Seriously, Rob , the Glastonbury show (a couple of years ago?) they had session musicians propping them up and they looked completely shot.
I can imagine how they can collectively play their great back catalogue and create a fantastic atmosphere and that’s great, but I’ll just give you a quote from a very good mate of mine.
I’ve seen the Stones 9 times. I’ve seen (the tribute band) The Counterfeit Stones, at least 20 times and there’s no comparison. If I had the choice, I would go to see the Counterfeits. The original Stones are fucked, the Counterfeits are brilliant.
This guy is Rolling Stones mental and he reckons there’s been no better British band, ever. AND, that was all ten years ago
(as an aside, the same bloke owes me a million quid, but that’s another story )
Ok Paul, I don’t have a reference point prior to this summer.
They obviously did have supporting musicians, like backing singers and a keyboard player and Darryl Jones on bass (who’s pretty much acknowledged as a bona fide Stone these days, Jagger even said as much on the night) , and some brass players, but there was no way they looked shot, or like they were being propped up, the extra musicians were there doing their job, providing the stuff that a 5 piece guitar based band can’t do, outside of a studio.
They gave it loads and if being able to create a fantastic atmosphere in a massive, impersonal arena like Old Trafford isn’t enough then I’m not sure what else you can expect from a band?
I just wanted to see them, before they started dropping off their perches, and came away not regretting a penny of the couple of hundred quid I ended up spending for the evening.
If they were better in the back room of a pub on Eel Pie Island in 1961, then fine, I wasn’t there and I’ll only ever have someone else’s subjective say so to go off.
In Manchester, on a blazing summer evening in June 2018, they fucking well rocked.
Eel pie Island was a Hotel with a Ballroom and the Station Hotel pub opposite Richmond Station had a large room out the back (300). The Stones played Blues and R & B. They were a different band when they played The Richmond Jazz and Blues Festival a couple of years later being more slick, professional and playing more commercial music. https://youtu.be/4CgZnUXqvi8
As the edge of the pit ebbs closer I can hear my old Nan saying “You pay cheap you pay twice you little ejit”
This haunts me. Perhaps the only logical solution is to go 15 IPS Studer A80 and get nuts deep in this thing?
Lovely machine, but once you do that you’re then reducing the range of available pre-recorded material from merely limited to fuck all but classical and some eyewatering priced Tape Project type releases.
To some extent that’s why I’ve been looking at decks like the Otari MX5050, which run two speeds, but can be altered internally from 3.75/ 7.5ips to 7.5/ 15ips. I think you can also do something with the head block to go from 4T to 2T. If that’s the case it becomes a very versatile machine.
One look at the picture was enough. The other giveaway is Russian Federation as the location!
Its as much of an authentic an experience of 15ips, as is being forced to buy a bottle of champagne for £100 for the privilege of having a non contact lap dance is an authentic experience of sex.