Rolling Stones Hyde Park

Voxman

Typing this on my mobile whilst watching the Stones at Hyde Park 2013 on BBC4 116 Sky. Just magical, great sound, great music, great playing, and a mojo like no other band in the world!

ICBM

I watched a bit of it and thought it was shambolic! Terrible playing (Keef especially), not great sound (Keef especially), Ronnie Wood looking like he was in the wrong song half the time, Jagger prancing about looking like Norman Bates' mother...

But still somehow magical. I really don't know how they do it.

Actually I do. Charlie Watts. Without him, the whole thing would totally fall apart.

I'll iPlayer it tomorrow and watch the whole thing. I can't not, somehow .

EricTheWeary

Watched a bit, seen it before. From the same period they played Glastonbury which was epically bad. Yet Hyde Park which wasn't streamed live somehow sounds like they can still play. Odd that...

chrisj1602

I was there, and Keith seriously fucked up the intro to Start Me Up.  Rest of the gig was great though! Skip to 1:45!

hywelg

Man that makes me ache.

I have Ya Ya's in the car cd player. Never ceases to amaze me how good they were. That was the nadir. They should have packed up years ago, I have seen better tribute bands. Sad.

Keef's fingers are f******d, arthritis. Have been for decades.

impmann

I watched this on a plane to Korea (a bit surreal, but there you go).

I thought it was painful in places. I'm also not convinced that Keef and Ronnie are now engaged in the "delicate art of weaving", as they sounded under-rehearsed and I'd echo the "shambolic" term. Thats fine if you have the chops to back it up, but from that performance neither of them do. TBH, Keith's awful, out-of-time, pedestrian "solo" on Sympathy was verging on unforgiveable.

Charlie does hold it all together - although these days even his drumming is a bit one dimensional. 

I'm not even going to talk about Jagger...

There is a huge amount of video evidence to support a case for these guys stopping touring - they are not even shadows of what they were. If I had paid those sums to see this show, I would have asked for a refund. I have seen better performances of these songs done in working men's clubs for free.

I love the Stones - but its time to draw the line. You can't escape the effects of aging - especially if you have lived life like these guys have. And when the performances fall this far below par (and continue to fall), its time to call it a day with dignity.

Voxman

You have to take into account that Keith sadly died seven years ago....but no one had the heart to tell him. :P

ICBM

I did eventually watch the rest of it, and sadly I have to agree that most of it was very poor. The bits where there was the old spark seemed few and far between in the sober light of day… they *can* still occasionally do it, but it wouldn't be worth paying to sit through a whole show for those moments.