Got My Satisfaction: The Rolling Stones Play Ireland's Slane Castle

We flew into Dublin, Ireland on Saturday to see The Rolling Stones play before 70,000 fans at Slane Castle, just north of the city in County Meath. It was a great memorable night of rock-and-roll, not something we'll ever forget. The first time I'd ever seen the Stones and same for my family. Well, as the saying goes, better late than never.

The weather rained off and on throughout the day which set up the castle ampitheater for a lot of mud, making it seem like an Irish slice of Woodstock with all the slipping and the sliding. This was no take your seat and chill with a cold beer at Staples Center kind of experience. This was one-of-a-kind all the way.

And, as it turned out, the rain mercifully was pretty much spent during the show even though it was cold enough that every last piece of clothing and "official" t-shirt we bought was being worn by the time the night was over. One of our new-found Irish friends in "D" stands told my wife that if somebody saw her dressed like she was on the streets they'd give her money because they'd assume she was homeless! Maybe it was the three hats she was wearing at the time...

None of it stopped us from having the concert time of our lives here. But don't take my word for it. I'll leave it to the Irish Sun tabloid for the hyperbole. Here's how they began their article "The Stones Wow Slane with Great Big BANG!"

Rock legends The Rolling Stones wowed more than 70,000 ecstatic fans on Saturday night with the greatest live show Ireland has ever seen.

The other papers were similarly effusive here. The Irish Daily Mirror's article was "70,000 Satisfied" and The Irish Daily Star was "Rolling Thrones: Jagger & Co. Crowned Kings of the Castle for Second Time."

That's a reference to the fact that the last time the Stones played Ireland was also at Slane Castle, 25 years ago, in 1982. What makes this so special is that Slane Castle only stages one big concert like this every year and only U2 has created a similar sensation. This felt like a primarily local affair, heavily Irish, and Jagger even spoke a little Gaelic to the crowd.

We had our new BlackBerry "global" phone with us and managed to get off a couple of phone calls during the concert -- to my brother Alan who's been to Ireland twice before and seen the Stones years ago, and to my friend Scott Matis who has forgotten more concerts he's been to than I've ever attended. That was pretty cool -- being in the middle of a crowd of 70,000, having just arrived in a foreign country, out in the middle of what felt like nowhere -- and just dialing out a couple of calls to play a little Stones over the telephone connection. That's the world we live in now. Lauren was busy texting friends when her fingers weren't too numb.

Apparently, back-stage the Stones (who were flown in by helicopter) had a snooker table, massage rooms, satellite link to the English cricket final and even, yes, oxygen tanks and masks. We made do with a few less of the amenities, of course.

We got out here by bus (driving a car on our first day in-country would have been insane, let alone to a concert venue like this) and from the drop-off point you had to hike something like two or more miles (it seemed to me) to get to the concert.

I have to say that, despite the band having a combined age of 253 years they still know how to kick it out. The gig started with "Start Me Up" and ended with "Brown Sugar" and a huge fireworks display. They also played crowd favorites like "Midnight Rambler," "Tumbling Dice," "Miss You," "It's Only Rock and Roll," and a very different "Sympathy for the Devil."

So, bottom line, the rain at Slane couldn't stop the concert that, so far for me, was the concert of a lifetime. The papers have speculation that after the London concerts in the next few days, The Rolling Stones will retire from live touring for good. If that's the case, then this will be, as I said at the beginning, unforgettable. It's the end of an era probably, and we were there. Brilliant...

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Comments

[Douglas Kastle]

I was at Slane 6 years ago for the second U2 concert (there were 2 concerts that year, they had to change the law of the land to achieve that one , but hey it's U2) and it was amazing. It was only then did I realise where rock stars get their ego from. When I looked back up that hill and saw it full with people. What must it be like to look out at that crowd and know it is all there for you?

That said though I didn't like the ~2 mile walk back to the bus at the end it was, for us, like some geriatric death march through Slane village, I hope they have at least improved that.