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The Rolling Stones
TW Classic Festival site
Werchter, Belgium
Sunday September 7, 2003

The set list

  1. Brown Sugar
  2. Start Me Up
  3. You Got Me Rocking
  4. Don't Stop
  5. Angie
  6. You Can't Always Get What You Want
  7. Midnight Rambler
  8. Tumbling Dice
    --- Introductions
  9. Slipping Away (Keith)
  10. Before They Make Me Run (Keith)
  11. Sympathy For The Devil
  12. Respectable (B-stage)
  13. It's Only Rock'n Roll (B-stage)
  14. Street Fighting Man (B-stage)
  15. Gimme Shelter
  16. Paint It Black
  17. Honky Tonk Women
  18. Satisfaction
  19. Jumping Jack Flash (encore)

 
Various warmups       :  ....
Simple Minds (warmup) :  7:55pm -  9:05pm   
The Rolling Stones    : 10:20pm - 12:20am


Review by Tom Bosman, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium

The Rolling Stones were the headline of a one-day festival. It was obvious that most people came only for the Stones. I've never seen so many different T-shirts, lots of Voodoo Lounge and some Steel Wheels shirts. I was there with my AC/DC-Stones-shirt from my last show in Germany. In the newspapers today, they talked about 75.000 people. It's probably true because it's not my first concert in Werchter, and this time, it was really full!

The doors opened at 13:30 and the first band started at 14:30. It was a long day before the Stones finally took of at 22:20, I think a lot of people were a bit tired or something because there wasn't that much atmosphere all day. I came early enough so I had a great place, right in front of the stage!

The Stones took off with a raw sounding version of Brown Sugar. The next highlight was Angie, an emotional moment. A great version of Midnight Rambler, it was only blues (but the crowd loved it). Respectable on the B-stage was maybe the suprise of the evening, i think they haven't played a lot of times in this type of show. Gimme Shelter was all about Lisa, who did a very good job and performance. Paint it black came also a bit as a suprise, Keith did the intro on his Strat, wich sounded a bit different. I was very happy to see the video on Honky Tonk Women. Last time in Hockenheim, there was a technical failure during that song!! Satisfaction was pure rock, Keith with a silver Tele with pink inlays... great guitar, great sound, great man, fabulous show. It was a lot more than only rock 'n roll, but we still liked it!!


Review by Fred de Jonge, the Netherlands

The Werchter show was a classic rock event with two Belgium dutch singing groups (Clouseau and de Mens), Thearapy? (very good), the Simple Minds and last but certainly not least the Rolling Stones. We arrived at 11 in the morning after a two hours drive. Doors opened at 2 p.m. and we got a good place at the bridge. Then a long session started as the Stones were scheduled at 22.20. But it was definitly worth waiting for. It was a very dynamic show from the Stones with some great songs as Angie, Paint it Black, Gimme Shelter, It's Only Rock'n Roll. Much better show than the Arena (Amsterdam august 19). Perhaps it was due to the audience. The crowd was so much better now, because in the Arena there were a lot of lottery winners (20.000) who won a ticket and didn't know the Stones at all. So all together, great show, great wheater and a great audience.


Review by Peter Lacres

I arrived in Werchter quite early but already some 100 people were waiting before the fences. It�s always nice to see some friends around and I talked to a lot of them in the morning. Unfortunately, this was one of the last concerts of the forty licks tour for them. A lot of hardcore Rolling Stones fans have a problem with the ticket prizes compared to the last tour, especially in the UK or the States. Face value for Werchter was 55 euro which is considerably lower then Germany or even Holland for a Stadium show. And Classic Rock Werchter is a festival with 5 bands. It�s nice to have so many bands around to entertain the crowd because I do recall my last show in Holland where I waited for hours in front of the fences and they only opened the gates around 6 o�clock� at that time in Werchter, we saw already 2 bands and the next one was just onstage. But let�s be honest friends, how hard they�ll ever try, most of the people in front are Stones fans. De Mens is reasonable when you understand the lyrics, Therapy? doesn�t attract me at all and Clouseau� uhhhhhh boring. Perhaps nice to know that they use the Bridges to Babylon screen as well as the famous bridge during their arena show in Belgium (a sell out for 15 nights) Mind you, I�ll not buy a ticket for their show.

