It’s official. The Rolling Stones have announced their first new tour dates in five years to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary. The band will kick off in London on November 25th and 29th, followed by shows on December 13th and 15th in Newark.
The Newark tickets go on pre-sale at noon on 10.20; general ticket sales begin at noon on 10.26. It’s been a busy week for Jagger, Richards, Watts and Woods: just last week they released a new song, “Doom and Gloom” which sounds like vintage “Jumping Jack Flash” era Stones –darkly raunchy, howling and twangy. (Check out the new song below).
“Doom and Gloom,” along with “One More Shot,” both recorded in Paris with Don Was behind tthe board, mark the first time that the band has been in the studio together since the recording of 2005’s A Bigger Bang. The songs will be included on the GRRRR! Greatest Hits album, which by Weeping Elvis’ count will be the band’s 50th greatest hits LP in 50 years. The album will be released on November 13th, followed two days later by the career retrospective documentary Crossfire Hurricane on HBO.
The cynics out there will surely dismiss this new barrage as nothing ore than another mass marketing campaign. Let the haters hate. From Muddy Waters to John Lee Hooker to B.B. King, the great bluesmen played late in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s. Why not The Stones?
As for Weeping Elvis, we will be among the first online, buying the new singles and snapping up concert tickets, because, well… as one British bard once famously put it, “I know, it’s only rock-n-roll, but I like it!”
