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| sandrew |
Copyright 2002 Nationwide News Pty Limited
The Gold Coast Bulletin
Season of sticks and Stones and 'strolling bones'
By Bob Hart
The Rolling Stones are on their way ... and already the poison pens are out. Bob Hart reports on the rock behemoth that deserves better
EVEN before the Rolling Stones have played the first show of their new world tour, the whining has begun. Sad little creeps ... some of them vegetarians, I suspect, and all intent on reinforcing our tall-poppy obsession ... are trotting out the usual twaddle.
Mick is too old. Keef too bizarre. Charlie too lifeless. And as for Ronnie, well ... Bill, of course, has retired from active Stone-business: the oldest Stone, he is now of an age at which he gets free bus tickets.
Bill hated touring, anyway.
Now, there have already been isolated examples of misguided, critical scribblings abroad about the proposed tour; generally the work of commentators too young and unworldly to be left in charge of a keyboard.
But in Melbourne's tall-poppy land ... where the Stones, who open their tour in Boston next month, are due to play Colonial Stadium in February ... it will be far, far worse.
Just this week, a local scribbler tried to put the anti-Stones case, resorting to some seriously flawed pop history in the process.
He compared the Stones with Frank Sinatra in Frank's twilight years ... 'hairpiece slightly askew at an angle more sad than jaunty'.
Really?
That never happened, pal: Frank wore the world's most expensive hairpiece and had it carefully positioned each day by a professional wig wrangler. It looked, at times, as though a well-groomed sugar-glider had landed on his bonce. But askew? Never!
Catching one of Frank's later performances was about celebrating another era, making a link with the past, rather than hanging on every tired, but impeccably timed, note.
The Stones, however, are better than that. Some may regard performances of yoof music by rich grown-ups as undignified, but that's their problem. Not ours.
Try closing your eyes: you will find that the Stones, live, sound pretty much the way they have always sounded. Possibly, because of advances in technology, rather better.
The scribbler further undermined his credibility by rattling on about baby boomers: the Stones, of course, are war babies.
I should know because, give or take a few months, dear old Mick and I are the same age.
Over the years, I have attended more Stones gigs than I would care to pay for. I have toured thrice with the band, once across the US and twice through Europe.
Mick, incidentally, is a great interview subject, always good for a dangerous quote or two, while Charlie (a jazz guru and probably the world's best-dressed human) is great company.
Tickets for Stones gigs are expensive. To some, this will indicate the lads are greedy, that they are only doing this for the money. Which is nonsense, of course.
None of them is exactly skint. But the Stones are rock royalty. Should they now, in late middle age, settle for anything less than royal suites, choppers and serious limos? I don't think so.
All of them, surely, are doing precisely what we would do in their places: going about their business, doing what they have always done because they like it, and because they can.
The main difference between their jobs and ours is their jobs are more fun, better paid and there are more young women waiting backstage at the end of their shifts.
So, go for it Mick, Keef, Charlie, Ron. Ignore the troubled souls who are already polishing their cliches and charging their toxic little pens.
We war babies, a squillion boomers and even a few youngsters curious about the music that once made the world go round are behind you.
As you once said, it's only rock 'n' roll, chaps. And we still like it. |
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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
Preach it! Finally, someone with some sense! Figures it's not in America...
-tSYX --- Charlie's a mystery, can't be mystified, oh no! |
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| Mr T |
great article - sums up my feelings exactly |
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| dead man cum |
right on, sandrew....somewhere in all of this, the clueless journalists seem to forget that in blues circles, which is where the Stones come from, musicians play and tour until they drop. Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, and many others practically died on stage, and for chrissake BB King is past 75 and still does over 200 shows a year! None of these pansy-ass "music critics" tells THE KING to stop touring! That being said let's hope the boys pull out some serious blues on this tour, maybe some "Little Red Rooster", "Love in Vain".....
Terry |
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| Prodigal Son |
I loove it! Telling it like it is. All these snotty young journalists can't see the light of the Stones being soul survivors. One day Keef has gotta speak out and say "Were they even born when we toured in 75 and the Mick Dick thing happened? No. Fuck off all of them. They can have Eminem to rave about. None of this shit they write about today will be around. You got blues guys playing till they died. But they get over us cause we're a rock band for 40 years. Fuck em all!" Now watching Dennis Leary: No Cure for Cancer ("My life didn't turn out like I wanted it to! Join the fucking club! Well shut the fuck up!)" About as blitzed as he looks doing this show. |
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| egon |
writing nasty things bout the stones is one thing, but what about writing nothing at all?
seems to me that the european press doesn't give a fuck about the upcoming tour.
any thoughts? |
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| Prodigal Son |
Oh yeah, and Dennis also made a good remark about drugs, saying I saw an interview with Keith Richards (this show was 1992, BTW) saying kids shouldn't do drugs. Dennis says, "Well of course they can't take any fucking drugs, Keith. You used them all up! There's no more left cause you fucking used it all. Now we have to wait till you die so everyone can smoke or snort your ashes!" I was LOL for sure. |
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| Gazza |
>seems to me that the european press doesn't give a fuck about the upcoming tour. any thoughts?
Why should they? Theres nothing to write about at the moment from a European perspective (or pretty much from those of other countries at the minute - including the US)....the press conference was covered pretty thoroughly in the UK,thats for sure - probably the same in other countries but the European shows are almost a year away,so its not exactly hot,topical showbiz news, lets face it.
As usual,there'll be plenty of coverage wordwide of the opening show of the tour,but apart from that you can hardly expect news stories announcing that "the Stones have rehearsed "Im a King Bee" and "Cant you hear me knockin" today in a private rehearsal in Toronto" !!
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| egon |
hey gazza,
understand what you mean, but even the tour announcement was hardly mentioned here in france or holland.
(though plenty info about mick being knighted.)
oh well, just have to be patient i guess and in the meantime get my info here.
one year.... 12 months... 52 weeks.... 365 days.... |
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| gypsymofo60 |
I live in Australia, and I love the country, but the Australian media is as insular, and parochial as it was when The Stones first arrived here in the mid 60s. Besides they have to slag them off, they haven't got any really recognised stars of thier own except for a few sportsmen/women that they boringly trot out whenever it seems they(the country that is), maybe on the verge of being forgotten by the world. Fuck The Aussie media! |
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