Quad City Bank & Trust Riverfront Pops Celebrates The Rolling Stones
The past 17 months certainly proved you can’t always get what you want, but this Saturday, for once, you can get what you need and a good dose of satisfaction at a special Riverfront Pops.
This year’s Riverfront Pops on Saturday presents the greatest hits of The Rolling Stones with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra.
On Saturday, Aug. 21 at 7:30 p.m., Quad City Bank & Trust Riverfront Pops returns to Davenport’s LeClaire Park with The Music of the Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger & Keith Richards 1969. The Quad City Symphony Orchestra will pay tribute to The World’s Greatest Rock ‘n Roll Band with vocalist Mick Adams and a full rock band under the direction of guest conductor Martin Herman.
Herman said Tuesday the largest pops concert he’s ever conducted was the 2019 Riverfront Pops Queen tribute with the QCSO on Arsenal Island. “It was absolutely marvelous fun, fantastic,” he said. Adding orchestral accompaniment to classic rock and pop is enlightening for everyone.
“There’s a real intimate familiarity with the music, with the classic nature of the rock and roll. And then you add to that, instrument combinations that are associated with classical music, and it gives it a new flavor, gives it a new force,” Herman said. “It brings people into
The Quad City Bank & Trust Riverfront Pops will start Saturday at 6:30 p.m. with the Quad City Youth Symphony, and the QCSO with the Rolling Stones tribute at 7:30 p.m.
orchestra concerts that may not otherwise normally go. So it’s a way of expanding audiences and interest in what orchestra players can do. And having worked at Quad-Cities before, conducted before, the attitude among the players in the Quad City Symphony Orchestra is so fresh. “They don’t bring in any kind of attitude about elitism, one could say between classical music and rock and roll,” he said. “There’s a wonderful sense of just being willing to experiment with that mixture, create a new kind of form — the new entertainment for audiences. And it’s very refreshing for me, for all of us in Windborne. It’s such a joy to be able to work with this orchestra.”
This concert is produced by Windborne Music (which has a whole series of symphonic pops tribute concerts that have been in the Q-C, including The Eagles and Led Zeppelin), and is courtesy of ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.
The Stones themselves experimented with different sounds, including on “Ruby Tuesday” (1967), which includes woodwinds, Herman said. “These big, epic ballads that they wrote that just cry out for orchestra, strings,” he said of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” as well as others like “Angie,” “Paint It Black” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” “These are very moody songs that have their roots in Mississippi Delta Blues, but lend themselves to an orchestral treatment and orchestral context,” Herman said. “So the marriage of the music is actually quite natural, you know. It doesn’t sound forced, and particularly Brent Havens’ arrangements, which are so skillfully done. They’re superbly colorful. they’re almost like chamber music, a lot of it, where you’re hearing different colors, different times, different combinations of sounds from the orchestra. So it gives it a very fresh coat of paint, if you will. It’s very refreshing.”
“The songs themselves have become their own sort of classical music, if you can think of it that way,” he said. “And I think from the audience perspective, they get to hear these tunes and they get to hear them with a full force of a symphony orchestra behind them, which only adds to
QCSO Assistant Conductor Ernesto Estigarribia (pictured leading a socially distanced orchestra at last year’s Pops) will take part in Saturday’s concert.
the experience and power. The great news too is it brings them closer to their community orchestra, right? So the people in their community who play in this orchestra.
“The proof of that is in the response that the audience gives. I mean, it’s wildly enthusiastic,” Herman said. “It’s well attended, so it creates even more respect, I think more love for what these symphony musicians do. And that’s for us a great privilege to be able to be part of that – to bring the community together with their orchestra, and allow them to hear in a new context.”
While there’s no live choir for “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” the conductor said the audience becomes the chorus. “Everybody sings along, including a lot of people in the orchestra,” he said.
“We’re all singing along and so much of this music is familiar to many of us.” Herman is very impressed by Adams as Jagger in concert. “There’s nobody better – I mean, he’s a phenomenal performer, and he’s such an engaging presence on stage for the audience,” he said. “Humorous, engaging with stories, which are pertinent. But he’s definitely focused on the music, delivering the best possible performance of that to our audiences. He’s really wonderful, a wonderful performer. Audiences are in for a real treat.
“With that combination of him at the lead, and then with the orchestra and the great band that tours with Windborne is outstanding. They are outstanding musicians, each and every one in their own right,” Herman said. “It’s such a unique combination and not one you get to hear very often. I’m happy to be bringing it with the Quad City Symphony.”
A merry, grateful Mick meets legendary Mick
Adams, a Columbus, Ohio native who declined to give his age, adores inhabiting the tireless Jagger (now 77 and planning to go back on tour starting in St. Louis Sept. 26), who co-founded the Stones in 1962.
Mick Adams, a Columbus, Ohio native, has performed as Mick Jagger for the past 17 years.
Not only is Mick Adams a ringer for Mick Jagger, he brings Jagger’s intense energy to each performance, according to a band release. As a former lead vocalist for Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods (their big single was 1974’s “Billy Don’t Be a Hero”), where Adams performed for Dick Clark, he’s toured the country with the likes of Tommy James, The Turtles, The Monkees, The Association, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Herman’s Hermits, Ron Dante, The Rascals, and more. Other notables that Mick has performed with include Spencer Davis, Rick Springfield, Johnny Rivers, Neil Sedaka, and America.
A Stones tribute review from Backstage 360 magazine (at https://www.mickadamsandthestones.com/press) said: “Not only did they look like the artists that they were channeling but the production was epic. Starting with Mick himself who not only sounds just like Mick Jagger but has his iconic moves down to a T and left me amazed. The band just electrified the crowd all evening with their talent and professionalism. Each member had done their homework right down to the look and feel of each member of the Rolling Stones that they were emulating. I can see why AXS TV picked them as one of the top 10 tribute bands in the world.”
