Rolling Stones Confirm 50th Anniversary Concerts
After months of rumors, the Rolling Stones have announced dates for their 50 and Counting . . . The Rolling Stones Live tour. The band will perform November 25th and 29th at London’s O2 Arena and December 13th and 15th at Newark’s Prudential Center. Ticketing information is available on their website. “The boys are cooking in the back room,” Keith Richards tells Rolling Stone. “See you all in the front room very soon.”
A press release announcing the tour promises an “all new, custom-built set design with a stage based on the band’s ubiquitous and celebrated tongue and lips logo, which will reach out into the crowd and become a truly must-see and -hear experience, with integral video screens and effects enhancing the sort of high-octane adventure for which the band’s concerts have been famous for decades.”
Rare and Intimate Photos of the Rolling Stones
The shows will be promoted by Virgin Live, a new organization spearheaded by Richard Branson and tour promoter Paul Dainty. “In the future Virgin Live plans to make a real difference to how fans experience, interact and enjoy live events,” Branson said in a statement. “Who would have believed, that a relationship with the band that started in the Sixties, would still be going strong five decades later with us working together again on these amazing shows.”
The Rolling Stones haven’t performed in public since their Bigger Bang tour ended in August of 2007. They came together earlier in Paris earlier this year to record two new cuts for their upcoming compilation album GRRR!, which hits shelves on November 13th. The new single “Doom and Gloom” was released last week. Crossfire Hurricane, a new documentary chronicling their fifty-year career, will premiere on HBO on November 13th.
As of now, only these four concerts have been announced, though it seems likely the tour will continue in 2013. Contrary to widespread rumors, the American shows are in Newark and not Brooklyn’s brand new Barcalys Center. “I’m so looking forward to playing live in the New York/New Jersey area again,” Mick Jagger tells Rolling Stone. “It’s going to be a great celebration.”
The final show of the four-night tour will be broadcast live via Pay Per View. Entitled One More Shot, the broadcast will be distributed by WWE.
Tickets for the Newark show range from $98.50 to $813.
Check out this video of the band officially announcing the tour, in which Jagger says they may have “a few friends joining us” at the shows: