Ageless Band with Aging Fans

After the veteran band had to cancel two gigs in Spain, due to a serious bout of laryngitis that came upon the frontman Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones began their European leg of their tour with a bigger bang.

Despite the fact that Jagger (63) and the other members of the band are well passed their crazy days, they are feeling good and are still being called by the press real 'party animals'. As the tour opened in South-West London, on the Twickenham stadium, the Stones had the surprise of their lives.

Their music may be ageless and they are still able to perform even better than they did in their younger years, but the passing of time has not left their fans unaltered. While Jagger opened the performance with his trademark swagger, the fans where not as able as he was to display their enthusiasm.

And that happened because most of them were already passed their glory days, pensioners who gathered orderly at the queue and waited patiently to be escorted to their seats. In fact, the number of elderly people was so huge that organizers had to cancel the half-price discount originally offered to fans past a certain age.

There were no drunken fights, no crowd-surfing, no pushing in the line or exchange of bad words, no dirty clothes and rock attitude, as the retired fans waiting for their ticket spoke of common things, kept calm and wore ironed pants and T-shirts with the Stones' logo.

Still, the 'Bigger Bang' tour is expected to be one of the cash grossing events of the year and, only in Britain, organizers have taken the less customary method of advertising in the newspapers for leftover tickets. Seats for the second Twickenham performance, as well as for those in Cardiff and Glasgow are still available.