Maybe Dennis Mills’s idea wasn’t so nutty after all.

The suggestion from the Toronto-Danforth Liberal MP that Toronto host a massive outdoor concert featuring the Rolling Stones seemed outlandish to some, but he’s having the last laugh as the concert gets larger at every turn.

The latest news is that organizers are negotiating with two broadcasters who are interested in packaging a special of the show that would be made available around the world. There is an early plan involving the CBC and MuchMusic to edit hour-long package from the show, though the Rolling Stones are said to the have final say on the show’s content.

The deal would also see 10 per cent of the profit from the international rights for the TV special go to hospitality and SARS workers, Mills said.

The concert, which features the Rolling Stones, includes performances by AC/DC, Rush, The Guess Who, Justin Timberlake, Sam Roberts, The Flaming Lips, Kathleen Edwards, The Isley Brothers, Sass Jordan, La Chicane. The show is being hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi with the "Have Love, Will Travel Band." They will perform at Parc Downsview Park in North York.

The news of the potential TV deal comes after officials said that 240,000 tickets were sold in the first four days.

And thousands more are expected to be sold as stubs become available at A & P Supermarkets beginning July 4. The chain ordered 100,000 extra tickets, which sell for just $21.50. They will have 340,000 available to meet the anticipated high demand.

A&P plans to sell 20,000 of the tickets at Farmer Jack stores in Michigan, the only store in its chain outside Ontario.

The Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto concert, set a single-day record at Ticketmaster in Canada by selling its allotment of 150,000 tickets, which went on sale June 27.

Officials said this will not only help rejuvenate the city’s spirit and help Toronto be known for something other than SARS, but also help meet the goal of filling every Toronto hotel room for one night.

"Events like this are one of the reasons why Toronto remains the greatest city in the world," said Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman, who noted that he intends to declare July 30 Rolling Stones and Molson Canadian Rocks Toronto Day.

"This concert will be the perfect opportunity for tourists to come back to Toronto and for residents to re-discover all their city has to offer. We want everyone to book a room in one of our world-class hotels, taste some of our famous cuisine and experience one of the most exciting musical events in recent history."

A&P, Dominion, Food Basics, Ultra Food & Drug stores in Ontario and Farmer Jacks in the United States begin selling their allotment of tickets on July 4 at 7 a.m.

STOP PRESS:

7/10/03, 3 p.m. ET) -- Ticket sales are nearing the half-million mark for the Rolling Stones -headlined July 30 concert in Toronto. Event spokesman J.P. Pampena has announced that more than 475,000 tickets have been sold for the show, 50,000 of which have been sold in the U.S.

Pampena told the Canadian Press agency that organizers will probably cap sales at 600,000, even though Downsview Park, a former military base, hosted more than 800,000 people for a visit by Pope John Paul II at the 2002 World Youth Day.

The concert was organized as a civic booster for Toronto, which has seen a big loss of tourism business since an outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) earlier this year. Proceeds from the show will be distributed throughout the greater Toronto area via the Health Care And Hospitality Workers Relief Fund.

Although the Farmer Jack supermarket chain of Michigan had been announced as an outlet for tickets to the show, the company announced Wednesday (July 9) that it would not be selling them. No reason

Good to know for Stones-fans: in Brussels, Belgium, there is currently an exposition of all kind of pictures, taken by the photographer Dominique Tarlé.
He spent some time with the Stones in Keith's residence (Nellcote) in Villefranche-sur-Mer, France (in 1971).  It seems to be a very interesting collection of photos. More information on here.

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - Mick Jagger turns 60 this weekend and plans to celebrate with 60,000 admirers.

The Rolling Stones singer, who once sang "What a drag it is getting old," is in no rush to reach for his pipe and slippers.

On his birthday Saturday, Jagger will be flying from Hamburg to Prague, the latest stop on the band's European tour.

"He is having a private party with the band and friends in Prague," said a spokesman for the wrinkly rocker with the pouting lips and swiveling hips.

Then Sunday, he will be springing up on stage to entertain 60,000 people at Prague National Stadium on their "40 Licks" tour that wraps up in mid-September in London.

Like former Beatle Paul McCartney, now 61, Jagger revels in touring the world's rock stadiums. Performing live is still the ultimate buzz for the two Swinging Sixties icons.

Two years ago, when Jagger became the front page spread in Saga, a magazine for the over-50s, British tabloids had a field day mocking the personification of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

"Sittin' Jack Flash, the pipe 'n' slippers pin-up," said a mocking Daily Mail.

But the evergreen rocker, one of Britain's richest entertainers with a personal wealth estimated by newspapers at $300 million, has had the last laugh.

Devoted Sixties fans have stayed loyal. Jagger's swagger and unique voice still fill stadiums with middle-aged devotees high on nostalgia.

Tabloids revel in tales of Jagger's philandering and his apparent determination to grow old disgracefully.

"They want you to be like you were in 1969," Jagger once said. "They want you to because otherwise their youth goes with you. It's very selfish but it is understandable."

Indeed several British rockers are busy proving that age is no barrier to celebrity.

Ozzy Osbourne, 54, is arguably better known now thanks to his MTV reality show than he ever was as Black Sabbath's lead singer and Tom Jones  63, still has adoring female fans throwing their knickers on the stage.

