Place Is Empty
  62. Thru and Thru
  63. Tumbling Dice
  64. Undercover
  65. Under My Thumb
  66. Ventilator Blues
  67. Waiting On A Friend
  68. Wanna Hold You
  69. When The Whip Comes Down
  70. Wild Horses
  71. Worried About You
  72. You Can't Always Get What You Want
  73. You Don't Have To Mean It
  74. You Got Me Rocking
  75. You Got The Silver

Plus half a dozen more songs the IORR editor could not verify. The above songs have all been reherased for sure. If you have comments, corrections or additions please send your e-mail to: [email protected]. Thanks!


Friday May 25

They were supposed to start rehearsals today. Charlie arrived early. Same with most of the backup musicians. Due to a delay they cancelled the rehearsals; they will probably start tomorrow. Lisa and Bobby returned from the studio first. Then Tim, Bernard, Darryl. Later on Charlie. It looked like he would just rush off in a hurry, but Charlie is a true gentleman and loyal to the fans. As they exited the gates his car stopped, his security assistant went out of the car and said: "He's gonna sign". Around 10-15 lucky fans got their items signed. Not bad for a Friday evening.


Charlie Watts leaving the rehearsals building.


Charlie Watts making fans happy pt. 1.


Charlie Watts making fans happy pt. 2.


Manneken-Pis. Brussels most famous 55 cm tall bronze boy by J�r�me Duquesnoy anno 1619.


Saturday May 26

First day of rehearsals in Brussels today. As always with the first day, it is quite informal and they were trying out new songs as well. Some really interesting sounds! Just for a start: She's So Cold, Bitch, Shattered, Undercover, Oh No Not You Again, Heartbreaker and quite a few more of course. Mick was saving his voice so we got Bitch instrumental, same with Heartbreaker. Mick left after 3 hours of rehearsals, while Keith and rest of the band made another 2 1/2 hours of work including songs such as "Wanna Hold You" and "You Got The Silver".

More pictures and stories from tonight's rehearsals coming soon...


Keith and Ronnie making fans happy.


Keith and Ronnie making fans happy.


Sunday May 27

A full day's worth of rehearals today - rehearsals day number two. First a few Keith takes including "Wanna Hold You" and "Infamy". Then "You Got Me Rocking" and "Let's Spend the Night Together". Then "Respectable" three takes, All Down The Line, Just My Imagination, Monkey Man (2x), Let It Bleed. Then break. Then Mick did three songs before he left: Loving Cup and Love Is Strong 2x. Keith and the rest of the band continued with some more than one hour of songs. How often do you have the chance to listen to more than one hour with a bunch of Keith's best songs live? Tonight was the night. Details to follow soon!

After Mick had left tonight Keith did a set of some 90 minutes with the rest of the band, running through a lot of songs that may or may not show up in his set of usually two songs per show: Pretty Beat Up, I Wanna Hold You, The Worst 2x, Slipping Away, Thief In The Night 3x, How Could I Stop, Little T&A, Thru and Thru.

PS. Mick made fans happy both when leaving the hotel and by arrival at the reherals site, as he signed both places.


Monday May 28


Keith making fans happy.

European fans! Get ready for the final part of what will probably be the best part of the entire "A Bigger Bang Tour". The Stones are just like a quality wine. They get better as the tour is getting into the final stage. The Fall Tour in North America brought in some amazing new songs and shows, and right now in Brussels they are working on the final part. The final touch. If they play just half of the songs they rehearsed today then most fans would be perfectly happy.

This is just a brief list of songs they rehearsed. More songs will be added soon. The list is complete, but if you got it all at once you would probably go over your budget and book too many shows this summer, so we will do this little by little...

Keith did a warm-up of the band for a start with "Happy". Then they did "Tumbling Dice". Not that they need to reherase it; they do it on every soundcheck and also every show around, but it is the perfect starter, as everybody is in it. Then "Miss You" in a laid back great version with Tim doing some great filling in rather than just the saxophone. Then off to sixteen more songs for tonight. The complete list will be here soon, but just as a teaser:

Yes. Memory Motel. The song so many fans want them to play. Sounds great. We want to see Mick & Keith sharing the microphone on this one please! Such a great song, and Europe is so ready for it once more!

