Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
‘You make a grown man cry
‘You make a grown man cry
‘You make a grown man cry’
It’s the sing-along chorus to the Rolling Stones classic Start Me Up but it meant so much more to me.
I couldn’t help but shed a tear for my late friend Mark Humphries who recently passed away after a desperate battle against cancer. He was buried yesterday.
I have him to thank for helping me woo Kathryn, the woman who became my wife.
We had met in a nightspot and she cheekily agreed to go on our first date on the condition I persuaded the legendary Hull Daily Mail restaurant reviewer to pen a piece about her dad’s fish ’n’ chip diner in Beverley. Fortunately, he wrote a very positive review … and he ended up being my best man at our wedding!
He performed his party piece at the reception, joining the band on stage for his great impersonation of Mick Jagger.
He’d have loved to have joined the party at Sherlock Holmes and would probably have joined charismatic Alex ‘Mick’ Larke on stage. With that thought, it really was time to wipe away the tears and party in memory of my mate Mark and The Rolling Clones really know how to deliver a dynamic dose of rock ’n’ roll.
They wowed the crowd with a non-stop montage of Stones classics, all the greatest hits from Jumping Jack Flash to Satisfaction, played with a tightness and purpose and close your eyes you’d be hard to notice the difference, squint when you reopened them and the fun wigs and mannerisms will make you look twice!
They had the revamped venue rockin’ on Thursday night and by all accounts the Friday brunch set was equally impressive.
The band hit the road in 1997 and the current line-up of Alex, Dan ‘Ronnie Wood’ Ketteridge, Aaron (Keith Richards) Clarke, Rob (Bill Wyman) George, Gary (Charlie Watts) Bentley and Dale (Chuck) Richardson (NOTE: Session musician Chuck Leavell has performed on almost every Rolling Stones studio album released) have been on the road from their UK homes in Hertfordshire and Essex for six years.
It was their first time in Bahrain as a band, although Alex had performed for a Night with Mick Jagger solo gig at the Dilly. After the show I told the lads about Mark. “Don’t worry, they said, we’re used to it,” said Alex. “You’d be amazed how many times we hear stories like that. It’s the music and the Stones … they bring back memories.”
Rock on The Rolling Clones. Rock on Mark (RIP).
