ILS1
07-26-2006, 07:50 PM
By Joe Gross
AMERICAN-STATESMAN MUSIC WRITER
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
It's official: The Rolling Stones are coming to Austin.
Capital Sports and Entertainment and Charles Attal Presents confirmed Tuesday that the rock 'n' roll band, regarded by many as the world's greatest, is planning to play Zilker Park on Oct. 22. The two companies are co-producing the show with the Stones organization.
"This is more of a save-the-date announcement," CSE promoter Charlie Jones said. "Most of the details that fans want to know are being worked out."
Information on ticket prices and sale dates, stage layout, shuttle buses and seating arrangements is forthcoming, Jones said.
However, Jones did confirm that the concert will have a capacity of 50,000. In 2005, about 65,000 people per day attended the Austin City Limits Music Festival, also promoted by CSE and Attal.
This year's ACL festival is scheduled for Sept. 15-17 and will host more than 130 bands on eight stages. Although three-day passes to the popular shindig are sold out, single tickets are still available.
The Stones announced the new North American tour dates on the band's Web site Tuesday.
This will be the first Austin show by the 44-year-old band, which canceled an October 1994 appearance at Austin's Royal-Memorial Stadium, opting instead to play the Alamodome in San Antonio. The Stones played Dallas and Houston in late 2005.
The only other Texas date on this leg of the "Bigger Bang" tour is Oct. 20 at the Sun Bowl in El Paso. The tour also includes stops in such unlikely markets as Missoula, Mont., and Boise, Idaho.
Although the Stones' singles have not scored many radio spins in recent years, the band's 2005 album "A Bigger Bang" has gone platinum. And the band is still a box-office powerhouse, even though the combined ages of the band's four principals — singer Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood and drummer Charlie Watts — is 249.
Jagger, Richards and Watts are the band's sole remaining founding members. Wood joined in 1975.
Although forced to postpone 15 shows from May to July after Richards, 62, injured his head falling out of a tree, the 2006 leg of the band's "Bigger Bang" tour nonetheless has been the year's second-highest grosser, taking in a whopping $52.5 million in the first six months. The Stones lagged behind only Madonna, who grossed $54.3 million.
With Zilker Park so quickly being called back into service after the Austin City Limits Festival, Jones tried to lay to rest concerns about overusing the public space.
"I want to protect that park as much as anybody else," Jones said. "We put this together the same way we put ACL together, starting with the neighborhood associations and working our way up the ladder to the city manager's office."
Jay Stone, the division manager of finance and special events for Austin Parks and Recreation, said CSE has used the park in good faith.
"The ACL festival costs the taxpayers absolutely nothing. Zero," Stone said. City employees "put in a lot of hours, but CSE reimburses the city 100 percent. That's for park police, operations, road closures, cleanup, maintenance, everything. I assume the Stones show would not cost the citizen one penny, either."
The same weekend the Stones play at Zilker, Auditorium Shores will host the Power of the Cross Festival, a full day of free live Christian music and outreach on Oct. 21.
"I don't think the two events will interfere with each other," Jones said.
Story Link (www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/2006/07/26stones.html)
AMERICAN-STATESMAN MUSIC WRITER
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
It's official: The Rolling Stones are coming to Austin.
Capital Sports and Entertainment and Charles Attal Presents confirmed Tuesday that the rock 'n' roll band, regarded by many as the world's greatest, is planning to play Zilker Park on Oct. 22. The two companies are co-producing the show with the Stones organization.
"This is more of a save-the-date announcement," CSE promoter Charlie Jones said. "Most of the details that fans want to know are being worked out."
Information on ticket prices and sale dates, stage layout, shuttle buses and seating arrangements is forthcoming, Jones said.
However, Jones did confirm that the concert will have a capacity of 50,000. In 2005, about 65,000 people per day attended the Austin City Limits Music Festival, also promoted by CSE and Attal.
This year's ACL festival is scheduled for Sept. 15-17 and will host more than 130 bands on eight stages. Although three-day passes to the popular shindig are sold out, single tickets are still available.
The Stones announced the new North American tour dates on the band's Web site Tuesday.
This will be the first Austin show by the 44-year-old band, which canceled an October 1994 appearance at Austin's Royal-Memorial Stadium, opting instead to play the Alamodome in San Antonio. The Stones played Dallas and Houston in late 2005.
The only other Texas date on this leg of the "Bigger Bang" tour is Oct. 20 at the Sun Bowl in El Paso. The tour also includes stops in such unlikely markets as Missoula, Mont., and Boise, Idaho.
Although the Stones' singles have not scored many radio spins in recent years, the band's 2005 album "A Bigger Bang" has gone platinum. And the band is still a box-office powerhouse, even though the combined ages of the band's four principals — singer Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood and drummer Charlie Watts — is 249.
Jagger, Richards and Watts are the band's sole remaining founding members. Wood joined in 1975.
Although forced to postpone 15 shows from May to July after Richards, 62, injured his head falling out of a tree, the 2006 leg of the band's "Bigger Bang" tour nonetheless has been the year's second-highest grosser, taking in a whopping $52.5 million in the first six months. The Stones lagged behind only Madonna, who grossed $54.3 million.
With Zilker Park so quickly being called back into service after the Austin City Limits Festival, Jones tried to lay to rest concerns about overusing the public space.
"I want to protect that park as much as anybody else," Jones said. "We put this together the same way we put ACL together, starting with the neighborhood associations and working our way up the ladder to the city manager's office."
Jay Stone, the division manager of finance and special events for Austin Parks and Recreation, said CSE has used the park in good faith.
"The ACL festival costs the taxpayers absolutely nothing. Zero," Stone said. City employees "put in a lot of hours, but CSE reimburses the city 100 percent. That's for park police, operations, road closures, cleanup, maintenance, everything. I assume the Stones show would not cost the citizen one penny, either."
The same weekend the Stones play at Zilker, Auditorium Shores will host the Power of the Cross Festival, a full day of free live Christian music and outreach on Oct. 21.
"I don't think the two events will interfere with each other," Jones said.
Story Link (www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/2006/07/26stones.html)