The Rolling Stones    

                Wembley Arena, London    -    Sep. 13  2003
       

The setlist :
  1. Street Fighting Man
  2. Start Me Up
  3. You Got Me Rocking
  4. Don't Stop
  5. Live With Me
  6. Wild Horses
  7. Loving Cup
  8. Rocks Off
  9. Tumbling Dice
  10. The Nearness Of You 
  11. Before They Make Me Run
  12. Sympathy For The Devil
  13. Paint It Black
  14. Honky Tonk Women
  15. Satisfaction
  16. Mannish Boy                (B-stage)
  17. It's Only Rock'n Roll     (B-stage)
  18. Brown Sugar               (B-stage)
  19. Jumping Jack Flash

 

  Back to London approx. 2 weeks after the Astoria and the 1st Wembley Arena show.
  One thing was sure from the beginning of first song of the opening act : the sound was  
  much better than in August. Tim Burgess' performance was good, and the people who 
  went in to see the former leader of the Charlatans all spent a good time.
The Stones hit the stage with the usual arena opener Street Fighting Man, followed by a good Start Me Up and a great version of You Got Me Rocking.  Just before starting Don't Stop, Mick apologised about the rescheduling of the show from Sunday to Saturday.
Live With Me was performed with loud guitars, and Ronnie kept playing electric guitar on Wild Horses.

The show's theme was Exile on Main St.
Mick took an acoustic guitar and the band played a good version of Loving Cup, followed by Rocks Off and a disappointment to me : Tumbling Dice. This song is a classic Stones song, and my friends and I were expecting something more original like Rip This Joint or All Down The Line.

The good surprise was Keith playing The Nearness Of You.
Sympathy for the Devil was great an seemed to be a bit longer than usual.
Before leaving for the B-stage, the Stones treated us with a superb version of Satisfaction.

Smething unusual happend on the catwalk : Charlie Watts stopped his walk to sign a record. from my place I couldn't see which LP he signed, but it was the 1st time I saw him doing this. Ronnie took a break arriving on the B-stage to make new knots on his shoelace, and Keith appeared with a superb black long sleeve T-shirt with a skull on the front.

The rest of the show took place without surprise. 
This show was pretty short, and probably the shortest they played on this tour (except the warm up and SARS gigs in Toronto)
We had no long song at all, but the Stones were all in excellent mood and shape. They played like we wish they'd always play.