Jagger, however, has found on this tour that underwear adulation cuts both ways.

When the Rolling Stones appeared in Munich, men's underpants were hurled from the crowd. "I don't know what that says," a clearly amused Jagger said. "They left all the girls at home or whatever, I don't know."

Read about the 1 week stay in Stockholm, many great photos never shown anywhere else.

Canadian and American military forces will be able to rock with the Rolling Stones thanks to a broadcast deal signed today.

Troops working overseas in places like Afghanistan, Bosnia and Egypt will get to see the 11-hour MuchMoreMusic program, noon to 11 p.m. through the Canadian Forces television network.

American soldiers will receive a feed of the two-hour CBC broadcast from 9 to 11 p.m.

"Hundreds of thousands of American troops in Iraq, Korea, Europe and Japan and elsewhere will have the opportunity to watch this great show," said John McCallum, federal minister of national defence.

The British and Australian forces were also being considered for the feed, although there were several technical problems to work out, said McCallum, who along with dozens of politicians will attend Wednesday's show.

Concert organizers said they may plan something special for the soldiers watching from abroad.

"We're delighted to bring some entertainment that they aren't expecting to see into their life in foreign parts of the world," said Steve Howard, of TGA Entertainment, speaking on behalf of the acts performing at Wednesday's concert.

"I'm now going to figure out a way to organize 400,000 people to give them a nice, warm hello and give them a solid applause."

As the Stones prepare to roll again, their offspring are emerging from the shadows. John Robinson rates the rock'n'roll credentials of the new chips off the old blocks
John Robinson
Thursday August 21 2003 - The Guardian

10. Karis Jagger
  Who? Mick's first daughter, born in 1970. A sometime actress and film producer.
Why rock? Karis was born into the apex of Stones madness. Mick had broken up with Marianne Faithfull, had yet to marry Bianca Jagger, and fitted in a relationship with the beautiful star of Hair, Marsha Hunt. Karis also marked the emergence of a familiar Jagger riff - the long-running paternity suit. It was 1979 before an LA court granted Hunt a settlement.
Like father? In fact, no - a bit more like mum. Hunt was once a Berkeley student, Karis, meanwhile, graduated Yale. While still in her early 20s she produced her mother's one-woman show at the Edinburgh Festival, and later appeared in the Wesley Snipes movie One Night Stand. She's also married.

9. Julian Jones
  Who? One of the many offspring of deceased Stones founder Brian Jones. Born 1964.
Why rock? Julian's famous associations run not just to one famous 1960s musician, but two - after Brian died in 1969, Julian's mum Julia Lawrence married the folk musician Donovan. On a rather less happy level Julian bears testimony to Brian's rather offhand way with his personal relationships. He is, for example, the second of Jones' sons to be called Julian. He is preceded by Julian Mark, born to Pat Andrews in 1961.
Like father? He has, he says, "music in the blood, and in his heart". Rather more helpfully, he's also got some on his website.

8. Marlon Richards
  Who? First born to Riff, and his then girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg, in 1969.
Why rock? As well as having a marked resemblance to his dad, Marlon is the new generation of rock royalty - a bit art, a bit fashion, a bit hanging out with Chloe Sevigny - in a nutshell. Of an artistic bent (he's art director of hip anti-fashion mag Cheap Date and has shown work at London's Zoltar The Magnificent), Marlon is now a pretty settled sort of a guy. Once an escort to "unsettled" Tatum O'Neal, he's now married to model Lucie de la Falaise, and has two children, to whom Liv Tyler is godmother.
Like father? Evidently a bit more than he is his mum. He once described her life as "embarrassing". 

7. Dandelion Richards
  Who? To Riff and Anita Pallenberg, in 1972, a daughter.
Why rock? Though she grew up outside the walls of rock royalty (Dandelion was brought up by Keith's mum Doris), Keith's second child is rock through and through. For a start, Dandelion is the name of the Jagger-Richards composition on the B-side of 1967's We Love You. Her "real" name, Angela, lent itself to another one, Angie, which when she married in 1998 was the tune to which she walked - perhaps inappropriately, given the tone of the song - down the aisle.
Like father? Not really. A teetotaller, she married her carpenter boyfriend Dominic Jennings, and professed an interest in keeping her job as a stable girl. She lives in Dartford.

6. Stephen Wyman
  Who? Bill's son, from his marriage to first wife Diane McCollum.
Why rock? For helping to create a pretty interesting scene - he was banned from his own father's wedding. Though in 1989 media attention was mainly focused on Bill's courtship of bride-to-be Mandy Smith, Stephen endured the wrath of his father by becoming involved with, and later marrying, Smith's 46-year-old mother Patsy. This subsequently ensured he was not on the list for the bassist's 1993 marriage to Suzanne Accosta.
Like father? In many important ways, no. In fact, you might say they're a classic example of the generation gap.   SERAPHINA WATTS  5. Seraphina Watts
  Who? The daughter of Charlie Watts and his wife of nearly 40 years, Shirley. Born 1968.
Why rock? Seraphina came to exemplify some of the problems that can occur if you're the offspring of a tax-exiled millionaire rock star, albeit part of a stable family. For years accustomed to living abroad, when the jazz-loving Stone returned to Britain, Seraphina attended Millfield School in Somerset, from which she was expelled, for smoking cannabis.
Like father? In terms of marriage, at any rate, not much. She recently divorced her husband, with whom she lived on the idyllic island of Bermuda. The island was, she declared quite brilliantly, "boring".

