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MICK JAGGER: Hello gents. [inaudible] no one's speaking. Are we on speaking terms or not? I can't see you very well.
Background voices: You right mate? Yep. Rolling.
Journalist: It's been a long time on the top though hasn't it? Don't you feel that the tripping is starting to grind down or not?
MICK JAGGER: The tripping is grinding down... Um, well we're happy, you know really, and we've been working very hard since 1969 as a band on the road. And we've worked a lot...
KEITH RICHARDS: Thank you Peter.
MICK JAGGER: We did a lot of touring in '69, a lot of touring in '70, we've been touring every year.
Journalist: Well, Mick has asked us to talk to other members of the band because he tends to be the figurehead,
so we've got, we've got your records or something happening in the background as a matter of fact which is a great help.
If we talk to you, Keith, this, you know, with respect you look a bit like the wreck of a Hesperus with the kind of gear you're wearing. Is this something that you like to wear or...
MICK JAGGER: What's the wreck of a Hesperus?
Journalist: Well it's, you know it's a strange looking...
MICK JAGGER: Is that mythological?
Journalist: No it's not mythological at all, you look kind of different to what we expect of people to look. Is this the way you like to dress or what?
KEITH RICHARDS: Maybe it's because you live down here and I live somewhere else.
MICK JAGGER: [laughing]
Journalist: Well that could be so, but is there any reason, why do you like to sort of dress like you do?
KEITH RICHARDS: Probably for the very same reason you like to dress the way you do.
Mick Jagger: We're dressed up
Journalist: Which is what?
KEITH RICHARDS: Don't tell me your reasons for dressing the way you do.
MICK JAGGER: I think that's a personal question.
MICK JAGGER: We all have our little sort of disagreements. We haven't had any violence since 1965, I think.
Journalist: What happened in 1965?
MICK JAGGER: Was that the chicken? Someone stole someone's chicken sandwich, that was the last fight we had.
Mick: I think when the Led Zeppelin came they were like searched and everything, like,
look I mean they weren't busted because, but they were searched by the police, you know.
I mean and almost every band that has come to Australia, I've been told, has gone through this, you know. But that was with the other government so we hope you know...
KEITH RICHARDS: Australia doesn't have a good reputation as far as bands are concerned.
MICK JAGGER: No.
KEITH RICHARDS: As far as hospitality... you are known as the most inhospitable country to visit...
MICK JAGGER: I mean, not the people, we're talking about...
KEITH RICHARDS: Just the...
MICK JAGGER: Just officially.
Journalist: Mick, the Japanese government rejected your application, your application for a visa. Why is it that you particularly wanted to go to Japan?
MICK JAGGER: Well, I mean we, it was just part of a... we've never been there, you know,
so we thought it was obviously a place to go you know,
and we heard they wanted to see us so we thought we'd go. We thought we'd do Hawaii, Australia and Japan.
Journalist: With touring generally do you feel that it is necessary for you to continue touring or is it something you feel is a responsibility to the lots of people that want to see you?
KEITH RICHARDS: It's a responsibility to the band and to the people. A band only functions properly if it plays before audiences and does live gigs occasionally, you know. Otherwise it's only working on half cylinders, you know.
That's the way it is, you've got to do it.
Mick Taylor: It's one of the things that enables you to carry on, the fact that you're touring and playing before audiences.
Apart from the fact that you enjoy it, and the audience enjoys it, it also stimulates your record sales.
Journalist: When it comes to writing material do you find that,you know, if you do too much touring your writing falls down ...
MICK JAGGER: No.
Journalist: Do you write on tour?
KEITH RICHARDS: Usually it increases actually.
MICK JAGGER: Yeah, you get ideas, you know, you've got to play it. And as Keith said before you know, like if you don't play together you get into this sort of studioitis you know, which you get, which you just withdraw...
unknown voice: You become like standard session musicians
MICK JAGGER: Yeah, you withdraw into yourself you know, which is, you never get a chance,
and look quite often, like if you write a song it only really develops properly when you've played it on stage, you know, in the studio it might be the first time you played it, you might do it a couple of days you know you might play through the number, rehearsing it, but when you've been playing it on stage for a year it really develops you know.
