GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE
Who
I'd even gone to a Stones photo exhibition in July 2012 to gear myself up for seeing them, and was checking their website weekly for tickets. When the Hyde Park dates were heavily rumoured I booked my holidays keeping those gigs firmly in my mind and was delighted when the shows were confirmed. The chance to see them outdoors at a free-access standing gig was much better than at the Millennium Dome, and even though there'd been tons of special guests in 2012 I wouldn't have swapped the dates around for anything. Bafflingly though nobody was prepared to go with me. I mean £95 plus fees is a lot of money for tickets, but it's The Rolling Fucking Stones, you don't quibble about price, you pay ANYTHING! The show was touted as part of the British Summer Time run of events, with Hard Rock Calling now taking place in the Olympic Park intriguingly, and I kept an incredibly close eye on the website, receiving several emailed links to a pre-sale the day before general sale. Even though I was in a meeting at work I kept my head down long enough to bag a ticket with the absolute minimum of fuss, thinking that the price tag could perhaps have deterred others too. On the Friday the rest of the tickets still sold out in seconds though, and I'm very pleased with myself for bagging them with so little clicking. Still, the band shouldn't waste their time publicising it, let the people like me checking their website every week get the tickets, then if any are left over dish them out to the others, either way it will sell out. They announced and sold out a second date in Hyde Park too - again the date I predicted - but it was nice to be there for their first time since 1969, a show tainted by Brian Jones's passing two days earlier, also the capacity was now down to 65,000 and Jagger himself was 69 years old.
In fact this was to be my fifth Hyde Park show, after seeing Blur twice and also Macca and Arcade Fire, and the venue has yet to let me down, it's no wonder I've made a regular fixture out of going there. I booked a hotel for one night which was fairly expensive but seemed to be quite convenient, also considering it was a Saturday I could have done a lot worse. Nearer the time I somehow forgot I'd only booked one night and panicked a bit about how I'd get there in time, but decided to just go with it and see what happens. Also being able to prepare on Friday night was a nice bonus considering this show was hot on the heels of four fantastic weeks of live entertainment for me, and I'm very pleased that I'd kept so up to date with photos and reviews throughout all of this. And here I now was, finishing my summer of gigging in style before turning my attention to my holiday in Austria/Switzerland. Speaking of my summer, Blondie had played Get Off Of My Cloud just seven days before this to mark The Stones headlining Glastonbury, which served as an excellent taster, especially considering The Rolling Stones wouldn't bother playing it themselves, and possibly couldn't have done it better! I'd got the
GRRR! greatest hits compilation for my Dad's birthday over six months before, which had given me a wider appreciation of their music, especially She's A Rainbow which randomly had been left off my version of Forty Licks but not others. Of course as an Arthur Lee fan I know it's a shameless rip-off of She Comes In Colors, but it's still a great tune.
GRRR!s only omission as far as I'm concerned is Mother's Little Helper, but otherwise it helped me appreciate The Stones back catalogue a little more, although their musical decline after the 1960s cannot be glossed over. The support bands were announced and were acceptable but nothing stellar, and it was reassuring to know I'd be seeing The Vaccines for the third time, and again without paying money for the privilege. The second night had Jake Bugg, but as I'd already forked out to see him in Birmingham in October I'd have felt a little annoyed to get him again. The tickets eventually arrived with the gorilla logo to get me in the mood, and the scope of the occasion was clear when my Facebook image of the ticket actually attracted a reasonable number of likes and comments. I was so excited that even the horrific rumours that Adele could be a special guest didn't drive me towards suicide or murder, and would The Rolling Stones really want to invest a fortune reinforcing the stage and speaker system to be able to handle her hideous bulk and squawking voice? I taped their Glastonbury headline set but went out of my way to avoid reading too much about it, preventing myself from looking at its NME review and setlist until after this show. Also I'd been so busy keeping on top of reviews and photos that my spare time was minimal. In Friday's Metro though Mick Jagger teased that they may play the same setlist as in 1969 - they didn't - and some impressive photos of how the site was shaping up were released. In fact Bon Jovi was breaking the site in on Friday - supported by Kaiser Chiefs and Bush - but anybody who came away from that show without a sense of missing out on the main event needs their head examining!
Also Andy Murray had won the Wimbledon semi-final and was playing the final the day after this but I didn't have time to watch his progress, and going to Wimbledon was a sacrifice I'd had to make seeing as I was already going to London for three out of five weekends over the period. Still though, this was a motivation to rush back on the Sunday morning to see if he could finally break that duck! Another motivation of leaving early was to reduce the number of photos I'd take and therefore need to sort out, but this didn't quite work out as I took around 500 anyway! Still, as I was fairly up to date and most of them turned out blurred or blocked by body parts if anything I should have taken even more, or really need to review the manual settings on my camera a bit. I was also pumping myself up by listening to Stoned Love by The Supremes - the awesome Stone Roses intro tape - but at the same time had little hope that this show would be on the same level as Manchester's finest. The weather forecast was ridiculously sunny - we were at the start of our longest heatwave in what felt like decades - and it was absolutely fucking boiling, so much so that I didn't pack any kind of coat at all. I got ready the night before but ran out of time due to doing other stuff, also as my mind was blown by the Knightmare series 2 opener on Challenge TV, which I swear I remember from the time and it still looks fantastic. Annoyingly I had a bad night's sleep and woke up early, utilising the time by drafting a new version of The Rolling Stones and The Stone Roses greatest hits.
