KEITH RICHARDS FLAYS GUITAR AT STAGE INVADER

YOU INVADE MY SPACE, I SMASH YOUR FACE > if only I wasn’t so busy playing this guitar.

On the Rolling Stones 1981 American tour, Keith Richards spotted a youngish male fan who made it on stage. The Stones guitarist took an almighty swing with his guitar at the invader’s head > missing by centimetres.

This immortal moment is captured on Rolling Stones stage film Let’s Spend The Night Together > directed by Hal Ashby.

SUPPORT ACT PRINCE BELTED WITH BEER CANS

Rolling Stones bass player Bill Wyman tells of an incident with funk soul brother Prince on the same tour.

Opening for the Stones in Los Angeles and wearing a pair of black bikini bottoms > Prince was soon pelted with beer cans by Stones fans. [A tale from Bill Wyman’s book Rolling With The Stones]

ROLLING STONES STAGE TAKES ON ADDED DIMENSIONS

Prince on the front cover of his 1988 album Lovesexy

IT’s like the Rolling Stones had to outdo themselves each tour > with bigger and more spectacular stadium shows.

The 80-plus show 1981/82 tour of the US and Europe had a stage over 350 feet across at full stretch > adorned with large cloth replicas of paintings by Japanese artist Kazuhide Yamazaki.

Eight semi-trailers were used to transport the stage.

GUITARIST RON WOOD ARRESTED FOR COCAINE

The Rolling Stones guitarist and partner Jo were arrested in St Maarten, the Caribbean, in February, 1980, on cocaine possession charges.

They spent five days in jail before being deported to the US.

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ROLLING STONES 1981 TOUR A HUGE HIT

Tour pictures from 1982 live album Still Life

More than 2 million people saw the Rolling Stones during their 50-plus concert – September to December 1981 – tour of America > the biggest tour the band had so far undertaken.

Bass player Bill Wyman says in his book Rolling with the Stones that on this mostly stadium tour, at some venues the band played to more people than on their first US tour in total, in the early 1960s.

The 1982 European tour had over 1.5 million fans in 33 gigs across 23 cities > three times as many people as the Rolling Stones previous European tour in 1976.

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DURAN DURAN SNOTTY LITTLE TURDS > SAYS KEITH RICHARDS

Duran Duran

“You get Duran Duran come down for a day, walk into our fucking sessions and say ‘what are you doing in that room together’. It’s called playing music, man. That’s the only way we record, you snotty little turd.”

That was what Keith Richards told British magazine New Musical Express about Duran Duran, after the 1980s pop group popped into the studios during the Stones recording session for 1986 album Dirty Work.

JAGGER TEARS OFF TINA TURNER’S DRESS AT LIVE AID SHOW

Mick Jagger performed a duet of State of Shock and It’s Only Rock and Roll with Tina Turner at the Bob Geldof-inspired Live Aid concert in July, 1985, to aid famine relief in Africa.

During the performance, after showing his ribbed torso, Jagger rips off the bottom part of Tina Turner’s dress to reveal a crutch-hugging pair of black something or others.

Eat your heart out Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson (Super Bowl 2004) > this was a deliberate wardrobe malfunction.

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THE ROCK GIANT AWAKES > STEEL WHEELS TOUR

The Rolling Stones “Steel Wheels” five-month tour of the US in 1989 was a giant musical and financial success > with a giant, multi-storey stage to boot > this metallic monster of urban decay encasing a dazzling light show.

The band > who hadn’t toured for seven years > were back on top, to the tune of enthusiastic reviews and crowds.

The Rolling Stones played to over three million fans, with then record gross takings of about $US200 million. Ticket prices were only a tad over $US30. [Yeah, damn cheap those days were, aye!]

The Stones then embarked on a European tour, under the moniker Urban Jungle.