There have been so many Rolling Stones live performances released on vinyl, tape, CD, DVD, and Blu-ray, you could spend the rest of your days watching, listening, taking notes, and arguing about them with other like-minded fanatics on social media. So, how many versions of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” do you really need? With a career spanning over 60 years, there’s enough nuggets roasting in the archives to keep the tongue wagging through the end of the century.
Welcome To Shepherd’s Bush, taken from a special June 8, 1999, show at the intimate Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London, manages to change things up. Playing for smaller audiences (1,800 in this instance) tends to give the Stones more leeway in terms of song selections, and on this night, they take full advantage of that opportunity. It’s enough to make this set a highlight from the vault.
For the Stones, playing in London, which they hadn’t done for four years, was a big deal in itself. Afterall, this is where it all started for the group. They already had two sold-out shows at the 70,000-seat Wembley Stadium coming up, so why not shake it up at a smaller hometown venue to build up the anticipation. The world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band can be masters of suspense when it comes to these kind of events, so any gathering moss is quickly discarded as they open with “Shattered” to break the tension. Almost at once, you pick up on just how tightly wound this unit was in 1999.
Mick Jagger, coming up on his 56th birthday, is a live wire, the consummate frontman who points, shuffles, gyrates, points again, and sings with all the vigor and abandonment of a wild cat. He scratches at his guitar during “Respectable” like a punk rocker with a chip on his safety pin. Meanwhile, Keith Richards is a marksman with a target to split, his chops always locked and loaded. The tone, the attitude, the swagger, the buoyant grin, the whole raggedy pirate vibe is why the old, grizzled rocker remains the stoic anchor whose wizardry at planting riffs at just the right spot is without peer. Ron Wood adds his own bit of magic in between the cracks, though Richards’ scattering leads across a rarely played “Some Girls” is a perfect reminder that either guitarist can cover the spread.
Speaking of rare, Jagger touches on how the group will go deep on this night and play songs they normally don’t play live. Then he introduces the jaunty “Melody” from 1976’s Black And Blue with a simple: “We’ve never, ever done this one before.” You can imagine some of the more intensely devoted Stones fans see playing a song for the very first time tantamount to a religious awakening of sorts, a message from the divinities that everything is going to be alright. Or they might want to check out “Melody” from 1977’s El Mocombo show to shore up Jagger’s memory.
Upon delivery, with longtime pianist Chuck Leavell tidying up those eloquent Billy Preston notes, Richards and Wood punctuating the accents, and backing vocalists Bernard Fowlers, Blondie Chaplin, and Lisa Fischer suavely answering Jagger in the chorus, the entire flow is smooth, refined, and mildly unconventional for the once notorious bad boys of rock. Even the abrupt, delightful trombone solo from Michael Davis can’t break the spell. This is one where drummer Charlie Watts, on fire all night, is hitting his marks and floating like a bee in heaven.
At this point, the Stones can do no wrong as they carry on through more intermittencies — a heart-wrenching “I Got The Blues” from 1971’s Sticky Fingers; a coy and playful “Brand New Car” from 1994’s Voodoo Lounge; and a truly invigorating, truly-never-played-live “Moon Is Up,” also from Voodoo Lounge, that finds Richards and Woods painting a flanger-driven, wah-wah-infested tapestry defying gravity.
The momentum continues as an upbeat “Saint Of Me” from 1997’s Bridges To Babylon stirs up the floor. For many (myself included), they could have kept digging deep all night; but alas, there comes a time when you have to pull in something more familiar to keep the masses engaged. Perhaps at the end of the 90s, inviting Sheryl Crow up for a hot and bothered stab at “Honky Tonk Women” is just what the Stones needed to keep the aisles jumping and beer lines vacant.
Richards has his turn at the vocal mic with a tender “You Got The Silver” (supposedly written about his love affair with Anita Pallenberg, who was at the Shepherd’s Bush show) before strapping up his bootlaces for “Before They Make Me Run” from 1978’s Some Girls. A three-minute sprint through “Route 66,” the only song here not written by Jagger-Richards, shows why they’re still the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band, while “You Got Me Rocking,” the third one of the night from Voodoo Lounge, strives to cement that legacy without question.
The set ends appropriately enough “Tumbling Dice,” “Brown Sugar,” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” You’ll scarcely hear or see a Stones show that doesn’t include these three, though “Brown Sugar” has been shelved in recent years for undisclosed reasons (subject to interpretation). As expected, the Stones could probably recite these numbers in their sleep, though this particular performance offers a fresh, alluring sheen. It’s as if the entire night served as a precursor to this last stretch. Or maybe it just gave good reason for anyone going to the Wembley shows to leave early and beat traffic.
Available in various configurations Blu-ray, CDS, LPs), including a first for a Stones video — an 4K UHD Blu-ray with a Dolby Atmos audio option, Welcome To Shepherd’s Bush is an outstanding, illuminating set that easily rates above the proliferation of more standard fare from the Rolling Stones. If there’s more out there, let’s keep ‘em coming.
~ Shawn Perry
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Welcome To Shepherd’s Bush