4. Theodora And Alexandra Richards
  Who? The next generation of Keith's daughters, born to King Unhealth and new partner, the 1980s model Patti Hansen. Slightly unfairly put together as a double act, they're 17 and 18.
Why rock? The distance between high fashion and rock music has narrowed a lot. The Rolling Stones have a fashion merchandise label Fashion And Licks, as designed by Agent Provocateur. Now the fashion industry is closing the gap from the other direction - the protegees of agent Bryan Bantry, Theodora and Alexandra have modelled for New York label Chanpaul and in a Tommy Hilfiger campaign.
Like father? Like mother. Riff doesn't moisturise.

3. Jade Jagger
  Who? The child of Mick and his first wife, Bianca. Born 1972.
Why rock? She's done everything you need to do to rock in the grand Stones manner, except play an instrument. Expelled from school. Outraged Dad. Paparazzi photographs. Kiss and tell stories (Neptunes producer Pharrell Williams professed himself "unable to keep up with her"). Most impressively, for the last three years there have been noise complaints against her at her London flat after rowdy Christmas parties. If she gets too many more warnings, she risks arrest.
Like father? Never mind mum or dad. If she doesn't watch her step she'll be more like Winona Ryder.

2. Elizabeth Scarlett Jagger
  Who? First born to Mick and Jerry Hall, now 18.
Why rock? There have been modelling assignments, of course (though dad thinks them "silly"), but Elizabeth rocks on regardless. She thinks her dad's clothes are an embarrassment, is the face of Lancôme's LCM range, has sung back-up vocals on Mick's last album. Most impressive, though, is that she had a funny appearance in hipster movie Igby Goes Down. In interviews she appears poised and ever so slightly snippy - a classic Jagger characteristic.
Like father? Yes. Elizabeth is the embodiment of Jagger's most classy aspirations.

1. Lucas Maurice Morad Jagger
  Who? Lucas is the four-year-old child of Jagger and Brazilian model Luciana Morad.
Why rock? Although he's still of tender years, Esquire magazine predicts a memoir by age 20. He was born to a beautiful mother, and he has cost Mick Jagger a large, undisclosed sum of money, 1 twice. Once in a paternity suit, and then again - apparently Jerry Hall could not sanction the idea that Jagger's affair with Morad had just been a fling, and it is held to have been the final straw for the couple. A handsome payout followed the split.
Like father? Certainly not - apparently, he behaves like a small child.

Bubbling under
  The Stones kids who did not quite make the top 10

1. Leah Wood
  Ron's daughter is an elfin beauty, for sure. But a couple of modelling jobs and being in a Westlife video do not yet a legend of rock make.

2. Jesse Wood
  Has helped out on Dad's solo album, but Jesse is concentrating more on being a dad... Kate Moss? Of course he's gone out with Kate Moss.

3. Georgia Jagger
  Only 10, but showing great promise already - like Elizabeth, she sang back-up vocals on the track Brand New Set Of Rules for Mick's last album.

4. James Jagger
  Seventeen-year-old James recently held a party where he put speakers on the roof of his parents' home, and is reportedly dating Alexandra Richards.

5. Gabriel Jagger
  Almost made it on stage with his dad once, apparently, but got a bit scared and didn't make it. Maybe next time.

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited

LISBON (AFP) - Rock veterans the Rolling Stones will end their current European tour with a concert in Portugal in September to inaugurate one of the 10 stadia which will host the 2004 European soccer championship finals next summer, local officials said.

The legendary band -- which is celebrating its 40th anniversary -- will take their act to a newly-renovated 30,000-seat stadium located in the heart of the university city of Coimbra on September 27, a city councillor told the Lusa news agency.

"It will be the event of the year in the country," Nuno Freitas said.

Construction crews have added 17,000 seats to the 45-year-old stadium as part of its first-ever renovation in order to prepare the venue for the European football finals.

The stadium, located some 200 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Lisbon, will host two of the 31 matches of the sporting event.

Portugal are completely renovating two other stadia and are building seven others to host Euro 2004, one of the largest sporting events after the Olympics and the World Cup.

The ten stadia will have a seating capacity of 380,000 -- almost four percent of Portugal's total population -- and are expected to cost 800 million euros (870 million dollars) when the price-tag for amenities and road access are added to the bill.

Up to three million people are expected to visit Portugal because of the tournament, which will be played between June 12 and July 4.

Rock legends The Rolling Stones are being offered $US5 million to spearhead a four week government-sponsored music and sport extravaganza in Hong Kong, a report said on Sunday.

Other top acts who have been offered up to $US1 million each to feature in the festival, being organised by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), include Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, Carlos Santana and Irish boy band Westlife, the Sunday Morning Post reported.

However, the large sums have irked local promoters and lawmakers who have raised concerns about the use of public money from the $US120 million public fund earmarked to revitalise the city following the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) earlier this year.

