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It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll: Rolling Stones And Icelandic Glacial Water Poised For Cuban Debut

By Kaanii Powell Cleaver
Published on: 16:56 PST, Mar 17, 2016

Buzz about the Stones’ upcoming Cuban concert began when well-seasoned frontman Mick Jagger was spotted strolling the streets and hitting the hot spots in Havana last September. According to Billboard, that’s when an unidentified hotel maid revealed the news that Jagger was visiting the Cuban capital with one of his seven children. According to the source, Jagger and progeny visited La Fabrica de Arte Cubano cultural center and took in a timba band at Club Shangri La. When asked for confirmation, a representative for the Stones told Billboard that the Stones singer was “with one of his kids on holiday” in Cuba.

In the months since Mick’s autumn 2015 visit to Cuba, plans have been formalized, and the “greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world” is slated to perform their first concert in Havana on March 25.

Granma, an official Cuban newspaper, reported Keith Richards as saying that current Rolling Stones bassist Daryl Jones was quite influential on the band’s decision to make a historical concert in Havana the last stop on their America Latin Ole tour. Prior to the Havana event, the band plays shows in Montevideo, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, and other Latin American venues.

Daryl Jones, who played with Peter Gabriel and Sting before filling in for the irreplaceable Bill Wyman as Stones bass man, performed in Havana as part of massive rock band The Dead Daisies at a ground-breaking event in February. Christened the Cuba Rocks for Peace concert, the international concert was a year in the making. The Dead Daisies touring band includes keyboardist Dizzy Reed (Guns ‘N Roses), drummer Brian Tichy (Billy Idol, Ozzy Osbourne), guitarist Richard Fortus (Psychedelic Furs, Guns ‘N Roses), Marcos Mendoza (Whitesnake), and Rolling Stones tour veteran Bernard Fowler.

When the Rolling Stones take the stage at Ciudad Deportiva de la Habana on March 25, they join a short list of foreign rock bands to perform on Cuban soil since former Cuban president Fidel Castro essentially banned rock music in 1963. Bonnie Raitt, Me’Shell Ndege Ocello, and Don Was made appearances at a Music Bridges event in Havana in 1999. Until now, Audioslave, who played a Havana show in 2005, has been the biggest foreign act to perform in Cuba.

The Rolling Stones made a group statement on their website March 1.

“We have performed in many special places during our long career but this show in Havana is going to be a landmark event for us, and, we hope, for all our friends in Cuba too.”

Diplomatic relations between Washington D.C. and Havana had been strained since the late 1950s when then-president Eisenhower closed the American embassy in the little Caribbean country in 1961, right around the time that Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, and Mick Jagger dubbed themselves the Rolling Stones.

Rolling Stones to play Havana in March 2016
[Photo via Hulton Archive/Getty Images]
More than half a century later, President Obama announced the reopening of the embassy and an overdue restoration of diplomacy, trade, and travel between the two countries. Since the president’s announcement last summer, some amendments have been made to the 1963 “Trading with the Enemy” Act, but according to CNN, not all financial embargoes against Cuba have been lifted, and the process to do so is being bogged up by Congress. Among the more vocal opponents to restored U.S.-Cuba relations are Senators Ted Cruz and Mark Rubio, says CNN.

If you’ve heard rumors that the Rolling Stones Concert for Amity in Havana will be a free event, believe them. As explained by Billboard magazine, standing U.S. Treasury Department regulations demand that any musical act that travels to the island nation do so with the intent to “support civil society in Cuba” and not to turn a profit while in Cuba. The Dead Daisies were not paid for their Cuban concert, and the Stones won’t be, either.

The history-making live event will, however, be filmed. Says the Stones’ official website, the concert movie will be directed by Paul Dugdale, produced by Simon Fisher and Sam Bridger, and filmed by JA Digital. Major benefactors of the Concert for Amity event include Fundashon Bon Intenshon on behalf of the island of Curaçao. The concert coincides with donations of music gear to Cuban schools by The Gibson Foundation, RS Berkeley, Pearl, Zildjian, Roland, BOSS, Gretsch, and other instrument manufacturers. Musica Punto Zero and AEG’s Concerts West are handling promotions.

And now a word about that Icelandic water.

On March 17, the Icelandic Monitor announced that the Icelandic Glacial company will provide all water consumed at the Ciudad Deportiva de la Habana on the day of the Rolling Stones concert. Says Icelandic Glacial CEO Jón Ólafsson,

“It’s a really exciting cooperation, the band will drink our water, everyone back stage and everyone going to the concert. It’s also the first time that foreign water is available in Cuba.”

UPDATE: On March 21, Reuters UK announced that the Rolling Stones’ Sunday show will be preempted by President Obama’s history-making 48-hour visit to Havana. The show will go on next Friday, instead.

[Photo via Hulton Archive/Getty Images]

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