They're still the world's greatest rock'n'roll band

So how many places on the face of the planet can you say that you’ve seen and done the following? Staying directly behind the hotel of the world’s greatest rock and roll band. You then get to see the world’s greatest rock and roll band in one of the world’s “temples” of soccer. You see the world’s greatest rock and roll band in a temple of soccer together with two (very) recent World Cup champions. And you see all this together with the 5 penalty kicks during the Italy-France World Cup final. You see all this in Milan’s San Siro stadium (home to Milan and Inter) during the Rolling Stones’s only Italian gig on July 11th. The champions? Marco “I’m no saint either” Materazzi and Alex Del Piero. After their last concert in the very same venue 3 years ago (I was there for that one too, perhaps a slightly better performance than this time round) the Stones again returned to Milan and ironically, 24 years later after Italy’s 3rd World Cup victory (back then Jagger came out wearing Paolo Rossi’s t-shirt).
Indeed quite the 5 days for Dani and I: last Friday we were in Lucca to see Clapton (tonight Lucca will host both Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and Nick Mason on drums). On Saturday we took in the 3rd place match plus getting psyched up for the Italy-France final. On Sunday we joined some 300,000 people at the Circus Maximus to watch the final on 3 large screens. We then took to the streets of Rome for the massive celebrations. On Monday Rome was again inundated by celebrations as 1 million people again packed the C.M. for the arrival of the Italian national team. And then on Tuesday the Stones’s concert.
And how were Jagger, Richards, Watts and Wood? Great as ever. Three years ago—on the eve of his 60th b.day—I had said that Jagger had more agility on stage than Totti on a soccer pitch. This time, at age 63, Jagger had MORE energy on stage than the entire Italian team! Two hours of non-stop r&r. Three years ago they opened with “Start Me Up”. This time the three screens showed the cosmos, in clear reference to their “Bigger Bang” album, their latest work and the name of their new world tour (its European leg kicked off in Milan). The Milan concert was supposed to have taken place on June 22nd but given Richards’s head injury (in perfect Italian, Jagger said that both Richards and Materazzi had “heads” as a common denominator!), it was postponed to July 11th. With a very loud bang, the Stones broke out in a very explosive r&r song, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. Jagger then welcomed the 60,000+ people in Italian: “Ciao Milano, ciao Italia, campioni del mondo”! We all naturally went crazy (Jagger is a soccer fan and was in Milan watching the final. Drummer Watts instead is a cricket lover but was “forced” by Jagger to watch some of the games). This followed with “It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)”. This time though there was no “Angie” nor “Like A Rolling Stone”. Richards? In splendid form and as “rockier” as ever. He sang a few of his own songs (his favourite welcoming line is the following: “I’m happy to be here. In fact, I’m happy to be anywhere”! Indeed a nice outlook on life).
The stage? There are three rings to San Siro stadium. Their stage almost reached the height of the 2nd ring (lucky some ticket holders: you could sit high up on stage overlooking the entire show/band). Ronnie Wood seemed somewhat subdued, perhaps due to his recent alcohol rehabilitation. Watts? Calm, cool and perfect on drums as ever. They played most of their hits, including a song which in the 60s on the Ed Sullivan show had been subjected to some modifications: “Let’s Spend The Night Together” (Jagger then had to say “Time” instead of “Night” because it wasn’t deemed appropriate for a younger viewing audience), “Midnight Rambler”, a great blues song, “Honky Tonk Women”, “Brown Sugar” (with once again Texan Bobby Keys on sax who once played the original part in that song), “Sympathy For The Devil” (with a very, very red stage and lighting), “I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction”), some songs from their new album such as “Streets of Love” plus “As Tears Go By” (sung entirely by Mick in Italian, a nice homage to Italians!). And speaking of homage, the Stones played an old Ray Charles song. Jagger was joined by Lisa, their eternal (and only female) singer. Quite the performance by the two. Before their last song, “Satisfaction”, the main central screen showed Italy’s 5 successful pk goals. They were followed by all of us with a (very) loud “Ole’”. San Siro naturally went wild with Grosso’s winning pk. After the song, Jagger, Richards, Watts and Wood took their usual bow. At that point, they were joined on stage by both Materazzi and Del Piero! Again, 60,000 people went wild. Materazzi complimented the 4 “true champions” on stage and then proceeded to poke fun at the French. The temperature as we headed into San Siro at 7 pm was 40 degrees Celsius. Once the concert and all the fireworks went off during the concert, the temperature certainly rose to 45 degrees, if not more. We made it back to our hotel by midnight and waited outside the Stones’s hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the 4 rockers. Sure enough, at 1:30 am there came out from the hotel front door Sir Mick with his wife (who towers over Mick) on his way to who knows where. We were about 40 metres away from him (quite the skinny fellow too). His car went whizzing under my nose but no pics as his windows were completely “tainted black”. What I did manage to do before he headed out was to take a pic of his limo with on the dashboard the following simple sign: “MJ”. I looked at Dani and chuckled: “Here we’re going to bed at 1.30 while Mick, after 2 hours of non-stop fantastic singing in sweltering heat in front of 60,000 screaming fans STILL at 63 years of age has enough energy to go out and party”! Indeed, what a life he and the other three have had since 1962 when they formed the band (I have this suspicion though that Watts was comfortably snoozing away in bed). Quite the day in Milan. On the train back to Rome I said to myself: “In 2012 not only will London be hosting the summer Olympics but it’ll also be the Stones’s 50th anniversary. Wouldn’t it be great if they played at the closing ceremonies”!