The Rolling Stones: Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush

A CD review of the latest archival release from the Stones. From their 1999 tour, the warm-up ‘secret’ Shepherd’s Bush club date gets an official release on various formats — and I like it. Yes I do.

The Rolling Stones

Welcome To Shepherd’s Bush

Promotone B.V., exclusively licensed to Mercury Studios Media Limited, a Universal Music Group Company

Much as I thought the last Rolling Stones studio album (Hackney Diamonds) was far better than it might have any right to be, I haven’t been craving any Stones in my listening diet. I’ve done them to death — and couldn’t get particularly pumped about them at all. Footage of the post-Charlie shows left me feeling cold, and not because of the band’s decision to carry on without him (well, maybe a little), certainly not because of his replacement (the perfect Steve Jordan), I just feel like enough’s enough right. That could have been the time to go out slightly gracefully.

But Pete Townshend inducted them into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame back in 1989 with a speech that concluded, “Guys, whatever you do, don’t grow old gracefully — it wouldn’t suit you!”

Weirdly, I really welcomed this release from the archives. Available on a variety of formats, as is the way now, you can stream it or fork for double CD or various DVD versions (Blu Ray, 4K) or the vinyl package, Welcome To Shepherd’s Bush, has been around on the bootleg circuit, but here it sounds sharp as an official release. Finally.

The band is about as blistering and charming as it got in its bloated Stadium Tour Forever daze (1989-2024…), which, weirdly is longer than its initial run (1963-1985) when all of the vital work was created. Longer by miles.

Anyway, in 1999 the band chose to ‘warm up’ for its stadium leg of the UK by playing the equivalent of a club date. About 2000 people jammed in tight to hear them play a selection of hits and what almost counts as a few rarities — though, come on, it’s a Stones gig for hardcore Stones fans, nothing is really a rarity!

Still, The Stones have nearly as many live albums as The Grateful Dead, or Pearl Jam or Phish, and to hear anything other than the usual hackneyed version of Satisfaction and the predictable run through a bunch of Start Me Up and Honky Tonk/Jack Flash perennials is reason enough to take some interest in this one, right?

Around this time, the band dusted off the title track to Some Girls, technically not a hit, but one of the band’s swaggery best. They also started dipping into Tattoo You and Exile On Main Street for more than just the obvious songs — so to this show, Mick asks if it’s okay for them to do an Exile song called All Down The Line, as if no one there knows it. Of course they bloody know it. But they probably didn’t think they were going to get to hear it. Of course it’s more than okay!

The peak example here is Melody, the Billy Preston-inspired jam from Black And Blue. Geez it’s nice to hear this. And Ronnie was sounding so good here.

I’ve never particularly liked the band’s live version of Shattered, nor cared for that song in its studio incarnation either (even if Some Girls is my favourite Stones album), but it seems to please the fans here. At any rate, things really cook with It’s Only Rock n Roll to follow. And then Respectable.

But it’s definitely the rarer gems that will have you wanting to hear this if you’ve ever been a fan. Melody is followed up with I Got The Blues, Mick in very good voice for this kind of showmanship-song.

And look, they do trot out Honky. Because they have to. And because it’s pretty fucking great. Sheryl Crow joins them here, and is most definitely not shit.

You Got The Silver has some really great slide, Before They Make Me Run has the obligatory Keef-does-Dylan lead vocal, and then to really make it feel like this R’n’B combo is back in the bar-rooms, they play Route 66. Yes, it’s a little slick, but the gesture alone is a fine thing.

You Got Me Rocking is one of the last great Stones songs — the last of the ones that wasn’t just a piss-break during the gigs — and man it sounds beefy and important here. Played in, and strong.

And to finish there’s a big run of Tumbling Dice (terrific), Brown Sugar (perfunctory but for the sax), and Jumpin’ Jack Flasb (well, I’d rather than than Satisfaction). Actually it’s a pretty stonkin’ rendition of Jack. So it’s not as if they don’t play plenty of bona fide hits.

But this is all 25 years ago. So whilst it was a different band in 1999 to the one the original heads grew up with, it’s also a different version of the band to the one still having a punt now. Different not in lineup, just in age. And that means a lot when we’re talking these sorts of numbers, 25 years, and then 50 years, and so on.

But I’ve been listening to the Stones on and off for my entire life, and this made me happier to hear them again than anything really has in years. So for that I reckon it’s worth the shot. It isn’t essential, but it’s pretty blood good. And if you ever cared about the band, then of course that’s enough.