1966 And All That

The autumn of 1966 marked a momentous time in British history.  Never mind that England had just won football's World Cup and the Swinging Sixties were getting underway.  This period, which occurred fifty years ago, also saw the retirement from live performance of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the two biggest acts in Britain and, in the case of The Beatles, the world.

For The Beatles, stepping out of the live spotlight following their performance at Candlestick Park, San Francisco on 28 August 1966 was also inevitable and was to be permanent.  Amplification was unable to drown out the screaming of the crowds they faced night after night, making their performances unlistenable.  Even when audience members wanted to just enjoy to the music, they could barely hear a word.  Accounts of the time, including those in my book The Beatles - I Was There, suggest that the noise would abate briefly to hear the between song announcements and then rise again once the next song began.

Abandoning live performance, when the songs they were recording were increasingly complex and not capable of being reproduced by a four piece group onstage, was an almost inevitable progression for The Beatles.  But the inability to make themselves heard was the primary driver.

The Stones' musical journey from blues and R&B enthusiasts, slavishly and successfully remodelling the music of their heroes, to pop pioneers in their own right also entered a cul de sac in the autumn of 1966.  The distractions of drugs and unhealthy police interest in the group's off stage activities caused them to quit the stage in early 1967.

So it was that on 23 September 1966, the Rolling Stones embarked upon their final British tour with founding member Brian Jones.  Apart from a cameo appearance at an NME Pollwinners event in 1968, it was to be Brian's last appearances on a British stage in front of a live audience.  Less than three years later, Brian would be ousted from the Stones and, tragically, drown in a swimming pool at his Sussex home in an incident that many now believe to have been murder.  Despite the energies put into reexamining other historic cases, Brian's death is one that the police have yet to reopen.

The screaming had abated slightly for the Stones, and Mick Jagger was able to tell audiences to calm down so that the group could play quieter songs like Lady Jane, but there were still stage invasions and hysterical female - and male - fans to deal with.  The band had grown up.  Their audiences?  Perhaps not so much.

So 1966 was a momentous year. It certainly marked a pivotal one for two of the most influential acts in popular music.  British fans never got the chance to buy a ticket to see the boys from Liverpool or the London blues enthusiasts led by Brian again.

The Beatles - I Was There and You Had To Be There - The Rolling Stones Live by Richard Houghton chronicle the live histories of these iconic bands and are both available from Amazon.

Exhibitionism, Saatchi Gallery, London

I've been to Exhibitionism again today and taken a few sneaky pics, which you're not supposed to do.  But the Stones weren't averse to breaking the rules so I'm not going to apologise for it.

If you haven't already seen the blurb/hype, this is a romp through the 50 plus years the Rolling Stones have been making music and headlines and an absolute 'must see' for any Rolling Stones fan.  From the opening multi screen video montage, which you could never recreate on a TV or cinema screen, through to the 3D screening of the band tearing through (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction at Hyde Park in 2013, this is an unmissable experience.

There are criticisms.  There's too little credit given to Brian's role in the early days of the band, and not a great deal about the drug busts that have littered the Stones career either.  And a couple of the rooms have plenty to see but are not laid out well enough to allow people to see things easily.  (On both the occasions I went, there were bottlenecks at the display cases showing Keith's 1960s diaries, one of the few truly personal items on display, contrasting with The Jam exhibition currently on in Liverpool, which is crammed with stuff from the Weller family loft).

But it's a chance to see the biggest band in the world in a way you've never seen them before, and at £23.50 it's money well spent.

Exhibitionism runs at the Saatchi Gallery until 4 September.

The Rolling Stones, Beira Rio Stadium, Porto Alegre, 2 March 2016

This show was the last of the Brazilian leg of the Rolling Stones 2016 Ole tour and, if I understood Mick Jagger's Portuguese correctly, the first time they had played Porto Alegre.  60,000 Brazilians turned out to see them play this magnificent stadium on an absolute dog of a night.  You might imagine Brazil is all sun kissed beaches, but this was more like a Tuesday night away game at Accrington Stanley.  It rained from start to finish and there wasn't a lot to be cheerful about, weather wise.

But the spirits of the crowd were not dampened by the rain and neither did the Stones treat this fixture lightly.  They put out a full strength team and, all told, played eleven top ten hits plus Gimme Shelter, an extended Midnight Rambler, Sympathy For The Devil and You Can't Always Get What You Want.  There was plenty for a boisterous crowd to sing along to, and sing along they did.

