Just Announced: The Rolling Stones Tour 2021

Well, like most everyone else, I adore Charlie--for his drumming certainly, and also for that gentlemanly presence that offsets the sometimes oppressive Rock God-ness of the Glimmer Twins.

And I hope, and I trust, that if the Stones are to proceed from this tour and this year as The Rolling Stones that Charlie will be in the fold.

All that being said (and speaking as someone who's been lucky to have seen the band 28 times) I wouldn't discount the possibilities for a different, off-kilter greatness presented by this shakeup. Jordan is fantastic, of course, and the Stones always seem to thrive somehow when things are askew. I hope everyone currently holding tickets is singing thanks and praises for Charlie--while getting fired-up for a one-of-a-kind night in the rock 'n roll trenches.

I was at Miami '19. It was, indeed, "surreal" in that a sense of uncertainty and crisis had hung over the show since the Jagger postponement. The tour opener had finally become a closer--and had landed squarely in hurricane season. Moving the eventual concert up a day in a last-minute attempt to beat an incoming storm; starting late with no warm-up, and then slipping the show in after a pre-set burst of rain...all this made the atmosphere strange and desperate. The Stones, who have been outrunning Father Time and the laws of nature for some decades, seemed now to be only a few steps ahead. Add to all that the influx of Latin American fans, for whom the intensity level of Stones fanaticism brings the Brian Jones era to mind.

They were (mostly) great that night--it was a bit frustrating for "Under My Thumb" and "Out of Control" to be so useless, but when Jagger threw a verse of "Come on In My Kitchen" into "Midnight Rambler," I was transported.

And then, as if on cue, the heavens finally opened up again as they returned to the stage for, of all things, "Gimme Shelter." Sheets of rain were met by laughter from the boys, who knew that they had already pulled off the bank heist. I have filed the image of Jagger and Sasha out on the b-stage in the monsoon as my personal "last look" at the these guys, but I am glad that this show, in its characteristically screwy way, is still careening down the road...

 

Steve Jordan is the obvious stand-in I guess, although I'm not entirely convinced.

I wonder if Charlie's mate Jim Keltner might have considered it? Mind you, he's 79 I think...

Jordan plays with a jazz grip but belts away with less subtlety - he is more the late 80s - 90's stadium / pro-tooled Charlie than the Charlie we've seen and heard of late - which is much more the Charlie one would want. Never been that keen when the Stones have that big stadium cannon-snare going GOOF! GOOF! GOOF! through everything. I suspect that'll be Jordan...

They always said they'd not do it without Charlie and - state of the industry and the world not withstanding - I don't think that they should now.

I love the Stones and have seen them on most every tour since my first in 1976, but Keith is struggling and I'm not sure that Ronnie is healthy enough to totally cover for him any more.
Ronnie's recently shorn-off hair is revealing that he's mortal too I think. I'll be overjoyed to be proved very wrong, but I'm feeling that this is a tour too far and we might not have seen the last of its dramas yet...

 

As they indeed did, back in 1964:

 

Well put. Nobody beats the house forever.

 

John Stamos

 

Charlie had an operation that will sideline him a few months. He will be back on the riser soon. The tour must continue. I can't wait for the first show with him on the kit. The crowd better go nuts.

 

I cannot find the document online, but read about event cancellation/non-appearance insurance policies. In 2014 the top secret insurance policy the band had was made public when L'Wren passed. It was discovered in that document that Charlie was not covered. If something happened to him, the show was to go on with a different drummer. I'm sure the same policy is still in effect, with some changes. After the year Ronnie had, I bet you that he is not covered either. The document also had all kinds of personal information about band members, their doctors, full legal names of all kids, everything. Keith was not covered if he continued to abuse drink and couldn't perform.

This idea that the band would not carry on without Charlie is correct. In this case, Charlie is side lined for a tour and he plans on coming back. He did not leave the band. It's his band. He is the heartbeat of it all.

 

I remember all those lame jokes coming from almost every media outlet at the time.

All these years later watching the videos from that time....




They don't even look that old!

 

The last show of this tour could be a momentous occasion.

 

The Foos had success right off that bat but it took them years to play the big arenas on a consistent basis.

