Rolling Stones in Prague - Media coverage

[Barrow-wight aka MELLON]

Media coverage report

Rolling Stones in Prague, July 25 - 27, 2003

Set list:

Brown Sugar - Start Me Up - You Got Me Rocking - Don't Stop - Wild Horses - You Can't Always Get What You Want - Midnight Rambler - Tumbling Dice - Nearness Of You - Happy - Sympathy For The Devil - Neighbours - Little Red Rooster - Street Fighting Man - Gimme Shelter - It's Only Rock'n'Roll - Honky Tonk Women - Jumpin' Jack Flash - Satisfaction.

Taken from Stones Planet / RSFCO




Prague July 28, 2003

The media coverage of the Stones in Prague is huge ... not even NATO summit has attracted so much attention ! ;D I will be providing summaries of information produced by Czech dailies ... and mind you, just today all Czech newspapers brought coverage between 2 - 3 full pages ! ;D So watch out.


I am starting here with random selection of images brought by one of the leading Czech news servers:

www.idnes.cz/



ROLLING STONES playing Letna Park, July 27

Václav Havel opening









Click here for the full gallery !



MICK JAGGER B-DAY Celebration at Duplex Restaurant


Václav Havel and his wife


Jagger and Luciana Morado (Btw. She passed along our side at the concert / under the stage ... I thought ..."hey she must be a model" and I was right. ;D)













A dancer ...

Click here for the full gallery !


RONNIE WOOD opening his exhibition and Miro Gallery, Strahov Monastery




PS: Pina and Paulo, you may wish to know that they had meal at Ozivle drevo, i.e. that terrace restaurant overlooking Prague we had our lunch together ! ;D


Some English language articles are currently available at Stones Planet / RSFCO

Only now I noticed this, LMAO Charlotte, you must have done that on purpose ! ;D ;D ;D

Anyway, click here for the proper thing, LOL:
www.stonesplanet.com/prague.htm

Oh yeah .... the aftermath !

[Barrow-wight aka MELLON]

Let 's go ... Czech dailies monitor is here, LOL. ;D

I will start with the most serious one(yep, we will have fun later !)


Hospodárské noviny / Financial News

www.ihned.cz






Focus : technicalities and charity.

80 trucks
Stage size (90 m length, 31 m width, 28 m height)
Main screen size: 23 sq. m
Spotlights: 500 static, 200 mobile

Rolling Stones donated 100.000 USD to Dagmar and Vaclav Havel Foundation, Vize 97 :http://www.vize97.cz

The donationis meant to support education / training of music talents




Vecerník Praha / Evening Prague


www.vecernik-praha.cz/




Furniture RS travelled with: MJ' "lounge", KR' room ...





Focus: concert, party

B-day party:

Guests at MJ' B-day party included: Bob Geldof, Mick Jagger's children (5), parents and another close relatives (c. 30), Ronnie Wood' mum, musicians from Def Leppard ...

MJ arrived to Duplex shortly after midnight, the party went on till 6 am (hey I thought they looked a bit more worn out on stage than usual, lol. ;D ) ...MJ is reported to leave the party at 3.30 AM.

There were c. 200 guests and dozens of dancers. ;D They brought ("the British") however a DJ of their own ...

Most frequented drinks : champagne and mojito (dont ask me what's that thing, lol), long drinks.

Charlie and Havel left the party before Mick arrived.


On Saturday MJ spent 2 hours and 30 minutes at the British Embassy in Prague upon the invitiation of the Ambassador.

At the end the Stones did not visit opening of the joint exhibition of Anton Corbijn / photographer and of Borek Sipek / designer at Arzenal : www.arzenal.cz/pages/index-eng.html

(I will bring photos from there later).




To be continued ...

[Barrow-wight aka MELLON]

Právo / Justice

www.pravo.cz

Focus: see headlines ....






The Stones concert was opened by Vaclav Havel




Jagger celebrated his 60th B-day




100.000 USD for Vize 97Foundation


Before the gates opened ...


Birthday celebration:

500 fans were waiting in front of the restaurant;
Keith Richards played playboy ;D ... when leaving his minubus he was accompanied by several screaming mini-skirted young ladies ....

Additional info on MJ guests: two of his children specified : Elisabeth, Jade; brother Chris.



Miro Gallery - exhib. opening

Vaclav Havel and his wife attended.

There Ronnie was awarded European Union Art Award (? - not entirely sure whether this is the official title of the award).

Among guests: Czech artists, businessmen, etc. .... Zora Jandova and her husband Zdenek Merta sang/played some Moravian folk thing.

