Have the Rolling Stones just announced their new album with a local newspaper ad for a glass repair company?
When you're arguably the biggest rock band on the planet, apparently announcing your latest album, you could command time and space on pretty much any media platform you choose - A TikTok takeover? Good Morning America? Front and centre of the New York Times? Or how about an ad in a local newspaper in a borough of London?
That's what the Rolling Stones appear to have opted for, in the form of an ad for a made-up glass repair business, Hackney Diamonds. The firm drops several none-too-subtle clues in its short mission statement, which reads "Our friendly team promises you satisfaction. When you say gimme shelter we'll fix your shattered windows."
The dot above the i in diamonds is the band's legendary lips logo and as a clincher the firm was established in 1962, the year the Stones formed.
Hackney Diamonds is, fans have deduced, the name of the band's as-yet-unconfirmed new studio album, their 31st. The phrase is London than slang for broken glass shattered during a robbery.
The ad, first spotted and posted on X/Twitter by Simon Harper, Clash magazine founder, appears to herald the arrival of the band's first album since the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021. It's likely that the LP will feature drum tracks laid down by the debonair drummer before his death. "Let me put it this way, you haven't heard the last of Charlie Watts," Keith Richards said, speaking to the LA times recently.
The internet consensus is that the album will be officially announced in September, ahead of an October release.
