On This Day – The Stones, Decadent and Awful!
Apr 13, 2010 On This Day
On this day in 1976 the Rolling Stones played 2 concerts in the Palace of Culture and Science building in Warsaw, Poland as part of their European tour. It was the first time the Stones had played behind the Iron Curtain. It was also the last tour that included Brian Jones.
The tickets were handed out to Communist Party members – apparently much to the surprise of the band. I think that the only surprising thing was that the band was surprised. Anyway, the audience was instructed on how to behave. It is true to say that visiting Soviet officials were not impressed with the show. They thought that the Stones were decadent and awful.
On their part, the Stones, fake surprise or not, drove round the streets to give away copies of their records to fans after the show. Whether this was a real gesture of protest or a rather good publicity stunt is not known.
It would be a long time before the Stones visited communist bloc countries again.
Tags: brian jones, classic rock music, love rock music, mick jagger, rock and blues, rolling stones, stones and poland
Ronnie and Mick to Meet
Jan 5, 2010 Rants, Uncategorized
It would seem that the proposed Stones tour is still in danger of not going ahead because of fears for Ronnie Wood’s health.
As has been widely reported Ronnie has an alcohol problem and it is this that has cast a shadow over the proposed tour. Mick is, as we all know, heavily involved in the organisation and running of the tours. Micro managing them to a rediculous extent according to some reports from previous tours. In any event, he will want to be sure that Ronnie is up to it.
It should not be forgotten that they are also old friends and Mick must be concerned on a personal level. As for Ronnie 2009 has been a year that he must want to forget. He divorced his wife Jo towards the end of the year and moved in with his young girlfriend Ekaterina Ivanova. Since then he has moved out after a disagreement outside a restaurant in Surrey, allegedly, resulted in him choking her (maybe it was an inept attempt at the Heimlich maneuver squeezing the throat rather than the abdomen).
The daily Express was told “Mick and Ronnie will talk things through in the New Year. They are old friends and Mick will obviously do everything he can to help him. But when it comes to the Stones, Mick has a real eye for detail and always ensures things run like clockwork. He’ll need to be convinced that Ronnie is still up to the job. Hopefully everything will work out, as it would break Ronnie’s heart if the Stones had to perform without him.”
Although there would be all the old jokes about locking up your grannies if the Stones do tour I would love to see them on the road, again. My caveat would be that they should strip down the shows. Forget the pyrotechnics, let the music light up the stage. Their best album for some time was ‘Stripped’ and that was a very simple affair. Were they to do that and go back to their blues roots I would be first in the queue for tickets.
From Stripped, this is classic.
The highlight from the album was this, Told yer that they were still good playing blues…..
Tags: Ekaterina Ivanova, mick jagger, rock and blues, rolling stones, ronnie wood
On This Day – Jagger and Richards Appeal
Aug 1, 2009 On This Day, rock and blues
On this day in 1967 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards appealed their convictions on drug charges following a raid the previous February.
This saga began when a private party was raided by the police on 12 February at Keith’s house Redlands his mansion outside a little seaside town called West Wittering Sussex in the UK. There are many suspicions and theories about what really happened. Was David Schneiderman (aka the Acid King) who was invited as he could supply good quality drugs really a paid police informant, or working for the News of the World? Or both?
For those of you who may not know The news of the Word, was and is a Sunday newspaper that specializes in tittle tattle and gossip. Many of us think that if a story is not salacious enough they will spice it up….
It does seem strange that Schneiderman was not arrested or his big bag full of illegal chemicals searched. It would seem that the police were going for just two people, Jagger and Richards.
Jagger was charged with possessing half a dozen pills. Richards for allowing his premises to be used for drug use. Jagger’s pills could be bought legally over the counter inmost of Europe, but not in the UK. It may well have been that they were purchased, legally, in Italy and brought back into the UK. They were also prescribed to him by his doctor in the UK.
Neither had any previous convictions for drug offenses but were given savage sentences. Jagger got 3 months in jail and Richards 12. These sentences were well beyond those that would normally be expected. The righteous, smutty end of the press (including The News of the Screws) gloated. However, help was at hand for the pair from a very unexpected quarter.
The most influential newspaper at that time was The Times. Regarded as the newspaper of record it was the organ that spoke for and to the elite. Its editor at the time was William Rees-Mogg. Rees-Mogg was educated at Charterhouse and Balliol College, Oxford. He was President of the Oxford Union in 1951. He was a lifelong Tory standing for the right wing party unsuccessfully. He was very influential in the corridors of power. His leader comment in The Times is credited in persuading Alec Douglas-Hume to stand down as Prime Minister to make way for Edward heath.
It was this very well connected establishment figure who saved Jagger and Richards. He wrote a leader for The Times with the title “Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel?” (strangely, perhaps, miss quoting Alexander Pope). In the leader he did not call for drugs to be legalised, did not praise Jagger of Richards. What he did do was to remind the establishment that justice must be the same for all, and that the sentences were well outside the norm and morally wrong.
Richard’s sentence was quashed and Jagger’s reduced to a suspended sentence and both were released from goal. They then released “We Love You” about the episode.
It is the only time I have admired Rees-Mogg and his ilk. Good on him.
Tags: classic rock music, keith richards, love rock music, mick jagger, On This Day, real rock and blues, rolling stones
