The Rolling Stones: Special gig at the Trabendo, Paris

A special concert in Paris by the Rolling Stones last night at the Trabendo, a tiny venue in the North east of Paris.

The band are marking their 50th anniversary of their career.

Three hundred and fifty  tickets were sold for the 700 capacity venue, getting snapped up almost immediately. Fans were told about the show via Twitter, the tickets being sold at Virgin in the Champs-Élysées the following day just hours ahead of the concert.

Tickets for the show, their first in the French capital for five years, were priced at just 15 Euros.

The other tickets going to the likes of TV presenter Nagui, singer Raphaël and model Natalia Vodianova.

The show was billed as a low-key warm up show for their forthcoming arena dates, and certainly would have given a reminder in no uncertain terms as to why the Stones deserve their legendary status.

They played for just under an hour and a half, kicking off with Route 66, then It's Only Rock 'n' Roll.

Other numbers in the set including Shattered, Start Me Up and Miss you and the unreleased track Doom & Gloom from their recent Grrr! greatest hits compilation.

There were two encores, Jumping Jack Flash and Brown Sugar.

For an intimate show in Paris by a superstar act, it couldn't be more different from the show by Madonna earlier this year, which saw her booed and jeered by fans once the (short) show ended.

In contrast, the Stones set list reads like a well-thought-out showcase of the Stones at their best. They chose not to play some of their best-known songs, instead going for songs that while perhaps not as iconic work well in an energetic live set.

I could imagine the set list of the show as the track list of a really good 70s vinyl bootleg.

Route 66
It's Only Rock n Roll
Shattered
When The Whip Comes Down
Champagne and Reefer
Doom & Gloom
Miss You
Start Me Up
Midnight Rambler
Tumbling Dice

Jumping Jack Flash
Brown Sugar

The Stones are playing a handful of dates in the UK and the US to coincide with the release of their album, and fuller tour dates are expected to be confirmed later. Hopefully there might even be more surprise low key shows as well.

The video that has emerged so far is pretty poor quality, hopefully better will emerge before too long.