Rolling Stones announce long-awaited new album ‘Hackney Diamonds’

Sep 06, 2023
Rolling Stones announce release of new album. Source: Getty Images

Legendary rock band the Rolling Stones have announced that their latest album Hackney Diamonds will be launching on September 6th, marking their first original, full-length release since 2005’s A Bigger Bang.

The legendary rockers are set to celebrate the launch with their loyal fans via a YouTube livestream in which they will be discussing their new era of music.

“Hackney may be at the heart of Hackney Diamonds but this is a truly global moment we want to share with fans around the world via YouTube,” the band said in a statement.

Hackney Diamonds represents a major change for the band with the album serving as their first since the death of their original drummer Charlie Watts, who passed away in 2021.

Hackney Diamonds will feature contributions from both Elton John and the former Stones bassist Bill Wyman. There was also speculation that surviving Beatles members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr would be featured on the album.

McCartney was later confirmed to have recorded bass parts for new Rolling Stones music in 2022 and early 2023 but Starr’s representatives quashed rumours that Starr had taken part in recording sessions.

The album’s name is a reference to both the London borough of Hackney and the old East London slang phrase that describes the shards of shattered glass left after a robbery, Hackney is also where the album was first announced.

On August 17th, the Hackney Gazette featured an advertisement that teased the album under the guise of a fictional glass repair company. The advertisement made references to several of their songs including Satisfaction, Gimme Shelter, and Shattered.

The Stones teased the album further on August 29th with several photos of their iconic tongue logo projected onto several world monuments in New York, London, and Paris. On September 2nd, the band teased their new track Angry via the website dontgetangrywithme.com, which (perhaps intentionally) drew the ire of some fans due to its slow loading time.

The Rolling Stones recently completed their 14-date 60th-anniversary tour in 2022 and appear to have no plans to slow down any time soon. Jagger is now 80 years old and his bandmates Richards and Wood are 79 and 76 respectively and have continued to tour consistently for the better part of six decades.

A Hackney Diamonds tour is likely on the cards and will be sure to set record numbers as have previous tours.