Announced with great fanfare, this Wednesday at last, The Rolling Stones officially presented their new album ‘Hackney Diamonds’. Presented by Jimmy Fallon and before more than 200 accredited international media and a millionaire audience following him for streaming they burst onto the stage like rock stars who continue to dazzle. “Here we are!” Mick Jagger was heard to say, rising energetically from the seats at 80 years of age. Next to him, Keith Richards, 79, and Ronnie Woodof 76.

It is a relaxed talk and one of the first anecdotes to come to light is precisely how he contrasts with this massive act what was his first presentation to the press of his first album. “There were two journalists, one from ‘Enemy’ and the other from ‘Melody’, and we invited them to a pint of beer. We told them: ‘this is our album, listen to it!’ and they left, that’s how it was… There are no photos or anything”, the vocalist laughed. And we have bad news for Jagger, because searching the archive we have found unique moments.

Those first appearances in which we see some very young musicians, with the faces of children, ready to conquer the world. In one of those rescued audiovisual jewels, we see Jagger and Watts hesitating before the microphones, with their immaculate toupees. It was 1964, and from the United States, they criticized the attempt to classify or compare them with other artists. “That can’t be so”, pronounced a very young Mick Jagger. A year later, after succeeding with their first international tour, this question was received from Copenhagen like a sharp knife: “Have you saved money to return to the streets in case the new album doesn’t work?” To which Watts replied sardonically: “Yes, we are prepared for that rainy day”.

his scandals

that same toOne of his great scandals would not come. They had been guests on the Ed Sullivan Show. Such was the fuss that was organized in the stands, with dizziness and blackouts included, they had to stop the recording. The production company was forced to veto them, although they returned three years later as established rock milestones, and in that performance we saw Brian Jones starring in an unusual sit-down, lying on the stage, in that attempt to appear formal…

The year 1965 was key for the band. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction climbed to the top of the sales charts around the world. Asked about that success, and about the possible transience of his career, it seems that they were clear about it and answered emphatically that “something different is not done from one day to the next”. In these more than 60 years of career, they have shown that they have been a long-term stardom and that they have managed to revolutionize rock.

In the late 60s, the interviews wanted to delve into that myth of ‘rock star’ with questions barely related to rock and many referring to sex and, above all, to drugs. Some of the most surreal interviews take place after the musicians are released from prison for drug possession and use. In front of and behind the microphones, they laugh at that demonized image that they draw of them and some time later they publish the album that crowned them as ‘their satanic majesties’‘Their satanic majesties request’.

This Thursday Mick Jagger clamored again for breaking that stereotype that paints him as a demon and joked: “I go to church, it’s such a tall building…” and he even hummed a religious song. They also ran into the church during the presentation of their tour in Buenos Aires in 1998, when a journalist asked them the following question: “They are going to play with Bob Dylan and he has already played with the Pope, would their satanic majesties accept with the Pope? “, to which Richards replied with a loud fit of laughter that spread throughout the room and blurted out: “Kiss the ring!”

Another of the great moments Jimmy Fallon recalled it, who said that when they came to his show, Richards lit a cigarette in the dressing room and the fire alarms sounded. “I didn’t even know we had a fire manager,” he joked. To which the musician replied “after that, he quit smoking.”

Irreverent and with their own style that has remained authentic through six decades, last night they mourned something that has changed, the loss of Charlie Watts. Moved, they explained that they miss him a lot and that he “is there, with them”, pointing to the sky. They have explained that on the album they have rescued two of the tracks they recorded with him as a tribute to the musician who died in 2020. We will have to wait until October 20 to see how his new work sounds. 18 years after their last album, they released a first advance, the single ‘Angry’ with which they hope to continue adding hits and interviews with anecdotes like the ones they starred in in their beginnings.