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Dec 26, 2024 Web Exclusive By Hays Davis

Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush finds the Rolling Stones performing a 1999 club show, days before sold-out appearances at Wembley Stadium. Presenting the Stones in an intimate setting 25 years prior to 2024’s Hackney Diamonds tour, this release underscores the particularly unique and multifaceted experience that Stones fans enjoy, where they have been able to look back over various video sources and watch a band evolve and perform live in different settings within seven decades since the 1960s. And for the special occasion of this Shepherd’s Bush show, the Stones dig a bit deeper for a setlist that even hardcore followers might find surprising.

“Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush,” Mick Jagger says to the audience of 1800. “I’ve been waiting to say that for a little bit.” With Charlie Watts powering the band at the drum kit, the Stones are in top form. Tearing through one crowd-pleaser after another, an animated Jagger leads the group from “Shattered” into “It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It) and “Respectable” to start the show. Keith Richards is clearly enjoying himself, and Ron Wood in close-up displays the art of playing a solo during “All Down the Line” while keeping a lit cigarette lodged between his fingers. Along with the setlist’s Stones classics, the band turns to 1994’s Voodoo Lounge for the only known live performance to date of “Moon is Up” as well as one of only seven times that “Brand New Car” was brought to a stage, and Black and Blue’s “Melody” had previously seen its only other performance, in 1977. Richards takes over the mic for “You Got the Silver” and a brass-powered “Before They Make Me Run,” and Sheryl Crow joins Jagger on vocals for “Honky Tonk Women” before the band rips into “Route 66.”

With a visual presentation that alternates between full-stage shots and split screens, Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush brings the viewer right into the action for the Stones’ rare return to a small venue. The 4K UHD presentation is vibrant, and the show is available as well in a handful of other formats. Twenty-five years after the sweat dried on this Shepherd’s Bush stage, it’s great to finally receive this Welcome.

(rollingstones.com)