The upcoming Rolling Stones tour is being preceded by a string of intimate warm up gigs, with the first occurring in Paris tonight, October 25th 2012. 

The Huffington Post reports that fans crowded the Champs Elysees with a view to grabbing one of the 350 tickets that were previously announced on the band’s Twitter account. Conditions for the tickets included: no more than two per person, names printed on them and IDs required at the door, but that didn’t put anyone off trying to seeing them before they undertake their much coveted London and New York tour. Speaking to The NME about the aging rocker’s routine, Ronnie Wood said: “We’re all making a concentrated effort of being there on time every day, we start at three o’clock in the afternoon, we go through to dinner time, we have one break and so far everything has been [like] an operation, nose to the grindstone. We wanna give 200 per cent."

A few days ago, the Paris gig was just a myth, after Wood confirmed to the NME the existence of their upcoming warm-up circuit. “There’s going to be little club gigs that we’re gonna surprise ourselves to do as well,” he explained. “We’ll bung a few in next week or the week after, so look out for any Cockroaches gigs or whatever! I don’t know who we’ll be billed as but we’ll turn up somewhere and put a few to the test. Tiny, 200, 300 people kind of places.” Now that Paris has been confirmed, fans in other makor European cities will be keeping their eyes peeled for the chance to catch a rare live experience with the Stones.