Mick Jagger conducts choir of Rolling Stones successes with 1,500,000 in Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro (for free) - one of the biggest gigs the world has seen.

Rolling Stones played some 20 songs including Jumpin' Jack Flash and Satisfaction from 9:50PM  Saturday, February, 18th. Just prior to the Rolling Stones appeared on-stage, a huge display screen showed an animation of the  "big bang". The Rolling Stones said that it served as an inspiration to the most recent recording of the group.

The stage, facing Sugar Loaf Mountain, was the height of a seven-storey building and had a walkway linking it to the Stones' hotel. During the show, Mick Jagger, who has a Carioca(*) son of six years old, with the presenter Luciana Gimenez, talked in Portuguese with the auditorium.  "Copacabana, this is the best party of the world",  he said before singing "Oh In, Not You Again", one of four songs of the new record album in the repertoire of the show.

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A week before Carnival festivities hit full-swing, the concert was already drawing tourists and Brazilians to Rio de Janeiro — which knows a thing or two about hosting massive parties. Millions of people flock to Copacabana Beach each year for the city's New Years' Eve celebration, which features fireworks, tributes to Afro-Brazilian spirit deities and bands on several stages. In 1994, 3.5 million people hit the beach to see Rod Stewart in what The Guinness World Records Web site describes as history's largest live concert.

It was the first time the Rolling Stones had performed in Brazil  for free. Thousands of police were on duty. The city deployed 10,000 police officers — about three times the usual contingent for New Year's — as well as 600 firefighters, civil defense workers and lifeguards, expecting 3,500,000 fans. The city's port authority also was prepared for the huge influx of boats crowded the shoreline. But Saturday's crowd was not as big as Rod Stewart's 1994 concert.
The show was part of the Stones' A Bigger Bang world tour.

During the hit "Miss You", part of the huge stage 60 meters wide and 22 meters of height (a building of seven floors) included a sectional stage tongue that pivoted at the base, allowing Jagger, Richards, Ron Wood and Charlie Watts to get closer to the public.  At this moment, many fans had thrown t-shirts, banners and flags towards the stage.

Fans in the US were able to listen to the show on radios and on the Internet, as well as on more than 150 cinema screens across the country.
Linking of the Stones with Brazil comes since the 60s. Mick Jagger, went as a tourist in 1968.

(*) Carioca - Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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