 Hong Kong Harbour Festival
1st show
First show on November 7th. 2003. Among the audience of 13.000 were seen many
fans from Australia and some few from Europe and the States as well.
setlist:
Brown Sugar - Start Me Up - It's Only Rock'n'Roll - Don't Stop - Angie - You
Can't Always Get What You Want - Paint It Black - Can't You Hear Me Knocking -
Miss You - Tumbling Dice - Slippin Away - Happy - Sympathy For The Devil - Gimme
Shelter - You Got Me Rocking - Street Fighting Man - Honky Tonk Women -
Satisfaction - Jumpin' Jack Flash.
 Review:
HONG KONG (Reuters) - The Rolling Stones rocked Hong Kong for the first time
in their 40-year career on Friday, headlining a government-sponsored music
festival that has angry taxpayers singing the blues.
The veteran British rockers were the biggest name lined up for Harbour Fest,
a three-week event designed to boost the territory's economy and morale, both of
which took a big hit earlier this year when the killer SARS virus swept
through the region.
But the party, organized by the American Chamber of Commerce , could leave
taxpayers with a hangover costing at least HKD 100 million, thanks in part to
slow ticket sales and the hefty fees charged by the Western acts.
The Rolling Stones were reported to have charged US$5 million, and other acts
such as rocker Neil Young and tenor Jose Carreras do not come cheap.
The government said earlier this week it would appoint a commission to probe
the event, which wraps on Sunday when the Rolling Stones perform a second show.
The controversy was far from the minds of the largely expatriate crowd that
packed the 13,000-seat Tamar Site arena in central Hong Kong for the Stones
show.
Watching from the wings was former U.S. President Bill Clinton --
dubbed "rent-a-guest" by drummer Charlie Watts in the band's new DVD.
Clinton sang and clapped along when the band performed its anthem "(I Can't
Get No) Satisfaction."
The band did not acknowledge the presence of its famous guest, who was in
town for a conference of CEOs. Instead it focused on whipping up the fans with a
110-minute set packed with hits such as "Brown Sugar," "Paint It,
Black" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash."
"It's taken us a long time to get here," singer Mick Jagger told the audience. "And now we're finally here, and we're glad we made
it."
The Stones were originally due to play in Hong Kong last March but were
forced to cancel the shows because of the SARS epidemic.
In 1973 they scheduled two shows as part of a planned Far East tour but
scrapped that jaunt when the Japanese government refused to issue a visa to
Jagger because of a drugs conviction.
Hong Kong marks the final stop of a world tour that began in Boston in
September 2002 and took the Stones to 21 countries.
|
