SPARKS DID FLY
(The Rolling Stones in Barcelona 1998)
¡See the photos of the concert!
'SPARKS, SMILES AND TEARS,
review of a concert and something else...'
(THE ROLLING STONES, Estadi Olímpic de Montjuic, 20th of July, 1998)
Sparks, all of them. Smiles, countless. Tears, personally not, but I'm sure many others had them about to show, for there were so many magic moments, that my mind gets lost inside. I had seen some footage from this tour, specially from the St.Louis pay-per-view. I was convinced it would not disappoint me, though I had some doubts about the sound, the set-list and their predisposition in giving it all to the audience (those things that can inexplicably change from one night to another). Almost everything got vanished with the start of 'Satisfaction'. With no doubt, the best sound I've never heard in a live event: every instrument, from Charlie's drums, to each and everyone of the percussions played by Blondie Chaplin, through the most subtle notes of Bobby Keys' saxophone. I got specially impressed by the sound of Charlie's drums and Keith's guitars (specially, '¿would this be any other way?', the Telecasters). About the drums I only missed a bit of the cymbals, but the rest truly sounded as never any other one before. What can I say about Keith's guitars? Brilliant and direct sound that filled the whole stadium and could not be avoid in any way, and got me struck by the start of 'Honky tonk woman'.
But we must go much further. From what we can perceive when the 'master' plays, half of it it's the sound of his guitars, but the other half is just his soul, speaking the same or simply better than through his lips. His own body it's the base, the mass upon which stands the presence of his music, and gets spreaded with his soul in each different and unique stroke of the introduction to 'Honky tonk woman'.
As I've said, I knew the tour, and I knew how it was and what I'd see and hear at the intro previous to the appearance of the Stones on stage, but reality surpasses everything and this was no exception. Lion's scream, percussions, the african tribe yell, the meteorite (and Keith already appearing on stage), the blow out of the screen, and the riff of 'Satisfaction'. The strength with which sounded this song, this band... it was impossible to remain impassive. It was the time to unload all the adrenaline collected through the whole day, the 'D' day. Mick Jagger with an electric, brilliant, blue and beautiful jacket, and with a light green scarf. Keith with his long leopard coat (I think I somewhere read it was synthetic, I hope so) and with those apple-green boots. Charlie in a black T-shirt, and Ronnie in an also brilliant black jacket. They seemed in full dress for the occasion. The madness of the stage lights had just begun. Each moment of the show was suited with the right lighting environment. Then it came 'Let's Spend the night together', with the appearance of Bernard Fowler, Lisa Fisher and Blondie Chaplin, she wearing a long blue dress. Keith got rid of his coat and showed a nice black shirt with bright white lines. By this great version we started to hear the real sound of his guitar, with some counterpoints of his own to Charlie's rhythm. By the end, Mick turned to us for the first time, ¡¡and he did it in Catalan!! As in 1976 when he said 'Us estimem' ('we love you'). 'Benvinguts Barcelona. Estic molt content d'estar aquí' ('Welcome Barcelona, I'm so happy to be here') were his first words. This and some other comments, preceded one the songs I liked most through the concert: 'Flip the switch'. It's the time when I think they recall the spirit of '81-'82 tour. I would define with 'forceful' and 'vigorous' the way they play this great song from 'Bridges to Babylon', specially Keith-Charlie base during the verses. The next pearl of the night was 'Gimmie shelter'. One of the great tunes of the night, but IMHO I don't think it was the best version we could have heard. Keith's guitar did not sound as alive as it uses tot be and it seemed to me that Lisa was unable to give all she's got. At the highest point of her vocal solo, on that most trebly note, she needed to do it in two parts. Besides, I think her voice needed more volume in the general speakers system.
