The Rolling Stones, ‘Summer Breeze’ (EVSD 1620/1621
Disk 1 – Introduction / Street Fighting Man / 19th Nervous Breakdown / Tumbling Dice / Out Of Time / She’s A Rainbow / You Can’t Always Get What You Want / Living In A Ghost Town / Can’t You Hear Me Knocking / Honky Tonk Women / Band Introductions / Slipping Away / Connection (65:09)
Disk 2 – Miss You / Midnight Rambler / Paint It Black / Start Me Up / Gimmie Shelter / Jumping Jack Flash / Sympathy For The Devil / Satisfaction (63:18)
Hyde Park, London, 25 June 2022.
Well this is an excellent audience recording. I like the start of disc one with the crowd chatting as the musical introduction begins; it gives the feeling that you’re part of the performance. I don’t mind the crowd noise/clapping between tracks, but I do find it annoying when people, near the taper, feel the need to talk randomly, during songs (not a lot of evidence of this on this recording, thankfully).
Street Fighting Man, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Tumbling Dice, Out Of Time, She’s A Rainbow are solid and played the way you’d expect at a Stones concert.
You Can’t Always Get What You Want starts in the usual manner, but when it gets to the part where the crowd joins in, the band seems to loose their way. It gets a bit muddled. Living In A Ghost Town is not as attention grabbing as you would hope; the band seem to be going through the motions, with this one. Which is a pity as it’s a really good song.
Can’t You Hear Me Knocking and Honky Tonk Women restore ones faith. Before the Band Introductions, Mick talks a little about the current music scene in England; concerts and up and coming acts. He then jokingly, names Elton John, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones as being on his list of up and coming performers. He’s had an ongoing tongue-in- cheek banter with Paul McCartney, so that explains that. Perhaps he mentioned Elton on behalf of Keith, who has in the past had mild or otherwise words about EJ and vice-a-versa.
Keith steps up to the mic for Slipping Away and Connection. His voice on both songs is better than I’ve heard in some time; did I hear he’d reduced his alcohol intake in recent years?, maybe that’s the reason.
Disc two starts off with what is my lest favourite Stones song, Miss You. Just a personal opinion, but I do ask myself why do they persist when there are more deserving songs – Under My Thumb for example. Midnight Rambler gets another solid performance, although the crowd don’t seem to be in good voice; which is a shame as English crowds are among the best in the world when it comes to singing along. Perhaps they were good, it just wasn’t caught on the tape.
Then one of my most favourite Stones songs follows; Paint It Black. Always a joy to hear this song and this version does not disappoint.
The concert wraps up with the usual suspects – Start Me Up, Gimme Shelter, Jumping Jack Flash, Sympathy For The Devil and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. The opening chords of Start Me Up get the crowd, and this listener, going.
Another personal favourite Gimme Shelter, follows. Sasha Allen sounds sweet throughout the song, a fact that is acknowledged by Mick, when the song finishes. There is a couple of minutes of crowd talking close to the taper and general crowd noise, following Jumping Jack Flash.
The audience just know there is more and they are rewarded when the band returns for the encores; Sympathy For The Devil and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.
Empress Valley has again produced an excellent release. The package is a paper sleeve with Obi Strip. The front and back covers feature photos from the concert, which is also a nice touch. I’m very pleased to have this release in my collection; it makes a good companion piece with my recently purchased EVSD release, of the 3 July concert.
Review by Steve1958.
