Mercury Studios is all set to release a new title from The Rolling Stones archive, Live At The Wiltern on March 8, 2024. The collection will be issued in a variety of physical and digital video and audio formats. There will be three different version of the vinyl – a standard black 3LP, Gold Vinyl 3LP and Bronze & Black Swirl. The black 3LP will be on general release, while the color variants are limited releases.
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The Rolling Stones embarked on the “Licks World Tour” in 2002 & 2003 to celebrate their 40th anniversary, featuring the band performing in arenas and stadiums, in addition to the occasional theater – a daunting 117 shows in total. In November 2002, the Stones arrived in Los Angeles to perform at a packed Wiltern Theatre, treating fans to a set heavy on rarities which feel right at home in such an intimate setting. While some of the hits were performed, this night at the Wiltern was for the rarely played classics, including “Stray Cat Blues”, “No Expectations” and a cover of “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love” featuring a guest spot by the legendary Solomon Burke, who opened the show that night. You can watch an introductory trailer for Live At The Wiltern below.
Author of Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Authorised Biography Of Charlie Watts, Paul Sexton’s liner notes reveals how the Stones arrived in Los Angeles for their Wiltern Theatre concert. He writes “At Mick [Jagger]’s suggestion, the custom-built Licks schedule was an enterprising mash-up of stadium, arena and theatre dates that few others could achieve or even contemplate. Imaginatively sidestepping the one-size-fits-all approach of most major excursions, and effectively tripling their workload, the Stones and their diligent crew constructed three tours in one, with set lists hand-picked according to venue size, from the boggling total of 120 songs they worked on before this vast pantechnicon took to the road.”
Speaking to Sexton in Toronto immediately prior to the tour, Ronnie Wood revealed more of the lucky dip potential from one night to the next: “There’s some very nice surprises and a lot of research coming from the band’s end, in that we’ve rehearsed all of Exile On Main St., nearly all of Some Girls and Black and Blue. You name it, right down the years from Beggars Banquet. We’ve got huge scope there.
“We couldn’t really go through a whole tour doing predictable shows,” he went on. “We’ve got to have songs out of the blue. We put some numbers to the test [at the Toronto club date] and they passed. We can go a little further now into the unknown, which I think people will like. Everything’s taken on a laid-back, much more space, attitude now.”
Mick Jagger also spoke to Paul Sexton in preparation for the multi-layered Licks, saying: “One of the reasons to do what we’re doing is that it makes it interesting for the audience and the band. I’ve got to think a lot more about set lists than I’ve ever done.”
In. another interview, he explained how a smaller-scale show affects him as a frontman: “I become more intense as a singer than as a performer, where the accent is more on gestures. And there are songs I can’t do in bigger places. “Stray Cat Blues” is not a number I’m particularly mad about, but it worked really well at the Wiltern. And you get an intensity from a soul tune like “That’s How Strong My Love Is” that you can’t get in a stadium.”
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