AmCham hopes to sell up to 200,000 tickets for the concerts to be held over four weekends from October 17 to November 9 on the Tamar site in the business district of Central.

So far, the only big name stars to have signed up are Cher, singer Craig David and a host of retired National Basketball Association (NBA) stars who will play an exhibition game.

The Rolling Stones were thought to have been close to inking a deal with another organiser, worth some $US2 million, to play before 35,000 people at the Hong Kong stadium on November 8 before receiving the improved AmCham offer to play two nights at the Tamar site on November 8 and 9.

The band had been scheduled for two concerts on March 28 and 29 this year but cancelled because of SARS.

By MARY HUHN

"Of course I copied everyone's moves; you've got to learn from people." - Mick Jagger, here with Keith Richards in 1967. Robert Dear/AP

Discs 2-4 will contain performances from New York, London and Paris. Disc 1 will include documentaries.

"This DVD includes not only the classics but songs that we have never before recorded including 'I Can't Turn You Loose,' and 'Love Train' along with songs that have never been recorded live such as 'Monkey Man' and 'Rocks off,'" said the Rolling Stones in a statement.

DVD bonus features include Pick A Stone. At certain parts of a performance you will be able to click on a Stone's member and stay with their performance.

There is a backstage pass to take you behind the scenes of the shows and even a bootleg section featuring from the Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 4 Nov. 2002 'Beast Of Burden', 'You Don't Have To Mean It', 'Rock Me Baby' and 'Bitch' and from Cirkus Krone, Munich, Germany, 8 June 2003 'Can't Turn You Loose'

4 DVD set in digipack form, will be released on Nov. 10 worldwide.

DVD 1 contains 2 documentaries: "Tip Of The Tongue" (May to August 2002, from recording in Suresnes near Paris to the Toronto rehearsals) and "Licks Around The World" (the Licks Tour). The other DVDs cover the shows in Madison Square Garden (New York, 18 Jan. 2003), Twickenham Rugby Ground (London, 24 Aug. 2003) and the Olympia Theater (Paris, 11 July 2003). The three shows are NOT complete (see tracklisting). Bonus material include six live songs from Wiltern Theater (Los Angeles, CA, USA, 4 Nov. 2002) Cikus Krone (Munich, Germany, 8 June 2003), plus two songs recorded at the Guillaume Tell studio in France, in 2002.

DVD 1
- "Tip Of The tongue"
- "Licks Around The World"

DVD 2
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA, 18 January 2003
1. Street Fighting Man
2. If You Can't Rock Me
3. Don't Stop
4. Monkey Man
5. Angie
6. Let It Bleed
7. Midnight Rambler
8. Thru And Thru
9. Happy
10. You Got Me Rocking
11. Can't You Hear Me Knocking
12. Honky Tonk Women (w/Sheryl Crow)
13. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
14. It's Only Rock'n Roll (B-stage)
15. When The Whip Comes Down (B-stage)
16. Brown Sugar (B-stage)
17. Sympathy For The Devil

DVD 3
Twickenham Rugby Ground, London, UK, August 2003

1. Brown Sugar
2. You Got Me Rocking
3. Rocks Off
4. Wild Horses
5. You Can't Always Get What You Want
6. Paint It Black
7. Tumbling Dice
8. Slipping Away
9. Sympathy For The Devil
10. Star Star (B-stage)
11. I Just Want To Make Love To You (B-stage)
12. Street Fighting Man (B-stage)
13. Gimme Shelter
14. Honky Tonk Women
15. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
16. Jumpin' Jack Flash

DVD 4
Olympia Theater, Paris, France, 11 July 2003
1. Start Me Up
2. Live With Me
3. Neighbours
4. Hand Of Fate
5. No Expectations
6. Worried About You
7. Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
8. Stray Cat Blues
9. Dance part 1
10. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
11. That's How Strong My Love Is
12. Going To A Go Go
13. The Nearness Of You
14. Before They Make Me Run
15. Love Train
16. Respectable
17. Honky Tonk Women
18. Brown Sugar
19. Jumpin' Jack Flash

Rock legends The Rolling Stones have again cancelled their long-awaited debut in China.

Their publicist says organising the shows proved too "complicated and difficult".

The two concerts in Shanghai and Beijing were to have been the group's first in the world's most populous nation, despite their regular applications for permission to play there since the 1970s.

The long-delayed shows had originally been scheduled for earlier this year but were cancelled due to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic that ravaged the country and had been rescheduled for November.

"The Stones had hoped to reschedule at this time but the details for reorganising the dates proved far more complicated and difficult than expected," their New York-based publicist said in a statement.

"The band looks forward to playing concerts in these cities in the future," the statement said.

No possible alternative dates were given for the mainland Chinese concerts.

But the Stones said planned concerts in Hong Kong, their first in the former British territory in 40 years, would go ahead on November 7 and 9 despite the on-off plans that have plagued those shows.

In September, Chinese promoters said final preparations were being made to mount the two shows in the communist country's main cities in November, despite the fact that the contracts had not been finalised.

The Beijing show was to have taken place in the 18,000 seat Capital Gym.

