1. The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch …
Level 2 Intermediate
1 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to
help you.
hellraiser weather-beaten surreal hell-bent remastered
hard-living clot footage envisage mark
1. If a song or album is _____________________, a new copy is made using the latest technology in order to
improve its quality. (para 1)
2. A _____________________ face has rough skin from being outside for long periods. (para 2)
3. If something is _____________________, it is so strange that you cannot believe it is real. (para 2)
4. A _____________________ person has a wild and unconventional lifestyle. (para 4)
5. If you _____________________ something, you celebrate it. (para 5)
6. If you are _____________________ on doing something, you are determined to do it. (para 5)
7. A blood _____________________ is a soft mass of almost solid blood that blocks a tube in your body. (para 5)
8. _____________________ is film of a particular subject or event. (para 7)
9. A _____________________ is a person who causes trouble by heavy drinking, taking drugs or being violent.
(para 10)
10. If you _____________________ something that has not happened yet, you imagine it. (para 11)
2 Find the information
Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible.
1. How old is the youngest member of the Rolling Stones?
2. How old is the oldest member of the Rolling Stones?
3. How many albums have the Rolling Stones sold?
4. How many people came to the Rolling Stones concert on Copacabana beach?
5. When were the Rolling Stones formed?
6. How did Brian Jones die?
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2. The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch …
Level 2 Intermediate
The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch … home in Los Angeles, he says he is cleaning up
Elizabeth Day his act. “Everybody’s got to grow up eventually,”
13 November, 2011 he says. “All of my stuff, I considered it all an
experiment that went on too long.”
1 During his time as guitarist for the Rolling Stones,
Ronnie Wood believes he’s spent £20 million 6 The re-release of Some Girls is especially
on drugs and alcohol. But nowadays things are significant for Wood because the album was the
different – he drinks coffee. The Stones have all first time he was officially recognized as a member
grown up – Wood, at 64, is the youngest in the of the band – “I felt I was finally home,” he says.
band; drummer Charlie Watts the eldest at 70 – The Rolling Stones were formed in 1962 by
and, they are still working. They have just released Jagger and Richards (who were at primary school
a remastered version of their hit 1978 album together), but other members of the band have
Some Girls. changed over the years. Guitarist Brian Jones,
one of the original band, drowned in his swimming
2 When I meet Wood in a central London hotel, he pool in 1969. Mick Taylor took his place, before
looks almost the same as he did three decades being replaced by Wood, while bassist Bill Wyman
ago – a bit more weather-beaten, perhaps, but retired in 1992.
with the same hairstyle and skinny jeans he had in
the 1970s. Does it feel surreal looking back on the 7 The Some Girls tour in 1978 produced some of
old photographs now? “Yeah,” he says. “It doesn’t the best live performances of the Stones’ careers.
seem like it’s been all those years. What is it, 30? A DVD with unseen footage of the band playing
The ‘80s only seem like yesterday to me. The ‘90s a tour date in Fort Worth, Texas, has just been
went so fast. Before you know it, time has flown by.” released and shows Jagger at the top of his game.
“I started off thinking about what being a performer
3 Perhaps the world’s most famous rock band, the meant when I was about 16,” says Jagger when I
Rolling Stones have sold more than 200 million ask him about the tour. “The more people seemed
albums and released eight number one singles. to like what I did, the more I seemed to do stupid
Their 2005 A Bigger Bang tour earned more things and dance. You sort of realize that’s your
than any other tour before it. At one concert, on fate and you develop it.”
Copacabana beach, 1.5 million people came to
watch them. 8 Apart from the music, the partying and the
beautiful women, perhaps the biggest reason
4 The Stones have a reputation as a hard-partying, for people’s interest in the Rolling Stones is the
hard-living rock’n’roll band and have produced friction between Jagger and Richards. Their
some of the finest popular music of the 20th relationship has been a battle between love and
century, including ‘Wild Horses’, ‘Jumpin’ hate, and admiration and mistrust for the last
Jack Flash’, ‘Gimme Shelter’, ‘Brown Sugar’, half century.
