The Rolling Stones are rolling their way across Europe on their 60th anniversary tour. Jake Longhurst caught them on July 3rd at Hyde Park.
The Rolling Stones are a musical behemoth, one of the greatest bands in history, and one of the largest live acts ever. One of the biggest names in rock's gilded pantheon, they are a household name and sound. For their 60th anniversary, a simple concert would not have been enough, so they took two dates at the British Summer Time event in Hyde Park to celebrate properly, and what a celebration it was. They were supported by The Dinner Party, Courtney Barnett and Sam Fender, which in and of itself is an impressive list of names. However they paled in comparison to the swagger and decorum that the Stones managed to conjure up.
"...playing like the rock’n’roll bands of yore with all the sleazy looseness you would hope for, making every song sound at once like the studio version, and also like a completely new song at the same time."
Opening with the upbeat Get Off My Cloud and following it up with 19th Nervous Breakdown is a pretty formidable way to start any set, but when your frontman is also arguably the best ever, only rivalled by the late Freddie Mercury, then it’s an even more incredible start to a show. Whilst it has to be noted that Keith Richards certainly looked his age, when he stepped up to sing midway through the set his voice sounded as strong as you could have possibly hoped and then some, and Ronnie Wood was in fine form too. Whilst Sam Fender and his band had been extremely tight and played with brilliant precision, the Stones were not bothered by all that accuracy, instead playing like the rock’n’roll bands of yore with all the sleazy looseness you would hope for, making every song sound at once like the studio version, and also like a completely new song at the same time.
Next up was a one two punch of Tumblin’ Dice and Out Of Time, between which Mick Jagger welcomed everybody to Hyde Park with his characteristic Mockney accent, and dedicated the show to the bands recently lost drummer, Charlie Watts. Afterwards came Angie, followed by their biggest song of the set so far, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, which naturally elicited an absolutely enormous crowd singalong, and then immediately afterwards we were treated to a song that was ‘written by a Nobel prize winning author about [The Rolling Stones]’ called Like A Rolling Stone. The author was a man called Robert Zimmerman, better known as Bob Dylan, and the Stones did an excellent version of the classic track. The next few songs were all brilliant, albeit slightly less popular so none of them quite inspired the same ludicrous singalong moments as before, but songs in the vein of Honky Tonk Women and Midnight Rambler still caused uproar. However, it was the moments after the latter of the two aforementioned songs where the crowd truly started to boom. I turned to my companions: my dad and one of my younger brothers, and said that I thought the next song would be a big one, and lo and behold my favourite Rolling Stones song came on, the wonderfully dark Paint It, Black. This was absolutely my favourite song of the whole evening, and it sounded excellent. Jagger led the crowd into a tremendous set of woahs, with the lyrics being yelled back at the band almost as loudly as the band were playing. Next up, another one of the best ever Rolling Stones songs, Start Me Up. Of course, the entire crowd was singing along for this too: the riff alone getting plenty of crowd involvement. Keith and Ronnie were still going strong at this point, with arguably their best moments yet to come.
Before we get to that however, the immortal Gimme Shelter was up, and it was brilliant. A duet between Mick and their female backing singer Sasha Allen at the front of the stage, with her breathtaking voice powering through a phenomenal performance of the immensely powerful song, caused cheers from all over Hyde Park. The show still wasn’t over however, with the final song of the main set being Jumping Jack Flash. Any other band that have a song this good in their repertoire and don’t even use it in an encore is a band I’d like to see, and after watching the Stones tear it up fast and loose I have a newfound appreciation of a song that I already thoroughly enjoy. To finish though, the band came out with undoubtedly the biggest songs they’ve put to tape, Sympathy For The Devil and Satisfaction (I Can’t Get No). The previously alluded to top moment for Keith and Ronnie came here, with the opening chord for Sympathy and the riff of Satisfaction. Two of the greatest rock songs in history being played outdoors in the hometown of one of the greatest rock bands in history is an ethereal experience. With such an unforgettable riff to finish, it seems likely that The Rolling Stones will be keeping this up for a good few more years yet!
The atmosphere after the show was never to be in doubt, everyone was grinning ear to ear, and I think that only one word can describe what we felt as we walked out of Hyde Park that evening: satisfaction.
Jake Longhurst
Edited by: Caradoc Gayer
In article and cover images courtesy of The Rolling Stones via Facebook. In article video courtesy of ABKCOVEVO via Youtube.
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