I turned the bad sleep and worry about getting there into a positive by deciding to just set out an hour earlier, somehow finding motivation to pack and sort everything early in the morning. Also the insane heat made the idea of standing around to secure a place towards the front less tempting, but I didn't want to run any risk at all. At the local Sainsbury's in Wolves I had the delight of finding a Coke with my name on it, but because the bottle is a fraction of a millilitre smaller they had the audacity to try and charge me £4.54 rather than £3 to include it in my meal deal. £1.54 extra for a smaller drink, it's a good thing I was on the ball and in a good mood! The 9:45 train to Euston was fairly quiet but ran slower as it was early morning, offsetting some of the time I'd hoped to gain. I was reading Let The Right One In and going out of my way to make review notes as I went along, anticipating correctly that I'd have a lot I'd want to say about this weekend and also not wanting to fall behind with writing all this stuff up. The train arrived on time and I took a nicely air conditioned Overground train to Kilburn, which was a place I'd never been to before which appeared to be very well connected to both Euston and Central London, even Hyde Park. It was a little early to check in so I wandered down the High Street, my fussiness in selecting somewhere for a big lunch to last me for the day being justified as I ended up in a fantastic and peaceful pub. I passed the pub I was staying in as it looked quiet and uninviting and they couldn't be arsed to put the menu clearly on display, and was quickly intrigued to see Budvar was on tap at my destination. It would have been an annoyance that they'd ran out if they didn't have a nice little selection of beer bottles in the fridge, and it gave me an opportunity to compare and contrast Red with Yellow Chimay, discovering that the Yellow is stronger and tastes nicer.
The food and drinks was hardly cheap but still cheaper than I often pay abroad, and the staff were very friendly. I enjoyed haddock and chips which was served astonishingly fast, and showed off my marvelous citizenship skills by handing over a set of keys that some dozy tosser had managed to leave on a bar seat. I also saw a bit of Tour De France on the TV, noting that the town they were cycling through looked stunning, and finding time afterwards to determine it was called Albi and adding it to my travel ideas list. I resisted the nice-looking park behind the hotel as I wanted to get a move on and would be spending quite enough time later standing around a park. The map I'd printed to find my way around was coming in very useful, and the wealth of train/tube stations in the vicinity looked very promising. Despite waiting until near 1pm I arrived at the hotel slightly early and was a bit miffed to be told I couldn't check in yet, but as the pub looked nice I was quite content to say "what a shame, I guess I'll have to enjoy another drink", this time sampling the very obscure Anchor Steam Beer from San Francisco, which was served in a lovely bottle. Also the pub looked almost like a palace on the inside and it was a shame that I had to keep my wits about me for later, or at least try to! I checked in and was shown to my room, but was surprised to find the bathroom was a tiny little thing in the corridor. As the reservation said that I had a private bathroom and no other room was supposed to use it they may have been technically correct, but this proved a pain as I picked up the wrong set of keys and promptly locked myself out of my room!
Thankfully I was let back in relatively swiftly and the room itself was reasonable - with a sink in there - but the heat was ridiculous and this nice little breather was pretty much essential. I'd got changed into my Street Fighter t-shirt - my clever reference to Street Fighting Man, not that anyone noticed - and thought I was being far more original than the masses who'd be there in their tops with red lips on them. Nevertheless, once at the gig the array of similar t-shirts was impressive, and also the vintage of some of the tour tops was fantastic, such as 1990. Some guys had even got their markers out and written slogans on their own white t-shirts - such as Pleased To Meet You - but on a day like this my main concern was protection from the sun. I put some sun cream on, knowing it would very quickly be sweated off anyway, and I think my Reni hat once again may have saved my life! The best thing about the hotel/pub was that I was given a pass code to the entrance so had no worries about getting back in, which is always a potential headache, and I headed out intending to walk to a Tube station before randomly changing my mind and jumping on a bus instead. The heat was horrific and I had to jump off the bus when it unexpectedly turned off left and I got another one which went through to Marble Arch. Avoiding buses has been a rule of my previous trips to London and I really should have stuck with it as we were moving at a snails pace, and this journey offset much of the time I'd saved by leaving early. After finally arriving I visited a cash machine to allow for impulse purchases, not that I got any t-shirts or anything, and the notes could easily have become a soggy mess in my pocket thanks to the weather.
The gates had opened at midday - originally I'd read 2pm and don't quite see the urgency of starting so early - and loads of people were sitting outside the gates. Are these the people who complain afterwards about the concert being too quiet? And you wonder if the residents still were whining about crowd noise, which I take to be the reason why the Hyde Park schedule had been so drastically toned down this year? The site entrance was dominated by some impressive arches and the security were nice and sensible, presenting no issues as I hadn't got a bag or any water with me. It was now 2:45pm, later than I'd wanted, but I was inside, and the weather made hanging around all day less desirable than expected. I was greeted by a helter skelter and a small big wheel, and also some buildings which were fantastically built, cleverly resembling proper old timber constructions which were better than the event demanded. It's fortunate that some people are bewitched by all the other stuff going on though as it makes it a bit easier for me to secure a good position. The site certainly looked impressive but I had no time to fanny about, although I stopped for a few photos of a brightly coloured bar area that had a Spanish vibe, with palm trees and so forth, all undermined as the beer of choice was over-priced Heineken! Also there were loads of Barclaycard adverts for contactless payments - a feature that was installed on my card completely against my will - and I took a moment to glance at the merchandise store, figuring that Rolling Stones stuff could easily be purchased online if needs be. Also I thought that there were more trees surrounding the site than I remembered, but looking back on previous photos indicates that they were just a bit thicker than usual.
The heat was horrible and I was happy to spend £2.50 on a Twister ice cream, and also £2 on a bottle of water. The water was 50p cheaper than the Wembley water debacle but it turned out it wasn't chilled! The ice cream man must have been trying his luck as this was tepid stuff, almost undrinkable, but strangely enough I just put it in my back pocket and didn't even notice until I opened it. Maybe the heat had destroyed my sense of temperature, and it's a shame that what was labelled as genuine Glastonbury water was wasted like this. I paid my one and only loo visit prior to heading towards the crowd, being impressed to note that there were flushing loos and that at this point they were very quiet. The big screens also were set up far back - which is helpful with 65,000 fans to cater for. Despite the horrible weather loads of people weren't wearing hats, and lots of guys were even walking around without shirts. I wonder if they paid for their foolishness the morning after with the hard currency of sunstroke? I'd done my research so knew I had to head into the left. Initially the organisers had been keen to stress that fans with £100 tickets would be able to get to the front, so I later wondered why a huge golden circle was splodged in front of the stage on the site map. After digging a little deeper I determined that normal fans could only access the front area from the left side, and I'm sure quite a few would have been caught out by this later on, but all the info is there if you look for it!
