Rolling Stones Fined $320K for Keeping London Up Too Late
It turns out it wouldn't have cost the Rolling Stones any more money to close their first 50th anniversary concert Sunday with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" at London's O2 arena. Despite widespread reports yesterday that they skipped the classic song to avoid the city's 11 p.m. curfew, The Sun now reports that the band already went past a 10:30 p.m. time limit and is facing a fine of £200,000 (about $320,580) for rocking out 35 minutes too long.
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Still, come on: They might be on average older than the U.S. Supreme Court, but they are the Stones, and they're not exactly known for throwing caution to the wind, the band's agent told Richard White of The Sun. “It means a big fine — but the guys just do their thing," Bernard Doherty said. "There wasn't a janitor standing there, jangling his keys, saying. 'I want to go home'."
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We're not exactly worried about the band's finances—as our Alex Abad-Santos reported yesterday, Mick Jagger alone is worth an estimated $300 million—but if they weren't being skimpy about a couple hundred thousand pounds, why didn't they just play "Satisfaction"? (To be fair, as we noted yesterday, the song wasn't on the band's official set list.)
