A Bigger Bang August 2005 - August 2007

A Bigger Bang In Detail

Bigger bangs for bigger bucks is about the size of it when the talk turns to The Stones' latest global excursion. But while the headline that accompanies the A Bigger Bang tour, the $550,000,000 gross that was taken in ticket receipts, what this astonishing sum tends to overshadow is the sheer quantity of music that was played, to such a vast number of people.

Over four and half million people saw and heard The Stones perform live between August 21, 2005 and August 26, 2007- and that doesn't include the estimated 2,000,000 who gathered on the Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on February 18, 2006 for what may have been the largest free concert in history.

The Rolling Stones played 81 different songs 2637 times, ranging from perennial favourite Jumpin' Jack Flash - which started most of the concerts and topped the frequency charts for the tour with a hefty 133 outings - to a handful of tunes that were only played once, including some local flavours - Wichita Lineman in Wichita, KA, and El Paso in - well, have a guess.

It started in Boston and ended - sweetly, for the global band that formed within the precincts of the SW10 postal code - in London, where time begins, on the Greenwich Meridian, at the 02 Arena, formerly The Dome.

Imagine doing that for two years. Imagine doing that for 45 years. Imagine being able to do that for 45 years.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the world of The Rolling Stones.