Ronnie's dring during that event: juice. ;D

No other Stone participated. Ronnie said that since they consider his painting a private activity, they do not know why to attend his exhibits. ;D

After the event Ronnie and Mrs and Mr. Havel (and 20 more persons) had dinner at Ozivle drevo restaurant : terraces at the front side of the Monastery overlooking Prague.

Menu: fish, archival wine ;D

My comment: By the way, highly recommended : a bit expensive place yet beautiful with friendly service and fine meals !

On that event 8 of the RW paintings were sold.

Concert / before the concert

Hotel: Four Seasons
Dinner upon arrival: Hergetova cihelna restaurant at Kampa, Lesser Town overlooking the river. www.cihelna.com/



Support acts

1) BrainStorm : Lithuanian rock (or rather pop): www.brainstorm.lv/home.php


2) Olympic - Czech rock band
(started in the 60s ...40 years of existence, similarly to Stones ... though ... they are not RS ;D)

www.bestia.cz/olympic/

According to Pravo, Olympic complained that though support band they received field tickets to Stones concert only ...they were allowed to take picture (one) with the band but they were not allowed to publish it ! ... and they also complained about difficulties when it comes to RS management and necessary negotiations RE concert, equipment, etc.

(My note: I am not moved, btw. ;D ... I liked them at the end of the 1960s when I was 10, so that you understand, lol).


Rest of the articles: unbearable heat at the Letna plain combined with shower and thunderstorm in the evening ... Donation to Vize 97, 80.000 people in the audience ...



Oh yeah: given the location of the concert, most of the Prague could hear it !




To be continued ....

[Barrow-wight aka MELLON]

Lidové noviny / News for people ...
... or something like that in the translation.

www.lidovky.cz



Mick at 60


Vaclav Havel opened the concert





Jagger and his friend leaving the UK Embassy


... After the 1st song Mick cast aside his glittering jacket


Jagger's father at Mick's b-day celebration ... Mick's children arrived at the Embassy by a minibus


My comment: that is what we produced in the heat ...


Wood paints Elvis as well as rhinos


Summary of RS itinerary brought by LN


Friday:
Arrival / settling down at Four Seasons
Mick Jagger and friends had dinner at Hergetova cihelna

Saturday:
Ron Wood visited Miro Gallery
RS spent over 2 hours at the British Embassy
RS celebrated Mick's B-day at Duplex

Sunday:
Concert at Letna plán<br>





Mladá Fronta / Youth Front

www.idnes.cz



Hi Prague, Hi Czechia

Note to Pina provided in anticipation of Pina-specific question:

Yes indeed he uttered couple of sentences in Czech. But no, he did NOT say zmrd ! ;D



KR's face reminds us of the long history of the band





From the left: Famous fan; Ron Wood at Miro Gallery; before the concert


15 hours of waiting for Jagger (at 4 Seasons) ... the pic is from Wenceslass Sq / in front of Duplex restaurant


"Before he went to see the Stones, Havel refreshed his knowledge of the Stones history "

Summary: Jiri Cerny, Czech senior rock publicist / journalist was welcoming Vaclav Havel on the stage. Havel asked Jiri Cerny to sum up the Stones history for him .. at that moment (Saturday) even he (Havel) did not know where the MJ b-day party would be and he even had no idea who, out of the Czechs, was actually invited. J. Cerny also provided briefing on the Stones tour, the song list on the last double album, and they also discussed the "on-stage" speech of Mr. Havel.




Dr. Miro Smolak, owner of the Gallery, Ron and his wife Jo / Josephine)

Additional info on the guests: Jurij Gorbacov, Russian artist (his exhibition preceded Wood's)



Jack Berry; the stage construction.

Info provided by J. Berry: On the stage each Stone has a personal assistant; altogether the Stones on this tour carry up to 60 guitars out of which, Keith has c. 20. The most difficult work concerns the security arrangements.



The heat ...

[Pina]

Jana,

It is scary how well you know me! Yes, I would definitely have made a "zmrd" comment! ;D

And I'd like to know why Ron's wife dresses like Britney Spears? And yes, we now have photographic proof that Paulo's "FD" statement about Keith is indeed true!

By the way, a mojito is a Cuban drink -- a blend of sugar, mint leaves, lime juice, rum, ice, and soda water. It's garnished with a sprig of mint on top, making it one of the rare cocktails that actually improves the odour of your breath! ;D

Seriously, thanks for posting all of this! I will try and put together something about the July 30 Rolling Stones concert here in Toronto (to benefit our SARS-ridden economy). So far, 430,000 tickets have been sold!

[Paulo]

Did I make a "FD" statement... you must be mistaken!!! ZMRD!!!! I'm out of here... mellon.topcities.com/SubDirectory/smilies/hidesbehindsofa.gif
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