This way we got near to the 2nd song from 'B2B', 'Anybody seen my baby'. Despite the catastrophic first verse of the song :-), it was another of the great moments in the night. ¿Want to know what happened? This song starts with bass and drums, with Mick singing above. Well, what about Mick being unable to hear the bass, gone far away who knows where, hidden behind Charlie's bass drum? Consequence: Mick had lost the reference to catch the key of the song. And he tried so hard, but there was nothing to do. I think he sang the whole first verse in about 3 or 4 different keys trying up and down to get the right one. Even Keith couldn't achieve it by playing Mick's own melody on the guitar. But it all came to its place when entering the part 'close my eyes, it's three in the afternoon...' everything got fixed up. From there to the end the song was beautiful. The bass did not last to appear again and everything went allright. We also got our 'We came to rock, Barcelona, like this!', and the whole stadium got crazy. After that came ‘It’s only r'n'r' with a correct performance and all of us singing one more time. 'Saint of me' and 'Out of control' put the Stones yet on a higher place. Although I'm still of the opinion that the first one's got some lacks on its live version (I think Keith should do the riff on the chorus instead of Ronnie), Mick got us all into his pocket once again singing 'I said yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, you'll never make a saint of me' countless times at the end of the song Even when it was completely finished, Mick still wanted more so he engaged us to repeat some more times. Another high of the show came up with 'Out of control'. Often called nineties' 'Midnight rambler', it showed the full hidden power of Mick at his 'almost' 54 years. He brought us again all his energy with each movement, mainly on the chorus, where he gets totally amazingly out of control.
The spectacularity of the lighting set-up made us all stand with our mouths wide open. I'd like to emphasize the marvellous notes that Keith played at the point where he starts his part on 'I was young, I was foolish...'. '10' points. Special mention for Ken Smith for his trumpet solos . Next one was the 'webchoice'. The winner was 'Paint it black', though it didn't seem by an honest way. Many of us voted for other songs in the web-list and was very strange to see 'Paint it black' always in the lead. It was a good one. Keith changed from the semi-acoustic Roger Sadowsky model played during the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour into using the Tele he uses now on 'Satisfaction'. Then it came 'Miss you'. I would really like the Stones to take this song out of the set and change for another great one from their infinite list. Ronnie showed again he's at his lowest point when it comes to play solos. Although, I'd like to say I think he's still great as a support guitarist, and I'd never want him to be replaced by any other. But as a soloist, he did his last great performances during the Steel Wheels Japan tour. We got at this point one of the most particular happenings of the night: Lisa climbed and sat at the right platform (horns place); then it comes Mick and starts caressing her leg, then he takes her sandal off, then he starts to lick her feet, ¡¡and then he starts to suck her big toe!! Amazing! Great ovation! Mick smiled so naughty. All of this and many more, perfectly seen through that incredible center screen. I think I don't need better quality screens in any other concert. It was simply perfect.
It came the time for introductions. Mick introduced Ronnie as 'pintor loco' ('mad painter', Spanish) and Keith as 'toro salvaje' ('wild bull'), as he held his hand up high and taking him to the front of the stage, as he was bringing him to dance. He maybe got the greatest ovation with the classic long one we gave to Charlie. Keith got near to the microphone and said as always: 'Hi Barcelona, it's good to be back'. From now on, he could nothing but stand on his feet waiting for us to stop singing 'oé, oé, oé, oé...'. He muttered some indecipherable words and finally started one of the best moments of the show (if not the best one), with 'Thief in the night'. First surprise: a new vocalist appeared sharing the mike with Lisa. She was Leah Wood, Ron's daughter. A beauty I quickly fell in love with right at the moment of seeing and listening to her. At the end of the song Keith said: 'Let me introduce to you, señorita Leah Wood'. And then he kissed her. Also Ronnie had kissed her before. Second surprise: Pierre de Beauport, Keith's guitar technician sat on the Hammond B-3 to join Chuck on the keyboards. We don't have to forget that he's the author of the original idea for the song, as credited on the album 'B2B'. As I said, a tender perfect version, with heaven's voices that brought to us the goosepimples. I'd like to detach the great contribution to the song by Ronnie Wood with wonderful details.