The set-up was quite clever actually, as the usual seated area was present and correct on the right - and was completely deserted every time I looked at it - and the catwalk extended all the way up to the inner barrier, creating a natural boundary between the ticket holders. I noticed that most of the cameramen focused on our side of the crowd so I have no idea how crowded the other side was, but am hopeful that we had the better atmosphere! Also the site deserve plaudits as there was no additional security to stop me getting into the inner barrier area like at Heaton Park, but the place was already busy and I had to get settled quite far to the left for the tail end of first support act King Charles. The stage looked impressive, with two large trees strapped to the sides and with their foliage extending over the top of the set. By this point the side screens were defaulting to a projection of a forest scene but at the bottom they were advertising Barclaycard and the British Summer Time festival. King Charles played a 45 minute set finishing at 3:05pm and one thing I can say was that everyone was very punctual and amazingly I had no trouble whatsoever obtaining the setlists for all the support bands afterwards. I have next to no memory of this set though, relying largely on the one jumpy video I shot on my camera and the zoom function on my photos, but they looked like an interesting band, with the lead singer dressing like a hippy with long hair and loads of roadies obliviously wandering around and setting stuff up for later. The key talking point was Long Walk To Freedom, a song name-checking the great Nelson Mandela, who at this point was critically ill in hospital and in the news daily, and I can only hope that they'd written it well beforehand and weren't tackily referencing the media?
Once King Charles finished I did my best to move further into the crowd, doing reasonably well but eventually getting stuck standing on part of the concrete path, not managing to budge much further until just before The Vaccines. Strangely enough judging from my photos it looked like I was moving further away as the night wore on, but I don't think that's actually possible. Although the crowd were relatively civilised this made the few people pushing doubly annoying, with some unwritten code of conduct stating that it was acceptable to leave the crowd then to expect to just waltz back in as if you had a booking at a restaurant. No it fucking well isn't, I'd gone out of my way to ensure I wouldn't need to leave the crowd once I got in, others should make the same commitment or fuck off! I wished I'd arrived earlier - the time lost on my bus trip had added up - but much of the space was taken up by the large volumes of people sitting down. Also once I figured out that you couldn't get past the catwalk it created such a bottleneck that getting in much further was bound to be difficult. A short guy put a suggestion to me that we should swap places because I was far taller than him and it was the only ground I gave all night, but after saying "fair enough" to his proposal and swapping around I was disappointed he was rude enough to not try to strike up a conversation, and I'm not even sure he bothered to say thanks. Last time I ever do that, if the circumstances are reversed and I'm annoyed by others, I would rightly expect to be told to fuck off if I put such a suggestion to them!
Apart from this moment - he eventually realised he still couldn't see and went off to get a beer before waltzing back in - I fought for every single step forwards I could take, at one point stepping on someone's foot. I can't say I felt any sympathy for him though, anyone who is foolish enough to wear flip flops in a moshpit deserves everything they get! You'd had thought the £95 would have been quite enough money for the organisers but no, this was the most corporate gig I'd ever been to, with barely any audible music between the acts as the focus was on bombarding us with advertising. One irksome promo was the advert for JLS with The Beach Boys the following day, as firstly it isn't The Beach Boys without Brian, and secondly I could barely believe that Mike Love could be raping their legacy so much that they settled for a support slot to JLS. I tell a lie though, there is no low to which Mike Love could sink which would surprise me! Also it was announced - after it had happened - that The View were playing a very intimate show elsewhere on site, but I suspect this was an exclusive thing for those with more expensive tickets. Would have been a nice bonus though, maybe the premium tickets offered a fancy package to make Wimbledon look uncivilised? Another recurring advert was for The Who's Quadrophenia tour, something I'd discounted after seeing that the album contained zero notable hits and the encore didn't do enough to make up for it, but with a little luck I hope I'll have a chance to see The Who before they die.
The most intriguing show being advertised was Elton John and Ray Davies the following Friday, even more so on learning that Elton John had to pull out and it was turned into a free Ray Davies show. I tried to encourage Matt to go for his own good but to no avail, although checking out the 100% Kinks setlist afterwards it was near-perfect, putting the infuriating omission of All Day And All Of The Night and The Village Green Preservation Society aside. If I lived in London I'd have been there! Apart from the music advertising there were also a lot of Barclaycard adverts, especially encouraging people to tweet mentioning Smile A Day. Someone won a backstage pass with a rather bland message, but I found my phone was barely working and wouldn't lower myself to using a hash tag if my life depended on it. Any smart website could tell what you're talking about anyway, it's infuriating, tacky and I can't see the appeal of a website that's basically Facebook but with status updates only. Also there was more advertising for contactless payments, and a music advert was played twice which utilised Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra), attracting some enthusiasm the first time around. Also interestingly The Vaccines were interviewed before and after their set - pointlessly the volume was too low to hear - and also there was some footage of the things taking place around site, which included a couple of guys dressed as bee keepers and fans dancing while wearing Mick Jagger masks. Also there was a random guy on the screen holding up a keep off the grass sign and shaking his head disapprovingly, which I trust was a joke as opposed to a request!
