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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Hackney Diamonds |
Tour 2024 |
Mick Jagger |
Keith Richards |
Charlie Watts |
Ronnie
Wood |
Warmup : 7:30pm - 8:00pm Rolling Stones : 9:00pm - 10:50pm |
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Keith kicked off the show with trademark riffs � his guitar hanging somewhere around knee height and his hands thrust in the air as Charlie and Ronnie also announced this presence. The 60,000-strong went crazy as Mick arrived and the lads belted out Jumping Jack Flash with a level of intensity only they seem able to muster.
From there they launched into a mix of classics (Let's Spend The Night Together, Angie, It's Only Rock n� Roll, Tumbling Dice), slightly newer stuff (You Got Me Rocking), really new stuff (Oh No Not You Again), and a great cover of Ray Charles�s Night Time Is The Right Time, that seemed tailor made for Lisa Fischer�s powerful voice (and a worthy substitute for Gimme Shelter).
The tribute to Lisa for her solo naturally led into band introductions, as usual followed by Keith going solo on This Place Is Empty and Happy. The former still doesn�t seem like a live number � at least not in a stadium � and would perhaps be left to club gigs. Happy, however, is always great no matter where or when�
As has been the case on this tour, Miss You was the signal for the B-Stage show to begin. The crowd loved this and as always, the boys interact wonderfully with the fans during this point � Ronnie was distributing guitar pics to a lucky few, while Mick and Keith smiled and nominated people in the audience that caught their eye. Rough Justice, Get Off Of My Cloud, and Honky Tonk Women (as they returned to the main stage) thrilled those not fortunate enough to be up front.
It was then time for some more timeless classics, Paint It Black (absolutely fantastic!) and Sympathy For The Devil, which seems to get the girls dancing more than any other song save Satisfaction.
I had thought that the Sydney crowd took a while to really get into the swing of things, especially when compared to the crowd at Madison Square Garden on January 20 this year � which I happen to have been fortunate enough to also be part of. But once Keith launched into Start Me Up, things changed. It seemed as though everyone in the crowd knew the words and they sang along to what I�m sure could be heard miles away.
Brown Sugar evoked similar crowd participation as Mick had everyone raising their hands in the air (Woo!) following his lead. After this the band disappeared quickly which prompted a raucous noise as people stomped on their seats, demanding their return.
You Can't Always Get What You Want and a blistering version of Satisfaction � that carried the same level of intensity as Jumping Jack Flash some two hours earlier � concluded the evening.
JJF was great, though is took about 30secs for the band to 'find their way into it' - Charlie was a little too fast to start with.
For me the highlights musically were Angie (Keith's finger-picking just beautiful), a ferocious It's Only Rock N Roll, Dead Flowers, dare I say it after 'slagging off the crooning Keith' - This Place is Empty, Rough Justice, Paint it Black, SYMPATHY was majestic, Brown Sugar and a song that I really dont like on record, Start me Up.
Ronnie's solo in Tumbling Dice was awful, but his slide in This Place is Empty was stunning.
Where was Bobby Keys?
The moving stage took most people around me by surprise, and from all, their collective jaws dropped!!!
Get off my Cloud was played a little quick for my liking (as was Tumbling Dice in truth) but the crowd around me (a real mix of ages 5yo girl with mum and dad, to teens, to middle and old age fans) really got into it.
Oh No Not You Again was a shambling mess - JUST GREAT!!! Miss You? A 'short version'...but I liked it...
Satisfaction? YES! And Mick absolutley nailed it and worked the whole crowd during that song (as did Keith).
You Cant Always Get What you Want? Ronnie buggered up the solo a little, and Mick lost the lyrics in one part, but nevertheless a super version.
All in all, I wish I was going to Melbourne, they are the state of the art band.
The overall stage was a little understated...the lighting great, videos fantastic and pyrothechnics terrific. But ultimately, musically, AWESOME.
No one will or can replace them. Imagine U2 in ANOTHER 20-30 years?? Nup...
...and was it as good as Enmore 3 yrs ago on the Licks show? It couldn't be by the very nature of the show. But would I have missed it...NO WAY!!!!
The Rolling Stones RULE...
The newspaper reviews today have said that it was a fantastic show and newspapers never miss an opportunity to have a cheap shot at the Rolling Stones if they possibly can. I think this all shows how localized the problem was. The Worst. They didn't play that song but they didn't have to. The sound did it for them. I heard only three riffs from Keith Richards all night and I may as well have had ear muffs on. I cannot honestly say I really heard one thing Ronnie Wood played and as for two guitar dynamics, let's not go there. Charlie Watts's cymbals? No way. Understanding Mick Jagger's stage banter? Forget it. A guy next to us commented it was so bad that he often couldn't tell what a song was until the singing started and then it was difficult. Why didn't I go and sit somewhere else? Not easy to do with security these days and who wants to be wandering the back corridors of a stadium when the Rolling Stones are actually playing?
