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ROLLING STONES

Rolling Stones set for high-priced Zurich gig

The Rolling Stones are planning to perform in Zurich this summer as part of their latest 14 On Fire world tour.

Rolling Stones set for high-priced Zurich gig
Rolling Stones performing earlier this month in Singapore. Photo: Roslan Rahman/AFP

The ageing band of rockers are set to appear at the Letzigrund football stadium on June 1st in their only appearance in Switzerland, concert organizers confirmed on Monday.

Featuring 70-year-olds Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, 72, and Ron Wood, 66, the band is still commanding hefty admission prices for their performances.

Tickets, which go on sale at 8am on Wednesday, will cost a whopping 368.70 francs ($417) for those seeking a seat, according to the 20 Minuten newspaper.

Standing room tickets are selling for 164.35 francs.

The band recently postponed until the autumn concerts in Australia and New Zealand scheduled for this month and in April following the suicide last week of Jagger’s girlfriend L’Wren Scott in New York City.

Jagger flew to the US from Australia to make arrangements for the funeral of Scott, a fashion designer with whom he had a 13-year relationship, in Los Angeles.

The leader singer had earlier commented on the Rolling Stones website about how he was looking forward to the European leg of the tour from May to July, which includes dates in Berlin (June 10th), Düsseldorf (June 19th) and Rome (June 22nd).

“I can’t wait for the tour to hit Europe,” Jagger said.

“It’s great time of the year to be playing and tour is a good mix of festivals, stadiums and arenas.”

Concerts at the Pinkpop Festival in Langraaf, the Netherlands (June 7th) and the TW Classic Festival in Werchter, Belgium (June 28th), have already sold out.

Others have been announced for Oslo (May 26th), Lisbon (May 29th) and Tel Aviv (June 4th).

The Tel Aviv date will mark the first time the Stones have performed in Israel.

The group last performed in Switzerland in Lausanne in 2007.

They first appeared in the country in 1967 at Zurich’s Hallenstadion in front of 12,000 fans in a concert that featured a near riot as 1,000 concertgoers stormed the stage and forced the band to leave the stage, the Blick newspaper reported.

Band members have publicly acknowledged disappointment over the disruption to the world tour caused by Scott’s death.

“This is such terrible news and right now the important thing is that we are pulling together to offer Mick our support and help through this sad time,” guitarist Wood said in a statement on the band’s website.

“Without a doubt we intend to back on that stage as soon as we can.”

For more information on the Zurich concert tickets, click here.

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CORRUPTION

You can’t always get what you want: police raid Hamburg officials over Rolling Stones gig

On Wednesday morning police in north Hamburg raided district offices and the premises of an events company, due to 100 free tickets for a Rolling Stones gig.

You can’t always get what you want: police raid Hamburg officials over Rolling Stones gig
The Rolling Stones in concert in Munich. Photo: DPA

Some 82,000 people turned up for a Rolling Stones gig in Hamburg in September. Among the delighted fans of the aged rockers were 100 state officials from the district of Hamburg north.

Die Welt reports that the district authorized the Rolling Stones gig and then received 100 gratis tickets with a value of €10,000 from the events company FKP Scorpio.

Tom Oelrichs, the deputy head of the district office, confirmed to Spiegel that they had received the tickets, saying that this has been “standard practice for years in the events industry.”

Prosecutors were tipped off to the case by an anonymous source and suspect that the district broke the law by accepting the complementary tickets.

There are clear rules that prohibit public servants from accepting any gifts in Germany, Die Welt explains. Beyond pens and paper they are not allowed to take any freebies.

The regulations state that the acceptance of gifts “raises the suspicion that public servants are for sale.”

Breach of this law can result in the termination of a contract, or in serious cases a prison sentence.