One cool thing was a blimp which kept passing across the video screen, and also a tube train, and these graphics kept disappearing from view as they passed into the side part of the screen which I couldn't see. Just like Heaton Park, screens had been erected facing sideways so fans far to one side would have a clue what was going on, and this was a helpful touch and helped make tonight more of a visual feast. Also there were numerous reminders about drinking enough water and wearing sun screen, but this was quite redundant for fans like us jostling for position. Next support band was Gary Clarke Jr, playing for 50 minutes from 3:50pm, who was a black American guy wearing a blue vest and cowboy hat. I feel okay mentioning his colour as tiresomely his album title was Blak And Blu - why the need to reference skin colour all the time, just get on with the music! - and clearly from his style he was a massive Jimi Hendrix fan. One song - Third Stone From The Sun - in fact was a Hendrix cover, and his set was the first time that the side screens were turned on, and also his album artwork with a massive image of his face was projected behind him throughout the show. I'd never heard of him but he went down pretty well - and as if his identity wasn't clear enough it was also written on the drum kit - and impressively this show for him was sandwiched between a festival in Belgium and one in Finland, and on three consecutive days too!
Again lots of roadies were onstage throughout, focusing mainly on the camera designed to sweep over the crowd, and the one positive thing about all the sunshine was that it was a great help in taking good close-up photos of the show. I shot two videos, one a relatively chilled out but impressive Hendrix-style tune showing off my zoom facility - not that I could do much about the heads in the way - and the second a much jauntier and louder song which in fact was great, and the crowd got into it too. With some knowledge of his songs and if my focus wasn't so completely on the main act and surviving the sunshine I think I could have really enjoyed it, but as it was he was certainly ok! One downer of outdoor gigs is people smoking, and adding that stench to the sweat wasn't very nice at all. Once I cracked open my water and realised it was tepid and my glasses started to get dirty I'd had killed for a shower and ice cold drink, but I was here for the music and determined to make the best of it! One really old leathery guy was wandering around topless and begging a kid for a cigarette light, so either has lived a very strange life or had completely let himself go just for tonight! He impressed in his ability to politely push forwards, but then squandered it all by randomly leaving the crowd a few songs later. I'd had killed for that kind of position!! Generally a few fans were dressed as hippies and when the video screens showed a field of mushrooms and a meadow with a Monty Pythonesque hand rising out of it it seemed to fit the overall vibe very nicely.
Generally this was a good crowd though, with an impressive combination between youth and old age, hardly a sea of rich businessmen who could afford tickets, in today's world £100 is nothing at all, if you can't pay that for a special treat then you need to reassess your priorities! Strangely enough the rules said that moshing and crowd surfing were strictly prohibited, which is not something I've noticed very often, and it wasn't adhered to once the show got going, but at the same time The Rolling Stones aren't really a band to attract a fearsome moshpit. The nicest thing perhaps was not having any beer being chucked around at all, as by contrast security were handing out ice cool water, which was gratefully received by me as my tepid Glastonbury water was so poor. Strangely though water wasn't handed out again prior to The Stones, when it would have really come in handy! Next up were The Temper Trap, playing for 50 mins from 5:25pm, which unusually was longer than The Vaccines who presumably relished a short, sharp set? The three main acts all had The preceding their name and were quite widely spaced out, yet I don't even remember TTT being advertised as a support beforehand. I found out afterwards that they are Australian and, as I was still further to the left than I'd have liked, on the video screen I could just make out E Temper Trap where their name was displayed. My mission for the evening was clearly to get far enough right that I'd be able to see the T and the H!
The singer was dressed bravely in all white and wearing a cap, and towards the end was banging away on his own little set of drums. They were actually rather good and encouraged the crowd to clap along, and I noticed that a smoke machine was in full pelt behind the guitarist, who looked like he wanted to rock out harder than the music allowed for! There were also some air fans onstage - very helpful in these conditions - and the band were generally quite warmly received. I shot a couple of videos, the first of which was very jumpy but I either half-recognised the tune or it was so catchy that I now remember it. However I hadn't paid money to see these guys and was focusing on staying as fresh as possible for the main event, so can't really offer much more detail. Next up were The Vaccines, playing 45 minutes from 7pm. Seven songs out of their set they'd played at the same site a little over two years previously and this may go some way to explaining why their tunes were sinking in nicely, although at Field Day I only saw two of their songs before moving on for Franz! Before they came onstage the crowd finally decided to all stand up, and there was a sudden lurch forwards as I gained a good few metres of distance. I've got to say that the people sitting down should check their manners, as not even bothering to stand up for a support band at a gig of this size where they have some clout is a little bit rude, yes? They'd also prevented me from moving anywhere, deciding that preserving a seated position was a higher priority to them than listening to three bands who'd actually been alright.
I'd half-expected The Vaccines to be dressed like Status Quo in double denim but they were dressed quite blandly, opening strongly with Blow It Up. Annoyingly a Union Jack umbrella was blocking my view for the first few songs, and hopefully the guy holding it was beaten to a pulp and it was taken away from him so I could see what was going on properly! For Teenage Icon I shot a video of the intro, doing my best to avoid a head in the way, and it sounded like the volume had just been cranked up a lot. Next up was Ghost Town where I shot a shaky vid of the intro, and if you haven't guessed my intention here was to capture the start of Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra). Strangely enough I have managed to record half of this song every time I've seen them live and wasn't going to stop this tradition now. Wetsuit was especially good and The Vaccines just sounded sharper and better than ever. In particular Justin's singing was clearer than I remember, and I think having their demo tracks given away in NME has generally increased my knowledge of their music. Perhaps they'd read my comments about The Strypes being better than them and decided to raise their game, and on today's evidence they seem to have closed the gap! The fans seemed to take an interest in a guy appearing to the side of the stage but I'm still none the wiser as to who it was, and even my camera close-ups shed no light. Maybe Keith or Mick had popped their heads around the curtains too for a quick peep?
