The Rolling Stones yesterday postponed the first 15 dates of their European tour as guitarist Keith Richards recovers from a head injury.
Stones publicist LD Communications said the European leg of the band's “A Bigger Bang” tour, which had been due to start Saturday in Barcelona, Spain, would now begin in July at a venue and city to be announced.
It said the rescheduled dates would be announced in the next few days.
The postponed gigs were scheduled for Barcelona and Madrid, Spain; Brussels, Belgium; Paris; Bergen, Norway; Horsens, Denmark; Gothenburg, Sweden; St. Petersburg, Russia; Brno, Czech Republic; Warsaw, Poland; Vienna, Austria; Milan, Italy; Athens, Greece; and Zagreb, Croatia.
Richards, 62, was injured April 27 in Fiji. News reports variously claimed that he fell out of a palm tree or from a Jet Ski. Richards later had surgery in New Zealand to relieve pressure in his head.
ELTON GETS LIBEL DAMAGES
Elton John accepted $188,000 in libel damages from a newspaper yesterday over allegations that he had asked guests not to approach him at a charity ball.
Associated Newspapers Ltd., which publishes The Daily Mail, paid the damages, according to John's attorney, Hanna Basha. The Sunday Times, which reprinted the Mail article, agreed on a confidential settlement earlier this year, Basha said.
The allegations surrounded John's behavior at his annual Tie and Tiara charity ball. The Mail claimed in its June 24 article that the 59-year-old pop star had issued a “bizarre” edict for guests not to approach him.
BAEZ MOVING INTO A TREE
Folk singer Joan Baez and tree-sitter Julia “Butterfly” Hill have taken up residence in a tree to raise awareness about a 14-acre urban farm threatened with demolition.
Hill, who lived in a redwood in Northern California for more than two years to prevent loggers from cutting it down, said Tuesday that she and Baez will be among those who will occupy the tree in shifts.
Two door-sized platforms have been placed in the tree for the sitters, and a support group has set up an encampment on the ground.
Hundreds of farmers could face evictions after The Trust for Public Land came up $10 million short in its bid to buy the site. The nonprofit group was not able to raise the $16.35 million required by the time the purchase option expired Monday.
The trust signed a contract in April with landowner Ralph Horowitz to buy 10 of the 14 acres in south Los Angeles where about 350 families, most of them immigrants from Central America, tend small plots of fruits and vegetables.