I didn't see them headline a show until late 2000, and they still toured clubs/theaters back then.

Heck, they were still opening for RHCP that summer!

Even here in Dave's home town, they still played nothing bigger than the medium-sized Patriot Center arena in 2003, and they were still there in 2005 - even with Weezer on the bill, they still didn't play the biggest arena in the DC area.

It took the Foos a looong time to finally find themselves able to only play the biggest venues.

They definitely weren't there in 1997 when I saw them open for the Stones!

 

To be clear, I think the Stones have still had some "big names" over my 32 years of Stones-concert attendance, but it's just the mega-bands who don't often open for them.

GnR, PJ, Metallica, RHCP... those are the rare openers.

Acts like Santana and Crow seem more typical: famous but not "sell out huge arenas" popular...

 

Can't tell you where, but I'm pretty sure the Beatles later cited this as something they shouldn't have done and an example of why they needed to stop touring.

 

While I can imagine the Fabs regretted the brief use of a replacement drummer - and George opposed it from the start - I don't know why that event would've impacted their decision to stop touring.

Jimmie Nicol subbed for Ringo at 8 concerts over 10 days in mid-1964, and the Beatles quit the road after their final show in late August 1966.

Not sure why they'd use an event from mid-1964 to justify their decision not to tour in mid-1966...

 

Tell me about Miami. If it was the Stones final show I would love to hear about it.

 

Saw them in 1982 at Slane, Ireland at an open air concert (80000 approx) and then indoor in 2003 at The Point, Dublin, with approx 15000 in attendance. The outdoor show was really great but the indoor gig was unbelievable!

 

They mentioned it somewhere as an example of how out of hand things had gotten and how they didn't get to make all their own decisions. I'm sure they had some other events in mind as well.

 

Mick/Keith have been similarly "greedy" with publishing as some past band members will attest.

But the more I think about it's smart for a couple reasons. Easier/cheaper to get insurance if it's 2 variables instead of 4 and that financially benefits everybody. Jagger is the fitness freak who does all the fancy stage production work for the band and should have some leeway - the others only have to show up and play. In the past 40 years there have been shows where Ronnie/Keith have been very weak.

Arrangements of war horses change slightly every tour and they also practice a half dozen rarely played songs. Charlie will be an ocean away when Jordan does that work. I can't see him listening to dozens of hours of the Jordan band playing so he can do a couple shows in November. Many us took the press release as Miami 2019 being Charlie's last show on US soil.

 

Likely AP doesn't know the intricacies of the situation and that Charlie will likely not be able to just jump in whenever he's ready, not taking into account rehearsal time that is by now so desperately needed for the band.

 

I guess I misremembered. I could have sworn it was Mick.

 

Now that's a pretty cool idea. Love Keltner and I think would be a perfect fit. That said, Steve Jordan is obviously the automatic choice to fill in since he's worked with the band (and Keith mainly) over the years. Jordan will be great but will definitely be missing Cha-Cha.

I just hope they hang up Rambler till Charlie gets back. I know they won't though.

 

Honestly, I think it was simply the grind of touring that wore them down.

"Some Fun Tonight!" goes through what their lives were like on the road. Even though it's just the US tours, you get exhausted just reading about those experiences:

https://www.amazon.com/Some-Fun-Ton...95169&sprefix=some+fun+tonight,aps,185&sr=8-3

You can also sense how bored they became with the whole situation. All those 30-minute shows where they couldn't hear themselves play, all those press conferences where they got asked the same inane questions, etc.

Add to that the fact that they started to make music that couldn't easily be replicated on tour and it's no wonder they packed it in.

I don't think the Jimmie Nicol episode factored into the decision, though I do think Ringo resented it for a while - and maybe still does!

 

I know we are not allowed to mention Covid on this board, but I wonder if any of these shows will get cancelled in states with Governors who are not fighting reality. I wonder if they will go ahead and play ANY shows if spots on their tour map are having to get crossed out.

This post will get deleted for straying *off topic* but when it comes to our present state and the future of live entertainment; the subject is all too on-topic and we cant just hide from it.

 

Surprised nobody in this thread suggested Ringo as a Charlie substitute. Hoffman for Beatle connection.

 

Looks frail.