The guys were backed by their name accompanied by a cool fireworks effect coming out of it, and had their own fairly impressive lighting rigs - especially good for a support band - although clearly the real video screen power was being saved for The Stones themselves. I shot a short video of Post Break-Up Sex which came out blurred, and eventually got my wish by capturing the first half of Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra) as intended! There was lots of clapping at the start and after a while I stopped filming to enjoy my favourite Vaccines song, although Nørgaard is now pushing it a close second! Justin was moving as far across the stage as his mic lead would allow him and the rest of the guys were eagerly swapping places onstage, and their general enthusiasm is to be commended. Still though, when your very best songs are less than two minutes long you'd have to have a hell of a nerve to ever dare to leave them from your set! Like most of the support bands, The Vaccines shared their enthusiasm for seeing The Stones later and amazement at the weather, and their set finished as it should do with the wonderful Nørgaard. Although tonight was all about The Rolling Stones I was sufficiently impressed to download all The Vaccines songs played tonight afterwards, and by this point had drank all of my tepid water.
Due to the focus on advertising there was little notable music between acts, although I do recall hearing The Guns Of Brixton, and the crowd started to get into Lola by The Kinks but this momentum was not built upon. Bizarrely they also played London Calling but so quietly you could barely hear it, and one guaranteed crowd-pleaser had been frittered away as background music. Very strange! A guy in front made a comparison with The Stone Roses - something about a friend thinking he was seeing them instead - and I wasn't too impressed by his scoffing attitude that because this show cost £95 it was somehow on a higher plane. That's not true at all, it's just that The Stones are greedier and can get away with the higher ticket prices, and I had little doubt that The Rolling Stones would struggle to surpass Heaton Park. Nevertheless, as I'd invested so much effort to be here I was certainly going to give them a fair hearing! They had 45 minutes to set up the stage and the first order of business was linking the catwalk to the stage. Presumably it had been separated to prevent support acts from having fun with it, and it's such a good idea I'm surprised more bands don't do it. From what I can gather they had a reduced version of this at Glastonbury, but at the time of writing I've still yet to see that show for comparison. The coolest part though was watching the massive lighting rig being raised, and even more so when five guys started to climb step ladders to sit inside the rig! From what I can tell they stayed there for the entire show, which is amazing, but that whole scene reminded me of something else. I suspect Macca had done something similar.
Also I think the side screens were ramped up a bit - or simply put to their full use - and a message came onscreen advising that "After 44 years they're back. Are you ready!?" shortly before an intro tape started, featuring footage presumably from Hyde Park 1969 and a soundtrack of Sympathy For The Devil followed by Let's Spend The Night Together. We were excited, there was much singing along, and determined to enjoy the show we'd paid all this money for! The Rolling Stones appeared onstage shortly before their scheduled start time of 8:30pm. They'd stressed that they intended to stick to the curfew - the Bruce Springsteen debacle had made most acts except Justin Bieber sit up and take notice of the importance of punctuality - but that was the last thing on our minds as they launched straight into Start Me Up! Now I'm thinking that this is a poor man's opener compared to Street Fighting Man but at the time was just delighted that this was finally happening, and the audio and visual experience was fantastic. The sound was booming and the video screens were showing the band wall-to-wall, so presumably even the fans right at the back would have a good idea what was going on. It was simple but hugely effective, and the sea of cameras meant I couldn't resist shooting a video of my own towards the end of it capturing the extent of the sing along. Someone even pointed an iPad at the stage at one point!
So much for them doing the 1969 setlist then, as Start Me Up is a rare "late" Stones classic dating from 1981, albeit initially written in 1975. This was followed by It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It), which I shot another video of, and it's that footage that enables me to say that the ending was extended and the crowd were singing back the end and were projected onto the screens, and also that the one bloody hand that blocked a good number of my photos kept shooting up every few seconds, with my annoyance clearly their number 1 priority! At first Mick was teasing at going down the catwalk, but the set was a masterclass of simple yet effective design as also the areas below the side screens had been sectioned off and frequented regularly by Mick & Co. Although I went into the set with a firm idea of what the best Rolling Stones songs are I always try to listen and learn, and Tumbling Dice was the pleasant surprise of the evening. I'd thought this was a maligned 1980s track so am surprised to learn it was actually a key track from the acclaimed Exile On Main St. album, and this may explain why it just sounded fantastic. Also at the end I was pleased to capture a photo of the screens brightly covered with dice and the classic lips logo, which helps to make this moment stick in my mind. Next up was the "winning song by request", so I thought that the fans would, like me, have analysed previous setlists, picked out a classic that has been rudely omitted then vote for it. Ha!
I therefore have to wonder if the vote was rigged, or if other fans don't like hits, or if they're just being wilfully obscure, as the fan request track was All Down The Line?! Never heard of it, and on tonight's evidence it isn't worth the effort of seeking out either. Fanwise at least the Union Jack umbrella had come down, but a key annoyance was a fucking French flag which the owner kept taking out and waving about, blocking the view of literally hundreds of people behind him. Maybe he figured that the French default setting of being sullen and rude wouldn't quite cut it, so waving a flag around would do instead? He'd actually started doing it during The Vaccines, and I hope a stern talking to from other fans kept the flag down for the bulk of the main set? Back to the show, Mick Jagger asked who'd been here in 1969, and judging from the response there were quite a few actually. He wore a snazzy leopard skinesque coat at first, before changing into a black open suit-like jacket over a black t-shirt. He also said he couldn't see us all but bets that we look beautiful - the old charmer - and had a strange habit of putting his mic down his trousers when he wanted his hands free. No opportunities were taken to joke about the ticket prices - a touchy subject perhaps - but I did feel that the band made a little more effort in visiting our side of the stage, perhaps because we were the ones having more fun, the other side I could envisage having little or no atmosphere, especially if the crowd had been thinned out in the name of exclusivity.
