The Greasy Greedy Stones

" What need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone?"
- September 1913 by WB Yeats

Fumbling in the greasy till indeed Messrs Jagger, Richards, Watts and Wood. This American Express mullarkey is evil. It's absolutely, totally, and unequivocably WRONG! There is no defense, the corporate spawn of the sixties version of the white english rythm 'n blues band will suffer an eternity at the hands of the satan of rock 'n roll who will sentense these 4 over rated schlockers to an eternity of Billy Ray Cyrus concerts or some equally sadistic torture.

Okay, that's the venomous rant section over. Now let me take a few moments to explain the case to the uninitiated. The Rolling Stones have announced a Stadium tour of Europe next summer. Now, the current incarnation of the band, affront a pepsi cola banner is not my cup of Lyon's tea (if they can product place, so can I). Stadium shows are definitely not my cup of Barry's Gold Label tea either. But for some people it is and this corporate rock event is only onsale to American Express card holders. When they've had their pick of the good seats, the show will then go on general release, and, wait for it, the seats cost $220 a pop!

I just got back from seeing Bob Dylan in an intimate venue in London for less than 60 euro and these clowns are expecting to get nearly 4 times that from your average punter to stand in a stadium! Come on fellas, are you taking the piss? In the case of the Dublin show it's not even a stadium, it's the phoenix fucking park. The biggest park in Europe. A field. Why? Because our biggest stadium only holds 30,000. Not enough greasy pound notes for the boys.

It's not enough that Ronnie Wood lives here tax free, (Ireland has an artist exemption from all income tax. Bono pays no income tax, Ronnie Wood pays none as long as he is a resident, a law designed for the struggling artist is being exploited by the rock star community living on Dalkey hill), he also has to take his pound of flesh from the people who are supplying his infrastructure, his police force, emergency services, schools, even his bloody bin collections.

I can't get over the sheer greed of this lot. How much money do the need? What do they do with it? A long time ago the spirit of this band was sucked from them and replaced by a soulless corporate entity that Bill Hicks, if he was still alive, would be plotting aterrorist attack against.

Yeats was right, Romantic Ireland, and indeed the global idea of the romantic, is dead and gone, it's with O'Leary in the grave..