Can't get no satisfaction - from new songs

"They are going into the studio to record another album," says publicity chief Bernard Doherty. "They do make records, they will make records, they are not hanging up their boots on either the touring or recording front," he says.

All of which makes rock a rather unique art form. You don't hear commentators calling for all painters or all writers or all architects to take enforced early retirement. Even other musical genres are more forgiving. Jazz and blues audiences nurture their legends, many of whom remain productive into old age.

The elders of rock have two formidable hurdles to overcome. The first is burnout. "It's an energetic thing, rock," muses Whiteley, and few legends would disagree: Bowie admitted recently that he had a hard time remembering his song lyrics. Illness forced McCartney and the Rolling Stones to cancel gigs earlier this summer.

The second factor is image, that elusive commodity that may explain why so many acts fade away, according to Dr. Roger Fagge, a lecturer in history, culture, and society at the University of Warwick.

He says that British rock in particular is as much about defying the establishment as it is about the music. And rebellion is hard to preach if, like Sir Paul, Sir Mick, or Sir Elton, you have a knighthood and a stately home and a few million in the bank.

"When rock first appears with Elvis, he was a rebel image in the 1950s, sexually exciting, and represented a rebellion against that middle-aged mainstream conformity, and that's always been an important part of rock," says Dr. Fagge.

"So now you have to ask: When you're 17 or 18, do you want to watch some 50-year-old with a beer belly, or some young figure with an attitude?"

But it's not just the grand old men of rock who are up against it. The majority of so-called New Romantics, who minced and mimed so expertly in the 1980s, have disappeared without trace, though Duran Duran is plotting another comeback.

Even 1990s Britpop acts are starting to look worn and jaded. Blur and Radiohead have had to reinvent themselves to stay relevant. Blur has experimented with world music, and Radiohead is weaving in more electronic sounds compared to 10 years ago.

"Hope I die before I get old," sang Roger Daltry of The Who in a 1966 anthem to youth and rebellion.

Yet in a way they were talking about every generation. In a world as ephemeral as rock music, the only artist immune to the career-threatening aging process is he who dies young.

So have we heard the last of the British dinosaurs of rock?

Will we still need them, will we still feed them, when they're 64?

Rock critic McCormick thinks so.

"Age is becoming more subjective now in pop culture, because pop culture itself is over 50 years old," he says. "I still think there'll be great work to come from these people."

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