Rolling Stones to play March 25 show in Havana, Cuba

[imagine2015]

Source: Associated Press

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, Associated Press

HAVANA — The Rolling Stones announced Tuesday that they will play a free concert in Havana on March 25, becoming the biggest act to play Cuba since its 1959 revolution.

The Stones will play in Havana's Ciudad Deportiva three days after President Barack Obama visits Havana. The concert is expected to draw a massive audience in a country where the government once persecuted young people for listening to rock music, then seen as a tool of Western capitalism.

Along with easing many restrictions on foreign music, art and literature, the Cuban government has increasingly allowed large gatherings not organized by the government in recent years. The Stones concert will almost certainly be one of the largest since Cuba began easing its limits on some non-official gatherings in the 1990s.

On the same week as the visits by Obama and The Rolling Stones, the Tampa Bay Rays are also expected to play the first Major League Baseball exhibition game in Cuba since 1999, part of an extraordinary string of events in a country that spent the Cold War isolated from the United States and its allies.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/rolling-stones-to-play-march-25-show-in-havana/ar-BBqcxr0?ocid=ansmsnent11


Read more: Rolling Stones to play March 25 show in Havana

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This is wonderful. The Stones have long been my favorite rock band.

Over a million Cubans will turnout for this concert.

[Sunlei]

1. FREE STONES CONCERT omg, and I have to work :(

[RoccoR5955]

2. I didn't know that Great Britain had

banned people from going to Cuba. Interesting.

[nichomachus]

3. Where does it say that it had? nt

[jmowreader]

4. Actually, it's that Cuba has banned the kinds of gatherings we're talking about

Note to Mick Jagger: PLEASE film this!

[imagine2015]

5. Not anymore and not for several years.

Most Cuban-Americans, except for the far rightwing Republican elements, support ending the trade embargo and restoring full diplomatic and trade relations with the Cuban people and their government.

[imagine2015]

6. They'll tape it. It's the final stop on their Latin America tour.

So I'm also looking forward to seeing it.

Maybe it will be broadcast live on Cuban TV.

[Ishoutandscream2]

7. Hmm. Free concert. La Altamont?

Gimme Shelter, por favor.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Rolling Stones Announce Free Cuba Concert

Rolling Stones Announce Free Cuba Concert

BY Robert Michael Poole | March 01, 2016



The Rolling Stones will perform the first open air concert in Cuba by a British rock band after announcing a surprise show to take place on March 25. The Stones are currently on their America Latina Ole Tour originally set to end in Mexico City on March 17, but will now visit Cuba just three days after U.S. President Barack Obama makes his own historic visit.

“We have performed in many special places during our long career but this show in Havana is going to be a landmark event for us, and, we hope, for all our friends in Cuba too,” said a statement, with the band following the Manic Street Preachers to the country – the most prominent English band to play Cuba when they performed in front of President Fidel Castro at Havana's Karl Marx Theatre in 2001. Castro had previously marginalized rock music since the 1950s.

The Rolling Stones show, their first in the Caribbean, will be filmed by director Paul Dugdale, who has previously worked with Coldplay and Adele, and award winning production company JA Digital. “It’s a great honour to be working with the Rolling Stones again on this hugely exciting and historic event,” said Julie Jakobek of JA Digital.

The band will also be running a musician-to-musician initiative in which musical instruments and equipment are donated by manufacturers for Cuban musicians, no matter what genre they play. The project is supported by The Gibson Foundation, Vic Firth, RS Berkeley, Pearl, Zildjian, Gretsch, Latin Percussion, Roland and BOSS, along with the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation.

More:
http://uk.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1343452/rolling-stones-announce-free-cuba-concert#sthash.nTBOEP26.dpuf

[rockfordfile]

9. That's cool. Never was a big fan of The Rolling Stones

That's cool. Never was a big fan of The Rolling Stones. I liked the Doors. Still this is good to hear.

[Skittles]

10. so cool

[GreatGazoo]

11. Mick will have the satisfaction of seeing where brown sugar comes from.

As he tells Cuba 'Let's spend the night together' the lack of rock concerts will be shattered.