Rolling Stones commemorate late drummer Charlie Watts at the start of their tour

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Charlie Watts: Pre-concert recordings in honor of the drummer

Photo: HANS KLAUS TECHT / AFP

Rock legend Mick Jagger provided a moving moment at the start of the European tour to mark the 60th anniversary of the Rolling Stones.

"It's our first European tour without Charlie (Watts), we miss him very much," said the 78-year-old lead singer on Thursday night on the stage of the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid.

Many of the approximately 45,000 fans wiped tears from their eyes.

Before the concert started, recordings in honor of the drummer, who died in August last year, were shown on the big screens.

Watts would have turned 81 on Thursday.

(Read an obituary here.)

Decades-old hits like "(I can't get no) Satisfaction", "Honky Tonk Women", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Sympathy for the Devil" or "Sad Sad Sad" were also danced and sung by concertgoers who were still long ago were not born when these arose.

Like a young girl who shouted enthusiastically in front of the cameras on Spanish television: "You're old, but still the best!" The band also played their new song "Out Of Time" for the first time.

Well after midnight, the fans said goodbye to their idols with a minute-long ovation.

The band thanked them on Instagram: »Muchas gracias Madrid for an amazing opening show!«.

Even without Watts, the two remaining founding members, Jagger and Keith Richards, 78, along with Ronnie Wood, who celebrated his 75th birthday on stage in the Spanish capital, proved they are still worth the expensive tickets.

The fans and even the harshest critics were enthusiastic after the two-and-a-half-hour performance: "The Rolling Stones confirm their legend with an overwhelming triumph in Madrid," stated the Spanish TV broadcaster RTVE.

"Eternal Rolling Stones" was the headline in the newspaper "El País", while the rival paper "El Mundo" saw it as "a miracle".

The British band's next performance will be on Sunday at Munich's Olympia Stadium.

Among the 14 shows of the "Sixty" tour, another concert is planned in Germany, on July 27th in the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen.

The tour concludes four days later in Stockholm.

bam/dpa