I remain a great fan of the Rolling Stones. The fault was not theirs. I could see that they were playing and working together fantastically. Either the acoustics or the sound system were at fault. Either way, I feel so bad about this gig that I want to know how I can get my money back.
last nite guitars were obviosly boosted for solos but thats about it. at all these big stadium shows unless you are up the front it can be disappointing. bobby keys was absent for his brown sugar solo. it was done by ?? tim ries maybe , anyway it was awful and i laughed. what happened to bobby??
there was a breakof maybe 2mins after the stage went back, with a large static crackle and boom it took so long people were clapping thinking the band had finished and the rest was encores. ronnies solo in tumbling dice was him running across the stage gurning and flaying at the high notes on his guitar furiosly in that way he does a lot lately. the quieter songs sounded better and angie sounded good , dead flowers was ok but i heard none of ronnies b bender fills not one
having said all this i had a great time its the stones and a bad stones show is better than a great bruce springsteen show anytime. i look forward to melbourne in the relatively intimate rod laver arena . lets hope they do worried about you
The crowd seemed to be a mix of all ages. Lots of kids, teenagers, people my age (30ish) and those who might have actually been there when the boys were at their grungy best. There seemed to be a happy anticipation as we moved into the stadium. The Living end put on a good opener, but when the Stones came on their energy was infectious and the crowd started to fire up. Half way through the show the drum kit starts moving forward and next thing a large portion of the stage is moving through the crowd down a long "Catwalk". The crowd went wild and I would've parted with any amount of money to be one of those people mere feet away from Mick and Keith in front of that stage. At the end of the show it didn't matter about the crap sound, whether it was the mix or the acoustics, everyone danced in their seats and sang their lungs out to Start Me Up and Satisfaction, 60,000 people do a fairly good back up vocals! We knew the words to every song. I know I'm probably never going to see them live again so I would have liked to have been blown away by the music. I wish I had been at the Enmore Theatre in 2003.............
I took my children to the show again (took them also in 2003) and they loved it. I did notice that there appeared to be a lot more younger people and children this time, which just shows the appeal of the Stones. The Stones did great versions of Get Of My Cloud, Angie, Lets Spend The Night Together, Start Me Up and an excellent Night Time Is The Right Time. Mick and especially Charlie never cease to amaze me at how they just keep going. Keith and Ronnie are great at what they do, so are the rest of the band.
These guys deserve a lot of respect, forget the age thing and what they look like (some people seem to have a problem with this, I don't) LISTEN TO THE MUSIC!!!! A great night!!!!!!
There's not much that can be said that hasn't been said before. Charlie Watts and Darryl Jones kept the engine going without fuss or ceremony. Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards weaved their magic in all its ragged glory. Mick Jagger prowled and strutted while making sure that the whole audience got their money's worth by fully working the stage. The back-up singers and musicians performed with brilliant restraint. You just knew this was how it was meant to be done.
The set list had its variations but never disappointed. Dead Flowers was a welcome surprise and was followed by Angie, which was well received and beautifully sung. It's Only Rock and Roll signaled a turn that was completed with Tumbling Dice, which resembled a joyous first rehearsal before a tour. From out of this maw came Night Time Is the Right Time, a high point of the show and blues played at its best.
Keith nailed his two songs perfectly before the band were off along the B stage express to the middle of the arena - this happened while they were playing Miss You. By the time they arrived back at the main stage, they were ripping into Paint It Black and Sympathy For The Devil, another highlight with Jagger assuming the form of a dark figure in a brown furry hat and coat. Start Me Up and Brown Sugar preceded the encore of You Can't Always Get What You Want and Satisfaction.
So why are the Stones so good in April 2006? The songs are great and they wrote them. They began not long after Elvis and walked the same path with the Beatles. They're authentic and original. Who doesn't want to slash like Keith or Ronnie, strut like Mick or motor like Charlie? But most of all, they put on a white hot show, night after night.
When the 100th anniversary celebrations for the release of the Rolling Stones first single occurs in 2063, the 66 year old Ned will be able to say that he saw them in 2006 and they were still at the top of the tree. To put it simply, it was a great show. That's why people keep coming to see them.
