Rolling Stones get two nominations for 2016 Billboard Music Awards ...

 

The Rolling Stones received two nominations for the 2016 Billboard Music Awards, which will be presented on May 22 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. ABC will have the live U.S. telecast at 8 p.m. ET. Ludacris and Ciara are hosting the ceremony. The show's performers and presenters are to be announced. Don’t count on the Rolling Stones being there, since the group almost never goes to awards shows.
The Rolling Stones’ 2016 Billboard Music Award nominations are for the same two Billboard Music Awards that One Direction won in 2015: Top Duo or Group and Top Touring Artist. In 2016, the other nominees for Top Duo or Group are Maroon 5, One Direction, Twenty One Pilots and U2.
The other Top Touring Artist nominees in 2016 are Madonna, One Direction, Taylor Swift and U2. Considering that Billboard already announced that Swift was the top touring artist of 2015, it’s pretty easy to see who will win the award in that category.
According to Billboard, the Billboard Music Awards finalists are based on "key fan interactions with music, including album and digital songs sales, radio airplay, streaming, touring and social engagement. These measurements are tracked year-round by Billboard and its data partners, including Nielsen Music and Next Big Sound." The 2016 Billboard Music Awards are based on the reporting period of March 23, 2015, through March 17, 2016.
As for which artists received the most nominations, the Weeknd scored nominations in 19 categories, while Bieber is a finalist in 12 categories, including Top Artist, Top Male Artist, and Top Hot 100 Artist. Other multiple nominees include Fetty Wap and Drake (11 nominations each) and Swift and Adele (eight nominations each).
In March 2016, the Rolling Stones completed their America Latina Olé tour of Latin America. In 2015, the Stones’ Zip Code tour of North America was one of the top-grossing tours of the year. The Rolling Stones' Exhibitionism collection of rare Stones memorabilia went on display at the Saatchi Gallery in London on April 6, 2016. The exhibit ends on Sept. 4, 2016, and will travel to other major cities to be announced. The Rolling Stones are recording a new studio album, whose title, release date and songs are to be announced. The Rolling Stones’ most recent studio album of new material was 2005’s A Bigger

The forgotten Stone: Mick Taylor still at odds with the world’s best known rock band...

And all because he wasn’t invited to the opening of the Rolling Stones memorabilia exhibition at the
swish Saatchi Gallery in London. Outside the gallery Sir Mick Jagger posed for pictures with Keith Richards, Ronnie Woods and Charlie Watts. Even former bass player Bill Wyman was there. But one person missing from the 500-strong guest list was Taylor, who posted on his social media page: “It appears they are using my name and likeness for another multimillion dollar making exercise.
"I can’t help wondering why nobody has invited me… they could not find it in their hearts to include Mick Taylor.” Taylor, 67, moaned that two tickets were left on the door only after a fan complained to the gallery. “My office received a reply at the eleventh hour that they would let me have two tickets, which needed to be collected before 3pm. They know I live overseas so this does not qualify as an invitation. They waited until it became a logistical impossibility to attend.”

In a stinging sign-off he wrote: “I’m part of the Stones’ history and legacy, which is what this retrospective exhibition is about, isn’t it? The band’s best work – in the studio and on stage – was done while I was involved.” So who is the Forgotten Stone and what has he been doing in the 42 years since he quit?
Taylor came from a working-class family in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and learned to play the guitar in school bands. In 1965 he went to a John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers concert but star guitarist Eric “Slowhand” Clapton didn’t show. Taylor plucked up the courage in the interval to ask Mayall if he could play the second half. Mayall was so impressed that they swapped phone numbers.

A year later, with Clapton gone and a second guitarist about to leave, Mayall hired Taylor and the music world was agog at how a shy 17-year-old could replace Clapton. Meantime the Stones were recording a string of hits, vying with The Beatles for the No 1 one slot week after week. Then in 1969 Brian Jones was kicked out over his drug addiction and Mayall unselfishly recommended Taylor. Taylor believed he was being called in as a studio session musician but Jagger and Richards were so impressed they invited him back the next day to continue recording, including the mega-hit Honky Tonk Woman.
Taylor’s stage debut as a Stone, at 20, was a free concert in Hyde Park in July 1969. More than 250,000 people watched a show that turned into a tribute to Jones, who had died three days earlier. As Jagger and Richards hogged the spotlight Taylor was the curlyhaired lad at the back modestly getting on with his job. He was one of the most brilliant guitarists of the age, head and shoulders above Richards, and later said of the gig: “I just couldn’t believe how bad they sounded. Their timing was awful.

They sounded like a typical bunch of guys in a garage. Playing out of tune and too loudly. I thought, ‘How is it possible that this band can make hit records?’” Taylor held his tongue and stayed with the Stones until 1974. It wasn’t easy – age was a problem, for example. Taylor was five years younger than Jagger and Richards, eight years younger than Charlie Watts and 12 years younger than Bill Wyman. And the music wasn’t challenging enough. He remembers being bored on stage and once said that 72 minutes of a Stones’ concert seemed to go on for hours.
“For me it was personally restricting. I’m not saying that it wasn’t fun being in the Stones. It was a helluva lot of fun, it was great. But I had to move on.” In his five years as a Stone, Taylor featured on albums such as Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St and Jagger and Taylor formed a close musical relationship. In November 1973 things turned sour. Richards confronted him and said, “Oi! Taylor! You’re playing too f****** loud. I mean, you’re really good live, man, but you’re f****** useless in the studio.”

