The countdown ended, the windows broke and the Rolling Stones announced urbi et orbe the release of their new album next October from a corner of the London outskirts, the Hackney neighborhood. And is that the new album is called Hackney Diamonds, the first work with new material that the band in 18 years, with 12 songs that include the latest recordings of the late Charlie Watts on drums, as well as the collaboration of Bill Wyman, former bass player of the band A world premiere in which the first single from the album, Angry, has been released, as well as the video clip that accompanies it.
The album’s title refers to a slum in north-east London, as well as a term used in slang, London slang, to refer to broken glass during a car or shop robbery. One can imagine the fame that the aforementioned neighborhood would have, far away from the gentrified area -and this remarkably hot Wednesday- where the album was presented, gathering hundreds of followers at the doors of the theater who came hoping to see for a few moments the living kings of rock.
The Hackney Empire was the place chosen for the presentation, a traditional Edwardian theatre, founded in 1901, which has hosted names in singing and entertainment such as Charles Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Louis Armstrong and Maria Callas. Today it was the turn of their satanic majesties shielded by Jimmy Fallon, the histrionic presenter of The tonigth show on American television who commanded the press conference in which Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood participated, almost 250 years of rock’n ‘roll who, in addition to presenting the album, announced a new tour after burning the stages last year with their tour for the band’s 60th anniversary.
With British punctuality, the trio came out on stage at the Empire at 2:30 p.m. full of energy, greeting the audience and joking about their new work and the years it took them to release a new album. “We did it very quickly actually,” noted Ron Wood, “we had a lot of ideas, we met before last Christmas.” “We have been very lazy” Mick pointed out to the laughter of the audience, “so Keith and I talked and we set a deadline” which was finally February 14, Valentine’s Day. A couple of months in which they recorded 23 songs, as they have explained.
Jagger and Richards began working in Jamaica, writing the first track, Angry, with Steve Jordan and producer Andrew Matt, before moving to New York, where Wood joined them to finally finish the job in Los Angeles.
There were also words for Charlie Watts, the great absentee from the album. “It’s different, he was the fourth member,” Richards lamented, remembering that thanks to him they have Steve Jordan in the band. “It was the one Charlie recommended, ‘If something happens to me, get Steve Jordan,’ he said.” The new drummer, from the lineup that Keith Richards plays with, appears on all the songs on the new album except for two that were recorded by Watt in 2019.
Another of the collaborators of the next album revealed in the interview is Bill Wyman, the band’s previous bassist, who participates in one of the songs. Nothing has been said, however, about the participation of Paul McCartney, announced months ago, nor about a possible tour to present the new songs, the list of which has appeared in the conversation between Fallon and the Stones, mentioning titles such as Bite my head off, Depending on you, Dreamy skies, Driving me too hard or Get close.
As a culmination of the interview, the video clip for Angry, a rock song with the Stone label, was presented, a ride in a convertible through the streets of Los Angeles while the posters cover the entire history of the group, from its last years to its origins. , also appearing on the cover of the new album, where a dagger splits a heart made of glass in two.
To arrive at the presentation of this record, a path of mysteries has been traveled that began on August 17 with a quarter-page advertisement in the monthly ‘Hackney’ Gazette of a glass shop called Hackney diamonds, founded in 1962 (year of creation of the gang) who billed themselves as “glass repair specialists”. The ad included numerous references to various Stones songs in its text such as Satisfaction, Gimme shelter or Shattered, and for those who don’t get it at first, the iconic tongue on the dot of the i in “diamonds”. “We open in September” added the ad, which included a telephone number in which a recorded message with a Cockney accent (the one from the underworld of the English capital) advised “don’t get angry, get it fixed” (don’t get angry, get it fixed). get mad, fix it).
It was the first of a series of little stones, or rather crystals, that the British left on the road during the following days announcing the presentation of the new album, a world event that had been expected since Keith Richards announced “new music on the way” last year. “.
The next clue was the appearance, days after the announcement, of the hackneydiamons.com website, where after breaking a fictitious glass a countdown was accessed that ended this Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Spanish time. Almost at the same time, the Stones’ logo made from broken glass appeared projected on emblematic buildings in various cities around the world and a cut of just 10 seconds of the song ‘Don’t get angry with me’ was broadcast.
The last clue was given by the presenter Jimmy Fallon announcing an interview with Mick, Keith and Ronnie in the Hackney neighborhood, to appear shortly after with the singer of the Stones reading the Hackney Gazette at a table in The Old Ship pub located between the houses brick Mare Street, adjacent to the Empire Theatre, where the presentation took place before a large number of journalists from around the world.
The last album with the Stones’ own material was “A bigger band”, published in 2005. Since then they had only published one song, ‘Living in a ghost town’, which appeared in April 2020, in the midst of a pandemic. Some time later, Jagger explained to Rolling Stone magazine that the coronavirus had slowed down the release of the new album. In addition to this theme, in 2016 ‘Blue
