People dance at the Rolling Stones concert in Havana, Cuba, Friday March 25, 2016.
Advertisement
But Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood went ahead with what the singer called: “A great historical moment”.
The first Rolling Stones concert in Cuba has a special significance in a country where foreign rock, though not expressly forbidden, suffered censorship during the sixties.
Jagger teamed up with his Rolling Stones mates to rock the crowd with “Midnight Rambler”, through which Wood and Richards took turns at hot licks.
Updates from fans in the crowd were slow to emerge on social media as they battled with poor internet access, but tweets indicated the band followed Jumping Jack Flash with It’s Only Rock “n” Roll, Tumbling Dice and Paint It Black.
For years, many Cubans listened to bands like the Stones in secret because their music didn’t line up with the government ideology.
Fans travelled to the area to watch the concert as they queued for hours to get to the grounds of Ciudad Deportiva in Havana, the venue of the historical concert. The Stones formed in London in 1962, Reuters said, but their music was quickly barred as subversive by Cuban authorities.
“To me, this is a consecration”, Leon said as nearby fans broke into their own a cappella version of the band’s “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”.
Coming three days after a groundbreaking visit to Havana by US President Barack Obama, the event was widely seen as another step in Cuba’s emergence from years of cultural, ideological and economic isolation. He said he traveled more than 100 miles to see the show.
Some Cuban concert-goers said it made them more optimistic about the future of their country.
Jagger told reporters when he arrived at the airport “obviously something has happened in the last few years”.
In a nation where people long stifled by a repressive government feel as if they are on the cusp of a broad transformation, Cuban music fans hoped Jagger would break down the gates to political and social change that Cuban leaders had already cracked open.
Advertisement
The Rolling Stones made history, playing all their biggest hits for a free concert in Havana, Cuba on March 26.
