Rolling Stones Unveil ‘Hackney Diamonds’ in a Trendy London District

When the Rolling Stones launched “Beggars Banquet” in 1968, the band had an uncommon means of grabbing consideration: a shock meals battle.

At the tip of a feast with journalists in a complicated London resort, Mick Jagger celebrated the document, which incorporates “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Street Fighting Man,” by smashing a cream pie into the face of the guitarist Brian Jones. The occasion rapidly descended from there, with band members and friends throwing meals at each other, leaving faces drenched in cream.

On Wednesday, Jagger, 80, Keith Richards, 79, and Ronnie Wood, 76 — the band’s three present members — promoted their new album, “Hackney Diamonds,” in considerably extra sedate style: with a livestream on YouTube hosted by Jimmy Fallon.

Named after outdated British slang for the shards of glass which are left after a break-in, “Hackney Diamonds” can be launched on Oct. 20.

Richards, sporting a hat and shades, mentioned that taking part in stay is a “holy grail,” however that recording albums is “where the guys can get together and pass around ideas without any interference.”

“When it works, it’s great,” he mentioned.

Jagger, sporting a patterned jacket, mentioned he didn’t “want to be bigheaded, but we wouldn’t have put this album out if we hadn’t really liked it.” He then added that he hoped the group’s followers would adore it too. “I’ll drink to that,” Wood mentioned, elevating a glass.

After the 20-minute occasion ended, the band premiered the video for the album’s first single, “Angry,” that includes Sydney Sweeney. Jagger earlier mentioned that the album had many tracks themed round anger and disgust.

The lunchtime occasion was held on the Hackney Empire, an outdated theater within the stylish Hackney district of London. Fallon, sitting in entrance of a broken-up model of the band’s lips brand and close to three smashed chandeliers, interviewed the group earlier than an viewers of journalists and invited friends, though questions weren’t allowed from the ground.

The anticipated 12-track “Hackney Diamonds” is the group’s first album of unique materials because the launch of “A Bigger Bang” in 2005, and its first because the drummer Charlie Watts died in 2021. Two of the tracks had been recorded in 2019 with Watts, Jagger mentioned, together with “Live by the Sword,” which he described as “retro.”

Richards mentioned the band was clearly totally different with out Watts. “He’s No. 4, he’s missing, he’s up there. Of course he’s missed incredibly.” He mentioned that Watts had really helpful the band’s new drummer, Steve Jordan, and that transferring on “would have been a lot harder without Charlie’s blessing.”

Jagger joked concerning the lengthy delay earlier than this album, saying that the band — recognized for its in depth excursions — had been a bit “lazy,” and that the group wanted a deadline. They pressured themselves to hit the studio in December, he mentioned. “We cut 23 tracks very quickly and finished them off in January, and mixed them in February.”

Fans of the Stones, which fashioned in 1962 and went on to develop into considered one of rock’s most enduring acts, have been awaiting a brand new album since “Blue & Lonesome” in 2016, which featured a dozen blues covers. Jagger advised The Los Angeles Times in October 2021 that “Hackney Diamonds” would have been completed way back if not for the coronavirus pandemic.

Last month, the Stones teased the album through an commercial for a faux glass restore firm, referred to as Hackney Diamonds, that appeared in a London newspaper. The advert’s textual content referred to a number of of the band’s well-known songs: “Our friendly team promises you satisfaction. When you say gimme shelter we’ll fix your shattered windows.”

In the interview with Fallon, the band mentioned different album titles it thought of had been “Hit and Run” and “Smash and Grab.”

Philip Norman, who wrote “The Stones,” a serious biography of the group, mentioned in an interview that the discharge occasion was removed from the band’s raucous Sixties and ’70s picture however nonetheless managed to offer its members an air of being “tearaways” by being held in London’s trendiest district. That was “typical Stones’s fakery,” Norman mentioned, as a result of the band had no earlier affiliation with Hackney.

Although the Stones have mentioned “Hackney Diamonds” marks a “new era,” Norman mentioned he was anticipating a basic Stones sound. “This is the Stones we know and some of us have loved for the past six decades,” he mentioned.

The livestream generated curiosity on-line (at factors 53,000 individuals watched stay), however there was much less hype on Hackney’s streets on Wednesday. Before the unannounced occasion, a couple of dozen followers waited outdoors the theater to catch a glimpse of the band strolling the purple carpet.

Sam Poullain, 42, a advertising and marketing director, mentioned that two months after he watched a faculty play on the Empire’s stage, he was again to see “the original rock ’n’ roll band.”

The enthusiasm was not unanimous. As the huddle to see the band grew, three schoolgirls strolling previous requested what was taking place. Told it was the Rolling Stones, Anya Morrison, 16, mentioned, “I’ve heard of them, I think.” Then she received on a bus house.