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Stones ’69: The Tour That Changed Rock Forever [Episode 355] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

0:00
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty nine, The Rolling Stones didn't just tour America,
0:03
Speaker 1: they collided with it. With their album Let It Bleed.
0:06
Speaker 1: The loss of Brian Jones and a country on edge,
0:09
Speaker 1: the Stones hit the road at their most dangerous. What
0:13
Speaker 1: followed redefined live rock and ended in one of the
0:16
Speaker 1: most infamous concerts in music history. A deep dive into
0:20
Speaker 1: The Rolling Stones nineteen sixty nine US tour Coming up next.
0:25
Speaker 1: We're totally booked rock and roll.
0:28
Speaker 2: I mean, I'll leave you. You're reading.
0:30
Speaker 1: Little Hands says it's time to rock and roll, Rock,
0:33
Speaker 1: roll out, I totally booked. Welcome back to book, Don Rock.
0:41
Speaker 1: This is the podcast for those about to read and rock.
0:43
Speaker 1: And what a great read this is. It's a brand
0:46
Speaker 1: new book on the Rolling Stones. Is everybody ready for
0:50
Speaker 1: the next band? The Rolling Stones nineteen sixty nine US tour.
0:54
Speaker 1: Our guest is the author of that book, Richard Houghton,
0:57
Speaker 1: First time guest to the show. Richard, Welcome to the podcast.
1:00
Speaker 2: Eric, Thank you very much. Great to be here.
1:02
Speaker 1: November nineteen sixty nine, the Stones toured the US for
1:06
Speaker 1: the first time in three years. Before we get to
1:08
Speaker 1: that tour, let's start with the state of the Stones.
1:12
Speaker 1: Going back to June of that year, they had been
1:14
Speaker 1: away for a few years. There was some turbulence during
1:18
Speaker 1: those years, and there was still some ahead in terms
1:21
Speaker 1: of Brian Jones talk about that and where the Stones
1:23
Speaker 1: are at that point.
1:24
Speaker 2: Well, obviously the Stones had been off the road since
1:28
Speaker 2: the spring of nineteen sixty seven, where they'd done a
1:30
Speaker 2: short European tour. Sixty seven was kind of the end
1:34
Speaker 2: of the Stones as a hit singles band. So you
1:38
Speaker 2: still got riots, screaming girls, stage invasions, and in Europe
1:43
Speaker 2: in particular, very aggressive police interaction with the crowd where
1:47
Speaker 2: they're bat on charge people and stuff like that. And
1:52
Speaker 2: then the Stones stopped stopped touring like the Beatles, they
1:56
Speaker 2: became more of a studio band. You had the whole
1:59
Speaker 2: LSD experimentation with drugs thing that bands were getting into.
2:03
Speaker 2: So the Stones put out Between the Buttons album and
2:07
Speaker 2: then they put out their Satanic Majesty's Request, which was
2:11
Speaker 2: a long way away from where they started out as
2:14
Speaker 2: a blues and R and B band back in nineteen
2:16
Speaker 2: sixty two. The main casualty of that experimentation, if you
2:23
Speaker 2: want to call it that, with drugs was Brian Brian Jones,
2:26
Speaker 2: the band's founder. Brian was quite a vulnerable person psychologically emotionally,
2:35
Speaker 2: so although he was the creative genius in the band,
2:39
Speaker 2: he maybe wasn't as robust mentally, and not only did
2:45
Speaker 2: drugs not work well for him because he had bad
2:49
Speaker 2: acid trips, his relationship with Anita Pallenberg, who was his
2:55
Speaker 2: girlfriend at the time, broke down and Eat famously start
3:00
Speaker 2: going out with Keith instead Keith Richards and although the
3:04
Speaker 2: band recorded the Beggars Banquet album in nineteen sixty eight,
3:08
Speaker 2: which was a move into their new phase as a
3:12
Speaker 2: blue based rock band for the modern era, Brian wasn't
3:17
Speaker 2: a significant contributor to that album. And by the summer
3:21
Speaker 2: of nineteen sixty nine, with Beggars Banquet having been successful,
3:28
Speaker 2: with Let It Bleed, recording sessions having started for the
3:32
Speaker 2: follow up album, the Stones were ready to tour, but
3:37
Speaker 2: they knew that they weren't ready to tour with Brian
3:39
Speaker 2: because it was psychologically frail, but more critically, he'd had
3:46
Speaker 2: several arrests in London and therefore had convictions, and the
3:51
Speaker 2: Stones knew that he would not get a US visa,
3:53
Speaker 2: so they couldn't tour the US with Brian in the lineup,
3:58
Speaker 2: and they didn't think he was actually capable of doing it.
4:01
Speaker 2: So in the spring of that year they went and
4:05
Speaker 2: talked to Brian at his home at Cotchford Farm in
4:08
Speaker 2: Sussex in England told him they wanted him to leave
4:11
Speaker 2: the band. Brian agreed. He famously put out a statement
4:16
Speaker 2: saying I no longer see eye to eye with the
4:19
Speaker 2: band over the discs we are cutting and Brian announced
4:23
Speaker 2: a solo career, and four days later the Rolling Stones
4:27
Speaker 2: announced Mick Taylor as their new guitarist.
4:30
Speaker 1: In almost a month after they fired Brian, the tragic
4:33
Speaker 1: news comes that he's found dead in his swimming pool
4:36
Speaker 1: and the Stones considered canceling their concert on July fifth,
4:40
Speaker 1: sixth United Hyde Park, but they did move forward with
4:43
Speaker 1: Nick Taylor and it becomes a memorial to Brian Jones.
4:46
Speaker 1: This book reads like a diary you can't put down.
4:49
Speaker 1: Press reports combined with the previously unpublished first hand accounts,
4:54
Speaker 1: presents the full story. So tell us about the atmosphere
4:58
Speaker 1: of that Hyde Park show from those who were there.
5:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, like you say, they the gig had already
5:03
Speaker 2: been announced. It was going to be a Saturday in
5:06
Speaker 2: Hyde Park in London. You know, summer in London can
5:11
Speaker 2: be fantastic and the weather can be beautiful, and on that
5:13
Speaker 2: date it was indeed fantastic. There'd been a series of
5:17
Speaker 2: free concerts in Hyde Park organized by different promoters in
5:23
Speaker 2: the previous couple of years, so the Stones weren't breaking
5:26
Speaker 2: new ground by holding a free concert, but they were
5:29
Speaker 2: building on the knowledge in the experience of the previous
5:33
Speaker 2: free book shows. People like Pink Floyd and Traffic had
5:36
Speaker 2: played there, and the Stones show was going to be
5:40
Speaker 2: the biggest yet. They were estimates of over half a
5:43
Speaker 2: million people turning up for that gig. But yes, Brian
5:47
Speaker 2: sadly drowned his swimming pool at home a couple of
5:51
Speaker 2: days before the planned gig, and so the Stone's initial
5:55
Speaker 2: reaction was where we had to cancel, And then as
5:59
Speaker 2: they thought of about it, they decided to turn it
6:01
Speaker 2: into a tribute to Brian, which they got a little
6:05
Speaker 2: bit of criticism for at the time because some people
6:08
Speaker 2: thought they should have canceled it as a mark of respect.
