“One of my big jobs,” Mick Jagger admits in the new BBC documentary series My Life As A Rolling Stone, “is to be a show off, really.”
With 60 years’ experience, he’s incredibly good at it. At the second of two sold-out Hyde Park shows, the 78-year-old frontman prances, struts, preens, hops, strides, points, and poses for two hours with the enthusiasm of a fitness trainer one-third his age. All the while, he’s belting out high-energy rock ‘n roll standards, playing harmonica, playing harmonica and pointing, and changing outfits. After a black coat, ornately embroidered in golden floral patterns; sleek, flowing silver shirt; pink waistcoat; red and blue silk hoodie; and yellow and black colour block jacket, one starts to lose track. And he knows it. “She’s an amazing singer, but I’ve worn sparklier dresses,” the showman says of Adele at one point.
That onstage persona, large enough to rival the giant tree on the Great Oak Stage, is sometimes mocked, sometimes mimicked, but never equaled. Not every performer can (or wants to) move like Jagger. But the stagecraft he and The Rolling Stones pioneered is still an undeniable part of every arena or open-air show. Just look at today’s BST Hyde Park line-up.
It’s there in the theatrics of The Last Dinner Party, a six-piece from South London, who open the main stage with a performance steeped in drama and high emotion. Taking inspiration from Romantic poets and Gothic novelists, as well as artists including Kate Bush and David Bowie (according to their bio), there are also traces of Siouxsie And The Banshees, Faith-era Cure, and Florence in their sweeping, brooding, impassioned songs. With appropriate titles like Burn Alive, Portrait Of A Dead Girl, and Godzilla, they quite effortlessly transform from dark synths and rumbling basslines to bright keytar swells, elegant guitar solos, and even the occasional flute. All support the nuances and textures of the vocals by Abigaille, an expressive and animated performer in the tradition of Mick.
Courtney Barnett is far less flamboyant. The Australian singer-songwriter is, after all, as well known for her conversational delivery as her intriguing, stream of consciousness lyrics. But there’s a real abandon to the freakout guitar solos she plays at the end of songs like Small Poppies from her 2015 breakout album Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. Perhaps closer in spirit to Kurt Cobain than Brian Jones, her headbanging instrumental workouts nonetheless continue the wild rock ‘n roll spirit of the past six decades. They also amplify the impact of her music: at Hyde Park today, there’s a ragged joy that doesn’t always come across on her EPs and LPs. Turning Green from last year’s Things Take Time, Take Time, complete with Barnett on cowbell, in particular benefits from an instrumental explosion that gives her three-piece backing band a real workout. Avant Gardener (complete with lines like “I get adrenaline, Straight to the heart, I feel like Uma Thurman, Post-overdosing kick start”) shakes off the original’s wooziness. Always thrashy, Pedestrian At Best (“I think you’re a joke, but I don’t find you very funny”) now sounds positively punk. And, as if she actually needed to justify her support slot, Barnett pulls out History Eraser, from her 2012 debut EP, which namechecks today’s headliners.
Sam Fender’s presence is even more justified. He’s already played this festival before, supporting Bob Dylan and Neil Young back in 2019, and is fresh off a heralded performance on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage. But he doesn’t take it for granted. “Thank you for putting up with us,” he says towards the end of his set. “We’ve been ticking a lot of dream boxes this year and it’s wonderful to share them with you.” The feeling’s mutual, judging from the audience response. Although Fender, who headlines Finsbury Park in a couple of weeks, doesn’t have Jagger’s razzmatazz, he uses his own strengths to connect with the crowds. There’s the straightforward honesty of his between-song chat, balancing “is-this-really-happening” disbelief with self-deprecation and humour. (The raging Howdon Aldi Death Queue comes with a joke that only the people towards the back are likely to know the supermarket referenced in the title, and an off-hand description of “stupid song”.) There’s the us-against-the-world bravado he shares with his six-piece band (“my best mates from home”). There’s the conviction with which the musicians (including trumpet player and bucket-hatted saxophonist) perform. And there are the songs themselves.
