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Rolling Stones pay tribute to Charlie Watts during first public gig without late drummer


Sir Mick and the band honoured their late friend (Picture: Reuters)

The Rolling Stones paid tribute to Charlie Watts as they kicked-off their US tour.

The drummer died in August at the age of 80 and his bandmates, Sir Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, paid a glowing tribute to their late friend as they resumed the No Filter tour in St. Louis on Sunday night.

The show – which was previously delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic – was the iconic band’s first public concert since Charlie’s death.

The gig opened with an empty stage, a drum beat and a photos of the late star appearing on a video board, with the band then thanking their fans for their support over recent weeks.

Sir Mick said: ‘This is our first-ever tour we’ve ever done without him. We’ll miss Charlie so much, on and off the stage.’

The legendary group then dedicated a rendition of Tumbling Dice to their former bandmate.

Legendary drummer Watts died last month (Picture: Keuenhof Rainer/Action Press/REX/Shutterstock)
Sunday was an emotional night for his surviving band members (Picture: REUTERS)

Although the show was the first public performance without Charlie behind the drums, the Stones did play a private event last week at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Rolling Stone magazine reported that the gig was organised by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and was said to be a warm-up show to the No Filter tour.

In a video clip shared on Sir Mick’s Twitter account, the Can’t Get No Satisfaction hitmakers are seen huddled on-stage as the frontman paid tribute to Watts.

The show kicked off their first ever tour without Watts behind the drums (Picture: Reuters)

‘It’s the first show of our 2021 tour, this is it, this is a try out,’ he told the intimate audience.

‘I must say though at this point, it’s a bit of a poignant night for us and it’s our first tour in 59 years that we’ve done without our lovely Charlie Watts, and we all miss Charlie so much.

‘We miss him as a band, we miss him as friends on and off the stage and we’ve got so many memories of Charlie and I’m sure some of you that have have seen us before have got memories of Charlie as well and I hope you will remember him as we do.’

Toasting Watts with a bottle of beer, Jagger added: ‘We’d like to dedicate this show to Charlie. Let’s have a drink to Charlie.’

Meanwhile, Sir Mick recently claimed that Charlie held the Rolling Stones together.

In a tribute to the legendary musician, he said: ‘Charlie held the band together for so long, musically, because he was the rock the rest of it was built around.

‘He brought this beautiful sense of swing and swerve that most bands wish they could have. We had some really nice conversations in the last couple of years about how all this happened with the band.

‘We had a lot of wonderful times apart from playing music together. We used to go and watch cricket. And when we’d get together, we didn’t talk about music.

‘We talked about art, which he knew a lot more about than I did. It’s a huge loss to us all. It’s very, very hard. But we had wonderful times, and Charlie made some wonderful music.’

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