Rolling Stones tease European tour with French dates to be announced

Iconic British rock band The Rolling Stones have teased an upcoming European tour to celebrate 60 years together, heavily suggesting they will play in Paris and Lyon this summer.

Full details and dates are expected to be announced in the coming days, but a 13-second video published on their social media channels on Friday (March 11) shows a map of European destinations, including the two French cities.

Their hit song Can't You Hear Me Knocking plays in the background of the video.

Another clue about where they will be playing has been dropped by Emmanuel Grégoire, deputy Paris mayor, who tweeted an animation of The Rolling Stones’ tongue logo with an Eiffel Tower picture on it, adding just the word ‘soon’.

Meanwhile, regional newspaper Le Progrès has claimed that Lyon is in the running to host the Stones on July 19 this year.

2022 is an important year for the band, who are celebrating 50 years since the release of their 1972 album Exile on Main St., and 60 years since their formation in London in 1962.

They will also be playing the European tour without their legendary drummer Charlie Watts, who died in August last year aged 80. He will be replaced by American musician Steve Jordan.

The Rolling Stones band members famously moved from the UK to France’s Côte d'Azur in 1971 to avoid paying high taxes imposed at the time by the British government.

Guitarist Keith Richards took up residence in Villa Nellcôte in the small town of Villefranche-sur-Mer just outside Nice. It is there that the band recorded Exile on Main St., in the basement of the 19th-century mansion.

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