
Album Details
Flashpoint is a live album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, their first live album by the group since 1982's Still Life. The album was compiled by Chris Kimsey with the assistance of Chris Potter.
The album was recorded in 1989 and 1990 on the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour and released in 1991. Steel Wheels Live, released in 2020, is another release from the tour, with a complete 1989 concert and a selection of live rarities.
The tour and the two studio tracks recorded for Flashpoint were the last for bassist and long-time member Bill Wyman as a Rolling Stone.
Recorded across North America, Europe and Japan, Flashpoint is also the first Rolling Stones release of the 1990s and, unlike previous live sets, includes two new studio tracks: "Highwire" and "Sex Drive"; the former was released as a single earlier in 1991 and was a comment on the Gulf War. The latter was described as a "basically a dance-track" by Chris Jagger, and a remix 12" would be released of it later that year.
Although the live selections are mostly familiar hits mixed in with new tracks from Steel Wheels, Flashpoint also includes lesser-known songs like "Factory Girl" from 1968's Beggars Banquet and "Little Red Rooster", originally a No. 1 UK hit single in 1964, featured here with special guest Eric Clapton on guitar. According to Chris Jagger, some of the backing vocals were re-recorded and Ron Wood added guitar to three tracks afterwards.
Flashpoint was recorded using binaural recording. This gives the effect that the concert audience is behind the home listener.
The audience cheer track was taken from the Rolling Stones' 1970 live album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, complete with an audience member shouting out a request: "'Paint It Black', 'Paint It Black', you devil".
Track Lists
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