Welcome To Shepherd's Bush (Exclusive)＜White Vinyl＞

Never ones to lose touch with their roots, the Rolling Stones developed a sporadic habit of playing unannounced gigs at smaller venues to warm up for their stadium concerts. Over the years, these secret shows have become a thing of legend, with the band letting loose, straying from their usual set list, bringing up unexpected guest stars, and just generally having tons of unregulated fun. Recordings of some of these shows have made it onto different live releases (1977s Love You Live included a few blues cover tunes from a tiny club show in Toronto, and the entire performance was later released as an album of its own, for example), and Welcome to Shepherds Bush captures one such surprise show from 1999. The Stones were gearing up for a stint at Londons Wembley Stadium and booked a night at Shepherds Bush Empire, a 2,000-capacity club in their old stomping grounds nearby. Rolling Stones shows are usually electrified regardless of the stage size, but theres a heightened sense of excitement throughout this 18-song set. The bands most recent studio albums at that point were 1997s Bridges to Babylon and 1994s Voodoo Lounge, but the set list was fairly light on tunes from those records, with only a shambling take on the sneering rocker "Saint of Me" representing Bridges to Babylon. Instead of trotting out the usual hits or reminding the crowd of their most recent album, the Stones used the night to go a little bit off the beaten path. The band plays the late-night blues stroll "Melody" from 1976s Black and Blue for the second time since it was debuted at another secret club show in 1977, and the Voodoo Lounge track "Moon Is Up" is played live for the first (and possibly only) time. These rarities are great for Stones historians and superfans, but the main objective on Welcome to Shepherds Bush seems to be the band and the audience enjoying themselves as much as possible. Sheryl Crow takes the stage to sing guest vocals on "Honky Tonk Women," and a full horn section and host of backing vocalists make live favorites like "Tumbling Dice" and "Brown Sugar" crackle with energy. Its a stadium show meant for 70,000 crammed into a street-level venue, but with none of the excitement toned down. If anything, Welcome to Shepherds Bush is more exciting for its live and direct close-up on one of the greatest rock & roll bands ever. ~ Fred Thomas