From the opener Jumping Jack Flash through It's Only Rock'n'Roll, Tumbling Dice, Let's Spend The Night Together, Ruby Tuesday, Paint It Black and Honky Tonk Women, the Stones opened their treasure chest of a back catalogue and rolled out hit after hit.

Only Out Of Control, the fourth song in and (for me) still an inappropriately placed slow song this early on, didn't have the crowd singing along as fervently, but they cheered Mick when he stood toe to toe with Keith and riffed on harmonica.

When Mick introduced the band, the crowd began a chant of 'Rich-ards! Rich-ards!' which was only ended by Keith reminding the audience 'I have a show to do.'  He then gave them You Got The Silver and a heartfelt Before They Make Me Run.  In the pouring rain I was particularly affected by the line 'only a crowd can make you feel so alone.'  Keith, who increasingly seems to relish his fifteen minutes in the spotlight, is all smiles during this spot and throughout the evening.

The 'warhorses' inevitably conclude a Stones set and we get Midnight Rambler, Miss You ('do you feel like singing?'), Gimme Shelter with Sasha Allen escorting Mick to the end of the thrust stage to wail like a banshee and invoke the spirit of Merry Clayton, a pumped Start Me Up and a rousing Sympathy For The Devil. Before the gig there were around one hundred Jehovah's Witnesses outside the stadium.  From the mass singalong to Sympathy, with the crowd enthusiastically 'woo wooing' along to the chorus, I doubt there were many in the audience who were going to be walking out of the stadium to sign up for a subscription to Watchtower.

They finished with You Can't Always Get What You Want and (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, but I must admit to missing these numbers.  Soaked to the skin and unable to see without my rain splattered specs, I left the stadium to the opening riff from Brown Sugar to grab a cab back to my hotel.  Porto Alegreans were still bouncing up and down to Mick Jagger as he led them through the chorus of 'yeah, yeah, yeah - whoo!' as I collapsed into the warm cocoon of my taxi.  The Stones first performance in Porto Alegre and one that will stick in the mind - once I've dried out.

The Rolling Stones, Morumbi Stadium, Sao Paulo, 24 February 2016

This gig was never going to disappoint, as the band which pioneered stadium gigs and which (still) has the best front man in the business has been doing this for over fifty years and knows how to put on a show. Throw in a buzzing South American crowd, a slightly delayed start while the water was mopped from the stage after the early evening rain, a support band that was clearly well known to large sections of the audience and had them fist pumping along to several tunes (even if your correspondent had never heard of them) and throw in a warm and humid evening, and the sense of anticipation was palpable.  This one was nailed on from the start.  From the opening chords, we were off and running with 60,000 Paulistas singing along to Start Me Up.  The band were wreathed in smiles, clearly glad to be here (or, as Keith would have it, 'glad to be anywhere') and the atmosphere was unlike any I've ever experienced at a stadium gig.  

It's Only Rock'n'Roll and Tumbling Dice followed, and then we entered a bit of a cul-de-sac in terms of maintaining audience enthusiasm, as Out Of Control, Bitch, Beast of Burden and Worried About You follow, the last sung by Mick in a faltering falsetto that makes me Worried About Mick, so frail did he sound.

Things kicked back into gear with Honky Tonk Women.  Then Keith sang You Got The Silver and Happy.  The latter sounds a little threadbare without Mick on backing vocals, as that was part of the original song's charm.

But the Stones always unveil their nuclear weapons in the second half of the set.  The undoubted highlights are Gimme Shelter and Sympathy For The Devil.  Sasha Allen has replaced Lisa Fischer for this tour and whilst she may lack Lisa's physical presence she certainly has the pipes and duets with Mick on the thrust stage, bringing Gimme Shelter to a steamy climax. The latter, which was dropped from the Stones set list for a while, is now firmly entrenched as a centrepiece, with Mick in his L'Wrenn Scott cape and a new visual on the video screens to accompany the number.

The crowd sang heartily along to Miss You, responding to Mick's calls, and joined in on the chorus for You Can't Always Get What You Want.  Then it was the traditional romp to the finish line with Satisfaction.  Satisfied?  60,000 Brazilian fans certainly were.