October 26, 1998

No Security

Growing hideously long fingernails, hibernating in a nest of old newspapers and refusing to eat anything but pickled eggs - that's the sort of behaviour that becomes millionaire rock stars in their tw

4 / 10 GROWING HIDEOUSLY LONG fingernails, hibernating in a nest of old newspapers and refusing to eat anything but pickled eggs - that's the sort of behaviour that becomes millionaire rock stars in their twilight years. By comparison, persistently releasing sturdy live albums shows a certain lack of dignity, an inability to accept that the louche dandies of old have retained all the outlaw frisson of a can of Diet Pepsi.

Recorded on last year's 'Bridges To Babylon' tour, 'No Security' is the Stones' seventh live album and it captures the vacuum-flask atmosphere of those Argentinian stadiums and MTV studios with thrilling accuracy. Guests Dave Matthews ('Memory Motel') and Taj Mahal (his own 'Corinna') hardly call for a loosening of the corset-strings, and only the indelibly stained 'Live With Me' rakes up enough sleaze to flutter the heart.

If you really want to have some fun with this, try showing the accompanying live pictures of Jagger and Richards to passing small children and watch their little faces crumple in terror. It's a cheap trick, but as the Stones would doubtless agree, you get your kicks where you can.