The Rolling Stones may not have announced any live dates in support of their recently released Foreign Tongues album, but guitarist Keith Richards has hinted that the band are considering options for future live shows.
In the week that the rock ‘n’ roll legends notched up their 15th UK number one album with Foreign Tongues, Richards revealed that the Stones are looking at “a different way of taking the thing on the road.”
“I know that this is all being kicked around,” Richards said in a cover story interview with US music industry bible Billboard. “This year, we just decided, ‘Look, let’s get the record out, and let’s not rush things.’ So I see no reason why next year – I don’t see anything this year, I can’t rush it that much – but I see no reason why next year, good Lord willing, we shouldn’t be able to, as you say, maybe a residency, something. Maybe you find a different way of taking the thing on the road. Bring the road to us. That’s my suggestion.”
Taken at face value, Richards’ comments seem to suggest that The Rolling Stones are weighing up the possibility of undertaking some live residencies in selected cities worldwide, perhaps taking inspiration from artists such as the Eagles, U2, Phish and Metallica, who locked multiple dates at the state-of-the-art Sphere Las Vegas venue in recent years as an alternative to multi-city tours, or pop star Harry Styles who recently announced plans to promote his new record Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally with a 30-night residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden, beginning on August 26.
“I don’t know if tours are possible,” Richards admitted in an interview with UK music magazine Uncut earlier this summer. “It’s the traveling that takes it out of you. But I do see the possibility of us doing a residency somewhere. Wherever it is, London, New York, Paris, anywhere. I’ll play Rome! But I don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to throw some shows together in a new format.”
Last year, Brian May said that he and Roger Taylor were “having conversations” about staging a series of shows at Sphere under the Queen + Adam Lambert banner.
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He told Rolling Stone: “ I’m very keen on the Sphere. It’s got my mind working. I sat there watching the Eagles, thinking, We should do this. The stuff that we could bring to this would be stupendous.”