Hackney Diamonds is a studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 20 October 2023 on Polydor. It is the first album of original material by the Rolling Stones since 2005's A Bigger Bang and their first since the 2021 death of drummer Charlie Watts, who contributed to some tracks in 2019. Produced by Andrew Watt, it features guest contributions from Elton John, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman.
Cover of the standard edition of the album.
Drummer Charlie Watts (centre) with the Rolling Stones in 2018, months before his final studio sessions.
Stevie Wonder guests on piano on the track "Sweet Sounds of Heaven".
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active across seven decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pioneered the gritty, rhythmically driven sound that came to define hard rock. Their first stable line-up consisted of vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. During their early years, Jones was the primary leader of the band. After Andrew Loog Oldham became the group's manager in 1963, he encouraged them to write their own songs. The Jagger–Richards partnership became the band's primary songwriting and creative force.
The Rolling Stones performing at Summerfest in Milwaukee in 2015. From left to right: Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
The blue plaque commemorating Jagger and Richards meeting on Platform 2 at Dartford railway station in Dartford, Kent, on 17 October 1961
The backroom of the former Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, London, where the Rolling Stones had their first residency, beginning in February 1963
The Rolling Stones arriving at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Netherlands, in 1964. From left to right: Wyman, Richards, Jones, Watts and Jagger