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The Rolling Stones live in Basel, Switzerland 1982
July 15, 1982: St. Jakob-Stadion, Basel, Switzerland Under My Thumb/When The Whip Comes Down/Let’s Spend The Night Together/Shattered/Neighbours/ Black Limousine/Just My Imagination/Twenty Flight Rock/Going To A Go Go/Let Me Go/Time Is On My Side/Beast Of Burden/You Can’t Always Get What You Want/Band introduction/Little T & A/Angie/ Tumbling Dice/She’s So Cold/Hang Fire/Miss You/Honky Tonk Women/Brown Sugar/Start Me Up/ Jumpin’ Jack Flash/Satisfaction
Tonight, “the one and only” Rolling Stones are playing in Zurich. They first did so in 1967, at the Hallenstadion, in front of a roaring crowd. In 1976, they rocked the city on the Limmat again, without causing any trouble in the arena, but with an hours-long delay. In the spring of 1982, it was announced that the band would be performing at Basel’s Joggeli in mid-July. A sensation. Rock fans could hardly believe it.
In the spring of 1982, Mick Jagger was 38. That was quite old for a rock star, according to the adults of the time. We can laugh about it today, but the boss of the writer of these lines said: “Jagger is only a year younger than me. I find it ridiculous, even embarrassing, to still claim to be a rock star at such a mature age.”
Then advance sales began, fittingly for the Stones’ hit of that year, “Start Me Up.” Tickets cost 40 francs. We thought that was pretty expensive. “Capitalists,” we grumbled. After all, as young rock fans in 1982, a year after the eviction of the AJZ on Hochstrasse, we defined ourselves as left-wing, and yet we paid anyway because we wanted to see the show.
In the 1980s, tickets were available at the Heuwaage (Heuwaage). And there, you had to wait in line. The conversation revolved around the upcoming major musical event, the first ever concert at the Joggeli, where the Stones would play four times: in 1982, 1990 and – on two evenings – in 1995. After that, the time of Jagger, Richards, Wood, Watts & Co. at the Rhine knee was over.
“I’ll take 30 tickets.”
While waiting at the hay scales, Andi said, “I’ll take 30 tickets, which I’ll resell at a high price, so I can go on vacation longer.” This plan, by the way, didn’t work out in ’82. Before the concert, the bootleggers had to sell their tickets for well below the purchase price, otherwise they would have been stuck with them.
Some others said they were only going to the Joggeli because of the J. Geils Band, which was the opening act. This band, founded in 1967 in Massachusetts, was actually known for great blues-rock concerts and had a mega-hit in 1981 with the song “Centerfold.” However, they had no chance against the Stones. They were allowed such a low volume that they practically disappeared without a trace.
Mick stupid, Keith cool
The entire Basel rock scene agreed on one thing back then. We thought Mick Jagger was stupid and Keith Richards was cool. Keith, about whom the rock magazines at the time used to write that he would probably pass away as the next big rock star; but they were very wrong…
Then the big day came. July 15th. Midsummer. The “Blick” magazine distributed a special edition of the concert in front of the stadium. We were admitted via the old Muttenzerkurve. Then it was time to wait again. People talked about the Rolling Stones’ legendary drug excesses and their decadent sexual escapades, which we naturally envied a little. The concert at Zurich’s Hallenstadion on June 15th, 1976 – six years earlier – was also a popular topic.
That concert, part of the first tour with Ronnie Wood on guitar, had started massively late. Two nights earlier, the Stones had played in Nice – and when the Zurich concert was supposed to start, they were still there, as we now know. When Jagger came onstage, he said: “Sorry we’re so late, but we still had to tune up (general laughter).” The subsequent concert was terrific, but suffered from severe sound problems, a well-known problem at the Hallenstadion in those years.
Lawn Destroyed
Back to 1982, shortly before the J. Geils Band performed, it began to rain heavily over the Joggeli. The people on the field began to lift the protective carpet covering the lawn and use pieces of it as rain cover. The lawn was destroyed. A problem that hadn’t occurred at the many great concerts at St. Jakob in the 1990s.
However, at the next Stones concert at Joggeli, on June 27, 1990, it rained heavily, continuously. In 1982, however, the rain stopped again before the main performers took the stage. As mentioned, the J. Geils Band was so quiet that they might as well have skipped their performance.
“Under My Thumb”
Finally, The Rolling Stones arrived. They started with “Under My Thumb,” then went straight into “When the Whip Comes Down,” and immediately continued with “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” The guitar sound on this tour ranged from crystal-clear to slightly crunchy, garnished with a generous amount of reverb. A kind of neo-rock ‘n’ roll sound in the style of the 1980s, in keeping with the tastes of that era. Keith played Fender Telecasters on most of the songs, Ronnie Fender Stratocasters. Jagger occasionally picked up a Gibson SG. But we were convinced that this instrument wasn’t amplified…
Otherwise, the show was pure rock ‘n’ roll cinema at a very high energy level: What about old, what about embarrassing…
The finale featured a thunderous “Brown Sugar,” a fierce “Start Me Up,” and a “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” that gave you goosebumps. Encore: “(I can’t get no) Satisfaction.” A fantastic evening.
Kick-off
This concert marked the beginning of Good News’s major live concert phase at the Joggeli. After the Stones, Simon & Garfunkel came in the 1980s. And in the 1990s, things really took off, with ZZ Top, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Genesis, U2, and more.
The new millennium marked the end of the fire. After AC/DC rocked the new St. Jakob Stadium once again on July 7, 2001, the fire was out. What a pity. Tonight, fans will have to travel to Zurich once again to enjoy the Stones, who may be very old now, but are better than ever.
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