Like a Rolling Stone
If you’re a successful and enduring rock band about to go on tour, you might look forward to being supported by a big-name sponsor such as Redbull, Adidas or Virgin.
But you can’t always get what you want.
The Rolling Stones’ last tour was sponsored by Alliance for Lifetime Income, a non-profit organisation designed to help people help prepare for retirement.
How refreshing. Often, sponsorship pairings can feel inappropriate: McDonald's and the Olympics for example. Or unbelievable: David Beckham and Young’s Frozen Seafood (as if!).But the demographic here is perfect.
A captive audience of Boomers and Gen-Xers watching the modern face of retirement jangling their skeletons right in front of them is bound to prompt them to think about their own future.
The Stones, along with fellow ‘heritage bands’ Blondie, Elton John et al, all still shuffling around the stage, are the perfect advert for the fact that conventional retirement – pipe and slippers at 65, death a few years after – are long gone.
And that if you’re going to live forever, then you’d better do something about it.
But they’re also a live demo of the fact that living that long requires you to think about exactly what you do want to be doing at age 78.This lot might be throwing themselves around the stage for the fun, but there are just as many dragging themselves back out on the road because they have to eke out a living.
Surely it’s better to have the choice.
Certainly better to at least think about it than put your head in the sand like Liam Gallagher, who at 49 is in need of a double hip replacement, but refuses to have an op saying he’d rather be in pain than risk his rockstar reputation.
He’d better have a plan B up his sleeve unless he wants to be sponsored by Glucosamine at his next gig.
Shameless plug
I delve deeper into the Megrim vs Cornish sole question in this month’s IFA Magazine, saying it’s not just jargon we need to be clear about – it’s everyday words too.
Podcast
Did you know that the original name for ecstasy was ‘empathy’? This is just one of many fascinating facts included in the BBC’s 12-part podcast series ‘Ecstasy: The Battle of Rave’.
Gold digger
A 10-week-old puppy from Blackpool dug up £6,000 worth of gold sovereigns on his first ever walk. Ollie is a Lagotto Romagnolo, a breed known for digging up truffles.
Crunch time
The average UK adult eats 35 crisp sandwiches a year - amounting to 2bn annually. The combination of a cheese filling and ready salted crisps was favoured by one in three people.
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