Time for Stones to stop rolling on
IT’S sad that 80-year-old Rolling Stones’ drummer Charlie Watts has had to drop out of the band’s forthcoming North American tour on medical advice. He’s been told that he needs rest and recuperation after having an unspecified procedure. Without doubt the Stones are the world’s greatest ever touring band. I first saw them in 1963 and for them to still be relevant in 2021 is amazing. Their shows are a great rock and blues circus, while their stage presence and performances are outstanding. However, with Charlie poorly, Bill Wyman retired and Brian Jones long dead, only Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are still going strong from the original line-up. Ronnie Wood will always be the ‘add on’ to my mind. Though they look superbly addled, they are as fit as fleas. Keith plays more bum chords than ever and, of course, Mick still leaps to the edge of the stage to entertain the audience, defying his advanced years. The announcement ‘Ladies and gentleman, the Rolling Stones’ before they walk onto the stage still sends a shiver down the spine. But are they in danger of becoming their own tribute band? Perhaps with Charlie’s illness, ‘this could be the last time’. The Stones have had a great innings and their fans will miss them, but ‘Hey, you, get off of my cloud’ before it’s your ‘19th nervous breakdown’.
PETER T. SMITH, Walsall, W. Mids.
FOUR decades after they brought anarchy to the UK, the Sex Pistols are at war over a TV drama telling their story. I don’t understand why John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, is trying to legally sabotage a show supported by the other members of the archetypal punk group. What is more amazing is that the drama is being produced by the Disney Studios. Imagine how improbable that would have sounded four decades ago. As children, we loved Walt Disney’s Wonderful World Of Colour. Perhaps the Sex Pistols’ story could be called Disney’s Wonderful World Of Colourful Language.
IAN ELLIS, Douglas, Isle of Man.
THE Sex Pistols’ story has always been a myth. They didn’t storm the charts as is often claimed. Their first record, Anarchy In The UK, peaked at No 38. The best-selling single of 1977, the ‘year of punk’, was, in fact, Mull Of Kintyre by Paul McCartney and Wings.
CLIVE WHICHELOW, London SW19.