The Rolling Stones, filmed by Martin Scorsese is a great idea; it's just a pity that it had to happen a good thirty years too late. Contrasted with the punk-inspired, on-form Stones caught on their 'Some Girls' 1978 tour, this DVD just looks a little sad. Respect is due to Mick Jagger, who is still a compelling frontman, A-class guitarist Ronnie Wood and the ultimate garage-band drummer that is Charlie Watts, but Keith... Keith Richards gets a lot further these days on his personality than his guitar playing, which has steadily ossified and actually decreased in abundance over the decades. Since the blazing lead-rhythm 'Chuck Berry meets the Blues giants at a garage-punk gig' style seen so delightfully extensively during the 'Some Girls: Live in Texas '78' DVD, Keith has devolved into someone who plays less and less and poses more and more. Here he seems to play around a quarter (if that) of what he used to play, leaving Ronnie and Mick to take up the slack, which in all fairness, they do admirably. In fact, one is tempted to say that Jagger is now a better (and certainly more prolific) guitarist than Keith, who seems content to noodle about with the odd occasional lick rather than the full-blooded rhythm-chording he used to do. It has been said that he hasn't been the same since he fell out of that tree a few years ago and given this evidence it is difficult to disagree . Elsewhere, in contrast with the stripped-down 1978 tour, there are more people on stage who aren't the Rolling Stones than who are, leaving the actual band-members almost as guest stars at their own concert. The less said about actual guests Christina Aguilera and the execrable performance by Jack White the better (Buddy Guy fits in well though), and despite Scorsese's attempts to create a sense of excitement with his myriad of camera- shots, this gig is a damp squib. On viewing 'Shine a Light', one unhesitatingly salutes the efforts of the increasingly musicianly Jagger (although one strongly suspects that this is a measure adopted perforce to cover Keith's disturbing infirmity), and concedes to Ronnie Wood's stalwart guitar show-carrying brilliance, but it is not enough to save the experience from the near-heartbreaking conclusion that the ageing 'band', with its supporting superstructure of extra musicians, really is milking the last dregs of a career which should have been ended a long time ago.
Review of Shine a Light
