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STONES SHINE UP A TREAT

GOODFELLAS: The Stones at the film's premiere

Saturday March 1,2008

By Elisa Roche Showbusiness Editor

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SOAKING up the limelight at a star-studded film premiere, it’s little wonder the Rolling Stones appear to be enjoying themselves.

Not only are the veteran rockers the stars of the new movie but the avid fan who filmed it is none other than Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese.

His “rockumentary” Shine A Light charts the band’s 46-year history, interlinked with footage from a 2006 US concert.

And Sir Mick Jagger, 64, Keith Richards, 64, Charlie Watts, 66, and Ronnie Wood, 60, gave it the thumbs up at the film’s New York premiere on Sunday. Wearing sharp suits and with Richards in a trilby hat and leopard-print neck scarf, the energetic rockers had clearly dressed to impress the Goodfellas director.

But Scorsese, who at 65 could be a band member himself, joked that the band’s decades of hard partying could show up all too clearly on screen.

“I’ve shot this for ordinary cinemas but also for Imax formats,” he said.

“Sure, slight imperfections might be revealed,” said Jagger, accompanied by his girlfriend, ex-model L’Wren Scott. “I said to Marty (Scorsese) the laugh is that the film’s gonna be blown up to this huge Imax so the intimate moments are in your face.”

In one gripping scene in the film, 1960s US talk show host Dick Cavett asks Jagger, then just 20, if he believes he will be performing at 60. Without missing a beat, the young rocker confidently replies, “Absolutely.”

Scorsese said he made the film because the Stones had provided the soundtrack to his life.

“The Stones’ music dealt with aspects of a life that I was growing up in and trying to make sense of,” he said. “Their music was tougher and had an edge; beautiful and honest and brutal at times and powerful. It’s always stayed with me.”

Shine A Light opens in Britain on April 11, with the UK premiere tomorrow night.