By Fernanda Ezabella
Reuters
Wednesday, December 14, 2005; 12:22 AM

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Rock legends the Rolling Stones will play a free concert on Rio de Janeiro's famed Copacabana Beach in February, organizers said on Tuesday, and up to 1.5 million people are expected to attend.

"City Hall considers this show to be like another New Year. We will treat it like that," Ana Maria Maia, a Rio official for special events, told a news conference.

The British veterans -- Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ron Wood -- and support musicians are currently playing across the United States on their "Bigger Bang" tour.

Up to 1.5 million people traditionally gather on Copacabana Beach to celebrate New Year's Eve and organizers said they expected a similar number for the February 18 show.

A big security operation will be mounted. Rio is plagued by violent crime which often spills over from the slums ruled by drug gangs into the city streets.

More than 2,400 police will be on duty in three shifts and streets in the Copacabana area will be sealed off, officials said.

It will be the third time in Brazil for the Stones -- once rock's most notorious bad boys, now a multimillion-dollar entertainment corporation after more than 40 years together.

Jagger has a young son from a liaison with Brazilian TV presenter and model Luciana Gimenez, who lives in Sao Paulo.

The Stones have performed some notable free concerts in the past, including in London's Hyde Park in 1969, and the infamous event at Altamont Speedway in California later that year when Hells Angels who were hired as security guards killed a fan.

Last week the Stones were nominated for a Grammy for their new album "A Bigger Bang," hailed by critics as their best work in years.

That beats paying $350 a ticket.

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