Yes, the rousing music’s not unlike Springsteen or The War On Drugs making them perfect for mass outdoor events like this. But lyrically they’re packed with references to mental health, poverty, class, unemployment, and toxic masculinity. So The Borders has people dancing in the sun as Fender declares “No wonder you can’t stand me, I can’t stand me too”. The Dying Light, which opens with the singer solo on piano, becomes the biggest indie rock ‘n roll anthem outside a gig by The Killers even as Fender declares: “I must admit I’m out of bright, Ideas to keep the hell at bay”. And emphatic set closer Seventeen Going Under — which is influenced by his mother’s fibromyalgia diagnosis and resulting struggles with health, finances, and the government — is greeted as enthusiastically by a woman in her 60s as a 20-something in his Download hoodie.
That enthusiasm is at fever pitch by the time The Stones roll onto the stage after footage showing the late Charlie Watts drumming, waving, bowing, always looking stylish, always smiling. Maybe it’s his passing that’s made the remaining members cherish what they have while they can, or maybe it’s the realisation that this may well be the last time around, but Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood aren’t holding back. They open with Get Off My Cloud, 19th Nervous Breakdown, and Tumbling Dice. Boom. Boom. Boom. Richards especially, looking casual in a DO NOT X-RAY T-shirt, bandana, and sunglasses, seems as thrilled as Fender to be there. Looking, playing, and singing better than he did during the band’s 2013 Hyde Park appearances, tonight he’s all about boyish grins, arms around his colleagues’ shoulders, and those tasty licks.
His joy seems infectious. Jagger’s full of cheeky asides — from superspreader events to Wood’s hand painted setlists (available at £80 a pop) — and at one point even gives the musician he dubs “the Botticelli of Belgravia” a playful nudge. Wood, in turn, makes light of his guitar solos while giving the frontman a run for his money in the show-off stakes.
But, for all the enjoyment onstage, it’s the audience who seem to be having the most fun. As the three Stones, backed by their longtime touring band and new drummer Steve Jordan, blow the dust off one classic hit after another — Out Of Time, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Miss You — 65,000 people cheer in instant recognition, before dancing and singing as if it’s 1980 all over again. (For all the “Sixty” branding and talk of 60th anniversaries, the focus is very much on the 1960s and ’70s. Not that it matters. Who can even remember the name of that single they released during lockdown?)
The most recent offering is You Got Me Rocking, from 1994. Sounding more spirited than it has in years, its added oomph is the only real indication that Watts is no longer behind the kit. (Jordan, whose association with The Rolling Stones goes back to the 1980s, is such a talent that he fits in almost seamlessly.) Its inclusion, the first time on the current tour, also shows Jagger, Richards, and Wood aren’t coasting towards their 80s. Angie and a summer-breeze rendition of Like A Rolling Stone are also very welcome surprises, and appreciated as such, with the passion in the park only growing with the dying of the light and each successive song. After a loose, improvisational Midnight Rambler, the main set ends with Paint It Black, Start Me Up, Gimme Shelter (its enduring impact only amplified by visuals of destruction in Ukraine), and Jumpin’ Jack Flash. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Hyde Park’s dark by the time the tribal drums and brushfire visuals introduce Sympathy For The Devil, sparking a spontaneous, sustained refrain of “woo woo” long before The Rolling Stones return to the stage to lead what feels by now like some sort of cult experience. And, as Jagger does his thing one last time during (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, it brings to mind the rest of his quote in that BBC doc: “I suppose it’s my job for 2 hours to make people feel good, to bring people a joyous experience, that they have a great evening.” Job done.
BST Hyde Park, London
The Rolling Stones | Sam Fender | Courtney Barnett | The Last Dinner Party
3rd July 2022
Photo: Naomi Dryden-Smith
- This article originally appeared on Louder Than War.
Nils van der Linden 