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"Unlike Paul McCartney, Blur and other U.K. bands, the Rolling Stones won&amp;apos;t be playing the London Olympics this year. &amp;quot;I didn&amp;apos;t think, to be honest, we were quite stage ready,&amp;quot; says Mick Jagger in a new interview with ITN to mark the band&amp;apos;s 50th anniversary of their first gig. &amp;quot;We haven&amp;apos;t played in a long time and we weren&amp;apos;t really stage-ready, and it&amp;apos;s a very big gig and it&amp;apos;s very risk-taking. I didn&amp;apos;t think the band themselves felt they were really ready to do it at this point.&amp;quot;\r\nJagger did note that the Stones aim to return to the stage soon to celebrate their anniversary. &amp;quot;We hope we&amp;apos;re going to do some gigs this year,&amp;quot; said Jagger. &amp;quot;We haven&amp;apos;t actually finalized them, but we hope we&amp;apos;re going to do some gigs. We&amp;apos;ve done rehearsing, hanging out together and all that discussing so you know we&amp;apos;ve been seeing eachother quite a lot.&amp;quot;\r\nMeanwhile, guitarist Keith Richards spoke with the BBC about the milestone, which the Stones will celebrate today with a photo exhibition at Somerset House in London to preview their new book, ROLLING STONES: 50. &amp;quot;Nobody ever expected anything like this,&amp;quot; Richards said of the band&amp;apos;s remarkable half-century run. &amp;quot;Especially in those days, a band was likely to live two or three years. you hoped for a good time and that was that.&amp;quot;\r\nFor more Stones anniversary viewing material, here&amp;apos;s a Sky News segment featuring conversations with both Mick and Keith, as the two talk separately about their working relationship and early antics."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/why-the-rolling-stones-arent-playing-the-olympics-20120712>