The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch

Level 3

Advanced

1 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text. swaggers frisson 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. demented surreal hellraiser weather-beaten vice poignant sanguine hell-bent

A ______________________________ is a bad habit or personal quality. A ______________________________ face has rough skin from being outside for long periods. If something is ______________________________, it is so strange that you cannot believe it is real. If a person ______________________________, he or she walks in a proud and confident way. If you are ______________________________ on doing something, you are determined to do it. If you are ______________________________ about something, you are confident and hopeful about what might happen, especially in a difficult situation. A ______________________________ experience or memory gives you feelings of sadness. If someone is described as ____________________________, they behave in a strange, stupid or crazy way. A ______________________________ is a person who causes trouble by heavy drinking, taking drugs or being violent.

10. A ______________________________ is a sudden strong feeling of excitement, fear or pleasure.

2 What do you know?

Decide whether these statements are true (T) or false (F). Then check your answers in the text. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The youngest member of the Rolling Stones is now 65 years old. The oldest member of the Rolling Stones is now 70 years old. The Rolling Stones have sold more than 200 million albums. The Rolling Stones 2005 A Bigger Bang tour is the highest-earning tour of all time. One and a half million people saw the Rolling Stones live on Copacabana beach in Rio. Brian Jones, a guitarist with the original Rolling Stones, died in a car accident in 1969.

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The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch

Level 3

Advanced
for one, only gave up drugs in 2006 after falling out of a tree and undergoing surgery for a blood clot on his brain. When I speak to him over the phone from his home in Los Angeles, the 67 year old is sanguine about cleaning up his act. Everybodys got to grow up eventually, Richards says in a dry voice. All of my stuff, I considered it all an experiment that went on too long. 6 The re-release of Some Girls is especially poignant for Wood because the album marked the first time he was officially recognized as a member of the band I felt I was finally home, he says. Although the Rolling Stones were formed in 1962 by Jagger and Richards (who were at primary school together), they have undergone a series of personnel changes over the years. Guitarist Brian Jones, one of the original line-up, drowned in his swimming pool in 1969. Mick Taylor took his place, before eventually being replaced by Wood, while bassist Bill Wyman retired from the Stones in 1992. 7 The Some Girls tour in 1978 produced some of the most electrifying live performances of the Stones careers. A DVD featuring unseen footage of the band playing a tour date in Fort Worth, Texas, has just been released and shows Jagger at the top of his game, strutting across the stage like a demented cockerel. I started off thinking about what being a performer meant when I was about 16, says Jagger when I ask him about the tour. I hope Im not being immodest, but I realized I would go out and do it, and the more people seemed to like it the more I seemed to do stupid things and dance. You sort of realize thats your fate and you develop it. 8 Apart from the music, the partying and the trail of beautiful women, perhaps the most fundamental reason for the enduring public fascination with the Rolling Stones is the friction surrounding its central creative partnership. Jagger and Richards seem forever locked in an epic battle between love and hate, admiration and mistrust, that has twisted and turned throughout the last half century. 9 Is it, I ask Richards, a bit like working with your brother? No, its like working with Maria Callas, he replies. Weve been fighting cats and dogs all our career. Were like brothers in that sometimes we love each other and sometimes we hate

The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch

Elizabeth Day 13 November, 2011 1 When a Rolling Stone admits that coffee is his greatest vice, you know times have changed. During his time as guitarist for the band, Ronnie Wood estimates hes burned through 20 million on drugs and alcohol. But nowadays things are rather different. The Stones have all grown up Wood, at 64, is the youngest in the band; drummer Charlie Watts the eldest at 70 and, they are still working. They have just released a remastered version of their hit 1978 album Some Girls, including new tracks from the archives. 2 When I meet Wood in a central London hotel, he looks essentially the same as he did three decades ago a bit more weather-beaten, perhaps, but still sporting the same hairstyle and skinny jeans that seem to have come directly from the 1970s. Does it feel surreal looking back on the old photographs now? Yeah, he says. It doesnt seem like its been all those years. What is it, 30? Thirty-three. He gapes in mock horror. The 80s only seem like yesterday to me. The 90s went so fast. Before you know it, time has flown by. 3 In their time as the worlds most famous rock band, the Rolling Stones have sold more than 200 million albums and released eight number one singles. When they took to the road to promote their 2005 A Bigger Bang album, it became the highest-grossing tour of all time (since bettered by U2s 360 tour of 200911). At one concert alone, on Copacabana beach, 1.5 million people turned up to watch them live. 4 As a band, they have swaggered their way through the decades: a multi-headed, hard-partying, hardliving, rocknroll beast that produced some of the finest popular music of the 20th century, including Wild Horses, Jumpin Jack Flash, Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar, Satisfaction, Paint it Black and Sympathy for the Devil. And theyre still going. 5 But arguably the Stones greatest achievement is the simple fact of their survival. In 2012, the band marks its 50th anniversary, a feat that seems all the more remarkable in the face of their seemingly hell-bent desire to kill themselves. Keith Richards,
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The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch

