Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour

The Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels Tour was a concert tour which was launched in North America in August 1989 to promote the band's album Steel Wheels; it continued to Japan in February 1990, with ten shows at the Tokyo Dome. The European leg of the tour, which featured a different stage and logo, was called the Urban Jungle Tour; it ran from May to August 1990. These would be the last live concerts for the band with original member Bill Wyman on bass guitar. This tour would also be the longest the band had ever done up to that point, playing over twice as many shows as their standard tour length from the 1960s and 70s.

The tour was an enormous financial success, cementing The Rolling Stones' return to full commercial power after a seven-year hiatus in touring marked by well-publicized acrimony among band members.

History

A Steel Wheels pre-tour 'surprise show' took place on 12 August 1989 at Toad's Place in New Haven, Connecticut with a local act, Sons of Bob, opening the show for an audience of only 700 people who had purchased tickets for $3.01 apiece.^[2] The official Steel Wheels Tour kicked off later that month at the now-demolished Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the opening show in Philadelphia, the power went out during "Shattered", and caused a slight delay in the show. Jagger came out and spoke to the crowd during the delay. The Stones returned to Vancouver, B.C. in Canada and played two sold out concerts at B.C. Place Stadium. Fan reaction for tickets was unprecedented. One local radio station 99.3 The Fox even had a man (Andrew Korn) sit in front of the station in a bath tub filled with brown sugar and water for free tickets to the concert.

The stage was designed by Mark Fisher with participation of Charlie Watts and Mick Jagger. Lighting design was by Patrick Woodroffe.

Canadian promoter Michael Cohl made his name buying the concert, sponsorship, merchandising, radio, television, and film rights to the Steel Wheels Tour. It became the most financially successful rock tour in history up to that time. Rival promoter Bill Graham, who also bid on the tour, later wrote that "Losing the Stones was like watching my favourite lover become a whore."

Performances from the tour were documented on the album Flashpoint, and the video Live at the Max, both released in 1991.

Opening acts for the tour included Living Colour, Dan Reed Network, Guns N' Roses and Gun.

The Rolling Stones

• Mick Jagger: lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, percussion
• Keith Richards: guitar, vocals
• Ronnie Wood: guitar
• Bill Wyman: bass guitar
• Charlie Watts: drums

Additional musicians

• Matt Clifford: keyboards, backing vocals, percussion, French horn
• Bobby Keys: saxophone
• Chuck Leavell: keyboards, backing vocals and musical director
• Bernard Fowler: backing vocals, percussion
• Lisa Fischer: backing vocals on the North American & Japanese tours only
• Cindy Mizelle: backing vocals on the North American & Japanese tours only
• Lorelei McBroom: backing vocals on the European tour only
• Sophia Jones: backing vocals on the European tour only
• The Uptown Horns:
  1. Arno Hecht: saxophone
  2. Bob Funk: trombone
  3. Crispin Cioe: saxophone
  4. Paul Litteral: trumpet

Tour Set Lists

For the opening night of the Steel Wheels Tour the setlist was as follows (all songs composed by Jagger/Richards unless otherwise noted):

1. "Start Me Up"
2. "Bitch"
3. "Shattered"
4. "Sad Sad Sad"
5. "Undercover of the Night"
6. "Harlem Shuffle" (Relf/Nelson)
7. "Tumbling Dice"
8. "Miss You"
9. "Ruby Tuesday"
10. "Play With Fire" (Nanker Phelge)
11. "Dead Flowers"
12. "One Hit (to the Body)" (Jagger/Richards/Wood)
13. "Mixed Emotions"
14. "Honky Tonk Women"
15. "Rock and a Hard Place"
16. "Midnight Rambler"
17. "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
18. "Little Red Rooster" (Dixon)
19. "Before They Make Me Run"
20. "Happy"
21. "Paint It Black"
22. "2000 Light Years from Home"
23. "Sympathy for the Devil"
24. "Gimme Shelter"
25. "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)"
26. "Brown Sugar"
27. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
28. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (encore)

For the final night of the Urban Jungle Tour (the last Rolling Stones concert with Bill Wyman) the band played:

1. "Start Me Up"
2. "Sad Sad Sad"
3. "Harlem Shuffle"
4. "Tumbling Dice"
5. "Miss You"
6. "Ruby Tuesday"
7. "Angie"
8. "Rock and a Hard Place"
9. "Mixed Emotions"
10. "Honky Tonk Women"
11. "Midnight Rambler"
12. "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
13. "Before They Make Me Run"
14. "Happy"
15. "Paint It Black"
16. "2000 Light Years from Home"
17. "Sympathy for the Devil"
18. "Street Fighting Man"
19. "Gimme Shelter"
20. "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)"
21. "Brown Sugar"
22. "Jumpin' Jack Flash"
23. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (encore)

Other songs played on the tour:

1. "Almost Hear You Sigh" (Jagger/Richards/Jordan)
2. "Blinded By Love"
3. "Boogie Chillen" (Hooker)
4. "Can't Be Seen"
5. "Factory Girl"
6. "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (Dixon)
7. "Salt of the Earth"
8. "Terrifying"
9. "Indian Girl"

Tour dates

See also

• Rolling Stones concerts
• List of highest grossing concert tours

References

External links

• Mark Fisher's "Steel Wheels" gallery
• Mark Fisher's "Urban Jungle" gallery