The band had originally been scheduled to perform in Shanghai on April 1 and Beijing on April 4 as part of their 'Forty Licks' world tour but the SARS crisis forced them to cancel.

The group, fronted by Mick Jagger, have made clear that after decades of trying to mount shows in China, the country is high on their list of priorities.

Beijing's stringent Ministry of Culture once viewed rock music as "spiritual pollution," but finally caved in and approved the concerts in early February.

The Hong Kong shows are part of an effort to revive the territory's spirits after the devastating SARS epidemic that was centred in China and Hong Kong.

--AFP

Concert Aimed To Boost Post-SARS Image

by Christopher Sandford

These days it gets harder and harder for someone whose face is recognizable around the world to have any privacy.
That may have been one of the reasons that veteran rocker Mick Jagger recently spent a few days' vacation in Burma.
Officials tell reporters the Rolling Stones icon was accompanied by a woman friend and a bodyguard when he arrived by private plane in Rangoon last Friday. He left on Tuesday.

A staffer at the historic Strand Hotel where Jagger is reported to have stayed says the 56-year-old rock star paid $900 a night for the accommodations. The staffer - a young woman - told the Associated Press people of her generation do not know Mick Jagger well. But she said her uncle is a fan.

Opponents of Burma's military government support a tourism boycott of the country. That anti-tourism campaign is especially strong in Jagger's native Britain. From VOA News

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Retailer Best Buy has struck a deal with the Rolling Stones to exclusively handle the launch of the rock 'n' roll band's DVD in North America, and in return the Stones will act as Best Buy's pitchmen.

The Stones will be part of an ad blitz to launch a four-DVD box set, Four Flicks, which arrives in stores Nov. 11 (earlier this year, the band released a greatest hits collection, Forty Licks). The band will appear in the consumer electronics retailer's TV and print ads, online advertising, Sunday circulars and in-store advertising.

TiVo showcase
Best Buy will also air a branded "entertainment showcase" on TiVo that will include one of the spots and a four-minute clip of the song "Honky Tonk Women" from the DVD. Another 1.5 million pieces of e-mail will offer a clip of "Satisfaction" and a link to the Best Buy Web site urging consumers to pre-order Four Flicks.

"This is, by far, the biggest and most complicated thing we've ever done," said Michael Linton, Best Buy's chief marketing officer. Best Buy has done tie-ins in the past with artists such as Sting, Sheryl Crow and N'Sync, as well as a tie-in with last summer's James Bond film, Die Another Day.

"What we really want to do is increase the power of our brand with rock 'n' roll royalty," said Ruby Anik, vice president of advertising.

Mr. Linton would not give a figure, but said this effort will include significant media spending. Best Buy spent $302 million on measured media last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR.

Times Square spot
The campaign aims mainly at shoppers aged 25 to 54, with a special focus on men, Ms. Anik said. Ads will run during prime-time, late-night and sports programming on broadcast and cable networks and in upscale entertainment and lifestyle publications including Wenner Media's Rolling Stone and Conde Nast Publications' Vanity Fair, she said. Additionally, a 60-second spot will air on the Jumbotron screen above New York's Times Square Nov. 11 to mark the release.

"If this was released at another time of the year, we'd be on the Super Bowl," Ms. Anik said.

The four-month exclusive will bridge the holiday season and will be a large part of Best Buy's holiday campaign, Mr. Linton said.

The exclusive deal had raised some hackles among competing electronics retailers now shut out of a potential lure for holiday shoppers. DVDs are a big gift item during the holidays and electronics are at the top of the shopping list for this season.

Transported to a rock concert
The TV spots continue Best Buy's "Thousands of possibilities" campaign, in which shoppers are transported from the store to an experience around the product they are looking to buy; in this case, a young woman and the salesman wind up front-row center at a Rolling Stones concert.

The spots were shot during the band's tour stop in the Netherlands, at concerts in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The logistics of shooting both the band and the actors were tricky, but the creatives felt it was necessary to shoot the concert footage, said Joe Michaelson, group creative director at Best Buy Advertising, the company's in-house agency.

"It's pretty easy to fake, [but] we insisted on getting our actors there," Mr. Michaelson said. "We wanted to communicate the level of our partnership."

NEW YORK Nov. 10 — Rest assured, before you go see the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger is loving you truly.

And Keith Richards is hating it.

That was some of the backstage action revealed as the Stones talked to The Associated Press about Tuesday's release of their new DVD box set, "Four Flicks," which documents the band's 2002-03 "Live Licks" tour.

Jagger sailed into the hotel interview suite wearing a purple leather jacket, orange socks and a black shirt with blue edging. Punctuating his comments with a whiskey laugh, Jagger and Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood spoke about warming up, winding down and everything in between:

AP: Before the club show, there's a bit of you singing, "I love you truly." What's going on there?

Jagger: I have vocal warm-ups to do. You can't just walk on stage and sing. Well, some people do and they're able to do it, but I'm not. You have to warm up first, like any other muscle, you have to warm yourself up. I have to do like 40 minutes of warm-up and `I love you truly' is part of my warm-ups and other silly noises.

AP: There's a point on the DVD where you complain because Mick is doing scales in another room. Is this a recurring problem?