Simple Minds were good and are a very good opener for the Stones. Their new work isn�t catchy at all but the majority of the people in the field were singing along with their greatest hits. A long time after 10, I guess 10.17� the greatest rock�n roll band on earth started with Brown Sugar followed by Start Me Up. It was very nice to see the Rolling Stones that close again. I stood not far from the first row and I saw Charlie�s face very good. The guys around me weren�t drunk and there was enough space to dance and shake. It was even very easy to take photographs because the Belgian security didn�t bothered at all. Belgium isn�t Germany or Holland for instance. There wasn�t even a special T-shirt although 70 000 people were around. The acoustics at Werchter were not outstanding but it seemed good to me from where I was standing.

It�s normal that the Stones carefully edit their set list to include the songs people actually want to hear. Be aware that the majority of people in Werchter will only see the Stones once. That�s why they enjoyed the spectacle and songs such as Angie, Sympathy, Paint It Black and Satisfaction. The Stones are a must see and they are better than ever. My girlfriend who has never seen them before was not only surprised, I think that she realised that there�s so much to see and to hear during a concert. Music, details, different cloths etc� she was amazed to see Mick jumping and running around. And yes, she also says that Keith is very cool! By the way, thanks Keith in touching my hand. A girl of seventeen next to me was thrilled as well. Her father is already a big Stones fan and I�m sure that since yesterday, others will go and buy some real music. The Rolling Stones, they gave it through!


Review by JJ Flash

Oh man, what a night! The stones were really super last night at Werchter. From te beginning untill the end it was just a thrill! I saw the Stones in Rotterdam (Ahoy) last month and I was a little bit dissapointed. Although they played some very nice songs like Monkey man and CYHMK I wasn't really satisfied then. Maybe the poor sound was responsable too (at Werchter the sound was brilliant!!). But Yesterday it was just great. You got me rocking really rocked the house, you can't always get what you want just pure magic and midnight rambler very hot. Even the well-known songs wich they play most of the times were filthy in a good way. My personal highlight was Paint it black. They once played it in Landgraaf (Holland) in 1999 and I truely loved it then, but yesterday it blew me away.It was awesome! After Ahoy I had my doubts but now they've convinced me again, like they did in 1995 and 1998. Hey hey, my my, the Rolling Stones will never die!!


Review by Chris Wouters

Here we are again :)

Previously scheduled for August 2nd, but due to The Stones going to Toronto for SARSstock, rescheduled for september 7th, I finally got to see the boys again at the sacred festivalground of Werchter. This concert was announced as a festival, albeit with the Stones as the top of the bill, so many people also came to see the other bands that performed that night. But unlike at the previous gigs in O'hausen, Leipzig and Hockenheim (with AC/DC), they all stayed for the Stones. Lots of young people have been introduced that night to the world of the Stones, which is a good thing because many left the festivalground with a new religion. (slowly walking the 1 mile to where were had to take our busses back to Leuven (took 90 minutes!), I overheard a lot of conversations from young people, who were still in awe over what they had witnessed that night.)

I arrived around noon and when the gates opened, it was no problem to get FOS, Ronnie's side. Unlike at Keith's side, all went smooth with the wristbands, and after regrouping with my friends, organising our spot and beerruns, I could go look around alittle on the grounds.

Security was very relaxed, so there will be lots of tapes of this show. Here we had security that did the job it is supposed to do at a concert; provide security for the band AND for the crowd. At a certain moment, while standing at the catwalk, a secutity guy was smiling into the camera from one of my newly made friends, but 2 minutes later warning someone not to let someone sit on his shoulders.

Funny thing, people were sitting on the gras near the FOS-entrance, having no clue that they still could get in! Guess they didn't know the FOS-concept and thought that you needed a special pass or so to get in.

Then it was showtime. As a Flemish speaking Belgian, I could appreciate the performance by "De Mens", not that I'm a fan, or even familiar with their repertoire, but a nice opener. As all the other bands would be doing, they also referred to the Stones quite often. (It"s great to be on the same stage as The Stones" and other stuff like that).

To my surprise, Therapy? managed to get this 46 year old Stonesfan to the front row. Must have been the energy and the raw guitars :)

After Therapy, Flanders most successfull group; Clouseau was going to play, but I completely slept through their set, only to wake up just went they did their encores. (didn't really pay attention, because I had to go the the boys room and it was my turn to go for a refill.)

