The whole Rolling Stones thing on Tuesday was a fairly surreal experience. Everyone from their record company was so in awe of them that it was mad. We competition winners were even encouraged to applaud the band when they came into the room for the ‘meet and greet’. Thanks for existing guys!
After a quick handshake, a photo of the competition winners and band was taken. The band come out of it nonchalantly well. We look like complete eejits.
The tickets to the concert itself would have cost us £150. Such a hefty price tag meant that the 25,000 seater venue was filled with, largely, obsessive fans or corporate types. Obsessives tend to make a lot more noise (luckily). I mean, have you tried clapping and operating a Blackberry at the same time? Well, really...
There were a few cultural types of note that Kirsty and I glimpsed in the audience. Journalist, Paul Morley, seemed to be having a pleasant little toe tapping session. Top BBC production Exec, Alan Yentob, seemed extremely dour by contrast. Dressed all in black, he looked like a 21st century angel of death.
What was the Stones set like? Well, there was something for everyone really. The main thing to say is that they played Paint It Black. With this, I became a happy monkey.
How can a band like the Stones lose though? They are, in effect, their own tribute band. No one plays Sympathy For The Devil like the 1960s Rolling Stones. This was the next best thing. Okay, so the 2005 Bigger Bang album may be a a touch ‘creative-light’, but that is a price we are willing to pay.
The O2 dome is a large, fairly uncomfortable place to see a band. Luckily, this does not change the fact that Stones albums like Aftermath still sound amazing today.
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