By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--March 28, 2016
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The Rolling Stones on Friday played an historic gig at the Ciudad Deportiva stadium in Havana, entertaining tens of thousands of fans in Cuba’s capital, and marking their first appearance in the country in 54 years as a band. This free concert came just a few days after President Barack Obama made his own landmark visit to the island-nation. For the most part, Western rock music had been taboo in Cuba, and many of the people in attendance at the Good Friday concert were longtime Stones fans who had to keep a low profile when it came to their admiration of foreign rock bands. Until the dawn of the 21stcentury, communist leaders had banned most foreign rock and pop songs, due to their alleged potential to incite rebellion and decadence among Cuba’s citizens. The veteran rockers played 18 songs over two hours, starting off with their 1968 hit “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” and also including classics such as “Satisfaction” (as one of two encores), “Gimme Shelter,” and “Sympathy for the Devil.” “(We had) the visit from Obama (earlier this week), and now (we have) the Rolling Stones,” one fan told the BBC. “It’s just unique and historic. So, yeah, (it’s) nice to be here.” One die-hard fan, 66-year-old Ulrich Schroder from Germany, made the trip to Cuba for his 181st Stones show. “It’s so very special that Obama makes the border open for the economic, for the political thing, and Mick Jagger and his friends, they open it maybe for the music,” he told Billboard. “So it’s a very important week here in Cuba.”
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