HALIFAX - It's only rock 'n' roll but the rumour mill sure likes it.
Talk of the Rolling Stones coming to town started at the beginning of this month and has hardly slowed since.
Unconfirmed answers have been circulating for weeks about when they'll play (Sept. 23, 2-11 p.m.), where (the Commons), how many people could show up (Moncton had 80,000) and where they'll all stay (hotels are filling up for the date).
The next question already rotating through Internet discussion forums and Rolling Stone fan sites: who's going to open the show?
Mayor Peter Kelly said Saturday that he didn't know anything about opening acts. But he did say all the rumours could be put to rest as early as Tuesday with a possible official announcement.
Fans looking to paint it black with Mick and the band may finally get to end all the speculation, but could be asking "Let's spend the night together" to those with accommodations already set.
Earlier this month calls from The Chronicle Herald to hotels, motels, inns and bed and breakfasts around the city showed that rooms were booking fast and many of the bigger downtown spots were already full.
At the time the Econo Lodge on the Bedford Highway still had some space. On Sunday, the woman working the reservations desk said the 59-room lodge was sold out for Sept. 23.
She said to sell out this far in advance usually means there is a special event people are planning for, but she hadn't heard of anyone mentioning the concert specifically.
Other major events are scheduled for the city that night. The New York Islanders will take on the Boston Bruins in an NHL exhibition game at the Metro Centre and the Atlantic Film Festival will host its closing gala.
Cambridge Suites in Halifax only had 10 rooms available when The Chronicle Herald first checked but had 20 on Sunday, said a woman at the reservation clerk.
"I don't know if people have been cancelling but that's what we have," she said.
Rooms there start at $279.
Over at the Howard Johnson Hotel and Suites on King Street in Dartmouth, a $2 ferry ride from the rumoured Halifax concert site, there were nine rooms left on Sunday. But the clerk there said she thought people were getting frustrated with the lack of official news.
She had even taken some cancellations from people who mentioned that there was no confirmation the Stones were actually on their way.
But the lack of confirmation hasn't stopped the Internet guessing game surrounding the show.
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (iorr.org), a band fan site, listed Halifax as one of the rumoured tour stops back in June. A July 7 posting has the Who and Aerosmith listed as possible warm-up acts for the Halifax show specifically.
The Who has announced a world tour starting in September and is scheduled to be in New Jersey on Sept. 21 and Chicago on Sept. 25, according to the band's website.
Aerosmith might have a trickier time making it to Halifax. According to its website the band is already selling tickets for a Sept. 23 show in New Jersey.
A web forum for a Moncton radio station already has more than 80 replies to a posting about the rumoured Halifax Stones show. Posters on it started mentioning opening acts earlier this week, with local group Sloan, Nickelback and Great Big Sea getting tapped. According to their websites, all three bands are touring in August or September and have nothing booked for Sept. 23.