Keith visited our side area twice to my recollection, but one thing I didn't notice was Beast Of Burden, which is a song that is so indifferent I didn't even realise it had being played! Next up was the brilliant newbie Doom And Gloom, which just has to be their finest song since Start Me Up. By this point I believe the catwalk was in full use by Jagger, and by now he was going right to the end and acknowledging the cluster of people standing above the futuristic-looking mixing desks to the left and right of the stage. This also would have been a nice treat for the fans standing outside the inner barrier area. I struggled to get a decent video due to the hands in the way but eventually got a good shot of Mick pointing the way as he walked to the end. Next up they played Bitch, with Gary Clark Jr. as the special guest. It was hardly Paul McCartney and was a ridiculously low-key choice of song and guest, but it could have been someone considerably worse guesting! Next up was an intro I didn't recognise at first which morphed into Paint It, Black. It just didn't sound quite right though, and was the only classic song of the night which failed to hit the spot, but most of the crowd seemed quite happy with it!
By around this point Mick had changed into a white top - I hear it was the one he'd worn in 1969! - and there also was a great animated video, and one song that was better than it had any right to be was Honky Tonk Women. It's one I'd hold up as a good example of The Stones not being in the same league as The Beatles or The Beach Boys, but as a live entity these kind of songs work, although even with all the goodwill in the world you can't claim this touches any of the Beatles/Beach Boys 100 best songs, although for The Stones this would definitely make any self-respecting compilation tape. I think this was the point where everyone was introduced, starting with all the other people onstage who'd mostly faded into the background as Mick was such a compelling frontman. He just looked fantastic, so slim and energetic and with great hair to boot. He knew how to work the stage and after years of practice knew how to set it up so he could use the space to its full potential. Also Ronnie Wood looked very cool in red, sporting a jacket at the outset, and with hair to rival Mick's. In fact the very next day he was on Centre Court watching Andy Murray, and conversely I hear Gerard Butler and Bradley Cooper - who'd been at Wimbledon - were supposed to be at The Stones but couldn't be arsed to turn up until 30 minutes before the end! However, Ronnie lost some credit for flicking cigarette butts into the crowd. If he was actually doing that it would be both dangerous and stupid.
The largest roar was perhaps reserved for Keith Richards, who looked every inch like Johnny Depp's Dad and was wearing a blue headband, whereas by comparison Charlie Watts looked the least rock 'n' roll member of the group with his grey hair, but must have some clout as the band had decided 2013 was their 50th anniversary on the logic that 1963 was the year that Charlie had joined the group. At this point Mick left the stage and handed it over to Richards for two songs, which for the supposed best band in the world is an unforgivable lull, especially considering what they'd ultimately omitted to make room for it! Maybe he could have got away with one song at a push but two was silly, and I can only hope that Jagger genuinely needed this time to take a breather before the second half of the set. Jagger came back onstage after yet another costume change - now in a black sparkly top with blue bits - by my count and photos there were seven costume changes, most of which were a simple change of top - for the second unexpected delight of the set, albeit not in the same league as Tumbling Dice. Yes, it was Miss You, a tune which worked very nicely live. I shot my longest video yet, including blurred footage of Mick enticing Ronnie and Keith to join him on the catwalk which eventually came into focus despite all the hands in the way, while the sax guy was playing an extended solo and the crowd participation was fantastic. Keith and Ronnie then rushed back to leave Jagger by himself at the end. This whole catwalk thing is a bit unfair in how it leaves the drummer out, and I hope by the time they do their 60th anniversary tour they'll have figured out a solution to this little dilemma!
Thank fuck Adele didn't turn up, but guest slots were thin on the ground, with the main surprise being Mick Taylor popping up for Midnight Rambler like he'd done at Glasto. At first I thought he was Bill Wyman for some reason, and he looked larger and less rock 'n' roll than the others, but although this was a nice sentimental moment - he'd made his debut at Hyde Park 1969 - the song couldn't justify its inclusion in the set over the hits that were left out to make room for it. I shot a great video which showcased some pretty impressive lighting effects but the fact that the side screens had been turned off just goes to show that this wasn't a big hit by either my or the Stones standards. However, this was the last bout of fannying about. In total they'd done six laborious and unnecessary tunes, but Gimme Shelter wasn't amongst them, and they were going to make up for it with six essential hits! To be honest I've never rated the song that highly but tonight it worked very well, and if I recall it featured a black and white video screen and Mick enticed the lady backing singer to join him on the catwalk too. The moments earlier when he'd been playing guitar it was like he was being held back, and Mick seems to work much better with just a mic and plenty of space in which to prowl. Next up was Jumpin' Jack Flash, which had been the Glasto opener, and I shot a video capturing some impressive flashing lights and Mick Jagger jumping enthusiastically. The crowd sang the chorus excitedly and Mick encouraged loads of clapping and pointing gestures as he came again to our side of the stage.
This video was harder to shoot though thanks to the toddler who was perched on her father's shoulders for much of the set blocking my view. I did my best to escape her and also the big heads, but the thought that her parents had wasted £100 on a ticket for her was just upsetting. Despite having the best view in the house - and blocking the view of others in order to get it - she showed no enthusiasm or interest at all, and I've got to side with security who earlier had pointed furiously for her to get down. The sheer stupidity and ignorance of children really can grind my gears, and little things like this vindicate my decision to focus on holidays and seeing bands over the horrors of being a parent and having to deal with ignorance - and changing nappies just to rub it in a bit more! Even worse though were two complete twats who risked being lynched by violently pushing their way into the crowd, nearly having the shit beaten out of them by me and the guys around. One of the tossers even had a disposable camera for fucks sake, how out of date can you get? The only thing that stopped me from breaking their noses was the risk of getting my camera/glasses broken in petty retaliation, and that if I fought back then somehow their behaviour would then be my fault. However, we ultimately ignored them and eventually I got back in front of them as they realised they wouldn't be able to push any further forwards.
