The Rolling Stones' album is finished...

Keith Richards has revealed the rock group has now finished its next LP and he can't wait for the fans to hear it but has admitted he and his bandmates - including Sir Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood - were forced to scrap a handful of songs at the last minute.

         

The 72-year-old rocker explained: ''That's [the next album] in the can, although it might surprise people that I can't say any more than that right now. We did sessions in London in December which suddenly gave us a whole load of stuff.

''In fact, the Stones have never cut so many tracks in such a short time. Now that's not necessarily a guarantee of a good record but there is something in the works and I'd just leave it up there in mysteryland.''

And, although the band have a combined age of 286, the 'Paint it Black' hitmakers show no sign of slowing down and are even planning some future tours following the success of their gig in Cuba - their biggest concert to date - last week.

Speaking to The Sun newspaper, he said: ''We're planning some gigs later on this year. I take each tour as it comes and at the moment I'm still shaking Cuba off me.''

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