6:12
Speaker 2: But I think that they did make the right decision
6:14
Speaker 2: in going ahead, because it gave people the opportunity to
6:17
Speaker 2: come along and pay their own tribute to Brian. Mick
6:21
Speaker 2: famously appeared on stage wearing a Michael Fish dress, read
6:26
Speaker 2: some poetry by Percy Bisschelley as a mark of respect
6:32
Speaker 2: for Brian, and then the Stones played what was their
6:35
Speaker 2: first show with Mick Taylor, their first live music for
6:40
Speaker 2: two and a half years in front of that round.
6:43
Speaker 1: Eleene Spinks was one of the fans there and she
6:46
Speaker 1: said Jagger spoke emotionally about the band's lost then released
6:51
Speaker 1: some doves. You could have heard a pin drop and
6:54
Speaker 1: then everyone cheered, What a day. Another fan, John Ellis,
6:57
Speaker 1: talks in the book about how the music scene it
7:00
Speaker 1: changed since the Stones went off the road in sixty
7:02
Speaker 1: seven and how were the Stones adjusting to that in
7:04
Speaker 1: terms of the upcoming tour and what they were going
7:06
Speaker 1: to work on the studio. This is when Keith is
7:10
Speaker 1: he's starting to compose the open g tuning, right.
7:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think it. Mick and Keith had been
7:15
Speaker 2: to South America and had seen musicians there playing with
7:21
Speaker 2: that tuning, and so Keith had picked something up there.
7:24
Speaker 2: He also worked with Ray Koder had showed him some
7:26
Speaker 2: different ways of tuning the guitar, so they were very
7:31
Speaker 2: much experimenting with what they could do, and that change
7:38
Speaker 2: of approach, if you like, was a I suppose the
7:41
Speaker 2: main thing about that was that was Keith doing something
7:44
Speaker 2: that was Keith led rather than Brian led. Because back
7:47
Speaker 2: when they were recording the famous singles we all know
7:50
Speaker 2: about Satisfaction like Ruby Tuesday, like Painted Black, it was
7:55
Speaker 2: often Brian who was adding those exotic touches. It was
7:58
Speaker 2: Brian who was picking up the citar. It was Brian
8:01
Speaker 2: who was playing the keyboard. It was Brian who was
8:04
Speaker 2: playing a little bit of flute or a little bit
8:06
Speaker 2: of saxophone on the record. That that open tuning that
8:11
Speaker 2: Keith is now famous for was something that Brian had
8:16
Speaker 2: not inspired, Brian had not been involved in. It was
8:18
Speaker 2: Keith taking the lead very much, taking the lead as
8:20
Speaker 2: the musical director of the Stones.
8:27
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8:29
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8:32
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9:00
Speaker 1: Booked on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back to
9:04
Speaker 1: the show. So this is the period when we're seeing
9:07
Speaker 1: the Stones breaking away from the Beatles, because the Stones
9:09
Speaker 1: are always compared to the Beatles. The press really played
9:12
Speaker 1: that up the Beatles in sixty seven. As we know,
9:15
Speaker 1: they are now focusing all of their efforts in the studio.
9:19
Speaker 1: They've retired from the road and like Keith has quoting
9:22
Speaker 1: of the book as saying, the Stones are at the
9:24
Speaker 1: core a live band and they were itching to play again.
9:27
Speaker 1: Is this when we see them starting to break apart from.
9:29
Speaker 2: That, Yes, I mean the Beatles last show was Candlestick
9:32
Speaker 2: Park in San Francisco in nineteen sixty six, and they
9:37
Speaker 2: stopped recording. So they stopped touring for a variety of reasons,
9:41
Speaker 2: one of which was that inability to replicate on stage
9:45
Speaker 2: the kind of music they wanted to record. I think
9:47
Speaker 2: they were also heartily sick of playing live. They were
9:51
Speaker 2: sick of playing short shows in front of audiences that
9:54
Speaker 2: were screaming, were able to listen to the music, and
10:02
Speaker 2: I don't think there was ever an appetite amongst the
10:05
Speaker 2: Beatles to go back out on the road. Of course,
10:07
Speaker 2: they famously played that show on the rooftop of the
10:11
Speaker 2: Apple Building in London in January nineteen sixty nine as
10:15
Speaker 2: a one off, but the Stones did want to get
10:19
Speaker 2: back out on the road. The Stones had seen other
10:22
Speaker 2: British bands touring America, most famously perhaps Cream, and then
10:29
Speaker 2: Zeppelin had started playing their first American shows, so the
10:33
Speaker 2: Stones knew that there was an audience in America for
10:36
Speaker 2: British bands, and they felt that they could get beyond
10:39
Speaker 2: that teeny bopper band label that they'd had with all
10:43
Speaker 2: those hit singles and go out on the road as
10:46
Speaker 2: a serious act, not playing thirty minute shows but playing
10:49
Speaker 2: for sixty minutes or seventy five minutes. And that's what
10:53
Speaker 2: the US Tour became. Really. It's a British band creating
10:58
Speaker 2: the template for touring rock bands that people have pretty
11:03
Speaker 2: much followed ever since.
11:05
Speaker 1: The Beatles complained was that nobody was listening to them
11:07
Speaker 1: in concert anymore. It was all screaming, but Charlie Wats
11:10
Speaker 1: has an interesting quote in your book about how in
11:12
Speaker 1: sixty nine people didn't scream anymore. The music was taken
11:15
Speaker 1: seriously and there was proper amplification. What led to that change.
11:20
Speaker 1: There's a mention of Zeppelin, Charlie mentioned it. You mentioned
11:22
Speaker 1: that as well. What led to that? Better equipment?
11:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, some of it was better equipment, some of it
11:28
Speaker 2: was just the audience growing up. You know, some of
11:30
Speaker 2: those fourteen fifteen, sixteen year old kids had seen the
11:34
Speaker 2: Stones play in the US in nineteen sixty four, sixty five,
11:38
Speaker 2: sixty six were still fans, but they did want to
11:42
Speaker 2: come along and listen to those newer songs. They weren't
11:45
Speaker 2: there just to screen their heads off, and a lot
11:49
Speaker 2: of them happy to admit that as well, that you know,
11:52
Speaker 2: they'd been there in nineteen sixty four. They were still fans.
11:59
Speaker 2: They accepted that Brian wasn't in the lineup anymore, that
12:02
Speaker 2: the band matured. They liked Beggar's band quet they liked
12:05
Speaker 2: what they were hearing, and they wanted to hear those
12:07
Speaker 2: songs played live. And the other thing about the sixty
12:10
Speaker 2: nine tour is they played quite a lot of Let
12:12
Speaker 2: It Bleed before the album was released, before it had
12:16
Speaker 2: been played on the radio. So the Stones were debuting
12:18
Speaker 2: a lot of brand new songs and people wanted to
12:22
Speaker 2: hear them. They wanted to soak them up.
12:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, clearly the interest in the Sons hadn't wiane. Six
12:27
Speaker 1: thousand people stand in line at Madison Square Gardens box
12:31
Speaker 1: office to buy tickets when they go on sale, both
12:34
Speaker 1: evening performances for the shows, which would be November twenty
12:37
Speaker 1: seventh to twenty eighth, sellout opening night November seventh. Let's
12:41
Speaker 1: start there, Moby Gymnasium in Fort Collins, Colorado, right near
12:44
Speaker 1: Colorado State University. This was not a planned show and
12:47
Speaker 1: it was a smaller venue. What led them to playing
12:50
Speaker 1: their first Yeah.