Richards erased some of the tapes on which Taylor had recorded guitar parts. Just before It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll came out in 1974 Taylor told a journalist he had cowritten two of the tracks with Jagger but wasn’t being given a credit on the record sleeve. It bugged him – and still does to this day – and so at a party for the band he told Jagger he was quitting. “Let’s put it this way, without my contribution those songs would not have existed,” he says.
“We used to fight and argue all the time. I just felt like I’d had enough. I never felt I was gonna stay with the Stones for ever.” Taylor left to form a band with Jack Bruce, of Cream, and appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test but the band disbanded after a year. What followed was a whirlwind. Taylor recorded a solo album which got to No 119 in the charts, toured Europe first with Ten Years After then with John Mayall.

He teamed up with Mark Knopfler, of Dire Straits, to play on a live Bob Dylan album, then guested with the Grateful Dead at Madison Square Garden. Taylor lived in New York, Los Angeles and Miami as he battled addiction demons and toured as a session man with different bands. On the way he got married, divorced and fathered two daughters. In the mid- 1990s he returned to the UK and joined John Mayall for his 70th birthday concert with Eric Clapton.
Lots of session work followed, then in 2007 he toured America with the Experience Hendrix tribute band. Amazingly, despite all the bitterness, Taylor has maintained a musical relationship with the Stones, appearing in their 2012 Reunion, 50 & Counting... and 14 On Fire world tours. He’s also done recording sessions with them and after one astonishing solo Richards is said to have joked: “That’s why I never liked you, you b******!” With their last three tours grossing over £700million, Jagger is now worth an estimated £200million and Richards only a little less.
Taylor lives modestly: his last address in England was a semi in Suffolk and now he’s abroad but no one’s sure where. Taylor may be in the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame but he’s the Rolling Stone who gathered no dosh.

By Chris Roycroft-Davis

Bill Wyman at the Rolling Stones Exhibitionism launch...

Bill Wyman appeared that the Rolling Stones exhibition – Exhibitionism – along with his former band mates to mark the opening in London.

Bill was back with his former bandmates on Monday when he attended the launch of ‘Exhibitionism:The Rolling Stones’ exhibition. It runs until 4th September 2016 at the Saatchi Gallery in London.
Held at London’s Saatchi Gallery from April to September 2016, Exhibitionism provides a fascinating insight into the greatest rock ‘n’ roll group of all time. Spread across nine galleries over two floors of the exhibition, it includes over 500 Stones artefacts from the band’s personal archives that cover their entire 50-year history, using art, design, music, rare sound archives and video to bring to life their history.

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The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts: ‘I Quit At The End Of Every Tour… I’m Sick Of Playing Brown Sugar’...

The veteran rockers may have just opened an exhibition to celebrate their decades in the music industry.

But The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has admitted he’s wanted to break up the band at the end of every tour.

The 74-year-old told the BBC in an interview ahead of the group’s EXHIBITIONISM show: “I used to quit at the end of every tour.”

When asked why, Watts, above with his bandmates, replied: “Oh, playing Brown Sugar for the fiftieth time… .”

And when told by a BBC interviewer: “Most people your age are retired,” Watts responded: “That’s would you’d think, until I’m carrying the bloody suitcases on tour again.”

His bandmate Keith Richards also admitted he was tired, saying he felt like “crashing out” and taking a kip when he saw recreations of the Stones’ early days at last night’s EXHIBITIONISM opening, which displays memorabilia from the group’s 55-year history.

But the 72-year-old, above with Watts in their heyday, added the Stones plan to keep on rolling, telling Bang Showbiz: “This band has a bit more juice in it. I ain’t looking to kick the bucket just yet.”

Mick Jagger, 72, said: “Just before Christmas we started the new album. We’re still on a roll.”

And Ronnie Wood, 68, said he was up for a show in oppressive North Korea.

The EXHIBIONISM show features never-before-seen artefacts including Richards’ personal diary and a recreation of the band’s first flat in the Sixties, which he calls a “pigsty”.

There is a tribute to Jagger’s former girlfriend L’Wren Scott, who committed suicide in 2014 aged 49.

Video, photos : Stoneism Rolling Stones Exibitionism Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie...

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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Keith Richards Marvels Over Cuba Concert...

The veteran British band became the first major rock act to play in the country since it became Communist in 1959 when they performed in front of more than 1.3 million fans for free at the Ciudad Deportivo venue in the capital Havana on 25 March (16).
Keith was amazed that the fans knew so many of the lyrics to their hits because they were banned from Cuban radio until 15 years ago, and while they were performing, he could feel a "sense of release and freedom" from the residents of the long-isolated nation.
"That was unique, man, even in my book," he tells Britain's The Sun newspaper. "God knows, it was an amazing outpouring of what the Cuban people have stored up inside themselves... There was a great sense of release and freedom and everybody had an incredible time. The band played their a**es off. It was fantastic."
He ranks the gig as on par with their 2013 concerts in London's Hyde Park, adding, "Absolutely, especially given the unique location. I mean what a way to finish off a great tour."
One thing he liked about Cuba was that citizens are not as obsessed with their cell phones as those in the U.S. or Europe.
"What struck me immediately on the drive from the airport into Havana is suddenly you realise that nobody had a phone to their ear or was emailing or texting with their eyes fixed on a little box," he explains. "It reminded me of the old days before phone-mania set in."
The concert marked the end of The Rolling Stones' tour of South and Central America.

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