It did not stop off at Dartford railway station, the LSE, Edith Grove, Cheyne Walk or similar places of burning significance to the mythology of The Rolling Stones, but an ice cream van drove around other parts of London dispensing free ice cream on 26th July to mark the 80th birthday of Mick Jagger.
It was also there to promote the digital and vinyl reissue of the band’s Forty Licks compilation album that was originally released in 2002. The van stopped off at (or just drove past) Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Leicester Square, Shoreditch, Camden Stables and King’s Cross St Pancras (coincidentally just around the corner from the offices of Polydor, the Universal label that put out the album, allowing for plenty of photo opportunities to flood social platforms with).
“[T]he ice cream van embarked on a journey to delight fans and passers-by alike, bringing the Rolling Stones’ signature energy, encapsulated by Forty Licks, to the heart of London,” claimed the press release. We are unsure exactly how a van encapsulates the band’s “signature energy”, but when marketing a major and legendary act like the Stones, hyperbole is always going to be front and centre.
To push the fact a Dolby Atmos version of the compilation is also available, there was a listening party at Dolby’s Screening Room in Soho Square in the centre of London, a mere stone’s roll from the site of Regent Sounds studios, on Denmark Street, where the band recorded their debut album in early 1964.
It was also a pity that Mick himself was not in the van handing out 99s and Funny Feet lollies to unsuspecting passers-by. He could have performed reworded Stones classics for the occasion like ‘Scoop Me Up’, ‘I Can’t Get No (SatICEfaction)’, ‘Tumbling Ice’ and ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Lick It)’.
There are echoes here of Black Midi sending an ice cream van around London last July during the brutal heatwave to promote their appositely titled Hellfire album. The Stones should have repurposed that van and, to show their support for new bands, called it Paint It, Black Midi.
