The Rolling Stones’ new album, Hackney Diamonds, got its release today, and to celebrate the arrival of the long-awaited record, the band played an intimate surprise show on Thursday night (October 19) at the New York City club Racket NYC, located in Manhattan’s meatpacking district.
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The band treated the celebrity-packed, invite-only crowd to a seven-song set that included the live debut of four tunes from Hackney Diamonds, along with three classics. The show concluded with a finale performance of the new song “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” with Mick Jagger’s duet partner on the track, Lady Gaga, hitting the stage to perform with the band.
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The concert began, appropriately enough, with a performance of “Shattered,” The Stones’ 1978 ode to the seedy side of New York City. The band then debuted a pair of tunes from Hackney Diamonds, lead single “Angry” and “Whole Wide World.”
RollingStone.com reports that Jagger then addressed the audience and discussed some of the previous album launches The Stones have staged in the Big Apple.
“It always seems that we launch our new albums in New York,” the 80-year-old rock legend commented. “We’ve done it in a blimp [in 2002]. We’ve done it on a flatbed truck going down 5th Avenue [in 1975]. We did it in a convertible going over the Brooklyn Bridge [in 1997] and a train going into Grand Central [in 1989]. We were missing the launches so much that we had to make another album to come back and re-launch it.”
Next up was the 1972 classic “Tumbling Dice,” followed by another new number, the rocking “Bite My Head Off,” which on the album features Paul McCartney on bass. (Sir Paul, of course, wasn’t in attendance, since he’s currently on tour in Australia.)
The main portion of the show ended with a rendition of the band’s 1968 classic “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” After leaving the stage, The Stones returned with back-and-red-sequined-clad Lady Gaga in two for the encore. After belting out the soulful song, Gaga declared, according to RollingStone.com, “New York City, the Rolling Stones! Take a bow.”
Among the many celebs in the audience were Jimmy Fallon, Elvis Costello and wife Diana Krall, Chris Rock, Trevor Noah, Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Christie Brinkley, Christy Turlington, Ed Burns, Mary Kate Olsen, Keegan-Michael Key, and producer Andrew Watt.
The Stones’ performance was preceded by a DJ set from Roots drummer and The Tonight Show band leader Questlove.
Although no official plans have been announced, the show certainly set the stage for a new Rolling Stones tour.
Hackney Diamonds is available now.
As previously reported, Stones guitarist Keith Richards is scheduled to be a guest this evening on NBC’s The Tonight Show.
See Photos:
Rolling Stones set list, Racket NYC, New York City 10/19/23
- Shattered
- Angry (live debut)
- Whole Wide World (live debut)
- Tumbling Dice
- Bite My Head Off (live debut)
- Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Encore:
- Sweet Sounds of Heaven (with Lady Gaga) (live debut)
Images Courtesy of: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rolling Stones
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