Stones leave fans hanging after marathon world tour

By Dean Goodman

LONDON (Reuters) - The Rolling Stones ended their two-year world tour in their home town of London on Sunday, leaving fans wondering if it would be their last ever show.

Such speculation has dogged the veteran rock band since the 1960s, but it intensifies each tour to the point where it is now a running joke between the group and journalists.

Predictably, frontman Mick Jagger made no grand announcements during the band's two-hour show at the O2 arena, in Greenwich, southeast London. The venue is just 13 km from where they performed their first ever show, at the Marquee Club, in July 1962.

Instead, the 64-year-old singer, who barely broke sweat as he jumped around the stage, thanked fans for sticking with the band amid "fire and ice and storms and trees, and God knows what."

The "trees" comment related to a mishap in April 2006 when guitarist Keith Richards slipped while on a break in Fiji. He required head surgery, which forced the band to reschedule its European tour set for that summer. At the time, it was reported that he fell from a palm tree, though he later denied that.

Since the "Bigger Bang" world tour began in Boston on Aug. 21, 2005, observers have wondered about the health of the death-defying guitarist, who has been friends with Jagger since childhood.

To the consternation of fans in Helsinki earlier this month, Richards actually toppled over on stage a few times. But the 63-year-old played with vigor on Sunday on such classic tunes as "Brown Sugar" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

Richards said in the latest issue of the British music magazine Mojo that he is taking the anti-seizure medication Dilantin because of the head injury, but had abstained from cocaine for about 18 months. He continues to drink and smoke heavily.