Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / Altamont: The Night Rock Changed Forever [Highlight From Ep. 355]

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Altamont: The Night Rock Changed Forever [Highlight From Ep. 355] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

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  Speaker 1: Check out this clip from a recent episode of Booked
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  Speaker 1: on Rock. Richard Houghton, the author of is Everybody Ready
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  Speaker 1: for the Next Band? The Rolling Stones nineteen sixty nine
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  Speaker 1: US tour, December sixth, nineteen sixty nine, Altamont Speedway, the
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  Speaker 1: Dark Flip Side of the Summer of Love, the Hell's
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  Speaker 1: Angels crashed with concertgoers. Meredith Hunter and eighteen year old
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  Speaker 1: attendee was seen pulling a gun near the front of
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  Speaker 1: the stage. Hell's angel Alan Pisaro, stabbed Hunter multiple times
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  Speaker 1: and killing him. Now you get the stories in the
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  Speaker 1: book here that really give you an idea of the
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  Speaker 1: atmosphere and what went down that night. One talks about
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  Speaker 1: how LSD was everywhere. This is Joe Pross. He was
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  Speaker 1: right there upfront, but eventually managed to get the hell
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  Speaker 1: out of there. He went he left that era. The
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  Speaker 1: general consensus is that people really could sense that things
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  Speaker 1: were going in the wrong direction, and the anxiety kept building.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, again, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but
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  Speaker 2: I think now we kind of recognized that trying to
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  Speaker 2: organize a show in less than seventy two hours. I
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  Speaker 2: think it was by the time they fixed on the
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  Speaker 2: autumnt location was absolutely crazy. Weeks months of planning goes
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  Speaker 2: into putting on a big show now, and the idea
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  Speaker 2: that it could be set up and that it would
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  Speaker 2: run smoothly when they were building a stage literally from
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  Speaker 2: scratch when there were no facilities in the area just
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  Speaker 2: seems absolutely nuts now. And the death of Meredith Hunt
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  Speaker 2: was clearly a tragedy, but in some ways it's a
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  Speaker 2: miracle that there weren't more people hurt or seriously injured
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  Speaker 2: as a result of trying to put on a show
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  Speaker 2: at such short notice with a lack of proper facilities
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  Speaker 2: for people. I mean, ironically, there's a story in the
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  Speaker 2: book where one person said they went, they enjoyed the show,
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  Speaker 2: they went home, they didn't see any trouble. But clearly
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  Speaker 2: the people who've given me stories for the book don't
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  Speaker 2: remember it that way. You know, there were lots of
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  Speaker 2: people they've done a lot of acid, they who were
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  Speaker 2: clearly not well. It got really cold because the Bay
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  Speaker 2: area was further north with LA, and people who are
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  Speaker 2: coming up from LA hadn't necessarily expected the weather to
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  Speaker 2: be like that, so it sounds like it was pretty miserable.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I would have loved to see the Stones
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  Speaker 2: on that tour in nineteen sixty nine, but I'm really
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  Speaker 2: glad I wasn't allowed tomont Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: One fan James Padley Assaardi talks in the book about
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  Speaker 1: the intimacy of those shows, which we talked about a
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  Speaker 1: little bit earlier, and that's something that would change. He said,
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  Speaker 1: quote the stage was raised, obviously, but not very high,
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  Speaker 1: and actually there were people with their elbows on the
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  Speaker 1: stage while the Stones were performing. It was that intimate
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  Speaker 1: and even though they were starting to play to much
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  Speaker 1: larger crowds, there was still that intimacy that really changed
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  Speaker 1: in seventy two. That's the quote from James Padley ASSAIDI
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  Speaker 1: And again I would think that the Ultimate Concert would
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  Speaker 1: lead to those changes in the future, drastic changes and
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  Speaker 1: security and the way things were going to be set
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  Speaker 1: up right from that point forward.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's the famous, infamous story about the Hell's Angels
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  Speaker 2: apparently taking a contract out on Mick Jagger because Mick
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  Speaker 2: blamed the Angels for the security or lack of security
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  Speaker 2: at the show. And some of this goes back to
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  Speaker 2: the Hyde Park show in London back in July, where
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  Speaker 2: the Hell's Angels in England provided some sort of informal
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  Speaker 2: security for the London show, but people made the point
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  Speaker 2: that the Angels in the US were not the kind
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  Speaker 2: of nice guys that the Angels in England were. So
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  Speaker 2: in England they were just a bunch of guys who
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  Speaker 2: had motorbikes and drank a lot of beer and more
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  Speaker 2: leather jackets pretty much, whereas in the US they were
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  Speaker 2: much more of a gang. There was more criminality involved,
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  Speaker 2: and these guys were not to be messed with. So
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  Speaker 2: the Stones version of events was that the Grateful Dead
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  Speaker 2: suggested that the Angels could provide security, and this is
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  Speaker 2: one of the products of trying to put show together
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  Speaker 2: in seventy two hours. Nobody gave much thoughts to it.
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  Speaker 2: Nobody thought there'd be real issues, so letting the Angels
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  Speaker 2: run the show seemed like a good idea and a
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  Speaker 2: quick fix. Nobody actually thought, well one of the downsides
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  Speaker 2: to that, so when Mick Blaine the Angels for what
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  Speaker 2: happened at aut a month and then this rumored contract
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  Speaker 2: was taken out on Mick, Mick allegedly never stood still
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  Speaker 2: on stage after that because he was always worried about
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  Speaker 2: being shot.