Richards: (Laughs.) Well, yeah. You can call it that. I put it in the contract, actually just for fun, after the last tour. Mick's next door and the rest of the band is in the other room and we're listening to scales. There's some people that need this. Actually, it became a joke. `He cannot do this within my earshot.' We fool around with each other. In a way, I suppose it's the difference between my way of approaching things and Mick's way, which is serious preparation and mine is just get there and do it.

AP: Do you need a certain set of circumstances to be able to write a song?

Richards: I feel like I'm an antenna. You sit down, you pick up a guitar, you sit down at the piano, just tinkle away. Now and again, a lucky accident or just something comes in, and suddenly there's a little idea, and that's called incoming. If you grab that moment and idea, you give it a little help, a little grease, and stroke it a bit and you know (kisses) `I love you!' With a bit of luck, that'll turn into a song, and then you transmit it. I feel like the go-between in this thing. I don't feel like creation. You know, `I created this, I wrote this, this is mine, and blah.' I just think I was lucky to receive it and even luckier that I could pass it on.

AP: If I had been given the choice of seeing you on the first show of the tour or on the last show, which would have been the better one?

Watts: Usually the last one, you know what you're doing.

Wood: But also the first one, in Toronto, the little club, where we first started up again ... we were so nervous! Well, I was.

Wood: When you don't do it for two years, and we can't do anything half. It has to be manic.

AP: They show a shot of you right before that Toronto show where you're all looking nervous but you're the Rolling Stones. What could you possibly be nervous about?

Wood: Caring for our audiences.

Watts: Yeah, if you didn't, you could just toss it off. I get nervous playing a pub, let alone going on stage. I get nervous playing with other people. It's adrenaline. I think if you weren't like that, you wouldn't care.

AP: Have you ever had stage fright?

Jagger: Not in the accepted sense. ... You feel a bit nervous, but I'm not really nervous.

AP: There's a point on the DVD where you look like you're hiding under the stage.

Jagger: Yeah, that's the first show of the whole tour, you know, and everyone's scared. There's a lot of tension from everyone, because I'm not the only one. There are 30 people backstage, and their tension is palpable. You never know what's going to happen. That's one of the interesting things about it. Once you get out there, the first five minutes, that's all gone.

AP: For some people, that would be their worst nightmare: standing up in front of a crowd of people. Why do you do it?

Jagger: It is frightening. It's not frightening for me.

AP: You've been on tour for so long. What are the first few days like when you finally get home?

Watts: Usually, (the feeling is) still carried on.

Wood: I was going to say the same thing. Every night at nine o'clock, where's the gig?

Watts: But his wife is on the road with him. Mine is at home. So when I get home, mentally I'm still on the road, but I'm actually straight back into being there, with people who have been there for two years and I've been there twice in two years. That's a very strange thing.

Wood: (To Watts) What? To see your wife again? It's not strange to me!

By Adam Sherwin in London

The Rolling Stones have made more than pound stg. 1 billion ($2.37 billion) since their pioneering world stadium tour of 1989.

Figures released by the band yesterday show their 40 Licks world tour grossed a total of pound stg. 175 million.

A series of "farewell" gigs are now being planned for 2005 after Mick Jagger and the battle-hardened band proved they are the biggest money-making machine in entertainment.

Following years of bad deals and music industry rip-offs, the 1960s icons changed their approach and have now earned pound stg. 1.23 billion in touring, merchandising and record sales since 1989.

The Stones pioneered the stadium tour 14 years ago with the Steel Wheels extravaganza, which took a then record pound stg. 150 million.

Last northern autumn, the Stones embarked on their sensational 40 Licks tour, selling out 116 concerts and charging up to pound stg. 600 for the best corporate-package seats.

The band also chose to play smaller venues alongside stadiums on the tour, resulting in a smaller gross than the pound stg. 227 million earned from the marathon Bridges to Babylon/No Security tour, which stretched from 1997-99.

The Stones had earned a total of pound stg. 900 million up until the launch of the last tour, which was linked to the release of their first complete greatest hits album.

When their final concert ended in Zurich last month, the band's earnings since 1989 had comfortably broken the pound stg. 1 billion mark.

"This tour is finished," said Michael Cohl, the 55-year-old producer who planned the their latest globe-trotting jaunt. As for a return in 2005, he said: "I'm always ready."

It was Cohl, a former strip club owner, who took the Stones aside in the late 80s and showed them a business plan for a tour backed by corporate sponsorship.

The band members' earnings then soared as they embarked on global tours in a three-year cycle.

There was no need to record new albums -- the traditional boost for ticket sales -- because fans only wanted to hear energised versions of the old hits.

A former London School of Economics student, Jagger cancelled a 1999 British tour after the band calculated a budget tax change would cost them pound stg. 12 million. For long periods Jagger has been registered as living in Mustique for tax purposes.

Jagger's total fortune is estimated at pound stg. 180 million, while Keith Richards, who has made his home in Connecticut, is the band's second-biggest earner with pound stg. 150 million. Drummer Charlie Watts has pound stg. 70 million and Ronnie Wood has pound stg. 55 million, according to the Sunday Times rich list.