Next up though massive flames to the sides of the stage appeared, accompanied with red lights and images of trees on fire. The extended intro started up, and the woo hoos commenced to herald the start of Sympathy For The Devil! I captured a video of this intro and Mick coming back onstage wearing a swishy fur thing and encouraging more of our woo hoos before starting the song proper. It was an excellent moment and one we'd all been waiting for. I'd thought this was the set closer but apparently not, as Mick focused on Keith as he delivered an intro that drove the crowd mad, but it took me a while to realise that it was Brown Sugar! I shot another video towards the end and the crowd really got to enjoy raising their hands in the air and doing the triumphant woooh! bit to it. There was considerable emphasis by Mick on our participating by pointing and shaking our arms rather than simply clapping, and even with a long jam this was a strong way in which to finish the set, and Mick's movement around the place was just fantastic. As the band left the stage an animated gorilla appeared on screen and I had little doubt that they'd be coming back for more. In fact I could quite easily believe that a band like The Rolling Stones had invented the concept of the encore! A golden version of the classic lips logo was displayed on the screen as we waited a few minutes for them to return.
Two sets of choirs assembled onstage - the Voice Chamber Choir and the London Youth Choir I believe - and I correctly predicted what was coming next, as they broke into singing You Can't Always Get What You Want. They were partially drowned out by the crowd cheering but when Mick reappeared - now in a sparkly golden jacket - and they launched into it properly it worked very well, but I couldn't help thinking that the time they were investing in this song could have been better spent with a quick burst of Street Fighting Man and The Last Time. I shot another video and Mick unsurprisingly was continuing to make full use of the catwalk. However there was only one way to finish, and I think suicide would have been the only option if they'd failed to do it. So yes, my status update prior to the show had been about demanding satisfaction, and thanks to (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction I got it in the end! Mick Taylor came back onstage and the song was just amazing, with the riff living up to its brilliance, a shower of confetti, a bit of moshing, the best possible climax, and I shot a video to capture some of the magic, taking in my favourite bit without even realising it. Yeah, the line about smoking the same cigarettes had inspired a ridiculous drunken conversation once where the double negative in the lyrics had somehow confused the hell out of us, and additionally the classic image of a youthful Laurence Fishburne singing Satisfaction so enthusiastically in Apocalypse Now Redux will never leave me.
Also the sing along and extended ending was just monumental, and this finale fully reinforced my opinion that Satisfaction is greater than all of their other songs put together, and the fact they were also integrating crowd footage and topped it all off with fireworks suggests that The Stones know this too! They eventually drew this brilliance to a close and joined for a group hug, initially with all the backing musicians before just The Rolling Stones - including Mick Taylor - got together for a final bow. I'd caught the exact moment on my photo where the fireworks were let off but sadly this was too bright for a decent shot to come out of it. The Rolling Stones had been scheduled to finish at 10:15pm and had been given a 10:30pm curfew but had finished promptly a couple of minutes before this. As they'd also started a few minutes earlier they'd certainly pushed their time slot to its limits. As a final touch the red lips logo was displayed on the screen, along with a message thanking the fans for their support. It took a while to get out of the heat of the crowd but when I did I took a few moments to take in the scene, in particular the ludicrous number of bottles strewn over the ground. My first thought was to get water to fill up the bottle I'd kept on my person, so I headed to where I thought I'd seen the sign, easily finding the place, but the pump was a little too enthusiastic for its own good. Despite the splashing though, it was a well-earned and hugely refreshing drink after a long show.
After leaving the arena and walking past the dodgy t-shirt vendors - selling merch for £10 a time - I headed left towards Marble Arch, at first moving quickly but struggling to exit the park as security seemed to have made it as difficult as could be possible. Spirits were high though and there was a good bit of singing - especially of Satisfaction and Sympathy - and I walked towards Edgware Road hoping to avoid the Marble Arch queues. I should have been warned off catching a bus by my experience earlier and stuck to my plan of going to Baker Street, but instead started to walk down Edgware Road towards Kilburn. The buses that passed were rammed but I made the mistake of just carrying on walking, initially just glad to escape from the bulk of the crowds. I popped into KFC for a Cajun wrap with a hash brown inside, which made a right mess on my trousers, and by this point I really could have done with a change of clothes! Eventually after walking to Maida Vale I got on a bus and returned to the hotel around 12:30. Somehow it had taken two hours, which was insane as by my calculations it had been a 1 hour walk. My pub was open until 2am and looked quiet and civilised, but I felt shitty by now and just wanted to get up to my room. I had no problems getting back in and wrote review notes for a bit, but I was really tired and by this point I must have smelled like one of those homeless people with no self respect... or soap!
Not having sufficient basking time after a gig is always a problem, and I didn't have a good night's sleep as it was too hot, so I opened the window and it was then too loud. For some reason air conditioning isn't a fixture in all English hotels yet. Bloody rip-off London hotels again, and just to rub it in a bit further I pulled my leg muscle during the night, which never helps. Despite waking up much too early I felt surprisingly good, and also my ears weren't whistling, suggesting that the sound quality had been absolutely spot-on. I checked out as early as possible to arrive at Euston in good time via the Overground from Kilburn High Road, not even stopping for the hotel breakfast. From what I could gather it was only a continental breakfast, which would be another case of misleading advertising as the reservation had said a full breakfast, and how can it be a full breakfast without sausages and hash browns? By this point though I'd already exited the building so deliberately didn't look back, and despite it being early in the morning the heat was horrible. I stopped off for a McDonalds breakfast wrap which was very nice, and at Euston found an Overground train named after Ian Brown, which I suspect is named after a less famous one than the monkey man himself!
