and??????? or is everyone waiting for the Belmont?

Short clip of JJF from the NOS news programme :

http://nos.nl/video/658255-rolling-stones-zetten-pinkpop-op-zn-kop.html

They look fabulous. Thanks for the great pics! This version of Rocks Off is perfect! First time this tour I think.
Rocks Off

Getting ready for round 2 at pinkpop. Today; stromae, biffy clyro and metallica... And a beer of  course. It's in the 30c right now, but there's talk of rain/hail/thunder this eve. We are praying to the rock gods.

I had such a great time. Can't believe how lively Jagger seems, even the rest of them. Much much better than say 2007, even better than last year's Hyde Park show I saw. I think hot Berlin tonight's gonna be amazing.
Will post my videos when I upload them to Youtube tomorrow.

Egon and Nicolas: it was so great to meet you guys!
Albert: sorry we couldn't make it through the crowds as we were quite late due to traffic jams and wanted to see everything. Did you have a good show in the golden circle?

PS: Tonight at day 3 at Pinkpop a huge scary thunderstorm with black skies and heavy rain passed the terrain, talk of the night on TV and Twitter. National weather service put out a 'code red' alarm, but there was no way to evacuate 60,000 people. So people were instructed to squat down. Eventually no one was hurt and the eye of the storm was located a little to the East, just over the border in Germany.

The Metallica show was postponed 1 hour. I just texted Egon, and he's ok, but said it was 'not funny'.

See pix: http://www.nrc.nl/inbeeld/2014/06/09/noodweer-op-pinkpop/

Your commitment is beyond question Egon!

Glad you are safe.

Angie wrote on Jun 9^th, 2014 at 4:47pm:


Hoi Angelique,

sure was a pity we couldn't meet but maybe a second change at Werchter?

I had a great time in the pit and ......yes: this was really one of the better shows especially because the guitars were really good and loud in the mix. I saw a band that was having fun on stage en really liked to perform for a crowd that was very enthousiastic!

And Egon: yes the other days were great as well; could do without the rainstorm though.

2 weeks to go to Werchter!

grft,
Albert
Holland

So I thought I'd give you my impression of the European Tour..I saw the Stones at the Pinkpop Festival a little over two weeks ago and never got to write some comments. 

My overall impression is that the Stones have yet again raised the standards for gigs in front of large crowds. It's amazing to see a 70 year-old Mick in such great shape. It's fun to see that they refuse to hide their age: yes the boys turned in to old men, but they still show people how to ROCK.

The circumstances under which the Pinkpop show was held were subpar. It was very hot that day, and it takes some effort to reach the Pinkpop-festival area. Because the festival spent almost every penny for the saturday-lineup on the Stones, my wife and I decided that it would be best to arrive around 6 and skip the afternoon line-up. 
Naturally the railway-companies fucked up, so we ended up on the festival site about 30 minutes before the Stones started their show. Since there was a massive crowd, this meant we missed meeting former Gasser LYL (who had trouble getting a ticket but ended up inside after finding the right scalper) and couldn't find Egon. We managed to find some other friends and got a good spot where we could see the stage and go get a beer at the same time.

The setlist for Pinkpop had no surprises other than Rocks Off because it was the 'winner' of the song poll they always do. That mattered little to me though: there were 7 years (minus 1 day) between this Stones gig and the previous one I attended and back in 2007 I was convinced I had seen the band for the last time. So I had little to wish for, because right at that moment I just wanted to catch a show by my favorite band.

They kicked off with JJF,  the song I prefer for the kick off over Start Me Up and I was thrilled to hear the guitars turned up and the backing band turned down.
YGMR was the second song so I was glad to get that over with. It was a good performance of a song I don't need to hear live anymore. IORR was good, Tumbling Dice was brilliant.

Ballad pick was Angie, which makes sense because it's their biggest hit in the Netherlands and they played for a mixed crowd: I'd say a third of the saturday night crowd had never seen the Stones before. Good performance.

Planning Doom And Gloom behind a ballad feels odd to me, but the boys seem to run with it, so okay. I still think it's a nice song, but it does work better as a studio track.

Like I said: Rocks Off was the poll winner and Mick managed to sing this one right instead of out of key for a change.  Love the song. According to iTunes it's the song I've listened to most in recent years, obviously because it's the Exile kick-off and people bother me listening to that album often enough to see the number of spins fall back a little as it counts down to Soul Survivor. But that's beside this. 

Out Of Control was next, as it returned to the set for 14 On Fire. I never cared much for the studio version of the song, but live...WOW! Stellar performance with Mick playing the harmonica and Daryll giving his all...fucken great.

Keef's two song set was misunderstood by the Pinkpop crowd. He decided to kick back a little with You Got The Silver and rock on with Can't Be Seen.  He missed a few punches on both tracks, but it was cool otherwise.

The absolute highlight of the show came next: Rambler with Mick Taylor. I never saw Little Mick on stage with the boys before (which makes sense because I was born in '73) so I flipped when the moment was finally there. The man gets one song in the spotlight, but he sure knows how to make his efforts count. His guitar work hit the crowd like a tidal wave. 

The weirdest part about it at a festival: a lot of people didn't have a clue who was on stage with the Stones. The  verdict was unanimous though: amazing performance.

Miss You was next so we could take a few breaths and get a couple of cold one, and the show rolled on towards the finale afterwards.  Lisa Fisher didn't reach the high registers one Shelter and seeing YCAGWYW  with the choir intro was grand.

I posted this on G3 too btw...I assume that's okay..