Location: Budva / Montenegro
Concert date: 08.07.2007
Attendance: 60000
Ticket price: from €34 to €500
One of the most successful rock bands in the world, The Rolling Stones, played last Monday, July 9, 2007, at the only beach concert of their A Bigger Bang tour in Europe, on the Jaz beach in Budva, Montenegro.
Even though the venue wasn’t packed to the last corner (there were around 60,000 people), the band proved that after almost half a century on the scene they’re still the biggest music attraction on the planet.
The band, too, arrived in Montenegro on Sunday. They were put up in the luxury Splendid hotel in Bečiči, and all the Montenegrin media reported that the Rolling Stones were thrilled with the welcome, the accommodation and the hospitality of the Montenegrins. Camera crews were waiting for them at the airport, and everyone was convinced (misled) that the Stones would fly to the hotel in the military helicopter that had been made ready, but they decided to go by car – four Mercedes with Ljubljana plates were just the thing for it. The media also reported that every member of the band had their own driver, and only Mick Jagger brought along a companion, the 24-years-younger, 6’4″ L’Wren Scott. He supposedly filmed the whole ride on a video camera and compared the beauty of the landscape to Nice and Monaco. The hotel reception reportedly blew them away too. A kind of “anecdote” has already spread around Budva: Mick asked the hotel director when the hotel was built, and he answered that it had been built especially for them, at which Mr. Jagger smiled. Well, the band’s management booked around 60 rooms in the hotel, while Jagger and his companion stayed in a royal luxury suite of over 1,400 square feet. A small crew set off from Slovenia for Budva (the trip took about 13 hours) the day before the concert. Just in time to check out the venue of the spectacle before it opened. The huge stage, 68 meters wide and 30 meters high, looked truly majestic on the beach!
Anyway, the day before the concert an unofficial report surfaced that (only) 23,000 tickets had been sold, but sales shot up enormously in the last 24 hours before the show, and the ones with their hands full were above all the “resellers” of (original) tickets, who were all over both Budva town and the entrance to the Jaz venue. There was no shortage of other merch either – shirts, caps, flags and so on at every step.
The event was organized by the state of Montenegro, which did a great job promoting itself, since an event like this was a first in these parts. Otherwise, it was a normal hot summer day in Budva, typical of the summer tourist season. Just maybe a touch more international. A few yachts belonging to famous owners were anchored in the Jaz beach bay (reportedly including the Beckham family, Bregović,…), who paid from €1,000 up for this “pleasure”. The Montenegrin navy kept order too.
The euphoria ahead of the much-hyped spectacle built up massively on the day of the concert, which also showed in total traffic chaos, despite the large number of police who were supposed to manage and direct traffic. From 6 p.m. on, traffic in Budva was already very chaotic, and free buses were already running to the venue.
At 6 p.m. the first opening act took the stage, the band Time with Dado Topić, who played a few of their biggest hits and, for the occasion, “Da li znaš da te volim”, dedicated to the Stones. They were followed by Regina with a half-hour set of their own, and after them the English band The Thirst.
The venue slowly filled up, and the euphoria kept rising.
Then at exactly 9:45 p.m. it was as if someone had shot a dose of rock’n’roll straight into our veins instead of drugs! Yep, it’s really them, still the same good old rock dinosaurs – The Rolling Stones live on stage right in front of us!
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts kicked off with “Start me up” and “disarmed” any lingering doubters. Besides his superb stamina, which plenty of teenagers would envy, Mick Jagger also showed off his talent for foreign languages at the concert. Alongside the classic line “Good evening Montenegro”, he said several more perfectly understandable things during the show, like “We’re glad to be the first band playing in this place” and “Welcome everyone from Croatia, Serbia, Albania and Russia”, “It’s great to be here, you’re a fantastic crowd!” – all in Serbian.
As expected, the Stones in Budva (like on the whole A Bigger Bang tour) mostly played their biggest hits, of which they have countless (around 40 songs in the top 10).
Before it was Keith Richards’ turn to sing two songs (Mick changed clothes in the meantime), Mick introduced the members of the band (in Serbian again) and announced drummer Charlie as the “Mad man of Montenegro”. Then the stage started moving toward the middle, to a smaller stage 60 meters into the crowd. At the same time a gigantic tongue, the symbol and trademark of the Rolling Stones, appeared from the big stage. On the small stage the Stones played three tracks (“Miss you”, “It’s only r’n’r”, “Satisfaction”), and after heading back to the main stage, “Honky tonk woman” and “Jumping Jack Flash”, which was supposed to be the last song of the night. But anyone who had followed the tour even a little knew the musical spectacle wasn’t over yet. And sure enough – red light takes over and a long intro to “Sympathy for the devil”. They also served up “Paint it black” and wrapped it up with “Brown sugar”. A huge fireworks display followed, and barely two minutes after the band left the stage we could see the military helicopter already carrying them away from the venue. That’s when we knew for sure it was over.
The next day the Rolling Stones flew off to Barcelona for a few days, where yesterday, July 12, they had a private party said to combine several occasions at once – from marking exactly 45 years (!) since their first concert to Mick’s birthday, which he celebrates at the end of the month.
After the concert the RS souvenirs (shirts and so on) were literally snapped up, but the most persistent still got what they wanted.
For me this wasn’t just a trip to a concert in places I’d wanted to visit for a long time but was seeing for the first time, it was also a birthday present (all expenses covered), including a V.I.P. ticket I won and made the most of.
It was unforgettable and (I’m afraid) unrepeatable!
Setlist
1. Start me up
2. Let’s spend the night together
3. Rough Justice
4. Ain’t too proud to beg
5. You can’t always get what you want
6. Midnight Rambler
7. I’ll go crazy
8. Tumbling Dice
9. You got the silver (Keith)
10. Wanna Hold You (Keith)
11. Miss you
12. It’s only rock’n’roll
13. Satisfaction
14. Honky tonk women
15. Jumping Jack Flash
–encore–
16. Sympathy for the devil
17. Paint it black
18. Brown sugar
LINEUP:
Mick Jagger – vocals, guitar, harmonica
Keith Richards – guitar, vocals
Ronnie Wood – guitar
Charlie Wats – drums
Darryl Jones – bass
Chuck Leavell – keyboards
Lisa Fischer – backing vocals
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