LONDON, UK (Radio 1) - Mick Jagger is to receive a knighthood for services to music in the Queen's Birthday Honours next weekend, according to newspaper reports. Earlier this year, the Rolling Stones singer claimed Prince Charles was shocked he had not even received an MBE while Paul McCartney, Elton John, Cliff Richard and Bob Geldof had already been knighted. But the 58-year-old was put forward for the honour by Tony Blair, says the News of the World. The prime minister covered the Stones' Honky Tonk Woman and Brown Sugar with his group the Ugly Rumours as a student at Oxford. Jagger, an old friend of Princess Margaret, was asked to play at last weekend's Buckingham Palace Jubilee concert but declined because of tour commitments. A 12-month Stones world tour starts in September this year and will consist of 32 dates in the United States and Canada, before heading to Europe, Australia, Mexico and the Far East in 2003. The band, who last toured in 1999, are also hoping to play their first ever concert in China. A retrospective CD of their greatest hits from 1963 to the present day will be released to coincide with the tour. The name of the tour will be revealed with the name of the new album. Tour promoter Michael Cohl has said the shows will be "a spectacular music event" and described the tour as "the most ambitious undertaking the Stones have ever taken upon themselves".
|