Both my mother and the Rolling Stones arrived in town last week, so it’s been a bit of a busy time. Mom isn’t much of a fan of the band, however, because when the Stones first hit big, she was newly married, with new babies: more concerned with sticky fingers than Sticky Fingers. She is, however, a big fan of her grandchildren, so she was delighted to stay with the kids while my husband and I went to the concert with some friends.
When we heard that the Stones were coming to town, our group of friends had a discussion about what tickets to buy: premier standing room tickets, which would get us close to the stage but would require standing for at least four hours; the regular price tickets which would save us money but keep us on our feet; or the reserved seats, towards the back but with the chance to, well, sit down.
The youngsters among us (read: 40-somethings) thought that standing would be all right, but others among us weren’t quite so sure: standing for a long time triggers an ache in my lower back; someone has a sciatica issue; another friend has knee problems (youthful injury, mid-30s repair, early-50s twinges). We got the reserved seats.
The upside of seats? Sitting.
The downside of seats? Sitting – or rather, feeling odd about wanting to dance, which as far as I’m concerned is the real reason to go to a rock ‘n’ roll show. In my younger days, I would have stood up to dance without a thought about the people sitting behind me, but now? I hesitated, but I didn’t want to be rude. Luckily, the people behind us left early, so I spent the last 40 minutes of the concert dancing, with nary a twinge to show for it the next day. Probably I could have stood for the entire concert. Mick did, after all.
Despite his youthful wiggling, Mick does show some sign of age, as does the entire band. They all wear sensible shoes, for example, albeit with a rock ‘n’ roll flair. Keith looked to be wearing snakeskin trainers.
At other Stones shows I’ve seen, back when the band members were mere lads of 50 and 60, they rarely paused between songs. Here, they paused between almost every tune. During some of these pauses, Mick tried out a few Arabic phrases, carefully enunciating “shock-ran” and reeling off the names of various emirates, including someplace that sounded like “ross all GHamAH”.
Even 20 years ago, the Stones resembled nothing so much as parodies of themselves: Keith’s goofy grin and skullhead rings; the placid (some might say tranquillised) Charlie, drumming brilliantly; Mick’s prancing and posturing. I mean really, can men whose fortunes exceed the GNP of several small countries combined be seen as “Jumpin’ Jack Flash?” And yet, even though I arrive at their shows chuckling at the incongruity of these geezers cranking out lyrics about honky-tonk women, I always leave thinking “that was a great show”. Every night, Mick and the boys crank up an entity called “The Rolling Stones”, and then the razzle-dazzle machine takes over.
It makes sense: a band couldn’t stick around this long without being really good at what they do. At the centre of it all is the longest-running marriage in show biz: Mick-and-Keith. Like most long-term relationships, this one has had its (much-publicised) ups and downs, but at a certain point they must have shrugged and thought “OK, so you’re always going to put your socks on the coffee table, aren’t you” (or whatever the rock ‘n’ roll equivalent of that thought might be) and just decided to get along.
As long as I’ve been alive, there has been a band called The Rolling Stones. Maybe because I’ve just hit 50 (or 50 just hit me), I had a rather morbid thought as I danced there at my seat: it’s going to be strange when one of the Stones dies. That’s the thing about 50, I think: you can no longer deny the inevitability of an endgame. I have a similar thought every time I see my mother, whom I adore. She’s as fit as the proverbial fiddle, but she’s three years older than Mick, and frankly I’m not ready for either of them to leave the stage.
Maybe that’s a new facet of the Rolling Stones’ appeal for those of us who have grown up with their music. They embody Dylan Thomas’s command to “not go gentle into that good night”. Far from gently, Mick and Keith, Ronnie and Charlie, stand raucously on the edge of the mortal coil, banging and twanging, wiggling and clapping, as if to keep darkness at bay.
Deborah Lindsay Williams (mannahattamamma.com) is a professor of literature at NYU Abu Dhabi
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
FORSPOKEN
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Starfield
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WandaVision
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany
Directed by: Matt Shakman
Rating: Four stars
SPECS
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'The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey'
Rating: 3/5
Directors: Ramin Bahrani, Debbie Allen, Hanelle Culpepper, Guillermo Navarro
Writers: Walter Mosley
Stars: Samuel L Jackson, Dominique Fishback, Walton Goggins
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Men’s singles
Group A: Son Wan-ho (Kor), Lee Chong Wei (Mas), Ng Long Angus (HK), Chen Long (Chn)
Group B: Kidambi Srikanth (Ind), Shi Yugi (Chn), Chou Tien Chen (Tpe), Viktor Axelsen (Den)
Women’s Singles
Group A: Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn), Pusarla Sindhu (Ind), Sayaka Sato (Jpn), He Bingjiao (Chn)
Group B: Tai Tzu Ying (Tpe), Sung Hi-hyun (Kor), Ratchanok Intanon (Tha), Chen Yufei (Chn)
The design
The protective shell is covered in solar panels to make use of light and produce energy. This will drastically reduce energy loss.
More than 80 per cent of the energy consumed by the French pavilion will be produced by the sun.
The architecture will control light sources to provide a highly insulated and airtight building.
The forecourt is protected from the sun and the plants will refresh the inner spaces.
A micro water treatment plant will recycle used water to supply the irrigation for the plants and to flush the toilets. This will reduce the pavilion’s need for fresh water by 30 per cent.
Energy-saving equipment will be used for all lighting and projections.
Beyond its use for the expo, the pavilion will be easy to dismantle and reuse the material.
Some elements of the metal frame can be prefabricated in a factory.
From architects to sound technicians and construction companies, a group of experts from 10 companies have created the pavilion.
Work will begin in May; the first stone will be laid in Dubai in the second quarter of 2019.
Construction of the pavilion will take 17 months from May 2019 to September 2020.
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
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if you go
The flights
Emirates offer flights to Buenos Aires from Dubai, via Rio De Janeiro from around Dh6,300. emirates.com
Seeing the games
Tangol sell experiences across South America and generally have good access to tickets for most of the big teams in Buenos Aires: Boca Juniors, River Plate, and Independiente. Prices from Dh550 and include pick up and drop off from your hotel in the city. tangol.com
Staying there
Tangol will pick up tourists from any hotel in Buenos Aires, but after the intensity of the game, the Faena makes for tranquil, upmarket accommodation. Doubles from Dh1,110. faena.com
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The 12 breakaway clubs
England
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur
Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus
Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid
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MATCH INFO
Watford 1 (Deulofeu 80' p)
Chelsea 2 (Abraham 5', Pulisic 55')