Level 3

Advanced
daughters. Nowadays, Richards tells me, The best drug is breathing. 11 But despite the fact that they are all happily settled and doing their own thing, there is an undeniable frisson when the question of a Rolling Stones reunion is mooted, as if none of them can quite let go of the excitement that comes from being in the band. Wood says he is ready for action next year just in case. Fifty years! he shrieks. Its got to be done. Jagger gives me predictably short shrift. Ive no idea, he sniffs. We dont really get together that much as a group. And what about Richards? Can he envisage a reunion tour? Envisage? he laughs. Yeah. I dream of it.
Guardian News & Media 2011 First published in The Observer, 13/11/11

each other and sometimes we dont even care. Relations between the two probably werent helped by 2010s publication of Richardss autobiography, Life, in which he claimed among other things that Jagger was unbearable. 10 These days, Ronnie Wood is contentedly single (after a brief relationship with Brazilian model Ana Arajo) and concentrating on his art a solo show of his charcoal portraits and oil paintings opened earlier in November. Charlie Watts, meanwhile, is much in demand as a jazz drummer after having survived a battle with throat cancer seven years ago. Jagger has formed a new band, SuperHeavy, with singer Joss Stone and Eurythmics founder Dave Stewart, and continues to produce films through his own production company. Richards, the former hellraiser-in-chief, is married to former model Patti Hansen with whom he has two

3 Comprehension check
Choose the best answer according to the text. 1. Why is it so surprising that the Rolling Stones have survived for 50 years? a. because most rock bands only last for a few years b. because they seemed determined to kill themselves through their lifestyle c. because U2 became much more successful than the Rolling Stones 2. What does Ronnie Wood look like compared with thirty years ago? a. He looks much older. b. He looks exactly the same. c. He looks almost the same. 3. Why is the re-release of Some Girls poignant for Wood? a. because his friend Brian Jones died just before the album was released b. because he was officially recognized as a member of the band when the album was first released c. because the remastered version includes new tracks from the archives 4. How did the band members react when the possibility of a reunion tour was mentioned? a. They had mixed opinions about the idea. b. They all dismissed the idea. c. They refused to discuss the idea.

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The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch

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4 Find the word

Find the following words and phrases in the text. 1. a two-word adjective meaning earning the most money (para 3) 2. a two-word noun phrase meaning a soft mass of almost solid blood that blocks a tube in your body (para 5) 3. a verb meaning to walk in an especially confident and proud way (para 7) 4. a noun meaning a feeling of disagreement between people (para 8) 5. an adjective meaning extremely annoying (para 9) 6. a verb meaning to suggest something as a subject for discussion (para 11) 7. a four-word expression meaning to refuse firmly and immediately to do something, give something or deal with something in a sympathetic way (para 11)

5 Verb + noun collocations

Match the verbs in the left-hand column with the nouns or noun phrases in the right-hand column. 1. take to 2. clean up 3. take 4. release 5. undergo 6. form a. surgery b. someones place c. a band d. the road e. an album f. your act

6 Word-building
Complete the sentences using the correct form of the words in brackets at the end of each sentence. 1. The new album features _______________________ footage of the band from their 1978 tour. [SEE] 2. Ronnie Wood looks _______________________ the same as he did thirty years ago. [ESSENTIAL] 3. Their greatest achievement is their _______________________. [SURVIVE] 4. They produced some _______________________ performances during the 1978 tour. [ELECTRIFY] 5. Ronnie Wood is _______________________ single. [CONTENT] 6. There is an _______________________ frisson when the possibility of a reunion tour is mentioned. [DENY]

7 Discussion
How do you think a group like the Rolling Stones has managed to survive and be successful for so long?

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2011 NEWS LESSONS / The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch / Advanced

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The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch

Level 3 KEY

Advanced

1 Key words
1. vice 2. weather-beaten 3. surreal 4. swaggers 5. hell-bent 6. sanguine 7. poignant 8. demented 9. hellraiser 10. frisson

4 Find the word

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. highest-grossing blood clot strut friction unbearable moot give someone short shrift

5 Verb + noun collocations

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. d f b e a c

2 What do you know?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. F T T F T F

6 Word-building
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. unseen essentially survival electrifying contentedly undeniable

3 Comprehension check
1. 2. 3. 4. b c b a

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