Sir Mick Jagger joked the Rolling Stones had been preparing to play at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
The 74-year-old singer claimed he and his bandmates had spent time rehearsing "duets" with Sir Elton John – who performed at Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan’s wedding reception on Saturday (19.05.18) – for the nuptials but didn’t want to share their efforts with fans.
On the group’s ‘No Filter’ tour, the group’s social channels offer fans a choice of four songs to be performed that evening, and at the London Stadium on Tuesday (22.05.18), it was revealed the winning track was ‘Under My Thumb’ – which beat out ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’, ‘Rocks Off’ and ‘Bitch’ in the poll.
But introducing the segment, Mick quipped: "We did learn a lot of duets with Elton for the royal wedding but we’re not gonna do one of them."
The veteran rockers delighted fans with a selection of classic hits, including ‘Sympathy For the Devil’, ‘Tumbling Dice’, ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’, ‘Paint It Black’, ‘Brown Sugar’, ‘Honky Tonk Woman’, and a two-track encore of ‘Gimme Shelter’ and ‘Satisfaction’, showing no sign of their advancing years.
But ahead of the show, Mick admitted it isn’t "getting any easier" as they get older.
He told the Daily Star newspaper: "I still really enjoy it, you know. As you get older, it doesn’t get any easier playing two hours plus or whatever.
"But, I don’t think we’d do it if it wasn’t fun… we just keep going doing it. As first-generation rock stars, the band have had to contend with ageism.
"When you’re like 21, you do things much more quickly than when you’re like whatever age I am.
"But I still do things. I’m doing some writing right now. I still do it the same way as I did before. I mean a lot of people my age don’t really write at all, or they take a lot of time, but I don’t really have that."
The rockers were supported at the gig by Liam Gallagher – who was joined by his former Oasis bandmate Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs on ‘Some Might Say’ and ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ – but Mick admitted they’d initially wanted to perform with the ‘Wall of Glass’ hitmaker on a different date of the tour.
They had hoped to get Liam for a homecoming date in his native Manchester, but the die-hard Manchester City fan was unimpressed that the gig is taking place at Old Trafford, the home of rivals Manchester United.
Mick said on stage: "We were very excited to play with Liam in Manchester, but he wouldn’t set foot in Old Trafford, so here we are at West Ham."
Richard Ashcroft will instead provide support when the ‘No Filter’ tour calls in Manchester on June 5.
Mick Jagger’s royal wedding joke
