50 year anniversaries don’t exactly come around all too often – especially in music artists, and especially in music artists riddled by years of drug abuse. Let us be thankful then, for the progenitors of modern blues rock and rock n’ roll The Rolling Stones, who this year celebrated their 50th anniversary.
Speculation has been rife on any word of a tour or new material in light of the band’s birthday, and last week, a peek came in the form of photographs taken of the band exiting a recording studio in Paris. While these were, at first, little more than a means for fans to fantasize over, Mick Jagger took to twitter to confirm the rumours, posting a picture of himself in his natural habitat amongst a ridiculous amount of guitars, stating “Had fun in the Paris studio!”
Though the anniversary was technically marked this July – the 12th to be precise, five decades after their first gig at London’s Marquee Jazz Club – the year as a whole has been a relatively active one for the band. Though they sadly weren’t to be seen jamming with the Queen at this summer’s London Olympics, the band spent some rehearsal time in New York in what Keith Richards called “just getting our chops together. It was like playing in the garage, a maintenance check” (I don’t know about Keith, but my garage is in a substantially cheaper, more spider-infested area than New York or Paris).
The band also seem keen to get the public attention through more direct means. Director Brett Morgen has spent some time with them as of late, filming parts of a documentary reportedly set to appear on HBO later this year. A photo book, 50 is now for sale, and the lads themselves turned up for a photo exhibition in London last month.
Most interestingly however, the band’s official Facebook page has recently been adorned by a set of giant, black eyes that seem to scream ‘album art’, whilst boasting a new teaser. Upon downloading the uView app and viewing the image through a smartphone, fans are told to ‘keep their eyes peeled’ (they sure do know how to tease us) before 1981′s ‘Start Me Up’ begins playing.
If the Stones are indeed recording new material, it will be the first original album since 2005′s A Bigger Bang, and may well call for a tour. And while such news is not yet set in stone(s), the band are working to remind us that they are very much still around. After all, in an age where the mainstream often strives only to have the catchiest tune of the summer, stuffing their albums with filler, it’s good to be reminded that the roots of modern music can survive long enough to celebrate half a century of influence.
Now excuse me whilst I don my deerstalker hat, sip my ale and puff on my pipe to complete my transformation in to an old, cynic fart.
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