OT: Rolling Stones report
Stephen Dame
played tonight. At around 8:00pm, I could hear the concussive bass and
muffled sound of Our Lady Peace from my balcony. At 9:00pm, I began to walk
through the Glebe (your typical white-upper-middle-class neighbourhood, like
Rosedale in Toronto or West Mount in Montreal or the Upper West Side in the
Apple) headed towards the show. By 9:15, about a kilometre away from the
site, I could begin to hear the show pretty clearly.
I paused and was thinking "is that them?" when I heard that distinctive
voice, and one of those distinctive guitar riffs. Unmistakably, The Rolling
Stones. Next was the roar of the crowd. Louder than most jets in this part
of town and amazingly audible.
Heading out to Bank street, I began to notice families, groups of friends,
and gatherings of neighbours on front lawns and patio's. It was as if
everybody had turned their radio's to the same station. The sound of the
show was clear and very loud as I hit Bank. I was suddenly surrounded by
hundreds of other people marching up the street. You could hear it all soon
enough, and lots of folks were singing along. Cops directing traffic: "Brown
sugar..." Some kid with a rickshaw: "She's so hot for me..." and people who
could have been my parents, or my grandparents: "Your beast of burden..."
Bank street itself was a festival. It looked like just as many people
outside as in. Approaching the stadium, massive groups of people had
gathered at spots which gave a clear view of the giant video screens. The
stage itself looked like somebody was building a sky scraper in the stadium.
Scaffolding, beams and catwalks that took two days to build and will take
another two to take down.
As Mick introduced the band after they covered Ray Charles "Night And Day,"
people outside the stadium cheered just as loud as those within. When Keith
said "Long time no see, Ottawa" a whole segment of the city literally
responded with a cheer. People were crowded on hilltops, stationed on roofs,
even an endless line of boats had docked along the Rideau canal. First
avenue was the designated limo spot, and it looked like one of those urban
parking lots where they block you in. I've never seen so many stretched cars
in one place.
I walked along the canal where people had been camped out since this
morning. Lots of folks under blankets, tons of little kids running around,
and a great number of people remaining perfectly still, mesmerized by the
massive stage and light show.
By the time I'd made it downtown, about another 2km from the site, people
were still passing me on the way to the show, and the spotlights were still
visible over my head.
The most amazing point of the walk was at the point where the canal turns
and heads for the Ottawa river. That long straight tunnel of water and brick
created the perfect conduit for sound. I could clearly hear "Jumping Jack
Flash" as I looked back at the glowing aura of the concert in the distance.
Walking through downtown, Mick's voice since lost but the odd bass note or
drum beat still detectable, people were talking about the show. "The stage
was huge," "I think they'll go on forever," and "Probably the last time..."
among other comments I heard. As I came closer to where I started, the noise
became clearer again. People were pausing and trying to identify songs:
"Brown Sugar?"
I Just heard the sound of fireworks, so I guess the show is over now. But
when they say the Stones played Ottawa, they're not kidding. It was an event
throughout the entire city.
kat...@earthlink.net
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050911/ENT/509110309/1031/NEWS03
ROLLING WITH THE STONES - Published in the Asbury Park Press 09/11/05
The four skinny guys jamming on Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You
(Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" in Toronto's Greenwood College School
gym are no freshmen. This is old school: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards
and Ronnie Wood slash guitars while Charlie Watts hammers a crisp
beat. The vibe in this makeshift rehearsal hall intensifies as Jagger
kicks off "Sympathy for the Devil" with a piercing "Ow!" - a Pavlovian
trigger encoded in baby-boomer DNA.
OK, it's only rock 'n' roll. But when the Rolling Stones roll it out,
the genre gets an invigorating kick, in concert revenue, nostalgic
bliss and an infusion of raptor-rocker bits for late-night comics.
The only rock-era band to sustain superstar status through five
decades of spasmodic pop trends, the Stones maintain a unique standing
in an industry accustomed to fast flameouts and shelved icons. While a
few hipsters and dinosaurs struggled to attract audiences this summer,
the Stones are ready to hit New York and New Jersey this week on "A
Bigger Bang," a world trek that already has sold out 98 percent of
available tickets and is expected to clobber all rivals before it
closes in 17 months.
The band's only competition: itself. Since 1989, the group has grossed
$1.125 billion internationally. In the '90s, the band took in $751
million and sold more than 12 million tickets worldwide, more than any
other act.
