The Rolling Stones are to enter the studio before the year is out to begin work on their next album, according to guitarist Ronnie Wood.

Keith Richards has been suggesting the group would begin work on their 23rd studio album – by the count of UK releases – next year. “They need to, it’s been too long,” he told the Guardian in September. Wood, however, says it will be sooner than that.

“We’ll maybe go in the studio in December and cut a few tracks and see what happens,” he told ABC Radio. “We’ll take it from there, see how it all goes. One thing at a time.” The sessions would be the laying of “some groundwork” for a new album, he said.

He also said the Stones were trying to arrange their first ever show in Cuba. “That’s not a done deal yet, but it’s in the offing as we speak,” he said.
It is a little over 10 years since the Stones released their last album, A Bigger Bang, which reached No 2 in the UK and No 3 in the US. In the intervening time, they have released only two new songs – One More Shot, and Doom and Gloom – which were recorded for the 50th anniversary compilation, Grrr!

The bulk of new Stones recording in recent years has come in the form of sprucing up old studio recordings to provide bonus material for deluxe reissues of their back catalogue. Mick Jagger recorded new vocals for the extra tracks on the deluxe editions of both Some Girls and Exile on Main Street.

Earlier this year, when asked by Rolling Stone magazine about the possibility of a new Stones album, Jagger said: ““It would be very nice and I’ve got a lot of new songs and songs I’ve written over the last couple of years. I’ve done really good demos for all of them, which I would love to record. So, let’s hope so.”