12:51
Speaker 2: Like I say, it wasn't on the initial tour itineray
12:53
Speaker 2: that had been announced, and I think it was Barry
12:56
Speaker 2: Fay was the famous promoter from Denver, Colorado, wanted to
13:01
Speaker 2: get them in and he made contact with the band
13:04
Speaker 2: and persuaded them with the merits of starting the tour
13:08
Speaker 2: somewhere a bit out of the way where they could
13:11
Speaker 2: mess up if necessary. And you know, you don't want
13:14
Speaker 2: to play your first show in at La or New York,
13:16
Speaker 2: where the whole of the media circus is watching you
13:20
Speaker 2: and we'll see any mistakes. So it actually suited the
13:23
Speaker 2: Stones when they thought about it to play in Fort Collins,
13:27
Speaker 2: and it was a big gig. It was a big
13:30
Speaker 2: gig for the town because they'd never had anybody of
13:33
Speaker 2: that status playing the area before, and it seemed to
13:39
Speaker 2: have been a great success for people who were there
13:41
Speaker 2: had a good time. I'm not so sure the college
13:46
Speaker 2: authorities were so keen on it because there's a little
13:49
Speaker 2: story in the book about the damage.
13:51
Speaker 1: That was done to the Yes, I have them here
13:55
Speaker 1: right in front of me. There's a listing of the
13:57
Speaker 1: damages left behind. This is from Aaron you Well of
14:00
Speaker 1: The Colorado, which I believe is the local newspaper, right Yeah.
14:04
Speaker 1: One hundred and ninety three cigarette burn holes on basketball floor,
14:08
Speaker 1: twenty two hundred dollars burned tarp, three thousand dollars damage
14:11
Speaker 1: windows in north concourse two hundred and sixty two dollars
14:14
Speaker 1: damaged glass and four entrance doors, one hundred and fifty
14:17
Speaker 1: one dollars two broken cotex machines, seventy dollars damage interior tiles,
14:22
Speaker 1: seventy dollars damage to walls in men's restroom requiring standing
14:27
Speaker 1: and repainting twenty eight dollars. I mean, the list just
14:30
Speaker 1: goes on damage door jam. But speaking of costs, the
14:34
Speaker 1: ticket prices they were, you know, you look at the
14:37
Speaker 1: prices then compared to now, they were between what three
14:40
Speaker 1: dollars and eight dollars for most shows. I mean seven
14:42
Speaker 1: point fifty was average top price that you know, with inflation,
14:46
Speaker 1: is still thirty to seventy five dollars today. But the
14:50
Speaker 1: Stones were criticized for this, weren't they for charging too much?
14:54
Speaker 2: They were, And actually, if you go back to the
14:56
Speaker 2: beginning of the Stones as a ban back in England
15:01
Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty three nineteen sixty four, they were criticized
15:05
Speaker 2: for charging more or more properly. Local promoters were criticized
15:10
Speaker 2: for charging more. I did another book about the Rolling Stones,
15:14
Speaker 2: the very first years in England, which came out a
15:17
Speaker 2: couple of years ago, and there's a story in there
15:20
Speaker 2: where a promoter would have a band come and play
15:24
Speaker 2: the dance every Tuesday or Wednesday night in this little
15:27
Speaker 2: town in England, and the normal admission price was four shillings,
15:31
Speaker 2: which would be about twenty cents at the time, and
15:35
Speaker 2: when the Stones came, prices went up by fifty percent,
15:40
Speaker 2: so it was suddenly six shillings or thirty cents on
15:42
Speaker 2: the night. So accusations of the Rolling Stones have charged
15:47
Speaker 2: too much for tickets go right back to the very
15:49
Speaker 2: beginning of their career. But you're right, the sixty nine
15:53
Speaker 2: tour saw prices set a little higher than people have
15:56
Speaker 2: been used to paying before. There's a story in the
15:59
Speaker 2: book about somebody saying that he went to the Atlanta
16:00
Speaker 2: Pop Festival and got three days of music for not
16:04
Speaker 2: much more than they had to pay for one Stones
16:06
Speaker 2: ticket for one performance. So prices went up, but people
16:10
Speaker 2: were still buying their tickets. There was a clamor for tickets.
16:13
Speaker 2: They weren't you know, they weren't half empty arenas, so
16:17
Speaker 2: people were going to pay six, seven, eight dollars if
16:19
Speaker 2: they had to.
16:20
Speaker 1: And promoters are seeing that as we move forward and
16:22
Speaker 1: throughout the decades, they realize that people are going to
16:25
Speaker 1: buy the ticket. We're going to keep raising the prices,
16:29
Speaker 1: I mean until they stop.
16:31
Speaker 2: Harry Styles has just announced a set of shows. I
16:35
Speaker 2: don't know whether the New York tickets have gone on
16:37
Speaker 2: sale yet, but he's playing twelve nights at Wembley Stadium
16:42
Speaker 2: in London, which is going to be about eight hundred
16:44
Speaker 2: and fifty thousand people together. And my wife was trying
16:48
Speaker 2: to get tickets for her and her daughter and they
16:52
Speaker 2: you can't get a ticket for less than three hundred
16:54
Speaker 2: and fifty pounds and those shows are selling out.
16:58
Speaker 1: Richard Houghton, the author of Is Everybody Ready for the
17:00
Speaker 1: Next Band? The Rolling Stones nineteen sixty nine US tour
17:04
Speaker 1: and if anybody's wondering the hardcore Stones fans know, is
17:07
Speaker 1: everybody ready for the next band? That was the introduction
17:09
Speaker 1: by he was at the road manager. Who is the
17:12
Speaker 1: one that would make that announcement?
17:15
Speaker 2: Yeah? Now I can't remember. Remember it wasn't Chipmunk, it's
17:20
Speaker 2: we'd have to feel that in later.
17:21
Speaker 1: Yeah. If you if you listen to get your yeah
17:23
Speaker 1: yeahs out, you hear that at the start.
17:26
Speaker 2: There's a montage of those yeah of several stage introductions.
17:32
Speaker 1: Let's get to the LA Forum show. A great story
17:34
Speaker 1: from Michael. I think I got a pronounce It's it's
17:36
Speaker 1: spelled IHD, So you think it's Michael Ide who said
17:40
Speaker 1: there was a scheduling issue the LA Kings hockey team
17:42
Speaker 1: was scheduled to play at one pm. The concert would
17:44
Speaker 1: follow two hours after the game. They delayed the show
17:47
Speaker 1: by two and a half hours.
17:48
Speaker 2: Right, that's right, And in fact, there were two shows
17:51
Speaker 2: scheduled for that night. So I don't know whether they
17:54
Speaker 2: booked the five o'clock show after the hockey game thinking well,
18:00
Speaker 2: we can get people out and then get people in
18:02
Speaker 2: for the five o'clock show, whether they thought that the
18:05
Speaker 2: hockey team would agree to move their fixture. Hockey team
18:08
Speaker 2: were going nowhere. So yeah, it was basically a hockey
18:13
Speaker 2: game followed by two Stone shows all on the same day.
18:16
Speaker 2: And hindsight is a wonderful thing, I know, but yeah,
18:22
Speaker 2: chaos ensued.
18:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, learned the hard way.
18:24
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:25
Speaker 1: And that same fan said, if you listen to the
18:27
Speaker 1: live album from the tour, get your yeahs out. It
18:30
Speaker 1: symbolizes how they sounded at the LA Forum. That album
18:33
Speaker 1: comes from the shows at the Baltimore Civic Center of November
18:37
Speaker 1: twenty sixth. I think it's just one song and two
18:39
Speaker 1: shows from Madison Square Garden. Do you agree with that fan?
