Flashpoint was released Feb 2, 1991. It was recorded on the Steel Wheels (American) and Urban Jungle (European) tours during 1989-90. It was their 6th live album (the most recent had been 10 years earlier - Still Life). The tracks on the album were actually recorded as follows:
.....11-25-89 Jacksonville
.....11-26-89 Clemson SC
.....12-19-89 Atlantic City
.....2-26/27-90 Toyko
.....6-14-90 Barcelona
.....7-6-90 Wembley (also filmed for the IMAX film and their 1st DVD release)

There was a special quad gatefold edition of the album (which is now out of print) that included a 2nd disc (titled Collectibles) of rare, extended version, or dance mix tracks previously released only on 12" vinyl singles or as B sides.

Many reviewers consider this either their best live album or the 2nd best (after the 1970 release Get Your Ya Ya's Out). The album includes the UK single Highwire and the US single Sex Drive, both of which are studio tracks added to the live tracks from the tour. In addition it has the live version of Ruby Tuesday that was released as a CD single in the UK along with Play With Fire, You Can't Always Get What You Want, and Undercover Of The Night (all live versions from the album). Flashpoint also includes what many people think is the best version they ever did of Little Red Rooster (it features Eric Clapton on lead). Most people know the music, so in my reviews I try to give you data on the sessions and interesting facts connected with the songs and the album. Here we go:

Interesting notes include:
.....the 115th show of the combined Steel Wheels and Urban Jungle tours at Wembly Stadium in London was the last live performance with Bill Wyman (it was filmed on IMAX cameras and is available as the DVD The Rolling Stones Live at the MAX)
.....the Steel Wheels tour set a new American attendance record of 3.4 million, they sold out 10 shows in Tokyo, and the Urban Jungle tour included their 1st shows in East Germany and Czechoslovakia where a ticket was recognized as a one day passport for Hungarians and Poles...the combined tours grossed $200 million
.....the first show of the tour (at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia) was loud enough they blew a generator (causing 3 minutes of silence in the middle of Shattered)....they dropped the song from the setlist for the remainder of the tour
.....this was the first gargantuan stage tour....Steel Wheels featured blow up bimbos (named Angie and Ruby) during Honky Tonk Women and a diversionary lightning effect while Mick rode an elevator 8 stories up to a high stage where he sang Sympathy in a hellishly lighted cloud of smoke (because there were already so many live versions of these two songs on other albums, neither made it to the CD releases)....Urban Jungle featured two rabid canines (with erections) to go with the recently released single Terrifying.

This information comes from "It's Only Rock And Roll: The Ultimate Guide To The Rolling Stones" by Karnbach and Bernson and from my own collection, with some of the notes from Davis' "Old Gods Almost Dead." Both books are available from amazon.com.

I had heard some of the Stones' songs on the radio and my dad had played them around me, but I never really thought them to be that great. I received 'Flashpoint' as a gift and thought I'd give it a whirl. It totally turned me on to the Stones and now I'm a die-hard fanatic. This album is essential to the CD collection of ANY and EVERY music fan. The energy is amazing, notably on 'Rock and a Hard Place.' This album contains excellent versions of such classics as 'Jumpin' Jack Flash'(my favorite song of all-time), 'Satisfaction,' and 'Paint it black.' 'Flashpoint' is undoubtedly the best live compilation the group has ever released, and definitely in the realm of their top five albums.

This 1991 album is a bit of hodgepodge: 15 live tracks recorded in 1989 and 1990, plus two somewhat random studio tracks. It filled in a rather long hiatus in the Stones' recording career, being their only album during the five years between "Steel Wheels" and "Voodoo Lounge", and it is also the first of three live albums they put out during the decade.

Their late-1980s shows were huge spectacles, but the music is loose and unpretentious. Most of the time, the five Stones perform with only a handful of side peformers. Mick is in fine voice, but he sounds a little bored at times.

About half of the live tunes are from the Stones' 1980s albums, the others are oldies from the early days. The highlights of the album are the inventive yet unpretentious acoustic versions of the golden oldie "Ruby Tuesday" and the relatively obscure "Beggars Banquet" track "Factory Girl." Surprisingly, no songs from "Exile on Main Street" made it onto the album.

This is the last Stones album with Bill Wyman as a member of the band.

This is not an essential live Stones recording like "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out" or the partly live "Stripped", but it's certainly a good one. Taped during the 1989-1990 "Steel Wheels" tour, it should have featured a couple more songs from that album, but there is no complaining about what is here.

Some listeners will perhaps wonder why "Honky Tonk Women" isn't here, or some or other personal favorite, but hey...the Stones can't put all of their hits on each and every one of their live albums. They would be no room for newer material at all!
Instead we get a great rendition of the then-new "Sad Sad Sad", a driving rocker, as well the acoustic numbers "Ruby Tuesday" and "Paint It Black" and an epic seven-minute "You Can't Always Get What You Want".

Keith Richards rasps his way through a terrific "Can't Be Seen", and the oldies "Jumping Jack Flash", "Brown Sugar", "Satisfaction" and "Sympathy For The Devil" are very good as well.
I could have done without the disco-flavoured "Miss You" and the inane "Sex Drive", but those are just about the only drawbacks here. Jagger's vocals are better and less sloppy than on some live recordings, the band is tight, and the sound is excellent.

"Steel Wheels" was, almost certainly, one of the hardest rocking Stones' albums ever. Well, here it is live. Like a series of controlled nuclear explosions, these patron saints of all-things-good-about rock redefine live rock and shame every other concert band in the process.

Just assume that every cut from Steel Wheels is better live, which they are, and further assume that "Rock and a Hard Place" is now, in its Flash Point itteration, the new standard for what can be accomplished with a guitar...and consider how this all segues into the most chilling (and savage) version "Paint Black" ever recored (legally, at least.)

Long before anyone had ever heard of Reel Big Fish, the Stones were using brass sections as musical weapons, and that brutal application has never been more pronounced than on "Rock and a Hard Place," but is also nicely employed on a ripping "Sad, Sad, Sad."

It may be with this album that the Stones perfectly demonstrate that brilliant song writing can be combined with brutal execution with compellingly sophisticated but savagely explosive results.

Ignorant arguments about how old the Stones are ignore the fact that the Stone pretty much invented modern rock, and every day the Stones get older, they simply demonstrate that good rock is apparently ageless.

Why the first-line rockers like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley became irrelevent is something of a mystery, but we owe them a debt of gratitude for getting the ball rolling. Rock was a child's game in those days, and it must have seemed odd to see adults playing it. Rock has matured since then, and there is nothing strange at all about watching Keith Richards smoke through some of the most celebrate music of the last 50 years.

Rock isn't a childs game anymore, and on Flashpoint the Stones demonstrate, again, why they are rocks most celebrated vetrans.

Long live rock.

This album is a fatiguing experience, and a soothing trip to "Exlile on Main Street" may be a nice methadone-like come-down withdrawl aide.