And when the song ended, it came the great moment of the whole show. You may ask, '¿Wasn't it 'Thief in the night' the great point?'. Well, yes....and no. There was still what made more special for me the Barcelona concert left. Once Keith attacked the chords for 'Wanna hold you' (great guitar performing by Keith), my friend Mia and me started to make our way out. ¿Out where to? To the center stage!!! Our way was quite easy because no one else around seemed to know what was about to come. And finally we got in front of the small stage, Keith's side, about 2 or 3 meters from it. They ended 'Wanna hold you', lights went off, they played that a-waiting music and the bridge started to show up. For my surprise, the small stage started to go up to catch the bridge at a higher point. Slowly all of the Stones arrived: Mick, Charlie, Ron, Keith, Daryl, Chuck (I think in this order). The audience around the stage got totally nuts. I was floating from here to there pushed by the people. The stage came down again and I saw them right in front of me!!!! ¡Incredible! Will I have the chance of seeing them that close ever again? Impressive to the top! Keith, Mick, Ron, and Charlie, all four up to my face!!!! I got collapsed by Keith and Charlie's presence. The three songs they played there where maybe the most intense of the night. First was 'Little queenie', with some trouble on Mick's mike. The sound was worse than from the big stage. There I was able to listen to the real sound of the beat of the snare drum when Charlie kicked it, right before it came to me from the PA. Also the same with his China cymbal (with a circle of nails knocked in all its back side). Keith had a plastic skeleton hanging at the mike's post, next to one of his skulls scarves. I could watch him clearly the expression on his face. The physiognomy of the master. He seemed very peaceful watching us too, and fully enjoying what he was doing. Daryl kept on looking and smiling to us.
Mick sprang emotions anytime he came close to us. He seemed quite old with all the wrinkles and lines on his face. Then it came 'You got me rocking' (many people tells me they did some huge mistakes I can't remember). I was so glad to hear them play it 'cause I wanted to know how different it was from Voodoo tour (in fact I think it was very similar). Like a Rolling Stone turned us crazy singing all through the song.
Then they all turned to the huge stage under the percussion intro to 'Sympathy for the devil'. Mick stayed to get dressed with a new coat. He started to dance in the dark until he began to walk to the big place. About the final rush of the concert it was totally tremendous with some more highlights to be commented. If I remember well, Keith screwed up the ending doing it when nobody was ready as him yet. 'Tumbling dice', got Ronnie's cam show. Keith did his piano part on 'Honky tonk woman'. Another surprise on 'Start me up': Keith played the short riff about 3 times before the real start of the song. He played it once and waited for the crowd's reaction. We got total connection. Explosions on 'Jumpin' Jack flash', and another ending like on 'Sympathy', also signed by Keith. Incredibly powerful version. They said goodbye to us and we sang again that 'oé, oé, oé, oé...' for a while, until Keith appeared on stage again, and, without breaking the kind of quietness that filled the stadium since they had gone off, he started playing the first notes of 'You can't always get what you want'. Wonderful. We could never expect it since they had not played it on a single show during the actual European tour. Once again, one of the great moments of the night. And for the final song, 'Brown Sugar'. Keith smashed us again with his sound on a very long version of this song. It seemed it was never going to stop, with all of us singing that 'I said yeah, yeah, yeah, uuh!'. Then loads of confetti poured over the field (I kept some :-) Perfect. At the end, explosions, lights and fireworks, and total madness. First the whole bunch of musicians saluted us, and then just the four masters made their last bow to us. They got the final and greatest ovation of the night. Mick and Charlie were the last to disappear.
It was all ended. But that's not really true. Still today it's a memory very present. It's been the concert of the Stones I've lived with most intensity. I'm now just willing to get the audio or video recording of it to recall it one more time, and confirm myself it was one of the great occasions throughout the whole history of The Rolling Stones.
Oriol Cardona, Barcelona, 07/25/98.
The complete set-list:
10:10 PM
-Intro-
1-Satisfaction
2-Let's spend the night together
3-Flip the switch
4-Gimmie shelter
5-Anybody seen my baby
6-It's only rock'n'roll
7-Saint of me
8-Out of control
9-Paint it black
10-Miss you
-Introductions-
11-Thief in the night (Keith)
12-Wanna hold you (Keith)
13-Little queenie (center stage)
14-You got me rocking (center stage)
15-Like a rolling stone (center stage)
16-Sympathy for the devil
17-Tumbling dice
18-Honky tonk woman
19-Start me up
20-Jumpin' Jack flash
21-You can't always get what you want (encore)
22-Brown sugar (encore)
00:35 AM
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