After months of rumours that the Rolling Stones’ next tour will be their last, drummer Charlie Watts has confirmed the band are indeed thinking along those lines.

They're planning to hit the road in 2011 or 2012, by which time they'll have been in existence for 50 years, Watts will be in his 70s and his bandmates won’t be far behind.

He tells Le Parisien: “We’re discussing it at the moment. If we do something, it will be next year or the year after.

“We’ve reached an age where you can’t look too far into the future.”

Further details have not been discussed although conversations are continuing. The main delay to finalising plans is that singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards are enjoying their other projects too much.

Watts says: “We’ll resume playing whenever Mick and Keith get bored. At the moment they’re having a good time.”

The Stones’ last world trip, the two-year Bigger Bang outing which started in 2005, remains the highest-grossing tour of all time.

ROLLING STONES were amongst the first rock bands to perform farewells, then keep going afterwards. Their first such tour was in 1971, after which they moved to France and made the Exile on Main Street album which rejuvenated their career.