BEIJING, April 2 -- Next weekend China makes yet another spectacular pirouette on the international stage of the 21st century as the world's greatest rock band, the Rolling Stones, play their first Chinese mainland concert.

    The band's inimitable front man Mick "The Lips" Jagger and original axe man Keith "I'm Still Alive" Richards took time out just ahead of their Tokyo Dome concert to talk with Shanghai Daily.     

    So the phone goes and it's Cheryl who's working with the Stones in Tokyo, and she says: "Right, are you ready? I'm going to hand you over to Mick."     

    I say "yes" and the next thing it's: "Awight?" Textbook, trademark Jagger - the man who for more than four decades has fronted the Rolling Stones the band which right from the get go, and all the way ever since, has been one of the biggest on the planet.

    Official figures for 2005 have them once again crowned as the biggest grossing band of the year with ticket sales in North America alone worth a staggering US$162 million.     

    So how is the man, for whom the adjective swagger was invented, feeling about coming to Shanghai?     

    "I'm really excited. We all know that Shanghai is a big important city so we wanted to make sure it's on our itinerary. We don't want to leave it out," says Jagger. "Although China as an economic force has been around ... well forever really ... as a place for us to play it's not really been on the map for that long."