The Rolling Stones toured the US last in 2024, there were apparently plans to tour Europe this year that were then pushed to next year to coincide with a new album. According to a couple of good sources this isn’t now going to happen and their touring days are over. Obviously this had to happen one day and it is incredible they continued for so long even soldiering on after the sad loss of Charlie a few years ago
I saw them 29 times over a period of 42 years in 8 different countries. In arenas, huge stadiums, and I was also very lucky to see them several times in small theatres. First one was Wembley Stadium in 1982 with a bunch of school and university friends, last time Browns Stadium in Cleveland 2024 with my daughter. Some of the most memorable music related nights of my life. Some nights better than others, but I never saw a really bad show. Thank you Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie and everyone else who sailed in her
As someone once said, don’t be sad it’s over, smile because it happened.
All the bands of our youth have reached the end of the road, be it The Stones, The Who, whoever. The best course really, as I find the thought of men in their 80s on stage performing rock music slightly sad.
There are 80 year olds and then there are 80 year old Mick Jaggers, I wouldn’t say they were quite at their peak last year, but they were still performing at a very high level. Same applies to others I have seen like Neil Young or (not quite there yet) Bruce Springsteen. Can’t comment on The Who, McCartney or Dylan, all of whom I missed in 2025.
People haven’t quite worked out how to end this a rock career yet, other than drastically. Maybe Tom Waits? When Ronnie Barker decided he was not at his peak any more, he opened an antique shop. I liked Box Scaggs’s way; still occasionally working, but also has his restaurant.
Some people might think they played the same songs every night.
I saw them play 108 different songs, representing all of their albums except 2 (Satanic Majesties and Blue and Lonesome). The only song they played every time I saw them was Tumbling Dice.
I remember that on the 1981/82 tour (the only one I saw), people were speculating even then that this must surely be ‘the last time’…
As I’ve commented on several other Stones’ threads, I vividly recall a Q magazine cover from the early 90s that featured the band. The headline: Lock Up Your Granddaughters! They were ‘The Strolling Bones’, etc., back in 1993.
It’s quite simple: they made a lot of people very happy. A lot of bands owe them a debt for showing that you can simply bugger on, if the audience still want it. Rock was once a young man’s game…not now.
“Lock up your Grandmothers” I think was the phrase. There was also a Simpsons episode that travelled to the future (2011?) with it being scarcely believable that they were touring with the “Steel Wheelchairs” tour 🙂
I can remember some journo making fun of The Stones. When sponsored tours were just starting to appear..
A Stones tour sponsored by Sanatogen.
I am pretty sure that really happened
Not only did I ‘vividly’ get the headline wrong, it was also 1989, not the early 90s!
Just back from Percy Plant at Symphony Hall, Brum, and never has your closing statement been more apt. I felt young in the company of all the old gits, who, after loving Zeppelin, became accountants and bank managers, before retiring to the golf club. It was mildly shocking. Sure, a glance in the mirror might question my voice to speak, but there wasn’t even any pretence at any counter-culture.
(It was a bloody good show put on, mind.)
Counter-culture? What you describe is bean-counter-culture.
If anyone from the OED is reading this and it catches on, allow me to claim the coining. 😀
Not sure what you were expecting, Retro. “Mildly shocking”? Out of interest, was your own freak flag flying?
Anyway Percy is hardly representative of “counter-culture” these days – more like Nashville.
Point taken, @fitterstoke, but most these 19th hole stalwarts were only there because of his old band. With the biggest cheers coming for the handful of Zep songs aired, the set would have been better without them, or at least so many. I thought the same with the Sensational Shape-Shifters, mind, but it pays the bills and means he can present his new songs in lush and lavish settings.
Oh, just ignore me, @retropath2 – touch of the black dog this morning…
Not at all; your comment was entirely reasonable and realistic, unlike my expectations of any new improved audience Percy might attract. And you have more “right” to a black dog than many, so no apology sought and no sense slighted. in the least.
This time anyway 🙂
I am listening to Percy ‘s RFH set just now. (Sugarmegs is your friend). Whilst I loved LZ when I was young and noisy, I think RP made a good artistic decision to not turn himself into a retro rock act, and I’m not even an Americana fan. One or two old band numbers reworked is fine, as in the concert here. I also get annoyed by civilian rock fans, but doubtless when I was a teen grooving on Led Zeppelin in the mid-70s, the old lags were mildly affronted by me starting with “Physical Graffiti” before my moving backwards. Plant’s reputation enables him to function at the level he does, and he brings a lot of relatively different textures and feels compared to most artists of his era and stature. These days, I wish more bands did.
I saw the Stones twice. Once at the Sarfend Odeon in 1963, the leather waistcoat years, supporting the Everly Brothers, The Crickets and Bo Diddley. (I may have mentioned this before.) Second time was Hyde Park 1969 – they were so utterly shit that I never felt moved to see them again. And I felt sorry for all those butterflies – chucked out of a box to be picked off by the birds.
I was at the (postponed) Wembley Stadium gig on a blisteringly hot night in 1990. They had a host of other musicians beefing them up but it was the engine room of Charlie and Keef that impressed me most. Never seen them since, due to cost, missing key members and the thought that they’d struggle to beat that summer night.
Ah I was at that same postponed gig. What a fantastic night that was. Dan Reed Network were supporting.
For me the Stones stopped being interesting around 1972. I was only a kid at the time and got into them retrospectively, checking out their amazing output from the early 60s up to Exile and then, as I say, gradually believing that- with the exception of the odd song on the odd album here and there- they’d shot their creative bolt. As with most bands, I was never interested in seeing them live (although I did once in 1990 or thereabouts) thinking it had all become a bit pantomimic with a sad pirate knocking out ‘interesting’ guitar postures and an annoying gym teacher in pantaloons urging us all to join in.
Keef wasn’t up for it, it seems
https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-rolling-stones-axe-plans-for-2026-uk-and-european-stadium-tour-as-keith-richards-couldnt-commit-3918769