While they were setting up for the Simple Minds, I got a phonecall from a friend at Keith's side, that he had some extra wristbands so I called a couple of people who had been too late to get in into the FOS, to meet them at Keith's side. It took me some 45 minutes to get from Ronnie's side to Keith's side and 45 minutes back, so I was back in when the Simple Minds where about to finish their set :) And then, finally, the lights went out and the familiar intro started.

BAM!!!!! Keith erupted on the stage and we were in for a 2 hour, 19 songs set of the boys! Some people have been "complaining" about the sound, but in my ears, except for some glitches now and then, it was almost perfect. Guitars were very strong, Keith better than all the previous shows I had witnessed, Ronnie concentrating on his playing and (almost) no clowning at all, the steady beat from Charlie and Mick right on top of it (except towards the end were he was either having problems with his voice, or having problems with the mix. We saw him do a run from the extreme right end of this huge stage to the other side, like he used to do on previous tours. We got the full treatment; screen (although they had some problems once in a while), Fire erupting into the sky during SFTD, confetti and the fireworks after the encore.

As I had anticipated, this "mixed" crowd did not respond the way a Stonesfans-only crowd would have, but the atmosphere was still great. The "pockets of Stones fans went wild and even the "younger" generation of non-fans was enjoying the show. Being home now with a bronchitis, I decided that this is the show that will close MY 40 Licks tour. It has been great, even with the ups and downs of performances by different bandmembers, cancellations, traveling long distances, qeueing, nights in front of the PC (resulting in two clubshows), the discussions on this and other boards, meeting fans from all over the world, and so on and so on.......

See you all next tour!!!!


Review by Griet, coming for Simple Minds...

Despite the late hour (I arrived around 5 PM), I managed to be at the second row for Simple Minds (surrounded by Rolling Stones fans, who let me move on because I was leaving afterwards anyway). The concert was really good, but a bit of spirit was missing (which was expected because of being the support act....). This was also partly because the front stage audience was not the Simple Minds audience, so they (the band) missed the contact with their fans. I was dancing and shaking and people around me were just standing still (even not moving a bit....., I don't understand ...). But I didn't care, I had a good time.

Still high in the sky, we moved a bit back on the festival ground and we find us a good spot to watch the Rolling Stones show. I was happy to stand a bit further away from the stage, because it was a spectacle, a big show with light, fire, smoke, videoscreens moving around.....This to me a bit at the cost of the music, but....nice to see. They are really good, still rocking around at that age...but in between the songs, I think they needed a rest, because it happened a bit too much that there was too much time in between the songs. They started really good, the middle part was a bit weaker (when they played on the second stage, the fire went a bit out of the audience), but towards the end they were brilliant again. I'm really happy I can say now that I (finally) have seen them once!

One more comment, the first row was in fact about 20 meters from the stage!!!! There was a huge VIP zone, which I think also has a big impact on the ambience. Most of the times, those "VIP's' are even not fans in the first place.

Another comment on the Stones side, Mick had a good contact with the audience, even talking some Flemish. I like it when they try to find contact with the people and not just playing their songs. I really enjoyed the evening!! I will catch up some sleep later on....


Review by Johan, Belgium

I was standing with some friends from Holland and Belgium near the catwalk (Ronnie side) somewhere in the middle between the main and small stage where we had an excellent view. Soundwise that place is always perfect. And the sound as well as the show was great. I think they never started so late a show (22.20 P.M), so it was already completely dark when they started. Ronnie played some great riffs (Woody in YCAGWYW - super). They also had much fun during the show and they were glad to be in Belgium playing for about 75 000 people. You could not see that they were almost at the end of the tour, I mean they were playing very fresh and they enjoyed it. It was the best outdoor show I have seen. Highlight of the show for me was 'Midnight rambler'. I saw this version many times live but this was the best version. Just 12 minutes great blues. Also a great surprise was 'paint it black' so late in the set. Also great was 'sympathy for the devil', Angie who sounded very clear and wonderfull. When they came back from the small stage I was very lucky because Keith, Ronnie and Chuck shaked my hand!!!! Only negative point was sometimes a lame crowd. But after Vredenburg, certainly the best show I have seen. OK. The crowd was not like Barcelona, but they played just fenomenal. Also my friends from Holland said they played much better than in Ahoy, 'de kuip and certainly Amsterdam arena.


News links

Thanks to Peter Lacres Iris N�lle-Hornkamp and Joelle Bonnet 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.

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