The Times

There was a time when no one expected Keith Richards to reach 40, let alone 60. But as the Rolling Stone guitarist approaches his seventh decade, fans are still throwing their knickers at him, he tells Nigel Williamson

Friday December 5, 2003, The Guardian

Keith Richards admits he went "fucking berserk" when Mick Jagger accepted a knighthood on the eve of the singer's 60th birthday last year - an honour bestowed by "the same establishment that did their very best to throw us in jail and kill us". This month, on December 18, Richards, too, joins the over-60s club. Do we take it we shouldn't be looking for his name in the forthcoming New Year's honours list? He harumphs. "I don't want to step out on stage with the coronet on. And I told Mick, 'It's a fucking paltry honour, anyway. If you're into this shit, hang on for the peerage.'"

There's a certain ring to "Lord Richards of Redlands", the name of the house in Sussex that he still owns and was the scene of the bust that briefly sent him and Jagger to prison in 1967. But if Jagger these days is the well-connected socialite and acceptable face of the Rolling Stones, "Keef" is still the band's swashbuckling outlaw and unlikely to be visiting Buck House for his investiture any time soon. If there was a popular vote, however, to elect one "people's peer" to represent the rock world in the upper chamber, it would surely be Richards and not Jagger who would get to wear the ermine.

The singer Chrissie Hynde tells the story of bumping into Richards once at Heathrow. "We walked to the gate together and it was extraordinary the amount of people who passed him and said, 'Hey Keith, how're you doing, mate?' The only other rock star I've ever seen with that common touch was Joe Strummer. They certainly wouldn't have done it if it was Mick."

That Richards has reached 60 at all is a source of some amazement. For a long time in the 1970s when he was "a human chemical laboratory" - his own description - you couldn't have got decent odds on him making 40. He lived on a diet of heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, barbiturates, LSD and heaven knows what else, washed down with industrial quantities of Jack Daniels. Many of his drug buddies, including Gram Parsons and John Belushi, failed to make it.

But Richards is famous for his ox-like constitution. Cold turkey is not so bad after you've done it "10 or 12 times", he once opined. So before meeting him in New York last month, I sought a medical opinion and asked Dr Hank Wangford, a singer as well as a GP, what was the secret of Richards' survival. "Keith has a genetic strength," he said. "But just as importantly, he has an appetite for life. He wants to be here."

When we meet, I put this to Richards, and it gains his approval. "People say I've got a manic lust for life. But I've got no idea about that, really. To me it's just the way I am. As far as I'm concerned, life is all you get and I'll make the best out of it. So yes, that's a great answer from the good doctor. That encapsulates it , I think. I want to be here. And I want to see where I'm going."

Yet it wasn't always so. He never actually wanted to die. But he was certainly careless about living and on several occasions almost joined the not-so-exclusive club of needlessly dead rock stars. "I've been stupid with it," he admits. "I've abused it. Almost like trying to commit suicide without any intention to do it - that stupid, stupid kind of suicide. But it just won't go away. So I decided to learn to live with myself."

At the end of the year-long Forty Licks tour, Richards looks surprisingly robust. The lines in his face that the camera seems to accentuate are far softer in the flesh, so they resemble creases rather than crevices. His voice is also surprisingly cultured, far more so in many ways than Jagger's flattened vowels. And he's infinitely sharper and more focused than his image often suggests.

I discovered at first-hand that his "What year is it, man?" persona is a bit of an act several years ago at the Q awards. We were seated on the same table and before the presentation he was perfectly sober and coherent. Yet when he was called on stage, an extraordinary transformation took place. He scratched his head, mumbled "Yeah, man" several times and got the name of the award wrong, thanking the organisers for conferring on him the non-existent title of man-of-the-century. Everybody clapped and winked approvingly. Good old Keef. It's only lunch-time and he's already out of it. Then he returned to the table, and was perfectly straight again.

Yet with his fish-hooks and amulets dangling bizarrely from his hair, he does look every inch the rock'n'roll buccaneer, and you can see exactly why Johnny Depp chose to model his character in Pirates of the Caribbean on the Stones' guitar-slinger. Richards enjoyed the portrayal and reveals that he recently had dinner with Depp. "He paid. Which only seemed right under the circumstances."

Something very interesting has happened to our perceptions of the Rolling Stones over the course of the last year or so. Five or 10 years ago, there appeared something obscene about these leering, middle-aged men strutting the stage and pretending they were still young bucks. Yet once Jagger turned 60, it was as if it suddenly became noble and heroic that they were still up there doing it. In short, the Stones have become a national treasure, rock'n'roll's answer to the late Queen Mum. Richards has noticed it, too.

"It would have been easy for me to give up and say I can't be bothered to be sniped at any more about wrinkly rockers and all of that," he says. "But what do the critics know? They've never sailed this sea before because nor have we. We're just floating out there and seeing where it can go."

Perhaps it's the talk of Johnny Depp and pirates. But Richards is clearly much taken with this nautical metaphor and the idea of the Stones as salty old sea dogs. "One expects some storms and some choppy waters. But it's like we've now gone over the Equator," he enthuses. "We're Magellan. Or Sir Frankie Drake. I was hoping for that, and miraculously we've got there through some rough old seas."

