The Rolling Stones at Racket, NYC on October 19, 2023. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for RS
The Rolling Stones played a surprise six-song set in New York last night (19) on the eve of the release of their hugely-anticipated new album Hackney Diamonds, which is out now.
The band took over the west side club Racket NYC, which was filled with friends and celebrities eager to catch the band’s first performance of songs from the album, in a six-song set that also featured some Stones classics.
The audience included Jimmy Fallon (who conducted the livestream launch with the band in London last month), Trevor Noah, Daniel Craig, Mary Kate Olsen, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Chris Rock, Taylor Hill, Rachel Weisz, Christie Brinkley, Ed Burns, Keegan-Michael Key, Minka Kelly, Christy Turlington, and the album’s producer, Andrew Watt. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson from the Roots, Fallon’s house band on his late night show, played a DJ set.
After an introduction of “For one night only, the Rolling Stones!” Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Darryl Jones and Steve Jordan took to the stage, accompanied by keyboardist Matt Clifford and backing vocalist Chanel Haynes. They opened with “Shattered,” from 1978’s Some Girls, before playing the new songs “Angry,” “Whole Wide World,” and “Bite My Head Off.”
The set also featured the time-honored “Tumbling Dice” and “Jumping Jack Flash” before an encore for which the Stones were joined by Lady Gaga. Dressed in a purple, spangled jump suit, she reprised the new album’s duet with Jagger on the gospel-flavored “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” the track on the album that also features Stevie Wonder.
Hackney Diamonds has been greeted with universal praise by media worldwide, in a raft of five- and four-star reviews. Variety describes it as their best work since 1981’s Tattoo You, while the Telegraph sees it as “the best rock’n’ roll album of the past four decades at least.”
Buy or stream Hackney Diamonds.