"The Rolling Stones are far and away the most successful touring
entity in the history of mankind," says Ray Waddell, senior editor at
Billboard. "The Stones have written and rewritten the book on touring.
The things they have brought have been pioneering, from being the
first to use credit cards at merc stands to a one-promoter global
tour. They are the kings."
The band has generated a generation's worth of rock classics, and when
record sales waned, concert crowds ballooned to record-setting levels.
The 1994-95 "Voodoo Lounge" juggernaut still is the top-grossing
($319.5 million) and best-attended (6.4 million tickets) tour.
Yet pundits speculate that this outing could be that last time, and
detractors say a farewell is overdue, presumably because the Stones
did not fade away. They rode out punk, survived disco and even stayed
past the last call for hair bands.
Way past. Jagger is 62. Richards is 61. Watts, fully recovered from
throat cancer, is 64. Wood is the baby at 58. Predictably, the Bang
announcement brought fresh rounds of codger gags. Jay Leno dubbed the
trek "The We're Grateful We're Not Dead Tour." David Letterman
cracked, "They're part of the Living Will-Palooza Tour."
The ribbing hasn't stopped since steel wheelchair jokes in '89, but
Richards says he's been shrugging it off since the Sex Pistols slagged
them in '70s.
"Look at them now," he sneers. "We're on the cutting edge. Nobody's
been here before, and it's kind of an adventure.
"They wonder why we're still here. Well, why not? We're a great band.
We love to play. If there's that many people who love to hear us,
what's the beef? I intend to get a lot older and a lot more wrinkled.
So sharpen your pen."
Jagger is amused by one-liners and the tired trick "of adding up all
our ages, a mathematical feat beyond most people." He says mockingly,
"I'll do your show, David Letterman, and you come do mine."
The Stones roll with the punch lines and always get the last laugh:
millions of customers.
Jagger says: "We wouldn't tour unless someone said, 'Look, there are a
lot of people who want to see you.' I always say, "You sure?' "
Having flourished beyond the '60s frontier days, this patriarch
nonetheless agrees that rock is youth's playground.
"You wouldn't want only old people to do it," he says. "It would be
awful. But if you have creative energy, age doesn't matter. Lucian
Freud and Francis Bacon painted with energy late in life. The Rolling
Stones kept their creative forces, maybe because we don't make records
every 10 minutes."
New album in stores
"A Bigger Bang," their first new album since 1997's "Bridges to
Babylon," arrived Tuesday amid far less hoopla than the tour. The band
has sold 20.9 million albums since SoundScan began tabulating in 1991
with buyers favoring oldies: 2002's "Forty Licks" sold 2.5 million,
double the take for "Bridges to Babylon."
Yet a positive buzz was building for the 16-track "Bang," a raw rocker
co-produced by Don Was. Its wide range of romantic and social topics
embraces heartbreak and humor, regret and revenge.
That breadth comes easier with experience and, yes, age, Jagger says.
"When you're young, you tend to be angry a lot. Later, you're able to
express diverse emotions. I do draw from my life. But sometimes I
don't know who it's about. And you have to be inventive. You draw on
memories, you observe other people, and you embroider."
Jagger and Richards, who toiled independently and often testily on
"Bridges," bonded on "Bang" after learning of Watts' cancer diagnosis
last summer.
"Necessity put it together," Richards says. "Mick got on drums. I
doubled on bass. We sent songs to Charlie while he was recuperating.
It's been years since Mick and I worked this closely together.
"There is no clear plan until the music is telling you what to do. It
yelled at us, "Do not overproduce me. Do not put the icing and the
marzipan and the candles on.' "
Richards says the media's fisheye has turned their infrequent tiffs
into epic battles.
"There's this perception that Mick and I are always fighting," he
says. "Most of it is very smooth sailing. Every time we stumble across
the odd spat, everyone hears about it."
For now, they've formed a united front to make sure everyone hears
about the new album and tour. That means new sponsorships to subsidize
the tour and maximize exposure, including a partnership with ABC and
the NFL for "Monday Night Football" promos. Immune to criticism of
their corporate tie-ins, a fixture since 1978, the Stones make no
apologies to the purists who call the band a sell-out.
"It's super-competitive out there," Jagger says. "There's a lot of
tickets to move, and this is a way to create excitement for the tour.
It's capitalism. It's America. It's 2005."
Donz5
I first read this as "New album in stereo."