18:42
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on the live album?
18:44
Speaker 2: I think it's fantastic. You can go on Facebook or
18:50
Speaker 2: anywhere and people are talking about favorite live albums, and
18:54
Speaker 2: there'll be people people slag off every live album. You
18:58
Speaker 2: can nominate an album by ACDC or led Zeppelin or
19:03
Speaker 2: Bob Dylan, and somebody will say it's a great album
19:06
Speaker 2: and somebody else say it's a terrible album. There's lots
19:09
Speaker 2: of overdubs and such like, And yes, there are some
19:12
Speaker 2: overdubs on yah yahs, but so many people who gave
19:17
Speaker 2: me stories for the book talked about how that album
19:20
Speaker 2: does capture the spirit of the tour, So I think
19:24
Speaker 2: it's a perfect record. Yeah.
19:26
Speaker 1: One of my early childhood moments of becoming a classic
19:29
Speaker 1: rock fan is hearing Midnight Rambler on the radio the
19:32
Speaker 1: live version for the first time, and my older brother
19:35
Speaker 1: hadn't still has that album, and I was blown away
19:38
Speaker 1: by it. It's one of those moments you don't forget
19:40
Speaker 1: that makes you a fan and turned me on to
19:43
Speaker 1: the Stones. Prior to the Baltimore and New York City show,
19:47
Speaker 1: as the band made stops in Oakland, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas,
19:50
Speaker 1: in Auburn, Texas, one fan, Rick Freeman said, quote, I
19:54
Speaker 1: remember that the Stones having trouble with airline reservations and
19:58
Speaker 1: their flight had flown away empty from Dallas to Auburn,
20:01
Speaker 1: uninstructions from an unknown source. Things were not as organized
20:05
Speaker 1: as they are today. What kind of team did the
20:09
Speaker 1: Stones have at that time in comparison to the huge
20:12
Speaker 1: touring juggernaut machine that they would become in the eighties
20:16
Speaker 1: and nineties and beyond.
20:18
Speaker 2: Well, their road manager was a guy called Sam Cutler,
20:20
Speaker 2: and it Sama does those vocal introductions on yah yas
20:24
Speaker 2: that we hear. And yeah, it was a pretty small team,
20:30
Speaker 2: you know. There was, like you say, now, a Stone's
20:33
Speaker 2: tourism mammoth operation, not least because they often have two
20:37
Speaker 2: stage crews. So they're setting up at one venue now
20:42
Speaker 2: else they're taking down the stage at somewhere else. So
20:45
Speaker 2: there'll be two sets of wagons on the road, two
20:48
Speaker 2: sets of speakers, two sets of lighting systems, et cetera,
20:53
Speaker 2: and then the band's personal crew, guitar texts and such
20:57
Speaker 2: like just follow the band around. But back then, a
21:03
Speaker 2: lot of what they used was the venue's owned back line.
21:07
Speaker 2: The PA was supplied by the venue. Lighting shows weren't
21:13
Speaker 2: anything like as elaborate as they are now. That Stones
21:15
Speaker 2: did have their own lighting, but it was nothing like
21:20
Speaker 2: as elaborate so Chipmunk, who worked on that tour, did
21:25
Speaker 2: the lighting I think for the of the show. But
21:29
Speaker 2: whilst it might seem quite crude to modern eyes, it
21:35
Speaker 2: was quite something back in nineteen sixty nine.
21:38
Speaker 1: More shows to come. They head to Champagne, Illinois, Chicago.
21:42
Speaker 1: There was a November twenty third appearance on The Ed
21:44
Speaker 1: Sullivan Show in New York City, then on to Detroit
21:46
Speaker 1: and Philadelphia. Fan Anthony Zupano said, quote, Nick was in
21:51
Speaker 1: his uncle Sam hat and charged into Jumpin' Jack Flash,
21:55
Speaker 1: and he later adds quote I was transformed as they
21:57
Speaker 1: had just witnessed the greatest rock and roll band in
21:59
Speaker 1: the world. World. Dave Dartnell said, quote A good friend
22:02
Speaker 1: of mine said there was no barrier between the seats
22:04
Speaker 1: and the stage, and he got up front and had
22:07
Speaker 1: his hands on the stage, and Nick danced on his fingers.
22:10
Speaker 1: He said it hurt, but he didn't care. That's also
22:13
Speaker 1: a big difference between that tour and future Stones tours,
22:17
Speaker 1: that the audience is closer to the band, which is
22:20
Speaker 1: you know now after the Altamont you know that that changed, right,
22:25
Speaker 1: I mean, you couldn't get that close to the Stones.
22:28
Speaker 2: No. I went to see the rolling Stones playing Stockholm,
22:31
Speaker 2: Sweden in twenty fourteen on their on Fire tour. They
22:36
Speaker 2: called it. I paid top dollar and I managed to
22:40
Speaker 2: get on the front row on the barrier. But yeah,
22:44
Speaker 2: we were twenty feet from the stage. You know, my
22:46
Speaker 2: son was with me. There were security guards stood in
22:48
Speaker 2: front of us, and even if Mick had reached out
22:52
Speaker 2: with his hand, we would not be had to shake
22:53
Speaker 2: hands with him because the band were that far back,
22:56
Speaker 2: which was a good thing as it turned out, because
22:58
Speaker 2: they had pyro for Sympathy for the devil and you
23:01
Speaker 2: could feel the flames on your face. So if we'd
23:04
Speaker 2: been much closer and maybe we would have got my
23:06
Speaker 2: hair my beards singed off.
23:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, mixed. Stage presence had a change at that point
23:12
Speaker 1: as opposed to previous tours. Was he making adjustments and
23:15
Speaker 1: how he approached the shows and comparison to previous tours,
23:18
Speaker 1: because again times were changing, right, we're into the lead
23:21
Speaker 1: sixties now.
23:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that the whole act was a bit
23:24
Speaker 2: more polished, a bit more professional. There was more thought
23:26
Speaker 2: given to it. As we were talking about earlier that
23:30
Speaker 2: those very early shows were just screamathons where the band
23:34
Speaker 2: could not hear themselves play where they were just almost
23:40
Speaker 2: exchanging glances with each other, think well, how are we
23:42
Speaker 2: going to get through the next thirty minutes? And there
23:46
Speaker 2: were stage invasions. You know, Mick would be wrestled to
23:49
Speaker 2: the ground by over enthusiastic fans male and female, climbing
23:53
Speaker 2: onto the stage. There's famous footage of him playing with
23:57
Speaker 2: the band at the Royal Albert Hall in London. He's
24:00
Speaker 2: half rugby tackled by a girl trying to grab him,
24:05
Speaker 2: and the security you're trying to wrestle the girl away.
24:09
Speaker 2: So you're on stage in nineteen sixty six sixty seven
24:13
Speaker 2: wondering what's going to happen next. By nineteen sixty nine
24:18
Speaker 2: we have got that more respectful audience wants to get
24:20
Speaker 2: into the groove, wants to hear the music, wants to
24:24
Speaker 2: enjoy the show, and so mix able to be a
24:26
Speaker 2: bit more theatrical. He's got the belt, which is using
24:29
Speaker 2: on Midnight Rambler where he drops to his knees and
24:34
Speaker 2: hits the stage with a belt in time to the music.
