Alex Petridis is an eloquently acerbic Arts critic for the Guardian. Check out this wicked little critique of the Stones’ concert at Olympiahalle in Munich an out-take from which I append as a teaser:
When the Rolling Stones play badly, you are left with a pantomime of leathery skin, terrible clothes and ridiculous behaviour. These days, Keith Richards has the sort of face you normally see halfway up a church wall with water gushing from its mouth. He sports a variety of hideous shirts, which flap open as he bends over his guitar to solo, and what looks like a vast white bandage over his thinning hairline. He seems a model of dignified maturity next to Mick Jagger, who gropes a backing vocalist during Honky Tonk Women, and rushes around the stage with his arms extended, flapping his hands, like a man in the gents who has just discovered the hand-drier isn’t working
Interestingly, Alex quite liked it overall…….he gave it 3 out of 5.
He’s a bit harsh on Keith Richards. That the man is still alive is a miracle in itself.
The frightening thing is that the Stones are all about John Howard’s age.
How would he go prancing about on a stage singing Satisfaction?
How we he have gone doing it 25 years ago?
Damned typos
How would he have gone doing it 25 years ago?
How would any of us go prancing about and singing “I Can’t Get No … Satisfaction” 25 years ago, or now for that matter? I’d probably end up like the bloke who was shot dead for refusing to stop singing karaoke when asked.
that first line from the quote just cracks me up
scratch that, the whole quote has given me uncontrollable giggles. great, now i have to leave the office before everyone thinks i’ve completely lost it
I just can’t see Howard doing “I cant get no satisfaction” Dave. It’s unacceptably ungrammatical as a statement and as everyone knows,”satisfaction” is entirely dependent on one’s individual efforts. There’s little point in bothering other folk with one’s inadequacies in that regard….
I believe that Keith is the most potent two-fingered response to the “stop that! It’s bad for you” brigade, in the history of humankind.
Ahh … but when the Stones play well …!!
Actually, I caught a complete stuff-up during a number at the second Sydney concert back in the mid-90s, during “I go wild” as I remember.
It was tense. Their rhythm was buggered, and it seemed as though the harder the band tried, the harder it got for them to fall in line. The division of stage labour was made plain. Mick just kept chucking filthy looks over his shoulder at Keith … who went up to the new and not offical member of the band, the bass player, to bring him into line … which still failed, although not necessarily because it was the fault of the bass … but this just brought more filthy looks from Mick … as the number continued …. like a train wreck … so Keith went over and stood straight in front of Charlie, with his back to the audience … and bugger the rest of the band … and Keith and Charlie glued themselves together … and the rest finally slotted in … and the final bars of the number finished perfectly.
The relief was palpable. There is a lot of performance pride in these old guys … which I guess explains why they will still get 3 stars, even on a bad night …
I remember Keith Richards being interviewed on (the ABC’s) Triple J during their 94 tour. The interviewer said something to the audience along the lines “Keith Richards has just lit a cigarette right here in an ABC studio and I’m gonna get into big trouble…”
Keith’s ABC policy was very sound, as were his comments on the war in Iraq.
I think John Howard gets a lot of satisfaction, so it would not be credible.
However, were he to sing “I can’t get no girlie action”, I would believe him.
And Peter Costello should remember another Stones’ line : “You can’t always get what you want”.
“But if you try some time,
You just might find,
You’ll get what you nee-ee-ed!”
Ah, Peter:
There’s no time to lose, I heard her say
Catch your dreams before they slip away
Dying all the time
Lose your dreams
And you … will lose your mind.
Ain’t life unkind?