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  Speaker 1: At Wow. Yeah, he was spooked. Now I didn't want
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  Speaker 1: there was a Hell's angel, and it's in the book.
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  Speaker 1: Years later, maybe time in the eighties, came up to
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  Speaker 1: them and said that was not true. There was no
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  Speaker 1: hit on you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, let's be clear. If you're a
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  Speaker 2: public figure who lives in the spotlight, and your Mick
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  Speaker 2: Jagger or your Paul McCartney, it must be really, really
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  Speaker 2: difficult if you step out the door every day thinking
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  Speaker 2: when everybody knows who I am, that means there's some
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  Speaker 2: crazy people out there. You know. When John Lenvin was shot,
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  Speaker 2: that must have been so difficult for everybody who has
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  Speaker 2: a similar level of fame because they suddenly realized that
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  Speaker 2: could have been them, and it could still be them.
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  Speaker 2: So you've got to and I don't know how you
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  Speaker 2: do it, but you've got to put all that kind
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  Speaker 2: of stuff aside. It just try and get on with
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  Speaker 2: your life. But I'm sure for Mick and lots of
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  Speaker 2: people in the public eye, it meant they had to
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  Speaker 2: look again at their security arrangements and can they ever
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  Speaker 2: step out the front door and walk to the shops
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  Speaker 2: and buy a pint of milk? Maybe not, or maybe
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  Speaker 2: not without a bodyguard?
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  Speaker 1: Then you're running the afterward quote that the nineteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: nine tour of the United States now forms a significant
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  Speaker 1: part of the Rolling Stones legend is indisputable. Altamont capped
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  Speaker 1: off a tumultuous year that included Brian jones dismissal, Mick
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  Speaker 1: Taylor joined the band, Brian's death, the Hyde Park Show,
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  Speaker 1: and Marian Faithful's suicide attempt whilst in Australia with Mick Jagger.
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  Speaker 1: But you also note that this tour also set the
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  Speaker 1: template for how rock bands would tour in the future.
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  Speaker 1: So talk about that finish with that and what impact
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  Speaker 1: this tour had in your opinion.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it can lead out from out of it, because
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  Speaker 2: that was an aberration in terms of the way it
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  Speaker 2: worked out. The rest of the tour was properly planned.
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  Speaker 2: It sold out. You know, you couldn't get a ticket,
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  Speaker 2: There was a clamor for tickets. The Madison Square Garden
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  Speaker 2: shows massively oversubscribed in terms of people trying to get
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  Speaker 2: hold of tickets, so that the tour was a success.
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  Speaker 2: The band played those numbers live, the shows all went well,
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  Speaker 2: and if they'd gone home after the West Palm Beach show,
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  Speaker 2: we wouldn't be talking about how tomnt we'd be talking
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  Speaker 2: about what a roaring success. The nineteen sixty nine tour
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  Speaker 2: was clearly come nineteen seventy two, when the Stones came
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  Speaker 2: back to play North America for the first time. They'd
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  Speaker 2: learned things in nineteen sixty nine, and some of the
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  Speaker 2: things they'd learned were put into practice in nineteen seventy two.
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  Speaker 2: They played some of the same cities, they played some
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  Speaker 2: different places because they wanted to play off the beaten
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  Speaker 2: track a little bit, and they made more money. Ticket
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  Speaker 2: prices went up again, the tour grosses went up, the
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  Speaker 2: clam off of tickets went up, and nineteen sixty nine
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  Speaker 2: attracted lots of said the lines, nineteen seventy two was
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  Speaker 2: a bigger show again and a bigger success again, And
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  Speaker 2: everybody from coming over from Britain to play learned from
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  Speaker 2: what the Stones learned from those sixty nine and seventy
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  Speaker 2: two tours in terms of where to play, what kind
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  Speaker 2: of cities to choose. And it's still true today. You know,
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  Speaker 2: British bands often play the East coast, they play Chicago,
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  Speaker 2: and they'll come down the West coast, and there are
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  Speaker 2: large ways of the US where a British touring band
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't necessarily think to play because they see the big
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  Speaker 2: markets as being the eastern seaboard, the Pacific coast, and
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  Speaker 2: this is like Cleveland and Chicago.
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  Speaker 1: Really set the template for what was to come.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've done a book on the Faces and
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  Speaker 2: the Faces famously were selling out cities like Detroit in
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  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine, nineteen seventy after Rod Stewart joined the
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  Speaker 2: band and they started out as a small Faces before
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  Speaker 2: rebranding as Faces in England. They're still playing pub gigs.
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  Speaker 2: You know, they couldn't get arrested in England, and they're
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  Speaker 2: playing three four five thousand seats of venues in the
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  Speaker 2: US and coming back two weeks later and playing again
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  Speaker 2: because people wanted to hear them play. So they learned
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  Speaker 2: some some of the stuff that the Stones had found
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  Speaker 2: out from their touring shows. And as we talked about,
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  Speaker 2: Zeppelin did the same, Jeth Rotell did the same. In
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  Speaker 2: the bands that found an audience in the US found
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  Speaker 2: those audiences mainly around the big cities in the north
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  Speaker 2: of the country.
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  Speaker 1: Don't miss the full conversation available wherever you listen to
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  Speaker 1: your podcasts.