24:36
Speaker 2: So there's more planning, more forethought about the show, and
24:42
Speaker 2: you know ties in with the lyrics, ties in with
24:44
Speaker 2: the theme of the music to give a more rounded show.
24:49
Speaker 1: Hey guys, we'll get back to the show, but first
24:51
Speaker 1: I want to tell you about an exclusive deal for
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Speaker 1: book down Rock listeners get fifteen percent off any purchase
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Speaker 1: in this episode show notes, or just go to booked
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25:22
Speaker 1: performed at Baltimore Civic Center on November twenty six, Thanksgiving Eve.
25:28
Speaker 1: Just one song, Love and Vane that ended up on
25:31
Speaker 1: that live album. What led to that decision as just
25:34
Speaker 1: that one song. It's just one that they really liked
25:36
Speaker 1: so much they had to put it on there.
25:38
Speaker 2: Well, it takes a number of shows on the tour,
25:41
Speaker 2: and the band's initial intention was that the live well,
25:48
Speaker 2: I don't think it was actually an initial intention to
25:50
Speaker 2: release live album at all, but famously, the Madison Square
25:55
Speaker 2: Garden shows got bootlegged and released as an al called
26:00
Speaker 2: Liver Than You'll Ever Be, and that along with a
26:04
Speaker 2: Dinner album were selling in their thousands and tens of thousands.
26:09
Speaker 2: So I think the Stones and their record label realized
26:12
Speaker 2: that there was revenue being lost there there was a
26:15
Speaker 2: market there for a live album. So the Stone said, well,
26:18
Speaker 2: let's put out the whole show on a double album
26:22
Speaker 2: and let's put out some of the songs that the
26:26
Speaker 2: support acts on the tour performed as well. So the
26:29
Speaker 2: original vision was that Jayas would be a double album
26:34
Speaker 2: with tracks from Icontina, Turner and BB King as one
26:41
Speaker 2: of the sides on the album.
26:43
Speaker 1: Terry Reid as well.
26:44
Speaker 2: Was he to be on that and Terry Reid Yes,
26:47
Speaker 2: it was going to be. You know, it was going
26:48
Speaker 2: to introduce the world to those arguably lesser known acts.
26:54
Speaker 2: DECA in England, who were the Stones record label, said
26:58
Speaker 2: no to that idea. You couldn't fit the whole Stones
27:02
Speaker 2: live set onto a single album, so some tracks were
27:06
Speaker 2: cut out. Satisfaction didn't make the final cut on Ya
27:10
Speaker 2: Jars Prodigal Son, which was a track off Beggars Banquet,
27:14
Speaker 2: which was a slow song they played, didn't make it
27:17
Speaker 2: on I'm Free, you know, one of the few of
27:21
Speaker 2: their older songs that they played didn't make it to
27:24
Speaker 2: the final cut. Those tracks all later emerged on the
27:28
Speaker 2: re released Ya Jars that came out many years later,
27:32
Speaker 2: but it wasn't what was on Ya Yas when it
27:35
Speaker 2: first came out in nineteen seventy.
27:37
Speaker 1: But there one track, Love and Vane from Baltimore, just
27:40
Speaker 1: one that they preferred and liked it.
27:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if you hear some of the alternate takes,
27:46
Speaker 2: that's such a I mean, it's a beautiful song. And
27:49
Speaker 2: obviously their interpretation of that old Robert Johnson number was
27:53
Speaker 2: introducing so many people to a legendary blues guitarist that
27:59
Speaker 2: sofie people had heard off at the time. And I
28:01
Speaker 2: actually think it really encapsulates what the Stone's all about.
28:07
Speaker 2: They performed it on Let It Bleed, but the live
28:10
Speaker 2: version is just that a little bit more special.
28:12
Speaker 1: It's getting into the New York City shows. Now. There's
28:16
Speaker 1: a quote from Keith in the book the band wouldn't
28:18
Speaker 1: allow all the seats to be sold. What was the
28:20
Speaker 1: reason for that decision.
28:21
Speaker 2: I think it was that a full house of Madamon
28:24
Speaker 2: Square Garden could be over twenty thousand people, and Keith
28:28
Speaker 2: was concerned about playing to such an enormous crawrowd and
28:32
Speaker 2: wanting to keep it as intimate as possible, so they
28:36
Speaker 2: didn't sell maybe five six thousand tickets to each show
28:39
Speaker 2: that they could have sold in order to try and
28:41
Speaker 2: keep it more intimate and create a better atmosphere for
28:46
Speaker 2: the show. Obviously, in later years financial considerations take over
28:51
Speaker 2: how many seats get sold, and the Stones went on
28:55
Speaker 2: to play football stadiums and again pioneers really of that
29:02
Speaker 2: before the late seventies, the nineteen seventy eight tour that
29:05
Speaker 2: the Stones did some Girls tour, they started playing big
29:09
Speaker 2: outdoor shows across the US, which nobody had ever really
29:14
Speaker 2: done before, and they replicated that in nineteen eighty two
29:18
Speaker 2: in Europe when they played in Wembley Stadium in England,
29:22
Speaker 2: big outdoor football stadium, and they played in places across Europe.
29:27
Speaker 2: So the size of the crowd meant you had to
29:32
Speaker 2: have a bigger show, more stage effects, more lights, more
29:36
Speaker 2: pyro inflatables as the Stones famous they started using later
29:41
Speaker 2: in their career as well. Back in nineteen sixty nine,
29:44
Speaker 2: it was still very much about the music, about watching
29:47
Speaker 2: the band, seeing the band enjoying the music. And I
29:50
Speaker 2: think that's where Keith drew the line said, we don't
29:53
Speaker 2: want to be playing to too many people because it
29:55
Speaker 2: will detract from what we're trying to do.
29:58
Speaker 1: Here's a small world story mate. My sister's boyfriend in
30:01
Speaker 1: Salls Pools here in Connecticut, here in the US, and
30:05
Speaker 1: she texts me, she says, here Cody is installing the
30:09
Speaker 1: pool of Keith Richards. I said, get out of here,
30:12
Speaker 1: because he lives in I think Wilton, Connecticut.
30:14
Speaker 2: I think it is so.
30:16
Speaker 1: I said, did he get to meet him?
30:18
Speaker 2: You know?
30:18
Speaker 1: She said, yeah, he is a super nice guy. And
30:21
Speaker 1: it just puts into the perspective of like, here's a
30:23
Speaker 1: guy who's played in front of these giant audiences and
30:26
Speaker 1: these you know, just huge stadiums, and he's just a
30:29
Speaker 1: regular guy. From all the stories that I've heard about him,
30:32
Speaker 1: He's just a regular, everyday guy. I've heard stories of him,
30:36
Speaker 1: you know, people that lived in the area that would
30:38
Speaker 1: see him coming to the local school, you know, where
30:41
Speaker 1: his kids would go to school, and he'd show up
30:43
Speaker 1: at the plays and everything, and it just it's a
30:45
Speaker 1: reminder that these are just irregular, regular humans. But you know,
30:50
Speaker 1: it's Keith Richards. You know, I'd be like, oh my god,
30:53
Speaker 1: I'm installing the pool of Keith Richards. It's just pretty cool.
30:55
Speaker 1: I thought that was.
30:57
Speaker 2: I've heard a similar story when I was researching another
31:01
Speaker 2: book about the Stones. The guy rang me up. Used
31:05
Speaker 2: to look, I think he went to school with Keith.
