The Rolling Stones' 1982 European Tour: A Tattoo You-Heavy Setlist with a Rare Motown Cover

The Stones’ 1982 European Tour is often remembered as the tour where they finally cracked the live puzzle of Tattoo You — an album that had come out the year before but felt more like a shuffled collection of leftovers than a proper statement. Yet onstage, songs like “Start Me Up,” “Hang Fire,” and “Little T&A” became instant arena monsters. “Start Me Up” opened almost every show, and the setlist structure leaned hard into the record’s rock-boogie energy, often grouping three or four Tattoo You tracks in a row during the middle of the set.

The biggest curiosity to come out of that tour was the rare inclusion of “Going to a Go-Go,” a Smokey Robinson & the Miracles cover the band had never played live before. It appeared in a handful of shows — mostly in Germany and France — slotted in right after “Time Is on My Side” during the oldies segment. It was loose, raw, and Keith Richards sang a ragged harmony that barely held together. The band never bothered with it again after 1982.