Business News Deals Live Business

Stones tie up with AEG for US tour and Hyde Park gig

By | Published on Thursday 4 April 2013

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones will play London’s Hyde Park this summer, four decades after their seminal gig in the park in 1969, as part of AEG Live’s previously reported Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time festival. The Stones’ outdoor London gig on 6 Jul will follow the band’s headline slot at Glastonbury on 29 Jun.

Confirming the new booking, Mick Jagger told reporters: “We had such a great time playing the five concerts [in London and New York] last year, we want to keep it going! Hyde Park holds such great memories for us and we can’t think of anywhere better to perform to our UK fans this summer”.

While fellow Stone Keith Richards reiterated: “We all had such a ball last year, and the energy between the band is so good, we can’t wait to get back on that stage where the Stones belong”.

Meanwhile Rob Hallet, the boss of AEG in the UK, which won the rights to stage gigs in Hyde Park last year, rivals Live Nation having previously controlled the stage there for a number of years, told reporters: “This will be the biggest gig of the summer in London. The Rolling Stones are a true British institution and the true spirit of rock n roll. Their return to Hyde Park is a landmark event”.

Presumably it won’t be as big as when the Stones played Hyde Park in 1969 and half a million people turned up. That was a free gig though, and this time tickets will cost about £9000 (well, between £95 and £399, to be precise).

AEG will also promote a US tour for the Stones. It had been expected that the new joint venture between Australian promoter Paul Dainty and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, which promoted the Stone’s short run of shows in London and New York last year, would lead on the American tour, but – according to various sources – the set-up couldn’t agree on a guarantee with the band. AEG swooped in at the last minute to do the deal. The US tour will run during May and June, kicking off in LA.



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