Rolling Stones gather moss

Slane Castle

The Rolling Stones have announced four concerts in London and New Jersey in the US at the end of the year. The band will play London's O2 Arena on 25 and 29 November and at the Prudential Center in Newark on 13 and 15 December. Reports of a possible tour to mark The Stones’ 50th anniversary had been circulating for a number of years. Tickets for the UK gigs go on sale on Friday, with the New Jersey tickets on sale next Friday. Pre-sale tickets for the UK dates are already available with prices ranging from £106 - £406 including ticket fees but many of these are already on resale sites at over a £1,000 pounds!

I saw the Rolling Stones when they meant something in terms of having something to say and capturing the zeitgeist at Slane Castle, Ireland in 1982 for the princely sum of £12.00. It was a marvellous beautiful summer’s day in the natural amphitheatre by the River Boyne at Slane Castle. The stones appeared close to dusk the day having been preceded by strong support acts in The J. Geils Band, The Chieftains and George Thorogood and the Destroyers. The grounds of Slane Castle have been the venue for large open-air concerts since 1981.The grounds form a natural amphitheatre and the attendance can be anywhere between 80,000 and 100,000 at concerts.

This was the only outdoor gig the Stones ever did until they reprised Slane again as part of their last world tour in 2007. In 1982 the romped through an impressive set list as part of their Tattoo You Tour ending with impressive fireworks to the chords of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

1982 SETLIST

Under My Thumb

When the Whip Comes Down

Let’s Spend the Night Together

Shattered

Neighbours

Black Limousine

Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)

(The Temptations cover)

Twenty Flight Rock

(Eddie Cochran cover)

Going to a Go-Go

Let Me Go

Time is on My Side

Beast of Burden

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Little T&A

Angie

Tumbling Dice

She’s So Cold

Hang Fire

Miss You

Honky Tonk Women

Brown Sugar

Start Me Up

Jumpin’ Jack Flash

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

I also had to deal with some of their tax affairs; the Rolling Stones are actually a company based in the Netherlands Antilles. From 1971 to 2007 their financial affairs were handled by an aristocratic Bavarian merchant banker, Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein. He was hired by the Stones to sort out their financial affairs in the wake of their split from manager Allen Klein in 1971. The Rolling Stones could not believe that after making massive international hits such as Satisfaction and Jumpin' Jack Flash, he and the rest of his band were stony broke. Not only that, they owed massive back taxes and, worse still, had signed away the rights to their songs.

Rolling in it: Keith Richards, Prince Rupert Loewenstein 

and Mick Jagger

Lowenstein, mischievously styled “Rupie the Groupie” by Jerry Hall, reconfigured the Stones into being more of a business than a band, advising them to make decisions about recording, rehearsing and performing on the basis of the tax advantages that might accrue from their location. Under Rupie's eye, the Stones are believed to have made £1billion - most from touring and merchandising. There has been nothing like it in the history of modern music. The Prince's first piece of advice was that the whole band should become tax exiles, as the Inland Revenue was in pursuit at the time over unpaid income tax. France was the destination of choice for the Stones in 1971. Bill Wyman ended up becoming friends with the surrealist artist Marc Chagall; Richards rented a Gothic chateau where the band recorded the album Exile On Main Street.

Anyway back to Slane in 1982 when The Stones were the Leaders of the Pack and still had something to say but this year Mick Jagger will be 69, so the description “Ageing Rock Star” doesn't quite do it justice? Now explain to me in simple English why anybody in their right mind should pay £1,000 for a ticket to the Rolling Stones pre-embalming tour?