The Rolling Stones, led by Mick Jagger, 80, and Keith Richards, who will have them in December, announced on Tuesday a tour in 2024 in the wake of their latest album Hackney Diamonds. The tour currently only concerns the United States and Canada, with 16 cities affected between April 28, 2024 in Houston (Texas) and July 17 in Santa Clara (California). Currently, no tour in Europe has been announced. The latest one on the Old Continent dates back to 2022.
The legendary British group, born 61 years ago, released its latest album on October 20, Hackney Diamonds (“Breaking glass” in English slang). This 24th studio disc is the first with original songs in 18 years. A shower of stars – Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stevie Wonder – mark this album. And the event within the event is therefore the presence of McCartney, pillar of the Beatles, who plays bass for the first time with the Stones on Bite My Head Off.
Also read: Hackney Diamonds, a not-so-stellar new album for the Rolling Stones
The so-called Stones-Beatles rivalry – a nice marketing stunt – never really existed. Paul McCartney and John Lennon provided backing vocals on the Stones’ song We Love You in 1967. “Hey, if you can have one of the Beatles on your song, you know, you have to do it,” confides Keith Richards, 79 years old, in the British newspaper The Telegraph. And added: “We have always been great friends.”
Coincidentally, the Beatles, separated since 1970, made headlines again on November 2 with an official song, regenerated by artificial intelligence, with the agreement of the rights holders. Now and Then was born from a demo recorded at the end of the 1970s by John Lennon in his New York apartment. After his assassination in 1980, his widow Yoko Ono handed over the band, voice and piano, to the other members of the group in 1994.
AI recently made it possible to isolate Lennon’s voice and mix it with recordings of other musicians, including George Harrison, recorded before his death in 2001. The song was completed and endorsed by both living members, Paul McCartney, 81, and Ringo Starr, 83.