The Rolling Stones have been bringing their own brand of raunchy blues based rock & roll to stages around the planet since 1962 turning up in Slane Castle for the first time on a sunshine blessed day back in 1982. If you are a long time fan and collector of the bands music you will have 55 albums in your collection at present and also at least 37 top ten singles making up your contribution to the 200 million albums the band have sold over the years.
The current tour has been going for two years and is now the highest grossing tour of all time expected to bring in €500 million when the remaining gigs have been completed on this leg. Going back to Slane 25 years later the first difference was this time I was wrapped up like a North Sea Fisherman to combat the challenges presented by cold squally showers and ankle deep muck in the car parks and on the concert site itself.
The support acts were virtually a non event in the miserable conditions prevailing and on a daylight stage that reduced their physical presence to ant like proportions in the distance. Without the lights and screens all blazing away the 7 storey stage looked like ashopping mall under construction. Then at 9pm the reason that makes it all worthwhile, The Rolling Stones strolled onto the stage to an explosion of fireworks and dazzling screens and light beams, ripping through the cold night atmosphere with the chainsaw buzz of Keith Richard’s Start Me Up chords.
The Rolling Stones have established supremacy as the ultimate live Rock experience blasting out their well crafted repertoire of classics hits like father figures to anyone wanting to know how to achieve world wide rock & roll dominance.
The iconic original members of The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards move about the stage demonstrating a wealth of professional experience, their forceful trenchant delivery being hammered down by Charlie Watt’s and being relayed across the Slane audience on the giant screens to a captivated 70,000 fans cheering them on from the cold muddy concert field.
Ron Wood now a recognised full time Rolling Stone since taking over after Mick Taylor left in the early 70s complemented Keith Richards trademark rhythms with fiery leads and bottleneck phrasing on new and old songs from Rough Justice from the current Bigger Bang album to Dead Flowers, Can’t Always Get What You Want, Midnight Rambler, Tumbling Dice, Honky Tonk Woman, Satisfaction, Sympathy For The Devil, Paint It Black, Jumping Jack Flash, Its Only Rock & Roll as well as tributes to James Brown.
Mick Jagger struts and skips from one side of the massive stage to the other greeting the audience with a few words of Irish and leading by example keeping the pace fast and furious for the two hour performance. Then one of the most spectacular moments was to watch Mick, Keith, Ron,Charlie and the rest of the Band move out into the middle of the crowd on their mobile stage moving on an extended runway as they blasted out tunes like Its Only Rock N Roll as they travelled along the catwalk.
Keith Richard took over the vocals on a few of the songs adding a change of dynamic and pace before Mick Jagger bounced back on the stage and climbed up on the various secondary stages keeping everyone enthralled in his every move.
Keith and Ron strapped on a different guitar for each number displaying their personal favourites from Fender Telecasters, Fender Stratocasters, Gibson’s and various other magnificent, 6 string and 12 strings axe’s all finely tuned and roaring into the night. The rest of the musicians on stage were equally impressive in their passion and delivery from Bobby Keyes on Keyboards, Darryl Jones on Bass, back up vocalists Bernard and the Amazonian Lisa strutting out to groove with Mick Jagger in her slit skirt and high heels reminiscent of Tina Turners stage presence back in her Ike and Tina support slots on the early Rolling Stones tours.
The Rolling Stones are all about human contact, raw rock n roll energy and excitement and the keep it simple open chord magic of Keith Richards is still as potent today as it was four decades ago and continues to inspire guitarists all over the planet. Their sound is identifiable by its cohesive locked down bass and Charlie Watt’s drum sound followed by Keith’s momentarily delayed open chords and lead lines that have gone on to become the template for that raunchy southern rock sound that has been associated with the Stones since the late 60’s.
Keith Richard guitar style is loose but incredibly powerful and catchy with its sense of rhythm and dynamic’s. Very few people have been able to emulate the guitar style of one of rock music’s greatest showmen often just down to trying to hard to capture the slashing mean sound Keith produces as he wanders about off handed on the stage with his jacket sleeves rolled up and a fag hanging from the corner of his millennium featured face.
Keith’s loose limbed pendular right arm flailing across the Delta influence opened G tuning has produced the trademark Keef Riff for the past four decades always reappearing refreshed and full of relentless energy driven along like an locomotive by Charlie Watts drumming from Honky Tonk Woman to Brown Sugar to Start Me Up to Tumbling Dice all rolling off the Slane stage like a runaway steamroller.
There is no doubt that after all these years these musicians still need to play and hopefully that need will continue because the sheer joy and excitement evident around me on the faces of young and old was that of being in the presence of living legends who can still exceed the expectations.
The sound mix was excellent for anyone in the central bowl of the site but the lack of speakers within range of the D Block of seating meant the visuals were hugely diminished by a weak-kneed and wavy sound percolating from the stage speakers hopelessly out of range for fans in that location. The performance ended with a massive fireworks display as the crowd started slipping and sliding back up the hill towards the exits to make their way home with the treasured memory of having seen the legendary Rolling Stones live on stage.
Will they be back, well the Stones have built their reputation on setting fashion and not following it over the years so anything is possible, I just hope I don’t end up hosing an inch of top soil off my boots and trousers over the front garden when I get home the next time.
“And they go on rocking, goin round and round
Yeah reeling and rocking what a crazy sound
And they never stopped rocking
Till the moon went down”