‘Satisfaction’, ‘Paint it Black’ and ‘Sympathy for the
Devil’. And they’re still going. 9 Is it, I ask Richards, a bit like working with your
brother? “No, it’s like working with Maria Callas,”
5 But perhaps the Stones’ greatest achievement he replies.” We’ve been fighting all our career.
is their survival. In 2012, the band marks its 50th We’re like brothers in that sometimes we love
anniversary. This is remarkable when you consider each other and sometimes we hate each other
that they were seemingly hell-bent on killing and sometimes we don’t even care.” Relations
themselves. Keith Richards, for example, only between the two probably weren’t helped by
gave up drugs in 2006 after falling out of a tree the publication in 2010 of Richards’s
and having surgery for a blood clot on his brain. autobiography, Life, in which he wrote that
When I speak to him over the phone from his Jagger was “unbearable”.
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NEWS LESSONS / The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch … / Intermediate
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3. The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch …
Level 2 Intermediate
10 These days, Ronnie Wood is happily single and feeling of excitement when the question of a
concentrating on his painting. Charlie Watts, Rolling Stones reunion is mentioned. Wood says
meanwhile, is much in demand as a jazz drummer. he is ready for action next year just in case. “Fifty
Jagger has formed a new band, SuperHeavy, years!” he cries. “It’s got to be done.” Jagger is
and continues to produce films through his own less enthusiastic. “I’ve no idea,” he says. “We
production company. Richards, formerly the biggest don’t really get together that much as a group.”
hellraiser, is married to former model Patti Hansen And what about Richards? Can he envisage a
with whom he has two daughters. Nowadays, reunion tour? “Envisage?” he laughs. “Yeah. I
Richards tells me, “The best drug is breathing”. dream of it.”
© Guardian News & Media 2011
11 But despite the fact that they are all happily
First published in The Observer, 13/11/11
settled and doing their own thing, there is a
3 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the text?
1. The Rolling Stones will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2012.
2. At the time, their 2005 tour earned more money than any other tour before it.
3. Ronnie Wood was replaced in the band by Mick Taylor.
4. Keith Richards gave up drugs after falling into a swimming pool.
5. Mick Jagger started thinking about what it meant to be a performer when he was 16 years old.
6. All the band members are enthusiastic about doing another tour in 2012.
4 Find the word
Find the following words and phrases in the text.
1. an adjective describing trousers that fit the body tightly (para 2)
2. a four-word expression meaning start behaving in a more suitable and sensible way (para 5)
3. a noun meaning a feeling of disagreement between people (para 8)
4. an adjective meaning extremely annoying (para 9)
5. a two-word expression meaning wanted by a lot of people (para 10)
6. a noun meaning a situation in which people meet each other again after not seeing each other for some time
(para 11)
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NEWS LESSONS / The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch … / Intermediate
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4. The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch …
Level 2 Intermediate
5 Two-word expressions
Match the words in the left-hand column with those in the right-hand column to make phrases from the text.
1. rock a. company
2. primary b. performance
3. live c. achievement
4. unseen d. school
5. production e. footage
6. greatest f. band
6 Word-building
Complete the table.
verb noun
1. achieve
2. perform
3. admire
4. publish
5. satisfy
6. sympathize
7 Discussion
Would you like to be in a world-famous rock band? Why? Why not?
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NEWS LESSONS / The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch … / Intermediate
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5. The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch …
Level 2 Intermediate
KEY
1 Key words 4 Find the word
1. remastered 1. skinny
2. weather-beaten 2. clean up your act
3. surreal 3. friction
4. hard-living 4. unbearable
5. hell-bent 5. in demand
6. clot 6. reunion
7. footage
8. hellraiser
9. envisage 5 Two-word expressions
1. f
2 Find the information 2. d
3. b
1. 64 4. e
2. 70 5. a
3. more than 200 million 6. c
4. 1.5 million
5. in 1962
6. He drowned in his swimming pool. 6 Word-building
1. achievement
3 Comprehension check 2. performance
3. admiration
1. T 4. publication
2. T 5. satisfaction
3. F 6. sympathy
4. F
5. T
6. F
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NEWS LESSONS / The Rolling Stones: that 50-year itch … / Intermediate
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