So yes, there is something about The Rolling Stones. They're old and grizzled but they just look and sound great, and have that vibe of being definitive in what they do. However, I just don't think that they were on the same level as The Stone Roses or Blur last year, or indeed The Flaming Lips at the height of their powers. Also their back catalogue is wafer thin compared to many of my favourite bands. Even if there are great songs I don't fully appreciate, considering they've been going 50 years you should damn well expect lots of hidden gems in the back catalogue, and as good as they were any suggestion that they are the greatest band to ever walk this earth is just ridiculous. Compared to my compilation tape I'd started work on prior to heading out, they'd played just 10 out of the 20 songs on there, which just isn't good enough when you think they'd found room for random b-sides like Beast Of Burden, All Down The Line, You Got The Silver, Before They Make Me Run, Midnight Rambler and Bitch. OK, Beast Of Burden may not be a b-side, but it's not very good! The serious omissions were Street Fighting Man, Ruby Tuesday and The Last Time, so I was not impressed at all to note that Ruby and Street Fighting had made their way into the set the next Saturday!
I mean, seriously, our show went on sale and sold out first, you'd think that the band would respect that and play the strongest set for us, or at the least be fair and play identical sets for both crowds? However the next Saturday was devastatingly close to perfection, with only You Got the Silver and Midnight Rambler and the omission of The Last Time holding it back. Considering Silver was Keith's time in the spotlight and Rambler was Mick Taylor's moment though they at least served a purpose and, hell, even the inclusion of Emotional Rescue would have been interesting, as apparently it's the first time it had ever been played in Europe. The craziest thing is watching the setlist website as people were completing it as the show was unfolding, so it was almost like watching them again but via Teletext or something, and also I was following all of this while writing this review! In fact looking back their 1969 Hyde Park setlist was relatively short and with a long shit spell in the middle, so it's a relief they hadn't recreated that, and Street Fighting Man was the only good song played then that had been missed out. Other omissions were 19th Nervous Breakdown, Rocks Off, Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?, Under My Thumb, She's A Rainbow, Get Off Of My Cloud and Let's Spend The Night Together, but the flipside is I've now got to add Tumbling Dice and Miss You to my Stones catalogue of greatest hits.
At least there was nothing good that Glastonbury got that we didn't, and another thing to mention was that Street Fighting Man was in fact the fan request at Hyde Park 2, so perhaps the real hardcore fans searching for obscure songs to request at Hyde Park 1 had been the problem, but still, it should be in the setlist anyway! Interestingly The Stones had even been opening with Get Off Of My Cloud in America. The train back was a bit busier than expected and really filled up around Coventry/Birmingham International, but I made some more notes and read a bit more, and as you can see I haven't struggled for stuff to say! Once back at Wolves I wandered around a bit in the boiling sunshine and took a few more photos, getting that step closer to the definitive shot of the newly restored Man On The Horse. The timing was excellent as I arrived back in time to get some ice cream and enjoy a hot lunch, before sitting down to watch Andy Murray ACTUALLY WIN Wimbledon. And in straight sets too, showing consideration for the fact that I had other things to do. Amazing, the last time a Brit had won it The Stones were 15 or so years away from forming, and Andy Murray's English passport is in the post to him as we speak! The heat was horrible and stifling and after the tennis I took a first look at the photos, being amazed by how many hands were in the way but finding nine decent shots for Facebook. The Rolling Stones aren't the best band in the world. Maybe the lucky fuckers who saw their best side at Hyde Park 2 will disagree. However I'm glad I saw them, and consider it £95 well spent to fulfil a dream!
Mark: 9.0/10
The Rolling Stones
Support
The Vaccines
The Temper Trap
Gary Clark Jr.
King Charles
Where
London Hyde Park
When
6th July 2013
Price
£95.00
Who with
No-one
Position
Towards the left
Comments
Finally! I'm reaching a satisfying point where there are less and less bands I haven't seen, so to tick off the supposed Greatest Band In The World was a pretty big deal! I got into them around the same time as The Beatles in around 2003 yet never felt compelled to see them on their previous tours. The long gap from 2007 had whet my appetite to see them though, and by the time they finally announced dates in 2012 I was prepared to see them any price, any time, any place. Quite interesting actually as I only had the Forty Licks album and am very, very strongly of the opinion that it is downright offensive to compare The Stones to The Beatles or The Beach Boys, quite simply they aren't on the same level. An article I read trying to make the case that they were under-rated was laughable considering their enormous success! Forty Licks is quite patchy although its best songs are excellent, none more so than (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. When The Rolling Stones announced that they were playing The O2 Arena I tried my best to get tickets but it sold out immediately thanks to the excessive publicity, but I thought I'd had a lucky escape when they hadn't played Satisfaction. I cannot exaggerate how gutted I'd be to pay £100 to see them if they don't bother to play it. Digging a little deeper confirms that in fact they played it on the second night in London, and the only reason it was left off the first time was because they were running late, but still!
Setlist (King Charles)
MMM
LoveBlood
Mississippi Isabel
Coco Chitty
Mr. Flick
The Brightest Lights
Bam Bam
Lady Percy
Ivory Road
Long Walk To Freedom
Love Lust
Setlist (Gary Clark Jr.)
When My Train Pulls In
Don't Owe You A Thing
Please Come Home
Travis County
Third Stone From The Sun
Blak And Blu
Bright Lights
Setlist (The Temper Trap)
Love Lost
Fader
This Isn't Happiness
Rabbit Hole
Trembling Hands
Soldier On
Science Of Fear
Resurrection
Sweet Disposition
Setlist (The Vaccines)
Blow It Up
Teenage Icon
Ghost Town
Wetsuit
Post Break-Up Sex
All In White
Melody Calling
No Hope
Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)
Bad Mood
If You Wanna
I Always Knew
Nørgaard
Setlist (The Rolling Stones)
Start Me Up
It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It)
Tumbling Dice
All Down The Line
Beast Of Burden
Doom And Gloom
Bitch
Paint It, Black
Honky Tonk Women
You Got The Silver
Before They Make Me Run
Miss You
Midnight Rambler
Gimme Shelter
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Sympathy For The Devil
Brown Sugar
You Can't Always Get What You Want
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
