A palpable, intense emotion. When Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ron Wood appeared on stage at the Hackney Empire at 2.30pm sharp local time, the crowd of reporters whistled in delight. Seeing them so close, together, alive, smiling, was like a rush of adrenaline. Greeted by the loyal gentleman of the day, the American talk-show host friend Jimmy Fallon, they saluted, settled into their seats, each with his glass of water, the times want to be wise.
First album in 18 years, what a funny idea to reconnect with composition, recordings, the life of an artist. Jagger is the most talkative, the most stirring, Keith Richards the most ironic, Ron Wood the most lunar. “Hackney Diamonds”, so. The Stones chose for the title of their album a reference to this district of the British capital to recall their roots, their attachment to London. Meager explanation, but the subject is quickly dispatched.
The record was concocted quickly, writing in December 2022, recording in January in Jamaica where Keith has owned a villa for ages, final mixing a month later in Los Angeles. “When your singer calls you, you always have to be there,” laughed Keith Richards. “We may have been lazy, and then suddenly we were like, ‘Let’s set a date and make an album,'” Mick summed up. The two men seem accomplices, happy, close.
To a question Fallon read from a fan who asked them the secret to their “marriage” after such a long union, Jagger’s response was brief but telling: “Don’t talk too much to each other.” He says it while looking and spoofing Richards, who seems to nod. How can we talk about the Rolling Stones without mentioning the coolest of drummers, the most charming of gentlemen, Charlie Watts, who died in the summer of 2021? It was Keith Richards who took on the subject, pointing out how much they missed “number 4”, but revealing that the latter had given “his blessing” to have Steve Jordan play in his place. “Without this dubbing, it would have been much more complicated,” added Richards, without dwelling too much. Jagger, if he recognized his emotion during the first concert without Charlie, did not show the slightest trace of feeling this afternoon.
The Stones, in more than 60 years of career, have survived, resisted, held on, when so many of their friends and fellows perished along the way: Brian Jones, Gram Parsons, Ian Stewart, Jimmy Miller, Anita Pallenberg, Bobby Keys, the friend Bowie, girlfriend Tina Turner… They’re used to death, but when she comes so close, the effect must provoke a reaction. This album maybe. Watts is still present on a song recorded before, in 2019, Leave by the sword which, – what a feat – brings together the original rhythm section of the group. Indeed, the placid Bill Wyman, 87, bassist who left the group in 1990, returns behind the bass.
Feel good, such was the atmosphere of these 20 minutes, not one more, of friendly discussion. Through the voice of Ron Wood, we learned of the participation of Stevie Wonder on keyboards and Lady Gaga on vocals on Sweet Sound of Heaven. No hint of the craziest rumor, that of the presence on the album of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the former Beatles and historical rivals. If it exists, the surprise will be preserved until the release of “Hackney Diamonds” on October 20. Unless the three Stones discuss it more fully the next day, with a few media having been selected for 20-minute one-on-one, audio-visual or digital-only access. But not the print media.
When Jimmy Fallon stared at them and was rightly ecstatic, because all the same, a new Rolling Stones album in 2023 is unimaginable, Jagger smiled and simply remarked, “If we hadn’t liked what we were hearing, we wouldn’t have presented it to the public”. Before letting out a small memory, concerning their very first press conference. “In a pub with two journalists in front of us, we gave them the record and that was it! “.
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were roommates in their youth, in a London dweller where you had to put coins in the heating to make it work. At 80 for Mick Jagger, Keith Richards will reach this canonical age in December, they are sheltered from everything, going from a villa in the Caribbean to a castle in Touraine, and yet they go back to seek the approval of the public, fans, critics, with new material! It is fabulous. Especially since Keith Richards, another big news of the day, has quit smoking. Everything is lost.
Once these three men were so thin, almost slender, standing and flying, without reminder, a single song was released, Angry, along with its music video. The actress Sydney Sweeney, known since her participation in the series Euphoria, seated in the first row in the room, her mother not far away, holds the main role. We discover her lascivious in a very sexy outfit, fidgeting in the back of a convertible that rolls on Sunset Boulevard, in Los Angeles. She swoons over giant billboards where photos of the younger Stones come alive as they perform Angry. A vision of femininity still as reductive and hilarious. They may miss the old days of rockstars and groupies, which Robert Frank captured in his banned documentary Cocksucker Blues in 1972…
Nevertheless, it’s a clever clip, because nostalgia is not deadly, it embraces the present, adapts to it and renews it. At the end of the clip, the three dinosaurs appear as they are, aged, marked, weathered skin, without it being pathetic. On the contrary. What about Angry then? Nothing to get angry about. The song is good, energetic, catchy, pure rock, the chorus sinks in, Jagger’s voice still fresh. But let’s not get carried away, no upcoming tour announcements.
On leaving, the journalists were treated to a gift, a canvas bag containing an XL black t-shirt stamped with the somewhat deconstructed logo of the tongue. A collector, because who knows if this appointment with the world press was not the last.