An audience with His Satanic Majesty, Mick Jagger

JUST OVER A DECADE after they played two sell-out gigs in Hong Kong, the Rolling Stones return to southern China in March for the biggest concert Macau has ever seen.

More than 10,000 people will see frontman Mick Jagger strut his stuff with guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, and drummer Charlie Watts when the most notorious rock band in history bring their colossal “14 on Fire” tour to the Cotai Arena at the Venetian Macao on March 9.

It’ll be the band’s first time in the enclave, but don’t expect playboy Jagger to make the most of Asia’s number one 1 party hotspot. “Gambling?” he scowls over the phone when told of the city’s favourite pastime. “I’m not a terrific gambler. I mean, it’s not my sort of ultimate sport. I’d say it’s really quite boring, really.”

It’s a far cry from the band’s 1970s heyday when Jagger and company wrote the rulebook on rock hedonism. At 70 years of age, the singer with the most recognisable lips in history is more likely to be seen at swish parties, behind the camera on the set of one of the many films he’s co-produced, or babysitting his grandchildren.

Even so, after 52 years of rocking with the Stones, Jagger is still the most famous and infamous name in rock. With Keith Richards, Jagger has co-written classic hits such as (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Sympathy for the Devil and Angie, he’s played some of the biggest gigs in history, including one before more than a million people on Rio’s Copacabana Beach; and his dedication to the band has kept the Stones rolling through drug busts, broken marriages, financial chaos, deaths and death threats.

He’s also one of the richest men in pop, has been knighted by the Queen and counts royalty and world leaders among his friends.

At the same time he has a ruthless reputation, jealously guarding the Stones’ business interests with a rigour that would put a corporate CEO to shame.