My highlights were ................ the sheer immediate power of Jumpin' Jack Flash; Dead Flowers (just love it, sang along to every word just soaking in the vibe and the balmy evening atmos, plus an ale or 2), Angie (not featured last time in Sydney and grateful it was this time around, thanks boys), a groovy version of Miss You (made more so by the band moving towards us on their portable stage-mobile. A song I don't usually dig by the way, but made up for not hearing Rain fall down :-), The Night Time is the Right Time showed Jagger's soul voice at it's best and as for Lisa, well her voice is just ASTOUNDING; the joy of hearing/seeing them play Get off of my cloud........ hey you.......... a fast carefree and fun version, great stuff, Sympathy was cool and sinister as with the smoke and the backdrop (well, 75% backdrop LOL), Brown Sugar has got to be my fave, just couldn't stop singing along, and the encore of "You Can't Always Get What You Want just proved to be one of the most beautiful moments of the show, especially with it's choral like build-up towards the end plus of course Satisfaction was just a frantic burst of pure energy that seemed to consume everyone there and seemed to last forever!!!!!
I'm sure others will hit me as soon as I stop typing :-) Actually, I think every song was special as who knows when we'll see the lads in Sydney Town again................ yeah, we said that 3 years ago I know ;-)
As for songs they didn't play, well there's a few they've featured this tour which are up there as my faves, Sway would've just slayed me if played, but we got 21 songs and a damn fine bunch at that (maybe This Place is Empty could be given the flick, but oh well). Even the 3 'new' songs fared well, especially Rough Justice.
It was totally amazing soaking up the atmosphere and excitement of so many people in the one place to see the Stones, almost a high on it's own (though someone near us brought their own 'portable' high and shared the air near the back end of the set).
Today at work almost seemed surreal as I was still soaking in what I'd witnessed for 2 hours last night. Thank you Cindy, David, Kathy and Vic for sharing the experience, we had a ball !!!! For those of you seeing them in Melbourne, Auckland and Wellington, enjoy every God given minute of it :-))))
Local band The Living End kicked off the evening at 7.30pm for those who had arrived on the ticket set time. I'm suprised that the Stones let these Green Day impersonators play to their thousands of eager fans, because they were awful. They whined out their old punky style and annoying melodies that used to terrorise our radios. I guess you have to be a strong fan of the band to really enjoy their show, but to me it was plain boring. Lead man Chris Cheney did attempt to entertain when he played his guitar with a beer bottle before gobbing it down, but this enhanced his fakeness and inability to perform suitably for the audience. It was plain dull.
These three wannabes thankfully only played a half an hour set, but half an hour too long. From there was an hour of eager waiting for the world's biggest and best rock and roll band to rock the 60,000 fans (many who were still arriving). Then it came, it was 9.00pm and everything went dark. Then came the fireworks and Keith Richard's guitar riff. The build up was hard to bare, it was extremely suspenseful. They opened with Jumpin' Jack Flash and it was absolutely fantastic. It was energetic and gave a taste of what was coming for the next two hours - a great show.
In many of their previous shows they hadn't played Angie, and I was hoping they'd play it in Sydney because it is one of my favourite songs and it would totally suit the outdoor setting. My wishes came true. Mick wore his silver jacket and emotionally belted out this ballad with the help of many in the crowd singing along with him, it was magic. One of the many highlights of the night.
And well, now...
I had written up many paragraphs on all their other great performances of the night - but my stupid e-mail thing decided to erase all that so this is what I will say.
They're were too many great performances but songs of the night were - Jumpin' Jack Flash, Angie, Keith's This Place Is Empty, Start Me Up, Rough Justice, Honky Tonk Woman, Brown Sugar, Sympathy For The Devil, Tumbling Dice, It's Only Rock 'n Roll and the crowd-driven encores of You Can't Always Get What You Want and favourite Satisfaction.
The Rolling Stones are better than ever. Mick probably ran about 80 miles on stage, Keith was Keith - awesome as ever, Ronny was amazing - great guitar solos and always entertaining, and Charlie probably looked unhappy... but he was cool. Very cool.
Tuesday, April 11th 2006 was the greatest night of my young life. Rock n' roll never dies, especially not in the Rolling Stones.
AMAZING!!!!!
So... my very subjective perspective from a scammed front row spot in Sydney on 11-04-2006 is that The Stones rocked.
