The Rolling Stones    

                Wembley Arena, London    -    Sep. 15  2003
       

 

The setlist :
  1. Start Me Up
  2. If You Can't Rock Me
  3. It's Only Rock'n Roll
  4. Don't Stop
  5. You Can't Always Get What You Want
  6. Dead Flowers
  7. Bitch
  8. Can't You Hear Me Knocking
  9. Tumbling Dice
  10. Slipping Away
  11. Happy
  12. Sympathy For The Devil
  13. Paint It Black
  14. You Got Me Rocking
  15. Honky Tonk Women
  16. Little Red Rooster      (B-stage)
  17. Street Fighting Man   (B-stage)
  18. Brown Sugar              (B-stage)
  19. Jumping Jack Flash

Mick Jagger said it : this show was the last arena show in Europe on the 2003 Licks Tour.
This show also had the best sound of all 3 shows in this venue.

What to say about this show : After Let it bleed in August and Exile on Main St 2 days before, the 3rd Wembley Arena show was dedicated to Sticky Fingers, which is by the way my favorite Stones album.

The biggest rarity of the show was Dead Flowers. The performance was fantastic and Ronnie Wood played excellently during the whole show.

The show started around 9:50 PM with Start me up, a surprise compared to the traditional arena setlist.
It was followed by a superb version of If you can't rock me. I suppose that it was a reaction to Bill's presence in the arena ( he was seated a few meters away from me with his whole family), but Darryl's bass solo was 10 times louder than usual.
For a few seconds, his bass covered all the other instruments, before coming back to its normal level at the end of the solo.

You can't always get what you want had a great response from the audience. The version was great, and Lisa ( very sexy that night) performed an extremely strong and emotive part on the song. At the end, she thanked the audience for singing along, which seemed to be a surprise to Mick. This show was a bit Lisa's show. During the introductions, Keith took her hand and drove her to the very front of the stage.

Can't you hear me knocking was great, Ronnie seems as good again as earlier on this tour.

My real disappointment was Keith singing Slipping away once more. I don't hate the song, but I'd liked to have Thru and Thru, which hadn't been performed in Wembley, whereas Sleeping away was already sung by Keith on Aug. 29. If you add the fact that Keith also rehearsed You win again a lot, Sleeping away was a big disapointment to me.
Then came Happy. Great version, with an additional saxophone player next to Bobby Keys. I have no idea about who he was, but he wasn't introduced at any moment.

On Sympathy for the devil, Bernard and Lisa came to the front of the stae with Mick, while Blondie went with Keith next to Charlie.

Keith played a beautiful intro to Paint it black, on which Tim Reese played keyboards next to Chuck.

You got me rocking was great, except a little problem at the end. The boys also messed up Street fighting men on the B-stage, but this show was in my opinion the best of the 3 Wembley Arena performances.