Sway? Sure. Rehearsed today!
Shine A Light? Sure. Rehearsed today!
Can't You Hear Me Knocking? Sure. Rehearsed today!

And lots more. In America they would call it a "Home Run". We all call it "The Greatest Rock'n'Roll band in the world".

And just in case I forgot to tell... Keith did a great great signing event long long time after most people had gone to bed. There were still some 35 hard core fans waiting there, long into the early hours, but it was all worth it. Keith was very kind, the security people took care of everyone and many many happy fans got a memory for lifetime. And Keith was all a big smile. When asked: "Keith you have a great moustache - are you going to keep it?", Keith responded: "Yes I am gonna keep it, for the next movie".

Complete list of songs rehearsed:

Please make a reference to www.iorr.org if you copy this hard work. Thanks!


Tuesday May 29

Another great day with rehearsals in Brussels. With exactly one week to go until the tour opening, the Stones are for sure "en route"!

First they did a quick run-through of what sounds like a final and perfect set list, starting with "Jumping Jack Flash", then in the middle a dream pair of "Memory Motel" and "Sway" back to back - simply perfect match - then finishing off with "Tumbing Dice", which is the point where they would do band introductions and hand over the lead vocals to Keith. This set of 10 songs were done in 40 minutes.

Then into a more obscure set of a yet unknown James Brown style song, then two takes each of "Wild Horses" and "Worried About You".

After a break Keith worked on three of his songs: "Can't Be Seen", "You Don't Have To Mean It" and "Infamy".

They did a shorter day than normal today but for sure it was very efficient, both for the band and for the fans.


Mick making fans happy.


Keith making fans happy.

Complete list of songs rehearsed:

Please make a reference to www.iorr.org if you copy this hard work. Thanks!


Wednesday May 30

Late start and even later finish of the reherarsals tonight. Rather than running through a set list like they did last night, they worked more in detail with selected songs tonight. They did the following songs:

Out Of Control is sounding great, like it did first time around. They did some great selections as you can see. Nobody wanted to leave, and as they worked on "Thief In The Night", supposed to be the final song, they just kept it gong and going and going and going... Every time they were about to close it, they gave it a new start and kept it running. In the end the song clocked in at exactly thirty - 30 - minutes which was pretty impressive!

Please make a reference to www.iorr.org if you copy this hard work. Thanks!


Thursday May 31


Ronnie celebrating his birthday - making fans happy.

Yet another day with great rehearsals, as the opening date is getting closer. Songs rehearsed tonight, listed in the order they were rehearsed, and by the way, with no major breaks in-between:

This was more or less a complete show set list, including songs with Keith on vocals as well as the B-stage set.

Then Keith did a long set of rehearsing several songs. One of the great parts when they did several takes of "Loosing My Touch". At 12 midnight sharp they stopped the rehearsals and saluted with "Happy Birthday Ronnie". Then an hour or so of party and jamming, then finishing off with a great long version of "Ventilator Blues", first with Bernard on vocals, then Ronnie. It was may be 30 minutes long, quite unique version!

This is the list of the late night reherasals after the break:

These are a couple of photos from Ronnie meeting two dozen fans long long time into the early hours this morning outside the rehearsals studio. Mick left before midnight. Charlie, Keith and the rest of the band stayed to run through songs by Keith for a few hours. Then Charlie left. And Keith left. Then in the end, Ronnie showed up. He was watching the small group of fans still hanging in there, by the gate, at a time when everybody else in Belgium was sleeping (may be with the exception of Keith of course). Then the groupmof fans started to sing "Happy Birthday Ronnie". And as a true gentleman and always loyal to the fans, Ronnie asked the driver to wait, walked down to the patient fans, and signed records, posters, magazines, whatever the fans had brought last night.

It was a magic moment. We had just finished half an hour of some magic live sessions of "Ventilator Blues". First from the record. Then starting up live. Then with Bernard on vocals. You know he can be just as wild and intense as Mick on vocals. Amazing. Then Ronnie on vocals, filled in by Keith. It went on and we could enjoy this unique rehearsals session which was a mixure of rehearsals, birthday party and happening. And before that, we had got Elvis on record, Elvis live with Ronnie and Keith, Coming Down Again from the CD, I mean pretty great stuff that could make a grown man cry...