Mick Adams and The Stones have performed for Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, David Spade, Amy Adams, Flava Flav, Jack McBrayer, Judd Apatow,
Adams has performed for celebrities across the country and has been endorsed by the former head of Atlantic Records, who signed the Rolling Stones.
and Mark Cuban. They have been featured on national TV multiple times and toured internationally. Adams is endorsed by Mark Cuban, Ryan Seacrest, and former President of Atlantic Records, Jerry Greenberg, who signed The Rolling Stones.
“I love being outdoors, ‘cause just being outside in the fresh air and the skies above and everything is just like a whole different situation,” Adams said Tuesday. Of becoming the famous Mick (who he’s embodied for 17 years), he said: “I never thought I looked much like him until I until I cut my hair different and I’m actually a blond by nature. I color my hair more to his color.”
“I think the more you do it, the more you immerse yourself in it, the more you naturally take on some characteristics — even a certain way you smile or something,” Adams said. “The hardest thing for me was learning a somewhat of a British accent. Because my wife joked about it. She said, this is ridiculous. When I was first learning, she said you sound like Austin Powers on a bad morning.”
Like the famous Maroon 5 song, he also learned the “Moves Like Jagger,” and they both are fitness fanatics, exercising regularly to keep in shape. Based in Arizona, Adams is a big bike rider.
The singular Mick Jagger (who’s 77 and has eight kids, the youngest is 4) is going back on tour with the Stones starting Sept. 26 in St. Louis.
“One of my favorite time periods really is the early days as well, like ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’,” Adams said of the Stones. “The guys in the band used to refer to him as old rubber legs, because he was so much wanting to be like James Brown back in the early days. So I do a little bit of that in the earlier songs, and all the iconic stuff that mix through the years. You’ll see me on stage constantly dancing from one side of the stage, to the other and moving around. And that definitely keeps me young.” Of the Stones’ repertoire, many songs are “just so beautifully written,” he said. “A lot of them, they lend themselves to orchestration. It makes them bigger and bolder and more dramatic, because they’re really dramatic stuff.”
Adams really likes “Paint It Black” (1966) with an orchestra. “It’ll knock your socks off,” he said. “So you put an orchestra behind that song, right? The impact is just amazing. It’s bigger than life, larger than life.”
“I just love to perform,” he said. “I love to sing and I love the music. So you put those three things together and I don’t care if it’s myself with a band, or with orchestra, or me doing something with our Keith Richards acoustically — Shane Hunter, who plays Keith Richards in my band. So if it’s either that or just the two of us or something as large as the orchestra, I don’t have a preference — I love it all. “With all of these orchestras, the musicians in these orchestras are so talented,” Adams said of touring the pops shows. “You put the sheet music down in front of them and they play it off. I’m also very
Martin Herman will guest conduct the Q-C Symphony Orchestra in the Riverfront Pops concert.
honored to have the rock band from Windborne Music behind me because they’re also very, very talented. So you put those things together and it’s just nothing but a lot of fun on stage. It’s just a blast.”
Adams said he had about 100 shows in 2020 canceled or postponed due to Covid, and he’s very glad to be back performing since February 2021. “It’s been satisfying. And being off for that amount of time, it’s been humbling, sure. And it just makes me even appreciate it more for sure,” he said.
A recent tour highlight was performing in July at the Xcite Center in the Parx Casino, which is just outside of Philadelphia. “The casino is owned by the fifth-richest man in Europe and his best friend is Elton John,” Adams said. “So he built this casino and showroom and everything that encompasses the showroom, the dressing rooms — everything around Elton John’s specifications, and it was phenomenal. Actually I had Elton John’s dressing room and it was marble countertops and it’s like just a beautiful place. The technical end of that room is bar none from any, anywhere from the Disney Center in L.A., which is a beautiful performing arts center to the East Coast, from coast to coast. That’s got to be one of the most fantastic rooms in the country.”
Martin Herman has appeared as guest conductor with symphony orchestras in North America, Europe, Australia, and Canada. His most recent engagements include the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Ft. Worth Symphony Orchestra with Windborne’s “Music of the Rolling Stones” and “Music of the Eagles.”
He has served as assistant conductor with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and conductor of the Berkeley Young Musicians Program Orchestra and University of California-Berkeley Summer Orchestra.
The Riverfront Pops deets
On Saturday at LeClaire Park, the gates open at 4 p.m. The Quad City Symphony Youth Symphony Orchestra will kick off the festivities with
A scene from the September 2020 Riverfront Pops concert in LeClaire Park, Davenport.
a pre-show at 6:30 p.m., and The Music of the Rolling Stones will begin at 7:30. This spectacular event closes with the traditional renditions of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture & Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever set to a brilliant fireworks display led by QCSO Assistant Conductor Ernesto Estigarribia (who also will conduct the Youth Symphony).
This year’s event is a combination of general admission and reserved seating. Guests are encouraged to bring their own chairs, blankets, and tables to enjoy the grassy lawn. The limited reserved lawn plots are sold out but reserved permanent bandshell seating is still available. Attendees are welcome to bring their own food and beverages, and several vendors will be on site to offer a wide range of dining and entertainment options.
Reserved Bandshell seats are $25-$37 each. General admission is $22 for adults in advance and will increase to $25 on Friday, August 20th. General admission is $5 for children between the ages of 3-13. Tickets are available online at QCSO.org, by phone at 563-322-7276, and in person at the QCSO Box Office at 327 Brady St., Davenport. Tickets will also be sold at the gate beginning at 4 p.m.
For more information on the band, visit www.mickadamsandthestones.com or www.facebook.com/MickAdamsStonesTribute.
