Well at least a few of our regulars got to see him and he looked great. Could of been much worse...imagine the poor slobs stuck next door at that ABBA musical thing......

LadyJane wrote on Jul 1^st, 2012 at 8:47am:



Lovely! Ben didnt play at the Fallon show, for some reason. Wonder why that was.

Heres some short footage, but I'm not sure what songs they are, and we werent allowed to video!

http://youtu.be/Z-r2ZcWvEPA

http://youtu.be/wXEv-54gUjE

http://youtu.be/0k9op5JrOvE

Gracias Bitch! Merci

You rock

Good photos Bitch!  Glad you guys had a great time!

Gazza wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2012 at 7:18am:




I certainly didn't or you would have heard me screaming in Belfast.
From a report I just read, well here, let me copy and paste.

From Shidoobee's west 8:

"I was lucky enough to be sitting at the same table as Keith. It was exciting to see him ! People cheered when he came and sat down and when he left as well. That was it. No one came over to him and asked for an autograph or anything. It was interesting to watch Keith watch Charlie and the band. I never saw Keith from that view point. A fan like myself. He was really enjoying the show. The best Keith moment of the night was at the end when Charlie was leaving the stage Keith gives him a big hug and Big smiles between the two of them. It was a great moment between 2 friends still there for each other after 50 years. Keith smile was saying "You done good old friend" Aside from that Wow what a great show. They were just so on. I am so glad I had the chance to see this show"

LadyJane wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2012 at 7:47am:





Wow! Cool picture!  Here's what the NY Times said about Monday:

Just Waiting on a FriendBy JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.

Keith Richards showed up at the Iridium on Monday night to see Charlie Watts, his band mate in the Rolling Stones, play a set of jump blues and boogie woogie songs. There were rumors before the 8 p.m. set that Mr. Richards, the famed guitarist for the Stones, would sit in with Mr. Watts and his band, but it became clear halfway through the set that Mr. Richards was there only to provide moral support. He gave Mr. Watts a big hug as he came off stage.

Mr. Watts and his band, the ABC & D of Boogie Woogie, had just finished a four-night stand at the Iridium, a relatively small jazz room on Broadway, after playing one night at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing series. The band is led by the German pianist Alex Zwingenberger, but has a secondary pianist and vocalist, Ben Waters, a stalwart Englishman who literally lifted the piano with his legs when he got swinging to the beat. They were joined by the bassist Dave Green, who is a longtime friend of Mr. Watts, and the vocalist Lila Ammons, the granddaughter of the famed boogie-woogie player Albert Ammons.

It was an oldies set. Indeed it was a set of songs that would have been considered oldies back in the 1960s when Mr. Watts and Mr. Richards were young. The songs were all hot 12-bar blues tunes with a wicked walking bassline, drawing from R&B, jump blues, swing and early rock’n’roll. Mr. Watts and the band blazed through tunes like Ray Charles’s hit “What’d I Say,” Charles Calhoun’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll” and W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues.”

They rocked several blistering, obscure boogie-woogie tunes, and slowed down only once in a while for some lazy blues, often with a comic twist, like Mr. Waters’s rendition of “Oreo Cookie Blues,” which is about a man fighting his addiction to sugary snacks.

Mr. Watts, silver-haired, rail thin and fit at 71, seemed content and Zen-like behind the drums at center stage, where he used brushes, mallets and sticks to beat out the shuffle rhythms and swinging triplet-based figures of the musical era that preceded his own. Though he is most famous for his work with the Stones, Mr. Watts has always done jazz side projects, going back to the 1970s when he joined the back-to-basics boogie-woogie group Rocket 88. He started performing concerts with the ABC&D of Boogie Woogie three years ago, and in 2010 he recorded the album “The Magic of Boogie Woogie” as a trio with Mr. Zwingenberger and Mr. Green

Nice report - great pic too! he's looking well.

Some of my pics. Hope you enjoy.
I am still on cloud nine after this magic night.
If you get the chance to see The ABC&D of Boogie Woogie, RUN to the ticket office!!!

Charlie's Drums aka The Holy Grail


Charlie and Dave Green



He smiles!!!!


Axel Zwingenberger, Lila Ammons and The Wembley Whammer


Ben Waters


Final Bows




LJ before the show


And a special treat. This pic was taken by my dear friend Blue Lena. It is one of the best shots I have seen yet!!

excellent reporting!!! thanks to all!!!

Charlie only shook 3 hands at the 8 PM Sunday show. Mine, Hollies and Lynns. It was so awesome to be front dead center for the man. Just the facial expressions. he kept looking toward Sherlie and smiling. The show was awesome. i really don't care if I see the Stones again.

Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts shines a light on 50th anniversary while playing with jazz band

By Associated Press, Published: July 6




NEW YORK — Even though he’s played in the same rock ‘n’ roll band for nearly 50 years, Charlie Watts still prefers playing jazz.

The Rolling Stones drummer learned how to play it by imitating his favorite jazz players as a teenager.


So during his breaks with the Stones, Watts has played jazz, not rock, and that legacy continues with his latest venture, The A, B, C, and D of Boogie Woogie. The quartet recently released “Live in Paris” from one of their shows during a recent 10-show run at the club Duc des Lombards.

Watts recently spoke to The Associated Press about the project, as well as what’s being planned for the Rolling Stones’ 50th anniversary next year.

AP: Tell me about the comfort level of this band.

Watts: I’ve known Dave (Green) for 65 years. We’ve lived next door to each other. He’s always in bands that I’ve been in besides the Rolling Stones. Axel (Zwingenberger) I’ve known since ‘80-something. And Ben (Waters) I’ve known for three years, but I’ve known of him from many years before that because he’s a progeny — his aunt and uncle were friends of a guy called Ian Stewart who used to play piano with us. And I used to play in one of Stew’s bands in this county called Dorcet. That’s how I know his aunt and uncle. And I know of Ben because he loved Stew and tried to emulate his playing.



AP: Is there a big difference in playing drums in a jazz band from playing in a rock band?

Watts: I don’t play power drums; they just turn the knobs up now. Yes, it’s much more physical to play rock ‘n’ roll, especially with the volume that you play at — that they play at, they being guitar players as opposed to playing this with a tenor saxophone player or trumpet player. The volume is all the same, particularly with the A, B, C, and D of Boogie Woogie, obviously two are piano players. To play well with a piano player, you have to be able to play — there’s a lot of control needed. And you’re playing almost acoustically.

AP: So what’s next for you?

Watts: I think we’re going to be doing a lot of 50th anniversary stuff, we, the Rolling Stones.

AP: Like a tour or an album?

Watts: No, just other things. Fifty years of things. A documentary, well, they haven’t approved it yet. I haven’t seen it, but we worked on that earlier this year. Books and things like that. There will be other things that the 50 years mean. And touring, we haven’t gotten that far. We’re still talking about the color of the back page of the book, so we’ll see what happens.

AP: Fifty years? Marriages don’t often last that long.

Watts: Actually mine lasted 49 years. ... When I joined the Rolling Stones ... I thought it would last a few months, because that’s what bands last. I’d been in a lot of bands up until then that last two or three months. Then it became three years. I thought that’s it, it won’t. ... We’re very fortunate. One of the ways that it lasted so long because we have a huge fan base, and I don’t mean that in a conceited way, but it is that. ... With the Rolling Stones it’s people saying, “It’s the fans,” people saying, “Yes, you should.” And indeed it’s us saying, “We’ll play New Haven,” and if people come, you know, that keeps it going on and on.