31:06
Speaker 2: So you know, this guy in his seventies, and he said,
31:10
Speaker 2: you know, the whole rock star thing, that's an act
31:14
Speaker 2: he puts on in public. You know, if you're alone
31:17
Speaker 2: with him privately or he go around to his house,
31:19
Speaker 2: he's just a normal guy and he'll make you He'll
31:22
Speaker 2: make you a sandwich, you know, and there's no airs
31:24
Speaker 2: embraced about him whatsoever. Just absolutely, you know, fat on
31:28
Speaker 2: the ground, dead normal guy.
31:30
Speaker 1: That's what we love about Keith. Yeah, we love that
31:33
Speaker 1: about Keith. Yeah, yeah, so I can. Tina Turner, BB King,
31:36
Speaker 1: Terry Reid. They opened the shows at Madison Square Garden,
31:39
Speaker 1: the first done Thanksgiving. Nate and one fan talks about
31:43
Speaker 1: how seeing one of these shows on YouTube is great,
31:46
Speaker 1: but it doesn't capture the energy of being in that building.
31:49
Speaker 1: Any any stories that stand out to you about the
31:50
Speaker 1: comments that you get from fans who were at those
31:52
Speaker 1: shows in New York City.
31:54
Speaker 2: I think it's just that whole sense of occasion. You know.
31:57
Speaker 2: I'm sure many of your listeners have been to gigs
32:01
Speaker 2: and come away afterwards and thinking that was unbelievable. I
32:05
Speaker 2: didn't think it was going to be like that. It's
32:06
Speaker 2: that sense of expectations. Sometimes before a band comes on,
32:10
Speaker 2: you know the band's going to come on in the
32:11
Speaker 2: next five, ten to fifteen minutes. You're waiting. You know,
32:15
Speaker 2: the lights haven't gone down, They're still playing the music,
32:18
Speaker 2: people are still going to the bar and buying a beer,
32:20
Speaker 2: or people are chatting, and then the lights do go down,
32:26
Speaker 2: and that sense of well, what's going to happen next?
32:31
Speaker 2: You can't beat that. You can't and you can't capture
32:34
Speaker 2: that on film. I mean, there's been lots of great
32:37
Speaker 2: footed shot of the Stones, but there's nothing like being
32:41
Speaker 2: in the room, being in the venue when it happens,
32:43
Speaker 2: and hearing that famous announcement.
32:46
Speaker 1: It is very true, and there are comments like that
32:48
Speaker 1: if people saying it felt like an eternity between the
32:52
Speaker 1: time the last artist goes on and the Stones go on,
32:56
Speaker 1: the excitement is in the room and when the first
32:58
Speaker 1: song kicks in and you see that band, and there's
33:01
Speaker 1: nothing like it, and you can't capture that on YouTube.
33:04
Speaker 1: The highlight from that tour, and I mentioned it before,
33:06
Speaker 1: is Midnight Rambler. Mick is quoted in the book saying
33:09
Speaker 1: he and Keith wrote that song on holiday in Italy
33:12
Speaker 1: in Positano, a beautiful hilltown. He said, quote, why we
33:17
Speaker 1: should write such a dark song in this beautiful sunny place.
33:19
Speaker 1: I really don't know. We wrote everything there. The temple
33:22
Speaker 1: changes everything. I'm playing the harmonica in these little cafes
33:26
Speaker 1: and there's Keith with the guitar. That is a great
33:28
Speaker 1: story just to picture them writing this amazing song. And
33:32
Speaker 1: it was a part of a set list of around
33:34
Speaker 1: fifteen songs. What was the average setlist each night? I mean,
33:39
Speaker 1: do they spread it out or is it mostly new?
33:40
Speaker 1: I think you said they threw in a few of
33:43
Speaker 1: the older heads, right.
33:44
Speaker 2: So they were drawing very heavily on eggs Bank and
33:47
Speaker 2: let it bleed. They were playing I'm Free, as I
33:51
Speaker 2: talked about before. Didn't make the eye ask, but it
33:53
Speaker 2: was a song that you know, they played to American audiences,
33:58
Speaker 2: they would often finished with satisfaction. But other than prodigal
34:04
Speaker 2: Son and loving Vain which of course were both cover
34:06
Speaker 2: versions of old blues numbers. Most of the rest of
34:09
Speaker 2: the material they were playing with stuff they'd written in
34:11
Speaker 2: the last eighteen months two years. Some of that, I
34:14
Speaker 2: guess was a conscious, we want to leave the Brian
34:17
Speaker 2: Jones years behind us kind of decision. Some of it
34:21
Speaker 2: was the fact that they had Mick Taylor on guitar,
34:23
Speaker 2: and Mick had been involved in the recording of the
34:27
Speaker 2: Let It Bleed material, so they were songs that he
34:28
Speaker 2: had helped work, work out and arrange. And some of
34:34
Speaker 2: it was about being able to escape the three minute
34:36
Speaker 2: confines of a pop song, so you could play Gimme Shelter,
34:43
Speaker 2: you could play Midnight Rambler songs that go on for seven, eight,
34:46
Speaker 2: ten minutes and expand them so if you want to
34:50
Speaker 2: do another twelve to twenty four bars, you can do
34:52
Speaker 2: that and take the song into that longer format and
34:55
Speaker 2: make it work.
34:57
Speaker 1: Any personal favorites for you, well.
34:58
Speaker 2: I think Midnight Rambler, I mean Midnight Rambler. I saw
35:03
Speaker 2: them when they came back in twenty twelve and they
35:05
Speaker 2: played two shows at the O two Arena in London,
35:09
Speaker 2: and Mick Taylor guested on that line up on that tour,
35:13
Speaker 2: because they did two tours in the UK and then
35:15
Speaker 2: they came and did two tours a two gig show, sorry,
35:20
Speaker 2: they did two gigs in New York and Mick Taylor
35:25
Speaker 2: played on all those shows, and Midnight Rambler really worked well.
35:28
Speaker 2: It was taking you back to nineteen sixty nine again
35:32
Speaker 2: with Keith and Mick and Nick Taylor all working out.
35:37
Speaker 2: You know, Ronnie would sort of step back into the
35:39
Speaker 2: shadows a little bit and let those guys just take
35:42
Speaker 2: the floor.
35:43
Speaker 1: Here is a setweret so just pulling up quickly. Here
35:45
Speaker 1: from one of the Madison Square Garden shows. Fifteen songs,
35:49
Speaker 1: Jumping Jack, Flash Carol, the chuck Berry cover, Sympathy for
35:52
Speaker 1: the Devil, Streetcat, Blues Love and Vane, Prodigal Son, You
35:56
Speaker 1: got to Move under my Thumb, I'm Free, Midnight Rambler,
35:59
Speaker 1: Live with Me, Little queeniea chuck Berry cover, Can't Get
36:02
Speaker 1: No Satisfaction, Hockey Tounk Woman, and they finished with Street
36:06
Speaker 1: Fighting Man. That's a setlist straight, there certainly is.
36:08
Speaker 2: And of course, if you're going to see the Stones now,
36:12
Speaker 2: well maybe not now because maybe they've stopped touring, although
36:16
Speaker 2: I hope that's not the case. But if you want to.
