While Rolling Stones fans are chomping at the bit for any news regarding the band's upcoming 50th anniversary dates -- Charlie Watts seems to want the shows to be kept at a minimum. Watts joked to NME, "The tours are two years long, so I'm living with Ronnie Wood for all that time. I don't need to see him for another two years. In the mid-'60s, the tours would be a trip around England, then a trip around America, then recording in America, back to Europe, England, to America. You were living together the whole time. You'd get a month off at the most."

Watts, who's renown for his dry wit, went on to deadpan: "You were younger though, and also you were more photogenic, to be honest. I don't think Keith (Richards) would want you photographing him at two in the morning now."

• Mick Jagger, who earlier this month revealed that the Stones would be back onstage sometime this fall, plans out all the band's stage logistics with Charlie Watts. He told us that the type of venue has always dictated how many bells and whistles get added to the show: "It depends where you're touring. So, in the early-'60s, we were playing in theaters, y'know, people don't do a tremendous amount of all that stuff. I mean, it was going on in the '60s, that's where it all started, I mean, there was a lot of that. But y'know, we'd go and play a theater show there's very little. . . so I think in the Circus Krone show (in Munich) I shouldn't think there'd be very much pyrotechnics. But, if you're playing in the big stadium, you've got to do something visual. I don't think you could just go on, y'know."

OFF THE RECORD

• We're hearing STRONG whispers that the Stones are planning a multi-night December run at New York's Madison Square Garden -- with both Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor involved in some way.

SIDE NOTES

• Out now is The Rolling Stones: Tokyo Dome (Live 1990), featuring the band's February 26th, 1990 setlist: "Start Me Up," "Bitch," "Sad Sad Sad," Harlem Shuffle," "Tumbling Dice," "Miss You," "Ruby Tuesday," "Almost Hear You Sigh," "Rock And A Hard Place," "Mixed Emotions," "Honky Tonk Women," "Midnight Rambler," "You Can't Always Get What You Want," "Can't Be Seen With You," "Happy," "Paint It Black," "2000 Light Years From Home," "Sympathy For The Devil," "Gimme Shelter," Band Intros, "It's Only Rock N' Roll," "Brown Sugar," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," and "Jumping Jack Flash."

CHECK IT OUT: The Stones' 1980 video for "Emotional Rescue":

Mick Jagger On Developing Light Shows

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