How the Rolling Stones' 1976 'Black and Blue' Tour Tested Ronnie Wood in Clubs Instead of Stadiums

Most Rolling Stones tours were arena-size spectacles by the mid-’70s, but in 1976 they deliberately went small. After Mick Taylor quit, the band needed to see if Ronnie Wood could cut it live without the safety net of a loud crowd. So they booked a 24-date tour of European clubs, university halls, and theaters — places that held maybe 1,000 to 3,000 people.

The difference was night and day. In a tiny Parisian club or a Dutch theater, you could hear every flubbed chord and every missed cue. Wood had to play rhythm and lead against Keith Richards with zero stadium echo to hide behind. The band also used these shows to jam out new songs from Black and Blue — “Hot Stuff,” “Fool to Cry” — and stretch them into long improvisations, which would have been awkward in a 70,000-seat baseball field.

Wood passed the test, of course. But the tour essentially worked as a live audition where the band could break him in before committing. They didn’t announce him as a full member until months later. The club shows also let the Stones remember what it felt like to be a bar band again — a rare moment of intimacy between a group that had already outgrown the planet.