36:18
Speaker 2: In the last two or three years, a lot of
36:20
Speaker 2: those numbers would still be in the set list, which
36:23
Speaker 2: is a sign of what great songs they are and
36:25
Speaker 2: how loved they are by the band. Some people who
36:29
Speaker 2: go and see The Stones in recent years will complain
36:33
Speaker 2: about what are called the old war Horses being dragged
36:36
Speaker 2: out time and time again. But Midnight Rambler, for example,
36:41
Speaker 2: stands a testa time. It's a great song, it's a
36:43
Speaker 2: show stopper. That's why it's still in the set That's
36:46
Speaker 2: why they still play it, and that's why people still
36:48
Speaker 2: want to hear it.
36:49
Speaker 1: The Stones followed with two shows in Boston at the
36:52
Speaker 1: Boston Garden, then a performance in Jupiter, Florida, November thirtieth
36:55
Speaker 1: at the Palm Beach International Raceway, and that leads us
36:58
Speaker 1: to December sixth, eighteen six nine, Altamont Speedway, the dark
37:03
Speaker 1: Flip side of the Summer of Love, the Hell's Angels
37:06
Speaker 1: crashed with concertgoers. Meredith Hunter and eighteen year old attendee
37:09
Speaker 1: was seen pulling a gun near the front of the stage.
37:11
Speaker 1: Hell's Angel Alan Pisaro, stabbed Hunter multiple times and killing him.
37:16
Speaker 1: You get the stories in the book here that really
37:19
Speaker 1: give you an idea of the atmosphere and what went
37:23
Speaker 1: down that night. One talks about how LSD was everywhere.
37:27
Speaker 1: This is Joe Pross. He was right there up front,
37:29
Speaker 1: but eventually managed to get the hell out of there.
37:33
Speaker 1: He went he left that era. The general consensus is
37:35
Speaker 1: that people really could sense that things were going in
37:38
Speaker 1: the wrong direction and the anxiety kept building.
37:42
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, again, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but
37:47
Speaker 2: I think now we kind of recognized that trying to
37:50
Speaker 2: organize a show in less than seventy two hours I
37:53
Speaker 2: think it was by the time they fixed on the
37:55
Speaker 2: Autumnt location was absolutely crazy. Weeks months of planning goes
38:01
Speaker 2: into putting on a big show now, and the idea
38:05
Speaker 2: that it could be set up and that it would
38:09
Speaker 2: run smoothly when they were building a stage literally from
38:14
Speaker 2: scratch when there were no facilities in the area just
38:17
Speaker 2: seems absolutely nuts now. And the death of Meredith Unto
38:22
Speaker 2: was clearly a tragedy, but in some ways it's a
38:26
Speaker 2: miracle that there weren't more people hurt or seriously injured
38:30
Speaker 2: as a result of trying to put on a show
38:32
Speaker 2: at such short notice with a lack of proper facilities
38:37
Speaker 2: for people. I mean, ironically, there's a story in the
38:41
Speaker 2: book where one person said they went, they enjoyed the show,
38:44
Speaker 2: they went home, they didn't see any trouble. But clearly
38:47
Speaker 2: that people who've given me stories for the book don't
38:50
Speaker 2: remember it that way. You know, there were lots of
38:52
Speaker 2: people who've done a lot of acid who were clearly
38:55
Speaker 2: not well. It got really cold because the Bay Area
39:00
Speaker 2: was further north with LA, and people who are coming
39:04
Speaker 2: up from LA hadn't necessarily expected the weather to be
39:06
Speaker 2: like that, so it sounds like it was pretty miserable.
39:11
Speaker 2: I mean, I would have loved to see the Stuns
39:13
Speaker 2: on that tour in nineteen sixty nine, but I'm really
39:15
Speaker 2: glad I wasn't allowed to mont Yeah.
39:17
Speaker 1: One fan, James Padley Assadi, talks in the book about
39:20
Speaker 1: the intimacy of those shows, which we talked about a
39:22
Speaker 1: little bit earlier, and that's something that would change. He said,
39:26
Speaker 1: quote the stage was raised, obviously, but not very high,
39:29
Speaker 1: and actually there were people with their elbows on the
39:32
Speaker 1: stage while the Stones were performing. It was that intimate,
39:35
Speaker 1: and even though they were starting to play to much
39:38
Speaker 1: larger crowds, there was still that intimacy that really changed
39:41
Speaker 1: in seventy two. That's the quote from James Padley Assadi
39:45
Speaker 1: And again I would think that the Ultimate Concert would
39:49
Speaker 1: lead to those changes in the future, drastic changes and
39:52
Speaker 1: security and the way things were going to be set
39:55
Speaker 1: up right from that point forward.
39:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's the I am a infamous story about the
40:03
Speaker 2: Hell's Angels apparently taking a contract out on Mick Jagger
40:07
Speaker 2: because Mick blamed the Angels for the security or lack
40:13
Speaker 2: of security at the show. And some of this goes
40:16
Speaker 2: back to the Hyde Park show in London back in July,
40:20
Speaker 2: where the Hell's Angels in England provided some sort of
40:25
Speaker 2: informal security for the London show. But people made the
40:32
Speaker 2: point that the Angels in the US were not the
40:37
Speaker 2: kind of nice guys that the Angels in England were.
40:40
Speaker 2: So in England they were just a bunch of guys
40:43
Speaker 2: who had motorbikes and drank a lot of beer, more
40:46
Speaker 2: leather jackets pretty much, whereas in the US they were
40:52
Speaker 2: much more of a gang. There was more criminality involved
40:56
Speaker 2: and these guys were not to be messed with. The
41:00
Speaker 2: Stones version of events was that the Grateful Dead suggested
41:04
Speaker 2: that the Angels could provide security and this is one
41:08
Speaker 2: of the products of trying to put a show together
41:11
Speaker 2: in seventy two hours. Nobody gave much thoughts to it.
41:14
Speaker 2: Nobody thought there'd be real issues, so letting the Angels
41:18
Speaker 2: run the show seem like a good idea and a
41:20
Speaker 2: quick fix. Nobody actually thought, well one of the downsides
41:24
Speaker 2: to that. So when Mick blaying the Angels for what
41:27
Speaker 2: happened at alt Amont, and then this rumored contract was
41:34
Speaker 2: taken out on Mick, Mick allegedly never stood still on
41:38
Speaker 2: stage after that because he was always worried about being
41:42
Speaker 2: shot at Wow.
41:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was spooked. Now, I didn't want there was
41:46
Speaker 1: a Hell's Angel, and it's in the book. Years later,
41:49
Speaker 1: maybe sometime in the eighties, came up to them and
41:50
Speaker 1: said that was not true. There was no hit on you.
41:52
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, let's be clear. If you're a
41:57
Speaker 2: public figure who lives in the spotlight, and your Mick
42:01
Speaker 2: Jagger or your Paul McCartney, it must be really, really
42:05
Speaker 2: difficult if you step out the door every day thinking, well,
42:09
Speaker 2: everybody knows who I am. That means there's some crazy
42:11
Speaker 2: people out there. You know. When John Lennon was shot,
42:16
Speaker 2: that must have been so difficult for everybody who had
42:21
Speaker 2: a similar level of fame because they suddenly realized that
42:25
Speaker 2: could have been them, and it could still be them.
42:27
Speaker 2: So you've got to and I don't know how you
42:29
Speaker 2: do it, but you've got to put all that kind
42:30
Speaker 2: of stuff aside and just try and get on with
42:32
Speaker 2: your life. But I'm sure for Mick and lots of
42:36
Speaker 2: people in the public eye, it meant they had to
42:39
Speaker 2: look again at their security arrangements and can they ever
42:43
Speaker 2: step out the front door and walk to the shops
42:46
Speaker 2: and buy a pint of milk? Maybe not, or maybe
42:50
Speaker 2: not without a bodyguard.
