The Rolling Stones New Jersey 1981

The world tour that spanned the globe for a 2 year period, spanning 1981 and 1982, was very notable for The Stones on many levels.  Firstly, instead of using a patchwork of promoters the band selected Bill Graham Presents to promote the tour and the voice of the late impresario himself is heard every night introducing the band.... 'Thank you for waiting New Jersey, would you welcome, please.... The Rolling Stones....' and off they went.  Secondly, no band had ever taken on a corporate sponsor to defer the huge cost of carting around the massive amount of equipment that constitutes a Stones tour....  Jovan, the cosmetics maker, was selected and their logos were affixed and included in much of the promotion material that went out such as tickets, posters, etc.

Sadly, this would be the final tour for Ian Stewart.  He'd been with the band as the 6th stone, manager, and keyboard player from their early days at the Crawdaddy Club.  By the time the band toured again in 1989 he would die of cancer.

During this tour there would be many guest appearances by the likes of Tina Turner (she appeared in these Jersey shows) and Mick Taylor who played for an entire show in Kansas City.  The band had made the decision that the late film director Has Ashby would be filming every night as there were plans for releasing a full length concert film later titled Let's Spend the Night Together and tracks would be assembled for vinyl release called 'Still Life (An American Concert) which drew material from various nights of the tour.... The second vinyl disc, in an Australia only release, was taken entirely from the Sun Devil Stadium show in Phoenix.

For collectors like myself this means there are soundboard recordings for every night of the tour.  I have 17 and in many cases they are multi-night runs in New Jersey, Kansas City, Chicago, and Seattle.

I've always been a huge Stones fan and this release is my way of celebrating 50 years!

All 3 shows are in a single file... be patient on the download here


Eric