Mick Jagger Scouts 'Rolling Stones' Venues in Havana Visit
Havana is once again home to a U.S. ambassador, but a visit this week from another illustrious guest -- Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger -- is grabbing almost as many headlines as the recent rapprochement between the United States and Cuba.
Rumor has it that Jagger's purpose in the island nation's capital is to scout out venues for a possible Stones concert during a Latin American tour planned for next year, Granma, the mouthpiece of Cuba's ruling Communist Party, reported.
Accompanied by one of his daughters, the 72-year-old musician visited a number of Havana nightclubs, including the "SangriLa" club in Playa, one of the city's 15 municipalities, Granma said, based on information from an unidentified hotel employee.
Jagger's bandmate Keith Richards, meanwhile, had already confirmed the Stones' desire to rock the Caribbean island in September, according to El País.
"We'd like to visit Cuba now that the situation is changing," Richards said. "It's a place where huge cultural steps have been taken for the benefit of the entire word. It'd be interesting to be there, because it would be a new place for us, and surely something new for them."
The concert in question would likely take place in March of 2016, the Spanish newspaper detailed. While the Communist leadership frowned upon rock groups for many years, the genre has gained popularity in Cuba over the past decade, the Guardian added.
The Rolling Stones, formed in London in 1962, have so far performed more than 2,000 concerts around the world, and their last major tour included stops in five contents. In Latin America, the "A Bigger Bang" tour included concerts in Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.
Two members of the band -- bassist Darryl Jones and backing singer Bernard Fowler -- already performed in Havana in February with the group The Dead Daisies, according to the Guardian.
Their concert, dubbed "Cuba Rocks for Peace," was a cooperation with Cuban artists David Blanco and Anima Mundi. Due to regulations of the 1963 U.S. Trading With the Enemy Act, which remained in effect, Jones and Fowler were not paid, Billboard detailed.
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