The Rolling Stones will kick off a world tour this summer, the band announced today at a news conference that began fittingly with a booming, heart-thumping performance of "Start Me Up."
"In the first performance of their 2005 tour, please welcome the Rolling Stones," a voice announced today at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, as a white curtain dappled with the rock band's signature red tongue logos dropped to the ground and Mick Jagger - clad in a pale blue blazer, pink belt and dark shades - began to sing and gyrate to screams and applause.
The tour, still to be named, will begin in Boston, at Fenway Park, on Aug. 21. One New York-area show was announced, for Sept. 15, at Giants Stadium.
The group's tour manager said the band would perform throughout the United States and Canada from August through December, when it will take a break.
The tour starts up again in January, making stops in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Buenos Aires and other cities in South America. From there, the band plans to move on to Japan and China before taking another break in May. The European leg of the tour begins in June 2006.
That he is a sexagenarian didn't seem to faze Mr. Jagger's fans on nearby rooftops and around the stage as they pumped their fists in the air and watched the band perform, somewhat surprisingly, below the facade of "The Julliard School."
True to form, Mr. Jagger, 61, waved his hands in the air and jumped up and down, showing off his still rail-thin stomach.
"I'll never stop, never stop, never stop," he sang, strutting back and forth.
The band also played a new song called "Oh No, Not You Again" and the classic hit "Brown Sugar." A new CD, to be released by Virgin Records in conjunction with the tour, has yet to be completed or named, though Mr. Jagger called the album "85 percent done."
"How was that for a first show?" the band's tour manager shouted to the crowd when the set at Lincoln Center concluded.
It is the first time that the Rolling Stones have performed at a press event since 1975, when the band sang "Brown Sugar" on top of a flatbed truck as it rode down Fifth Avenue.
Tickets for the tour go on sale on May 14 for Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, and Calgary. Additional cities and dates have yet to be announced. American Express card members can get tickets for the Boston show as early as today.
Ticket prices average $99 for stadium shows and $110 for arenas. All tickets for theater and club shows will be $50. More information is available on the band's official Web site, RollingStones.com.
"We hope it's going to be a wonderful summer of rock and roll," Mr. Jagger said.
When asked if this tour would be the band's last, Mr. Jagger responded, "We certainly don't announce tours as the last tour," adding that he felt it was unfair to fans to do so.
"We never think about it," the ageless rocker said. "We take each tour as it comes."
New York Times
― BeeOK (boo radley), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 21:59 (twenty-one years ago)
two years pass...