Oldies but goodies... the Stones in action.
Photograph: Ian West/PA
The Rolling Stones will be in very safe hands when they play the Norwegian city of Bergen tonight. In addition to their usual entourage of roadies, assistants and PRs, they will have a specialist in geriatric medicine.
The gig's organisers have arranged for the head of the local hospital's geriatrics department, Paal Naalsund, to be on hand while Charlie Watts, 65, Mick Jagger, 63, Keith Richards, 63, and Ronnie Wood, 59, are in town.
For rock gods who, in the past, had drug dealers and willing groupies waiting for them backstage, it's quite a departure.
"I am on call until the moment Keith Richards and the others get on stage," Naalsund told the regional daily Bergens Tidende. "After that, I am planning to enjoy a beer and listen to them."
You can't accuse the organisers of being careless, as the Stones have required a lot of medical care in recent months. There was Richards' brain surgery after he fell from a coconut tree in Fiji in April. Earlier this summer, Woods had a spell in a rehab clinic to treat his substance abuse. And in 2004, Watts underwent cancer treatment.
But, do you really need a geriatrician for these? Surely, you need a brain surgeon, an addiction counsellor and an oncologist, not a specialist on dementia and Alzheimer's disease. So was it a specific request from the band?
The organisers are quick to point out this was not the case. "It's simply that the head of the geriatrics department is a doctor we know," Frank Ness told Bergens Tidende. "We have no hidden agenda with the hiring, only that he is a competent doctor."
If anything, the move is a blow to the ego of a band keen to underplay their combined age of 250 years. During the current world tour, the Stones' management has appeared reluctant for pictures of fans to be taken. As the rock stars age, so do their fans, which apparently isn't good for the brand.
So it's perhaps unlikely that the Stones' management will be thrilled to see a geriatrician headbanging backstage.
