Rolling Stones Music Group

Lots of people think the world's greatest rock band will be on stage this week when the Rolling Stones and Guns N' Roses appear at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but don't assume they're all referring to the Stones. The Stones have been called the world's greatest band for so long now that no one even considered the possibility on past tours of another group actually upstaging the masters.

These are days of unfinished business for the Rolling Stones as they continue to mine their vault for "lost" material -- a fascinating cache of unreleased tracks from the 1977-1978 "Some Girls" sessions arrives in stores next week -- and gather their dark powers for their 50th anniversary next year and perhaps another tour. Lead singer Mick Jagger chuckled when asked about the advice he would give himself as the band sizes up the golden anniversary and its possibilities. "You can't be too impressed, I think," Jagger said.

It was supposed to be the West Coast's answer to Woodstock--a free, unfettered music festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Co-sponsored by the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead, the event was envisioned as a perfect way to sing goodby to the '60s. But when the relocated concert took place at the Altamont Speedway east of the city on Dec. 6, 1969, it quickly sank into the annals of rock history as a colossal disaster.

Coffee-table books on historic rock tours are a dime a dozen. Photographer Ethan A. Russell's weighty new tome, "Let It Bleed: The Rolling Stones 1969 U.S. Tour," from Rhino Books will set you back about 6,500 dimes (for the limited edition; 9,500 for the deluxe version), but the subject is one of the truly pivotal events in the annals of rock.

It was a familiar scene to anyone who has spent time on the road with the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards--the man whose "renegade cool" persona defined the image of rock guitarist, as surely as Elvis' hip-swinging sensuality once defined rock singers--was heading down a long hotel corridor. Only this time Richards was heading toward a photographer, not away from him. The once media-shy Richards was also walking in a straight line, not weaving as in his notorious drug days.

The sounds could have been from any construction site. From seven stories up came the clang of steel against steel, punctuated by wolf whistles and catcalls directed at young women walking by below. But that was Monday afternoon at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Tonight, the edifice will ring with "Steel Wheels" and cries of "awright" and "whooo!"

Coffee giant Starbucks and Virgin Records are co-releasing a CD of rare Rolling Stones remixes, B-sides and hard-to-find live recordings, the band announced on its website Wednesday. "Rarities: 1971-2003" will be released in Starbucks stores and in other retail outlets in the United States and Canada on Nov. 22.

IT'S only a few days before Super Bowl Sunday, and the guy directing and producing the pregame and halftime shows would like to know, please, which songs the Rolling Stones will perform. But the Stones aren't ready to decide yet.

The Rolling Stones reclaimed their title as rock's highest-paid band Wednesday when it signed an estimated $45-million contract with Virgin Records. The agreement begins with the group's next studio album, due in 1993. In bidding for the Stones, the British-based label won out over rival offers from three other companies, including Sony Music, the Japanese conglomerate that now owns Columbia Records, which signed the Stones to a record $25-million deal in 1983.

Disarmingly candid, charmingly cantankerous and yet not at all impolite, Keith Richards--who, with the rest of the Rolling Stones, last year signed a mammoth deal with Virgin Records--is probably the wealthiest man alive with whom even the lowliest commoner would feel completely at home in a smoke-filled beer bar. Not that commoners or anyone else are likely to spot Richards, 48, hanging out much these days.

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has demanded an apology from Swedish newspapers for their scathing reviews of the group's performance in the country this month. Tabloids Expressen and Aftonbladet gave thumbs down to the Aug. 3 concert at Ullevi stadium in Goteborg, with Expressen suggesting Richards was "superdrunk" on stage. "This is a first!" the 63-year-old rock star wrote in a letter published by Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter. "Never before have I risen to the bait of a bad review.

The Rolling Stones will rock Belgrade this summer even if their performance at the city's main racetrack distresses hundreds of horses stabled at the venue, concert organizers said Friday. "Preparations for the July 14 concert are going smoothly, there are no problems," said Dejan Maksimovic, a director of Music Star Productions, shrugging off concerns from an animal rights organization.

FOR most shutterbugs, retirement is a boon to their hobby. Not Bill Wyman. Seems his old day job was perfect for his photographic passions. But these days he's got a lot else keeping him busy. "Retired?" he says, with a dry smirk. "By the swimming pool, yeah."

The trick when writing about the Rolling Stones is selecting just the right lyric to plunder for pun -- do you go with an "it's only rock 'n' roll but they like it" motif or stick to that old standby, "they get satisfaction"? Today, let's try this: The Stones still have the concert industry under their thumb. The band set a new record for the highest-grossing tour in history by banking $437 million with its "A Bigger Bang" campaign, which began in the fall of 2005 and wrapped up in November.

The Rolling Stones have rescheduled their Dodger Stadium concert as part of a tour reshuffling made necessary by what they described as a recommendation to take four days off to allow 63-year-old lead singer Mick Jagger "to properly recover from recent throat problems." The band will perform Nov. 22 instead of Nov. 18. Tickets for the original date will be honored on the new one. Meanwhile, filming began Sunday night on a documentary that Martin Scorsese is making about the band.

The Rolling Stones canceled a concert in Spain's city of Valladolid after Mick Jagger was ordered by his doctor to rest his voice. Jagger developed laryngitis over the weekend, the Stones said in a statement on their website. The British rockers had sold 37,000 tickets for Monday night's appearance at the city's soccer stadium, said Carmen Carnero, a spokeswoman for the show's promoter. She said their concert would likely not be rescheduled.

With most rock bands, there is a single party line when it comes to interviews--as if every member sits down ahead of time and agrees on how to tell the story. With the Rolling Stones, however, there is usually the Mick Jagger line and the Keith Richards line. In the mid- and late '80s, when there were tensions between Jagger and Richards over the future of the band, you could understand how these two old chums saw things differently.

Powerhouse tours by the Rolling Stones, U2 and Paul McCartney helped drive concert ticket revenues in North America to a record $3.1 billion in 2005, even as the number of tickets sold declined for a third year. Fans purchased 36.1 million tickets to the top 100 concert tours, compared with 37.6 million in 2004, according to Pollstar, the industry trade magazine. Despite a slow first half of the year and the decline in tickets sold, concert tours in 2005 amounted to a 10.

The Rolling Stones plan to phone in their performance tonight in Paris. A new Los Angeles-based venture called Listen Live Now will give Stones fans a chance to eavesdrop via phone on any seven minutes of the show for $1.99. Fourteen other Stones shows in Europe are posted on the company's website, listenlivenow.com, where fans can also get information on the time and numbers to call. Marty Erlichman, Barbra Streisand's longtime manager, is a principal in the venture.

No moss on them: The Rolling Stones will roll back through North America in the fall with the group's "A Bigger Bang" tour, which includes a Nov. 18 stop at Dodger Stadium. Tickets go on sale Monday.