Another First for Cuba: A Concert by the Rolling Stones
By FRANCES ROBLES

HAVANA — Five decades after his music was banned in this Communist country, Mick Jagger stood — and sang, jumped and performed his signature dance moves — before hundreds of thousands of adoring fans Friday night in Cuba and declared: “Times are changing.”

“We know that years back it was hard to hear our music in Cuba,” Mr. Jagger said in Spanish, alluding to the years that American and British rock music were forbidden here. “Here we are.” It was a bit of an understatement at the start of a free two-hour outdoor Rolling Stones concert at the Ciudad Deportiva sports facility that capped a whirlwind week of “firsts.” Days after a visit by President Obama and a Tampa Bay Rays exhibition game, the show took on outsize symbolism that was hard to exaggerate.

In a nation where people long stifled by a repressive government feel as if they are on the cusp of a broad transformation, Cuban music fans hoped Mr. Jagger would break down the gates to political and social change that Cuban leaders had already cracked open. “Big things start with something small,” said Andres Martinez of San Francisco, who attended with his girlfriend, who lives in Cuba. “Five years from now, they’re going to be saying: ‘It started with the Rolling Stones.’ ”

His girlfriend, Madelaine Tamayo Ortíz, a singer from Havana, chimed in: “Something is going to happen. Something better,” she said. “Beyond music, this concert was a ‘yes’ to unity.”

But lest anyone forget the political context: Cellphone service was down citywide during the concert, leading many people to suspect that the government had blocked the signal to keep the audience from communicating. (Others guessed that the system had simply crashed.) Security was tight at the orderly show.

The Rolling Stones gave a stunning performance of 18 of their classics to locals and foreigners, many of whom had never seen such a spectacle. Cubans marveled at the three-story-high jumbo screens, enormous thundering speakers and camera towers, wondering how much the production cost and grateful that the band had agreed to free admission.

In other Latin American cities the band has visited on its current Olé tour, tickets went for over $500, and fans here saw the decision to perform for free as a nod to the percolating sense that Cuba was on the verge of something big. Earlier this month, the D.J. and producer Diplo brought his group, Major Lazer, to Havana for a large free show that mostly catered to a young audience; the Rolling Stones’ crowd was filled with fans of all ages and foreigners who traveled from the United States, Britain and even as far as Australia.

The band kicked off the show with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” and bedazzled the audience with an animation featuring red moving drawings of a pentagon and crosses that aired during “Sympathy for the Devil.” The concert ended, of course, with “Satisfaction.” Mr. Jagger spoke several times in Spanish, telling the audience how he ate fish and chips at the British Embassy but preferred rice and beans at a paladar — a private restaurant. He made the point to always pronounce Cuba as it is said in Spanish: “koo-bah.”

“You have to understand, we have never seen such a thing,” said Tatiana Corrales, a construction company administrator who attended the concert with her 25-year-old daughter and her daughter’s friends. “For us, a concert is a little platform where you get to dance a little and have a nice time. This has been a really convulsive week for Cuba. We’re leaving behind the capsule we’ve been in for over 50 years.”

Ms. Corrales said the concert was especially meaningful for people of her generation, who were born at the start of the 1959 Communist revolution and were forced to listen to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles in secret on smuggled records. For years, she had no idea what Mr. Jagger or Keith Richards looked like.

“If there’s something that opens political doors, it’s music,” Ms. Corrales said. “Music has no barriers, not gender, race, or economic.”

古巴搖滾解禁 滾石樂團開唱50萬人擠破頭

英國「滾石合唱團」廿五日在古巴首都哈瓦那舉辦免費戶外大型演唱會，吸引近五十萬人到場狂歡。古巴遭禁運期間，所有搖滾樂都被視為反抗共產國家的敵對陰謀。雖然這不是近年來首次有西方樂團到古巴表演，但這麼有名的樂團到此表演還是頭一遭。

滾石搖滾樂團廿五日晚間在哈瓦那的市立體育場開唱，由於不用入場費，原可容納四十五萬人的體育場擠進了近五十萬人，大多數為年輕人；人潮湧入周圍街道，甚至有人爬上附近屋頂希望瞥見會場盛況。演唱會舞台長達八十公尺，兩側架起十組巨型螢幕，場外有大批警察維持秩序，並實施禁酒令。

滾石雜誌網站報導，過去五十多年來，陸續有美國搖滾樂團到古巴開唱，包括二○○五年的「音魔合唱團」（Audioslave）和本月初剛唱完的「超級雷射光」（Major Lazer）。滾石合唱團則是第一支在古巴辦戶外大型演唱會的英國搖滾樂團。

許多古巴人認為，西方樂團前來預示古巴演唱會產業前景，未來幾年古巴料將出現更多大型演唱會。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/arts/music/another-first-for-cuba-a-concert-by-the-rolling-stones.html

2016-03-27．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯陳韻涵