After years of not having any concert in Cuba since Western rock and pop was banned by the country’s communist government, the people get to watch their first concert with a performance from The Rolling Stones despite the requests from the Vatican to stop the show.
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The Rolling Stones wound down their act, leaving their fans in stunned disbelief from it all. “The times are changing”.
Cristian, an 18-year-old, said: “Don’t let anybody tell you different, this is the best concert in the history of Cuba”. Like us on Facebook Adele’s Hello: Music Therapy Says It Heals The Rolling Stones concert was unlike its usual North American concerts.
The Stones started playing three years after the revolution in Cuba.
Few were willing to comment on the connections between the concert and Obama’s visit earlier in the week, but many said the concert had implications beyond simple entertainment.
Ken Smith, a 59-year-old retired sailor, and Paul Herold, a 65-year-old retired plumber, sailed to Havana from Key West, Florida on Herold’s yacht.
The crowd danced, swayed and for one long spell joined Jagger, 72, in intense back-and-forth singing, seemingly sending a message that the time has come to move on.
Foreign rock music was banned in the country for several decades.
The Ladies in White, a mostly Catholic women’s group that has protested since 2003 on behalf of political prisoners were arrested for protests about the pope’s Cuba visit in September.
Sir Richard Branson told his Twitter followers he would be supporting the band at their landmark show, writing: “Excited to be heading to Cuba to see my friends the RollingStones rock Havana!”. The concert will be filmed for a documentary about the tour of the band responsible for hits like “Satisfaction” and “Start Me Up'”.
“I never would have guessed both things would have happened the same week”, said Ernesto Estevez, an English teacher who lives across the street from the sprawling field where the Stones staged the concert. “We are very pleased to be here and I’m sure it’s going to be a great show”. Cuba’s left-wing Government has defied all expectations and outlasted it’s former ally, the Soviet Union, and the Rolling Stones continue to rock n roll and sell out stadiums world over, 54 years after their inception. According to reports, security was more relaxed and there were less merchandise.
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There were no concert posters around Havana as late as Thursday and the only merchandising AFP reporters found were key rings with the band’s tongue logo in a state-run music shop. “I couldn’t sleep knowing he would be here”, said Angela Menendez, who cleans floors in a hospital and said she arrived at 2 a.m.