Inevitably, talk turns to his relationship with Jagger, which has endured its ups and downs over the years. It is now more than half a century since they first met at primary school in Dartford and, disagreements over the knighthood apart, a benign tolerance seems to characterise relations between them these days. Even when Richards alters the title of Jagger's last and spectacularly unsuccessful solo album to Dogshit in the Doorway, the insult is amusing rather than provocative. How much has Jagger changed over the years? "Well, his underpants, three times," he says. "I can't say really because my perspective has changed, too. We kind of orbit around each other until we end up colliding."

Later, I get to ask Jagger about Richards. A trawl through the press cuttings suggests that his public utterances about Richards have been surprisingly rare. At one point in the 80s when they were not getting on at all, he told an American reporter, "I try to lay off saying what I think because it's potentially damaging." Pressed again a few years later, he conceded, "It's a very English relationship, where not a lot is said."

Yet asked for a 60th birthday tribute, he jokes about "lovely, cuddly Keith" and speaks with considerable warmth. "We've been friends for a very long time and we're also partners as well as working together on a creative level. So because it's on all of those levels, it makes for a very complex and complicated relationship. I still don't really pretend to understand it. He's incredibly loyal. That's endearing. He's loyal to a fault."

Later still, I get to ask Charlie Watts how the relationship looks from behind his drum kit. "You could say Keith brings emotion and Mick brings direction," he says. "I think Mick on his own would have lost his way years ago if he hadn't had Keith to bounce off. And vice versa. Because without Mick pushing I don't think there's any way we would have been able to do it for this long. It's a combination of Keith's spirit and Mick's drive. They're like brothers. Always arguing but always getting on."

The Forty Licks tour may have been a triumph over the last 14 months - 115 concerts across five continents, seen by two-and-a-half million fans and gross takings in excess of £200m. Yet, noticeably, it was not supported by a new studio album and it is now six years since Bridges to Babylon, the longest gap ever between Stones' records in their 40-year career. There were four new songs on the Forty Licks compilation album released to coincide with the tour. Yet alongside the classics, they were exposed as pale imitations of former glories. Are the Stones now principally a touring act rather than a studio band?

"One could look at it like that," Richards says candidly. "I think from the Stones point of view, it's obvious we've got this body of work and so there's no pressure on us to come up with new stuff. We carry around a lot of damn good baggage. But if we've got something new that's really good, we've got the opportunity to throw it in. But at the moment, I'm not sure how we're going to handle this, quite honestly."

Although it has always been Jagger who has been the trend-spotter, adding disco beats in the 80s and bringing in hip young producers such as the Dust Brothers in the 90s, Richards insists he does listen to new bands. Not that there are many who have impressed him, and he questions their motivation. "They need to ask what they're doing it for. Do they want hit records? Or do they want to make good records and hope they're a hit? There are a lot of people out there who just think fame is it. Well it's handy, I can tell you." He laughs raucously. "But you've got to have something more than that."

Every Stones tour of the last decade has been touted as the last time. But at 60, Richards doesn't sound remotely like someone who has played his last lick. "Somewhere inside of us we feel we've got a mission to perform," he says. "We don't know who has told us to do it. But we feel we've been given this task and we're stubborn enough not to want to be the first ones to get off the bus."

So does he intend to keep on until he drops? "Well, look at Duke Ellington. Or Louis Armstrong. Nobody argued about them going on and on. I guess it's just because rock'n'roll is supposed to be something you do when you're 20 or 25, like a tennis player. But 20-year-old chicks are still throwing their panties at me. That's ludicrous, really. But I've got to see how far the ball will roll. And what would the world be without the Rolling Stones?"

· Nigel Williamson is contributing editor of Uncut magazine.

The Stones performed the show in front of an estimated audience of 450,000 people to help bring confidence back to the city. Toronto was one of the areas hit hardest by the SARS epidemic.

The show featured various acts including Justin Timberlake and AC/DC, both of who performed later with The Stones as well as their on own set.

Timberlake and Mick Jagger sang The Stones classic 'Miss You' as a duet. Malcolm and Angus Young of AC/DC repeated the B.B. King blues song 'Rock Me Baby', originally performed in Sydney at the Enmore Theatre in February 2003.

The Toronto show DVD will feature all 13 performers from the day so it is unsure whether the Stones set will be complete at this stage.

Here is The Stones set list from the Toronto show:

Start Me Up (from Tattoo You, 1980)
Brown Sugar (from Sticky Fingers, 1970)
You Got Me Rocking (from Voodoo Lounge, 1994)
Tumbling Dice (from Exile On Main Street, 1972)
Don't Stop (from Forty Licks, 2002)
Ruby Tuesday (from Flowers, 1967)
You Can't Always Get What You Want (from Let It Bleed, 1969)
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (from It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, 1974)
Miss You (with Justin Timberlake) (from Some Girls, 1978)
The Nearness Of You (unreleased Hoagy Carmichael cover)
Happy (from Exile On Main Street, 1972)
Sympathy For The Devil (from Beggar's Banquet, 1968)
Rock Me Baby (with Angus and Malcolm Young from AC/DC)
Honky Tonk Women (single, 1969)
Satisfaction (single, 1966)
Jumping Jack Flash (single, 1968)