Mick Jagger’s Throat Buggers Up Rolling Stones Tour

Typical. Keith Richards gets blootered on rum and falls out of a tree so hard that he has to have his skull drilled and the Rolling Stones shrug and carry on, but Mick Jagger gets a bit of a sore throat and the whole thing's off.

OK, that's a little unfair - The Rolling Stones had to postpone a whole load of dates while Keith Richards recovered from his head injury, while Mick Jagger's latest sore throat has only resulted in the cancellation of two concerts. But still, it's a blow for the thousands of Spaniards who wanted to go and see a handful of rickety old pensioners potter round a gigantic stage playing some 40-year-old songs.

The Rolling Stones have had an incredible year, it's no wonder that Mick Jagger's voice has finally given out. They've played the Super Bowl, gone to China for the first time ever, played one of the world's biggest-ever concerts in Rio and then decided to go back to America for another crack there. And they've still managed to have to pick a fight with the American president, get drunk and fall out of a tree and have brain surgery. Considering that their collective age is over three billion years old, you can't help but be impressed by the tenacity of The Rolling Stones.

So it's a bit of a shame that Mick Jagger's shonky throat has let them down. Last night, The Rolling Stones were due to play a concert at Valladolid in Spain, but Mick Jagger apparently got a touch of laryngitis over the weekend, forcing the band to cancel the Valladolid date and let down 37,000 nostalgia-loving Spaniards. On the Rolling Stones website, Mick Jagger wrote:

"I am very sorry to be cancelling this show. I always love playing in Spain, but unfortunately I have no other choice and I apologise to everyone who bought tickets for tonight."

It doesn't look as if The Rolling Stones will reschedule the cancelled concert, and now it's been decided that Mick Jagger's voice won't be better in time to play tomorrow's date in El Ejido, which leaves Sunday's UK date up in the air, too. Let's hope it goes ahead, since the wealthy 60-year-old men that make up the majority of the Rolling Stone's audience are sure to hit the warpath if Mick Jagger's throat forces the band to cancel any more concerts. And that's one big glut of strongly-worded letters, we can tell you.

Read more:

A hoarse Jagger cancels Stones concert - MSNBC

[story by Stuart Heritage]