The Rolling Stones, forced to postpone the Australian leg of the band’s 14 On Fire tour due to the death of L’Wren Scott, longtime girlfriend of Mick Jagger, are working with promoters to return to the territory by the fall of this year, according to Michael Gudinski, whose Frontier Touring is presenting the band in Australia/New Zealand in association with AEG Live.
“Everyone is working very closely together, and it’s looking very likely that the rescheduled dates for Australia/New Zealand will be October-November, 2014,” Gudinski tells Billboard.
The band had only arrived in Perth on late Sunday night local time when they learned of L’Wren’s tragic passing. The band quickly postponed the Perth date and, by Tuesday, the rest of the tour followed suit. By Thursday, “the Rolling Stones party have mostly departed Australia,” Gudinski says.
The Stones were to begin a run of seven shows on March 19 at the Perth Arena, with dates in Adelaide (22), Sydney (25), Melbourne 28), the Macedon Ranges (30), Brisbane April 2), and wrapping April 5 in Auckland, NZ. Demand was huge—the band hadn’t played Sydney and Melbourne since 2006, and Perth and Adelaide since 1995 — and Gudinski says the tour had sold over 150,000 tickets.
“Apart from some last minute production releases, the shows were sold out immediately,” he says.
The show at the Adelaide Oval, presented in conjunction with IEC Entertainment, was supposed to be the grand opening of the newly-refurbished arena, and Gudinski says it still will be, at least for concerts.
“You couldn’t possibly replace the Rolling Stones and, combined with the fact that the Australian football season commences at the Oval on March 29, the rescheduled Stones’ show will still be the first concert performed there,” he says.