42:54
Speaker 1: The book Down Rock podcast is part of the Boneless
42:56
Speaker 1: podcasting network. If you're a fan of classic rock and
42:59
Speaker 1: classic like I am, go to Boneless dot lovable dot
43:03
Speaker 1: app to find over twenty great shows there that's Boneless
43:06
Speaker 1: dot lovable dot app. Or just go to booked on
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Speaker 1: rock dot com. Click on the logo, It'll take you
43:12
Speaker 1: right to the Boneless podcasting network. It is what you
43:15
Speaker 1: want to be. Listen with confidence, and you're right in
43:20
Speaker 1: the afterward quote that the nineteen sixty nine tour of
43:23
Speaker 1: the United States now forms a significant part of the
43:26
Speaker 1: Rolling Stones legend is indisputable. Altamont capped off a tumultuous
43:32
Speaker 1: year that included Brian jones dismissal, Mick Taylor joined the band,
43:35
Speaker 1: Brian's death, the Hyde Park show, and Marian Faithful's suicide
43:39
Speaker 1: attempt whilst in Australia with Mick Jagger. But you also
43:43
Speaker 1: know that this tour also set the template for how
43:46
Speaker 1: rockbands would tour in the futures. Talk about that finish
43:49
Speaker 1: with that and what impact this tour had in your opinion.
43:54
Speaker 2: What I can leave out out of it, because that
43:56
Speaker 2: was an aberration in terms of the way it worked out.
44:02
Speaker 2: The rest of the tour was properly planned. It sold out.
44:06
Speaker 2: You know, you couldn't get a ticket, There was a
44:08
Speaker 2: clamor for tickets. The Madison Square Garden shows were massively
44:11
Speaker 2: oversubscribed in terms of people trying to get hold of tickets.
44:15
Speaker 2: So the tour was a success. The band, you know,
44:20
Speaker 2: played those numbers live, The shows all went well, and
44:24
Speaker 2: if they'd gone home after the West Palm Beach show,
44:29
Speaker 2: we wouldn't be talking about Autmont. We'd be talking about
44:31
Speaker 2: what a roaring success. The nineteen sixty nine tour was
44:36
Speaker 2: clearly come nineteen seventy two when the Stones came back
44:39
Speaker 2: to play North America for the first time. They'd learned
44:45
Speaker 2: things in nineteen sixty nine, and some of the things
44:47
Speaker 2: they'd learned were put into practice in nineteen seventy two.
44:51
Speaker 2: They played some of the same cities, they played some
44:54
Speaker 2: different places because they wanted to play off the beaten
44:57
Speaker 2: track a little bit, and they made more money. Ticket
45:04
Speaker 2: prices went up again, the tour grosses went up, the
45:08
Speaker 2: klam off for tickets went up, and nineteen sixty nine
45:12
Speaker 2: attracted lots, said lines, nineteen seventy two was a bigger
45:17
Speaker 2: show again and a bigger success again, and everybody from
45:25
Speaker 2: coming over from Britain to play learned from what the
45:28
Speaker 2: Stones learned from those sixty nine and seventy two tours
45:31
Speaker 2: in terms of where to play, what kind of cities
45:35
Speaker 2: to choose. And it's still true today. You know, British
45:38
Speaker 2: bands often play the East Coast, they play Chicago, and
45:44
Speaker 2: they'll come down the West Coast, and there are large
45:46
Speaker 2: ways of the US where a British touring band wouldn't
45:52
Speaker 2: necessarily think to play, because they see the big markets
45:55
Speaker 2: as being the Eastern seaboard, the Pacific Coast, and this
46:00
Speaker 2: is like Cleveland and Chicago.
46:03
Speaker 1: Really set the template for what was to come.
46:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've done a book on the Faces, and
46:10
Speaker 2: the Faces famously were selling out cities like Detroit in
46:17
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine, nineteen seventy after Rod Stewart joined the band,
46:20
Speaker 2: and they started out as Small Faces before rebranding as
46:26
Speaker 2: Faces in England. They're still playing pub gigs. You know,
46:30
Speaker 2: they couldn't get arrested in England. And they're playing three
46:34
Speaker 2: four five thousand seat of venues in the US and
46:37
Speaker 2: coming back two weeks later and playing again because people
46:40
Speaker 2: wanted to hear them play. So they learned some some
46:43
Speaker 2: of the stuff that The Stones had found out from
46:45
Speaker 2: their touring shows. And as we talked about, Zeppelin did
46:49
Speaker 2: the same, Jeth Rotell did the same. In the bands
46:52
Speaker 2: that found an audience in the US found those audiences
46:57
Speaker 2: mainly around the big cities in for the country.
47:01
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the book when it comes out,
47:03
Speaker 1: as everybody ready for the next band? The Rolling Stones
47:05
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine US tour. February twenty fourth is the
47:09
Speaker 1: release state.
47:10
Speaker 2: It should be February, but the books are actually on
47:13
Speaker 2: a ship crossing the Atlantic as we speak. So it's
47:17
Speaker 2: probably going to be around the end of March because
47:19
Speaker 2: the books have to get to the warehouse and then
47:21
Speaker 2: be shipped out to local bookstores. But you can order
47:24
Speaker 2: it from your local bookstore if you are in the
47:27
Speaker 2: US or Canada. Okay, your bookstore can order it in Yeah.
47:30
Speaker 1: It's available online Amazon, all the usual Outlet's say, I
47:33
Speaker 1: see it there as well, So all right, that's great.
47:36
Speaker 1: And can people find you online, Richard?
47:39
Speaker 2: Yeah they can. My company is called Spendwood Books, so
47:42
Speaker 2: if they want to check me out at spendwoodbooks dot com.
47:45
Speaker 2: I'm also on Facebook. I have an author page called
47:48
Speaker 2: Richard out and Author, so if you look that up
47:52
Speaker 2: on Facebook you might find me there. I blog a
47:54
Speaker 2: little bit about music stuff, you know, going to a
47:57
Speaker 2: local thrift store and buying an album and thinking why
48:00
Speaker 2: didn't I buy this album when it came out in
48:01
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy six or whatever it might be great, or
48:04
Speaker 2: complaining about the price of ticket saw reviewing a show
48:07
Speaker 2: I've just been to see, you know, all those kinds
48:09
Speaker 2: of things.
48:10
Speaker 1: And thank you for setting up the interview with Bruce Peg.
48:13
Speaker 1: We had in mind to talk about the ELP book,
48:15
Speaker 1: which has done very well. People are really enjoying the episode,
48:18
Speaker 1: and they're going out and getting that book, which they should.
48:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, thank you very much. That Yeah, that book
48:24
Speaker 2: is available in the US now. It's called Welcome Back,
48:27
Speaker 2: My Friend, The People's History of Emerson Lake and Palmer
48:31
Speaker 2: endorsed by the Bad Book, and it's got some great
48:33
Speaker 2: photos in there too, from a guy called Neil Preston
48:36
Speaker 2: who photographed Elp in the very early days, went on
48:40
Speaker 2: to photograph Settling a bunch of times, and he also kindly,
48:45
Speaker 2: you know, gave me an interview for the book as well.
48:47
Speaker 1: Richard Howden, thank you so much for coming on the show.
48:51
Speaker 2: Eric, thank you. That's it. It's in the books.