Voodoo Lounge Tour August 1994 - August 1995

Voodoo Lounge Tour In Detail

In most jobs, if you take four years out, you’re going to be asked why.

And if you say ‘Felt like it’ or ‘Had better things to do’, you’re probably finished. You’ll be superseded by faster, younger layers of talent moving through.

If you’re into your fifties and were widely perceived to be slowing down before you took that lengthy sabbatical, you’re toast.

Unless you’re the best, of course. Then the break plays in your favour, and they’ll fight to get you back on the payroll, and pay double for the privilege if they have to. It’s called demand and supply.

Such was the happy fate of The Rolling Stones in 1994. When they kicked off the Voodoo lounge Tour on July 19, 1994, Mick Jagger, the LSE economics dropout, may have known that the band were embarking on the world’s highest grossing tour of all time; but he probably wasn’t banking on it.

Despite the meticulous commercial and creative preparation, and the creation of a ‘disposable’ hundred million dollar corporation that would rove the globe for over a year, with small army of full time employees, it was clear from the start that the band were on the road again because that’s what they wanted to do – it’s what they do.

In a precedented move, The Rolling Stones played an intimate, ‘secret’ gig to warm up - the RPM club in Toronto – which was a stormer. ‘Best club gig I’ve ever played with a band’ declared veteran keyboardist Chuck Leavall, ‘and I’ve played a few…’ .

August 1st 1994, at the RFK Memorial Stadium, Washington DC, saw the start of the tour proper. It ended $320 million, 134 gigs and 13 months almost to the day later, in Rotterdam, on August 30, 2005: the most successful rock tour in history at the time.

And what happened in between was a lot of great music – the biggest and most varied Rolling Stones tour set list for many year played to millions of new converts to the unique experience of hearing the band play live.