So in the end, at a time when even the police had stopped by to see what these people were doing at these early hours in the middle of nowhere outside Brussels, there he was. Ronnie. He took his time. Even if I am sure he could have gone directly to his hotel to celebrate his big birthday, he took his time. Big smile. Saying: "I am not going to tell you how old I am". And after having signed for everyone who pushed their items on to him, through the barrier bars, he even went around looking for the owner of the marker pen - "Who's is this pen"... - signed a few more, and then drove off from what will remain a remarkable night of rehearsals in Brussels. His car window was open, and I am sure he heard the message from one of the fans who has been there all week: "Ronnie! Thank you for Ventilator Blues".

Happy Birthday Ronnie! PS. See pictures from last night here: Happy 60th Birthday Ronnie Wood!

Please make a reference to www.iorr.org if you copy this hard work. Thanks!


Friday June 1

Happy Birthday Ronnie! And sure Ronnie was first in and first out at the rehearsals venue tonight. Today was mostly a press event. Local TV stations recorded a few songs in the studio - see list below. The songs have probably been broadcasted on Belgian TV already.

They warmed up with bits of "Honky Tonk Women", then they did seven quick takes lasting for approx three minutes each of the following songs: "Rough Justice", "I'll Go Crazy", "Monkey Man", "Tumbling Dice" and "Rocks Off".

Then Ronnie and soon after Mick left the site. Keith, Charlie and the rest of the band stayed and did some takes on songs by Keith. They did "Nearness Of You", "How Can I Stop" and "All About You" several takes.

The list of songs performed tonight for the video session:

  • Rough Justice
  • I'll Go Crazy
  • Monkey Man
  • Rough Justice (take 2)
  • Tumbling Dice
  • I'll Go Crazy (take 2)
  • Rocks Off

On Tuesday they did a great version of the Sly and the Family Stone song "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)". Then on Thursday they tried out another great Soul/Funk song: "I'll Go Crazy" by James Brown. This as also the song they did for the press shoot tonight in Vilvoorde. During the press event they did a quick version of just 3 minutes, but this is a song they could easily do a lot more fun with, including a 2nd start, and the crowd will love it.

Then a long break, and after Ronnie and Mick left, they did these:


Mick arriving at the studio tonight.

Please make a reference to www.iorr.org if you copy this hard work. Thanks!


Saturday June 2


Keith signing for the fans at Vilvoorde.

Happy Birthday Charlie!

They rehearsed MIDNIGHT RAMBLER tonight. As well as VENTILATOR BLUES. Plus SHE WAS HOT and four more songs not reherased yet this time at Vilvoorde. See update with complete list of songs as reherased tonight coming up tomorrow. The Stones are now finished with the rehersals in Vilvoorde, and they have tried out approx. eighty songs!

Mick and Keith signed for almost everybody waiting today. Luckily they signed at a time when only the real fans were around. The people who show up by the clock missed out today. Now the Stones have left Vilvoorde and will appear at another place nearby soon. Details to follow...

This is the complete list of songs as reherarsed tonight:

Please make a reference to www.iorr.org if you copy this hard work. Thanks!


Mick signing for the fans at Vilvoorde.


These are the 2007 Brussels rehearsals. Brought to you by IORR. The fan club that never sleeps. More updates to come soon ...


Sunday June 3

The band have now moved out of their reherasals site at Vilvoordre, and have been relaxing and enjoying the nice weather in Brussels. With eight - 8 - days of rehearals in a row night by night the break today was a welcome time off for both the band and the crew.


Monday June 4

The Stones did one and a half hours worth of rehearsals at the Werchter Festival Site today. Two more songs were added to the list of new songs rehearsed in Brussels. They did the following songs:


The stage in Werchter.


The stage and the cows in Werchter.

Now everybody is ready for the tour start tomorrow in Werchter!


The Brussels rehearsals on the IORR Tell Me forum

Follow the Brussels rehearsals day by day through the IORR Tell Me forum thread:
Tour rehearsals in Brussels


The IORR magazine

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