Rolling Stones plan four 2012 dates to celebrate 50th anniversary

By August Brown

Oct. 15, 2012 12 AM PT

Perennial worries about Keith Richards’ health have never been enough to sideline the Rolling Stones for long. After postponing a planned 50th anniversary tour to 2013, the band posted a video to announce its long-rumored concert dates celebrating the occasion in London and the New York area.

The small run of shows start on Nov. 25 and 29 at London’s O2 Arena, followed by Dec. 13 and 15 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The dates will be the band’s first shows as a complete act -- with Richards, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood -- in five years.

The dates come at the heels of “GRRR!,” a greatest hits collection due next month featuring two new songs, “Doom and Gloom” and “One More Shot,” that find the band in an unexpectedly ferocious mood.

The Stones’ last full tour for “A Bigger Bang” in 2005-2007 was one of the highest-grossing in a recent music, netting $500 million. But the band was most recently in the news around its White House show in February and Keith Richards’ autobiography “Life,” which was a gripping yarn of rock star excess but not entirely flattering to Stones’ singer Mick Jagger.

No L.A. date has been booked yet, but smart money is on that changing as the tour expands. Meanwhile, it’s time to cue “Start Me Up” and stay away from coconut trees in preparation for the Stones’ return.