Journalist: Do you feel that you're at your best as a live band?
MICK JAGGER: Ah, well it's one of the things we do best, yeah.
Journalist: And as far as the Australian music scene goes have you heard any of our local bands at all?
MICK JAGGER: Not really, I mean ...
KEITH RICHARDS? Robin Gibbs.
MICK JAGGER: Only the ones that go to England really. I mean I've heard of Max Merrick, you know, I've heard his records and like the Easybeats but this is all years ago. I haven't, we haven't really heard anything new, you know.
Journalist: And what about the band that will be touring with you, Headband, I suppose you...
MICK JAGGER: We haven't heard them yet in fact.
Journalist: It's not a decision you make?
MICK JAGGER: It wasn't actually, no, I mean we just left that up to the local... because we couldn't really, like, afford to bring a band and anyway might as well use you know local people.
Journalist: Would you normally sort of participate in the choosing of a band to tour with you?
KEITH RICHARDS: We usually do.
MICK JAGGER: Yeah, in America like, when you know, we know like the bands there, you know, so that we usually make a shortlist of bands and see who's available.
Journalist: This will probably sound like a curly one but it's not intended to be. In about 15 years time, 20 years time, when you look back on your performance as the Rolling Stones, what do you think you'll have contributed to music?
KEITH RICHARDS: A good laugh.
MICK JAGGER: A lot of jumping about.
Journalist: Do you ever think about the future?
MICK JAGGER: Yeah. Like about six months ahead, you know, that's about all.
Journalist: You never sort of think of say, you know about 15 or 20 years, what you'd like to...
MICK JAGGER: No, do you really?
Journalist: No way.
MICK JAGGER: I mean, you know, you can't you know. I mean it just don't work like that does it? You can think about it all you want, but it tends never to work out how you think. I mean if someone had asked me 10 years ago if we'd be still together as a band you know I would have said no, you know, obviously not you know. How could we go for ten years doing the same thing but we still are, so I don't know what we're going to do.
Journalist: There was some talk about the fact that the Australian Government wasn't going to allow you to come, which you're quite aware of. Was the change of governments here a factor that influenced you coming?
MICK JAGGER: Well, no, no it wasn't. We planned it before there was a change of government. You can't plan your tours on what government's going to be in power. I mean, you know, I really believe that you know, bands and musicians and actors and ballet and opera and all that should be completely outside government control,
it shouldn't have anything to do with it. If there's an audience for a play or a band or a singer, I mean you should be able to come and play and work and sing and do what you want, you know.
That applies to almost everyone else, I mean if he's a bricklayer too I don't see why he shouldn't come here and do bricklaying.
KEITH RICHARDS: People tend to forget we're only a rock'n'roll band, you know, we're not out to take over the country or the world or anything else, man. We're just rock and roll musicians and that's all we are.
MICK JAGGER: Yeah, I think the mafia would have an easier job to get in here than we would.
Journalist: And what about the images attached to you as a band, you know the sort of...
MICK JAGGER: Oh, image-building and all that, is something that either newspapers, press, tv and all that they do, and also publicists do it as a matter of course, like record companies, this was a long time ago you know.
But I mean if you are... If they'd set out to try and make us nice little boys it would have been really difficult so they might as well not go against the grain, you know.
Journalist: Yeah.
MICK JAGGER: Though some people would have it that we are, you know [inaudible].
Journalist: Are you sort of conscious that people were doing this to you all the time?
MICK JAGGER: Well, not for a while. We were just working, you know, we weren't conscious of all that, you know, like when you just want to make it you don't really care, you don't think about it, you just want to make it, you don't care what people say about you really.
Journalist: Right, okay thanks.
MICK JAGGER: You still never asked Charlie a question.
Unknown voice: Fire away, off you go.