TORONTO, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Capping a four-week stay of rehearsals, the Rolling Stones and their entourage began packing for a 27-city tour Saturday, leaving what band members have described as one of their favorite cities.
The group sparked a frenzy the day before among fans, media and ticket scalpers when it was announced they would play an "intimate" performance for just 1,000 people at an 80-year-old dance hall on the shore of Lake Ontario.
Hundreds of fans, most of them over 30, lined up for hours in hopes of securing a $10 ($6.50 U.S.) ticket and security wristband, but most were frustrated. Only 300 of the tickets were available to the masses, with the remaining 700 designated for glitterati, including Sharon Stone, Liv Tyler, Kate Hudson, Dennis Quaid and James Spader.
Local media reported scalpers were getting as much as $2000 (U.S.$1300) for the ticket/bracelet combination.
The show was the final work-up for the upcoming "Licks" tour, which opens in Boston Sept. 3. The band returns to Toronto in October for two performances, both of which are already sold out.
The tour will likely contain no more than four new works, and rather focuses on a 40-year retrospective of the band's works. It is largely a promotional event for the release of a two-CD set "Forty Licks," due for release within two weeks.
While there are negative memories of Toronto for the band -- including guitarist Keith Richards' arrest for heroin trafficking on March 2, 1977 -- band members have repeatedly expressed fondness for the city. Part of Richards' sentence was that the group perform for charity, and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind was chosen. Proceeds from Friday nights' performance also went to the CNIB.
The most recent stay was also marred with sadness, when their 54-year-old crew chief Royden Magee died of a heart attack while working July 18. At the time, the band was rehearsing at an exclusive boys' school, closed for the summer. Days after, the band moved their rehearsals to the Masonic Temple, from where they are now packing.
Just as almost all of the fans who lined up in hopes of seeing or hearing the band's snap concert appeared middle class, docile and with graying hair, the Rolling Stones themselves kept a low profile during their stay. That's a far cry from a 1977 Toronto visit when Keith Richards was arrested on heroin charges -- an addiction he says is behind him -- and scandalous reports that then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's wife Margaret had been involved in sexual escapades with the band at a lakefront hotel.
None of that mattered to the 300 people who stood outside the Palais Royale dance hall Friday night.
"They're still rocking, and so am I," said Kathy, a 43-year-old who spent 10 hours in hopes of seeing the band arrive.
Dubbed a "world tour," the band will in fact visit only major cities in the United States, Toronto and Montreal in Canada, and concludes Feb. 1 in Denver.