They werent perfect but that concept was never on my agenda. There were the occasional bum notes as Keith�s gnarled fingers fumbled for those elusive chords or Ronnie whizzed by focused a little more on where he was headed physically than where he was musically. Alternatively the undeniable professionalism of Darryl, Chuck and the other assorted side-men & woman sometimes sounded �too clean & too tight� making the show sound a little like a well rehearsed tribute to �the greatest rock�n�roll band in the world� rather than the real thing. Mick at times seemed a little less than totally sincere in his rapport with the 60,000 faithful and the main video screen was being problematic from the outset. Charlie, of course, was integrity personified. His performance was, as always, exemplary (no-one plays a back-beat like that anymore)...and he looked happy & healthy.Yellow is definitely Charlie�s color.
Beyond all of these contributing factors to the event that is The Rolling Stones Live in Performance is of course the songs. Just when you think they�ve played the definitive Stones� tune...another rumbles out at you, each one a milestone not only in the band�s career but in the lives of the fans as well. They�re all there. Birthdays, weddings, funerals, fledgling sexual exploits, lost love....all documented....and so readily recalled as the music envelops you. Its so much more than �Only Rock�n�Roll�. The music of The Rolling Stones is a sound track to our lives. So how come they didnt play �Bitch� ????
Well,I was sitting right at the back at the opposite end of the stage, and the sound was perfect, couldn't have been better. Every song was sensational, and if I had to pick my favourite of the night, I couldn't decide between, Get Off Of My Cloud, Sympathy For The Devil, Brown Sugar, Start Me Up or Satisfaction. But I must say I absolutely loved You Can't Always Get What You Want. Only thing that I could say negative about the night, was that some of the people around me could have gotten into the show a bit more and got up onto their feet. You go to a Stones show, you don't sit down. But hey, I loved the night. Mick and the boys put people a quarter of their age to shame. Age shall not weary them. And the way the boys performed, I reckon they'll be back again strutting their stuff for years to come. And I'll be there again watching them.
Although it did seem that Ronnie screwed up on Tumbling Dice. The seating we had we paid $154.50 & we were 41 rows from the stage we could not see or hear properly the sound was distorted. Sorry we love The Stones, but I was so disappointed with the seats which are not cheap it spoilt our evening. The highlights of the evening were Dead Flowers � Angie � Night Time is the Right Time� which Lisa Fischer sang great with Mick. I also thought we as purchasers of tickets would have been informed earlier that Living End were performing, also what happened to the magnificent Bobby Keys why were we not informed.
Love the Stones, they were great but very disappointed with the acoustics/sound system especially for $154.50 per ticket, at the Stadium (sorry in future will be very cautious regarding price & seating if I book again). .John & Joy Daniels (Stones Fans) sorry Mick had to say that about the Stadium.
The venue (Telstra Stadium) was huge, but we thought the show was fantastic. What a wonderful role model for 'ageing disgracefully' - oh to have the energy and wonderful movement Mick Jagger has. How many others at his age could sing so powerfully and dance around the stage for 2 hours like he did. The set, the A/V show, the fireworks, the whole experience was wonderful and so professional. It started on time and we just loved the moving stage bringing them out into the stadium. The concert was worth every cent the drive up and back from Canberra and we were thrilled to be able to attend.
The stage setup was average with kite like shapes and material hung off it, nothing like the main stage that I�ve seen on this tour�s footage from other shows; quite a B grade stage in my opinion. Same goes for the lighting. Voodoo Lounge left this one for dead. I can only assume that they were travelling light down under this time round. I�ve got tickets to the Paris show in June so I should hopefully see the real thing then.
But that said I don�t really give a dam about the stage, a couple of milk crates would do.
As soon as they started with JJF the night quickly started to turn into a blur as I worked myself into crazed frenzy. It was my 5th Stones concert (2x Voodoo Lounge, 2 x Licks, all in Sydney Aust.) and still I couldn�t control myself, it takes me days to come down off a �Stones� high. It was all magic.
During the band introductions Charlie came out to the mike, and mentioned not to mention that Australia lost the Ashes to England (Cricket). Mick followed up by saying that they (He and Charlie) might make it down to Australia to see one of the matches in the next Ashes serious; cool.
As soon as I realized that the main stage had started to move to stage B, I bolted down to get a place, which I had checked out when I first arrived, on the fence to be only meters away from the lads for their stage b set. I failed to get a pick, but I can�t be greedy as I got Ronnie�s back in 2003 (which had 2002 written on the pick). I had to check the set list when I got home to see what they played on stage B as I was just too frenzied to recall anything.
From the B stage the concert rolled into a storm of pure musical energy, nothing could stop it, I wanted it to go for ever but all good things come to an end.
It was a fantastic show, it rocked and they just keep on impressing me.
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It's Only Rock'n Roll 1980 - 2006