Every time we had a school assembly on drugs, my headmaster, DCM Pritchard, would hold up a picture of narcotic-addled wretches and ask us whether we wanted to be like them.

But – that was exactly what we wanted to be  like.

For many of us , it was images of Mick Jagger and Keith Richard that drove us to the tobacconist , the chemist and  the pub toilet where we tooled up for sex and drugs and rock n roll.

“Prick’s”argument was that if we indulged ourselves in our early years, we would not live into the next millennium , let alone enjoy the fruits of a long working life and a happy – pension fuelled – retirement.

So it was with vicarious satisfaction that with my £406 ticket in hand, I watched from the “cheap seats ” of the O2 as these “dead men walking” proved not just that they were still the best rock and roll band in the world, but the fittest and happiest pensioners in Deptford and Greenwich (and other stations of the cross).

There is clearly a lifestyle lesson here kids- eat drink and be merry – and you’ll be earning £10m for a night’s work when you get your bus-pass.

Ok , Keith still looks bemused by guitars without leads and stages that extend half way round the stadium Charlie Watts  re-defined  “chiselled” while  mssrs. Wood and Taylor looked as I felt the next morning.

But what a noise! Forget Clapton and Florence -sideshows, the Stones are the real deal.

Two video  highlights, Gimme Shelter and Midnight Rambler (amateur), but so many memories that the 46,000 pennies spent that night by my mate Pistol Pete Voisey (thx Pete) seem well spent.

To have the guys that stitched you , laughing at you and to have the money to laugh back -takes some doing Pete! That’s why you’re a legend.

Growing Old Disgracefully

The Stones were absent from the big celebrations this year. You didn’t get to hear much of them at the Olympics or any other summer love in.

Nor are they  too likely to be supplemented into “Strictly” or be found smooching round no 10 to support the status quo.

They’re still outside the school gates laughing .

So let’s move on from what you missed (an emptied bank account for starters) . Looking back’s a scary business – think Mick’s interchange with Hendrix in the Chelsea Drug Store

I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy
Yeah, and he said one word to me, and that was “dead”

That’s what we in finance call  “survivor bias”.

But the song’s litte moral is my message to Mr Pritchard and all the killjoys who never lived!

You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you might find
You get what you need

If you’re tuning in for a lecture on saving and Osbournesque platitudes about financial prudence, remember these guys who got paid more for a night’s worth of fun, than most of us will earn-let alone save – in a lifetime.

Next week the Geriatric Rock juggernaut rumbles on to the 100 Club which sees the final of Pension Rocks III. If you haven’t got a ticket, want to go on Thursday (6th Dec) drop a comment on here or send me a mail on henry.h.tapper@gmail.com – £20 to charity.

You can think back fifty years and imagine those lads onstage at the O2  in front of you. And if you’re an accountant, you can congratulate yourselves, you’ve saved yourself £586.

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