The news that the Rolling Stones would be announcing a date at St Mary's Stadium in their summer tour, brought widespread criticism of the bands management on Saints supporters social media.
Saints fans have taken to social media to rant they won't be attending the Rolling Stones gig at St Mary's Stadium due to the failure of the groups management to adapt to modern tactics.
Since their emergence back in the early 60's The Stones have stubbornly stuck to a rigid one man up front system with three holding players behind the lone singer up front.
That has seen the band release only 5 albums in the last 30 years and some fans are saying that the band will need to release at least 3 more in the next 9 weeks if they are to stay up there with the top bands.
Over the past four decades the Stones have stuck rigidly to only Mick Jagger up front with Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts in the holding roles behind and some Saints fans are pointing to a failure by the bands management to not only sign big name musicians to join the band, but to often go for the cheap option and even then fail to hold on to band members who too often are lured away to other groups.
It was not always this way, the Stones used to have a scouting system that was second to none, when original member Brian Jones left he was replaced by Mick Taylor then one of the most sought after guitarists.
When Taylor himself left the band felt they had to make a statement and signed Ronnie Wood, perhaps the biggest guitarist of the early 70's forming a lethal partnership with Rod Stewart in the Faces, there are some Stones fans who would claim that the band should have brought in both, but it as only Ronnie who came and despite a few early successes in the album charts, the albums dried up.
The loss of Bill Wyman in 1990 was a big blow, the split was acrimonious with Wyman claiming that his head was already in Liverpool although this was later denied by his Lawyers
Fans will point to the fact that the band then always seemed to pick the cheap option when replacing departing members from then on and this only lead to a slow decline.
Now Saints fans are claiming that unless the band ditch the one up front formation and go two up top they will boycott the gig.
They point to the success late in gigs when Keith Richards will sometimes be thrown up front alongside Jagger for a barnstorming finish, but ultimately Richards is not a front man and it only has limited success.
There is a growing demand from the Saints faithfull that Ralph Krueger and Les Reed get into the market between now and the June date and roll out a big signing to partner Jagger up front. They accuse Krueger and Reed of taking the cheap option in bringing the Stones to St Mary's.
Names mentioned include Liam Gallagher, that Damon from Blur and even the return of a prodigal son, the failure to bring back Theo Walcott to Saints was a disappointment, but what a coup it would be if Craig David himself stepped out on the stage in June and belted out numbers like Satisfaction, Brown Sugar and Jumping Jack Flash.
This could revitalise the Stones and be a big boost for the rest of the tour.
Fans also complained that Saints owner Jisheng Gao has yet to attend a gig at St Mary's, he was conspicuos by his absence when Bon Jovi appeared at St Mary's and even Elton John could not tempt him, putting into question his commitment to the club.
A vox pop outside HMV in Southampton revealed a growing disenchantment in the Rolling Stones line up.
" It's just not entertaining anymore, it's predicatable, you know what the line up is going to be in any given gig, you know what songs they are going to play and when they are going to play them"
"When are the bands management going to make a statement, they say nothing and things just continue on year in year out, where is the investment ?"
"I'm fed up, Jagger has a lack of service and they just pass the solos around in midfield between Richards & Woods and don't go for the jugular"
Tickets for the gig are expected to go on sale on Tuesday and the following criteria will apply.
Monday - Ticket agencies
Tuesday - Season ticket holders who have a minimum of 5 Rolling Stones albums from the past 55 years with at least one being from the last 20 years.
Wednesday -Season ticket holders with a minimum of 3 Stones Albums and 2 singles.
Thursday - Season ticket holders with 3 Stones Albums and a Mick Jagger solo album.
Friday - Members with 5 albums
Saturday - Craig David
We at the Ugly Inside urge supporters to get behind the Stones at the gig, it serves no benefit to barrack them during stuff written after 1977 and only creates a toxic atmosphere, get behind them, the time to boo will be after the last song of the 4th encore when you realise they haven't played Little Red Rooster.
Truth is few bands these days play two up front, back in the 80's a lot of the big bands employed this line up with varying success, Wham, Pepsi & Shirley, Orchestral Manoevres In The Dark, Ant & Dec to name but a few, but since then the trend has either to be to pack the midfield with no visible front man as in Take That and Pink Floyd, or keep it tight at the back as in the Drummers of Burundi but since the 90's most of the big bands have only gone with one up top, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Muse, etc can you name anyone bar the frontman in any of them bands.
So enjoy the gig if you get a ticket and remember,
"You can't always get what you want, so get what you need ! "