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Sat. Dec 20, 2008

Grandpa is Once Again Astounded By The Interwebs

I’ve been on the internet a long time, and thought I had become somewhat immune to amazement at what I find. I no longer marvel that I can hear about a court ruling on CNN, and within five minutes find the PDF of the full ruling online for me to read in detail. I guess you could say that instant access to “current data” no longer phases me.

But the other night, I did a search on a whim about one night in 1981 from which I have some vivid memories, even though it’s been 27 years. Not only did I find an article written about that night by an expert on the subject, I found a recording of the entire event.

One night I was flipping around to ascertain if it was still true that with 100+ channels to choose from, there was still nothing on worth watching, when I paused on Palladia, the HD music channel. They were showing “Let’s Spend The Night Together,” a somewhat mediocre movie of the 1981 stadium tour by the Rolling Stones.

It was a memory trigger that made me think about the night I saw them on that tour. They were playing big stadiums and outdoor shows before tens of thousands at a time. But for one night on the tour, they played for about 4,000 people at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, and I was lucky enough to be there.

How lucky? The announcement of the show and the beginning of ticket sales happened at 2AM one night, and within two hours the tickets were gone. I basically woke up to the news of a sold out show. However, being program director of a rock station in Macon, I did what I always did … call the promoter and ask for comps (“complimentary tickets”).

But the lady who’d always been able to come through for me before told me “there are no comps for this show, all the radio people have to pay for their tickets (!!!), and we were only given enough for the Atlanta stations. Sorry.”

Bummed, I was. But on the Friday afternoon before that Monday night show, this nice lady called me out of the blue: “I’ve had a last minute cancellation, do you want two tickets?”

Yes, indeedy. How much are they? $32.50 each!?! (this was twice the going rate for tickets in 1981) Gulp, OK.

I’d never paid that much for a concert before. And I had also always been able to take a camera, and use those prime comp seat locations to get good concert photos. But not only was this the first tour to break the $30 ticket barrier, it was the first tour where no cameras were allowed!

This was a sea change in the way concerts were run. I was frankly shocked. So much so I thought I’d try sneaking one in anyway. Unbeknownst to me, at that time Mick Jagger had death threats against him (from the Hell’s Angels) and they had cops searching people on the way in. The camera I’d slung under my arm under my jacket was mistaken for a gun … for a second. Needless to say, I didn’t get the camera in, and I also saw a couple of people ejected who had managed to sneak one in.

And it would have been sweet, too, we were in the third row of the balcony, perfect placement in the Fox, both visually and aurally. We were seated among the rest of the radio folk. And all of us sat in stunned silence when the opening act began. Then we started talking among ourselves, “do you know who these guys are, gawd they suck!“ “how’d they get this gig, they’re awful.”

The only distraction from the cacophony was when what appeared to me to be Ron Wood walked on stage … and then walked off. What was that about? The band, a stand up drummer with a snare drum and one cymbal, stand up bass player, and pompadoured lead singer/shouter, was the Stray Cats. Two years later, all us radio guys who said they sucked would be playing the hell out of their records.

But once they’re done and another long hour passes, the Rolling Stones come out onto an empty stage shorn of their stadium show devices … and create magic. That’s the only way I can describe it. I was never a huge Stones fan, there were other bands I liked a lot better in that era. And during my rock radio days, I saw hundreds of shows by nearly every band of the day. But that show that night in the Fox was the best rock and roll concert I ever attended. When it was over, I realized I had indeed seen what the band proclaimed itself to be: the world’s greatest rock and roll band.

At any rate, on a night 27 years later I do a Google search for “Rolling Stones” 1981 fox. And I find an amazing confirmation of my memories from one of the most prominent writers for Rolling Stone magazine, Robert Palmer:

It was almost 9 P.M. and the opening act, England’s Stray Cats, had almost finished their set, but Mr. Richards and Mr. Wood had not yet arrived at the theater. Mr. Jagger did not even know if they had arrived in Atlanta.

Jerri Hall, the model and actress who has been Mr. Jagger’s steady girlfriend for several years now, burst into the dressing room, laughing. “Keith and Ronnie just got here,” she reported, “and do you know what Ronnie did? He came trudging into the theater, carrying his bags, with his head down, eyes on the ground, and he trudged right out onto the stage! The Stray Cats were on. He looked up, noticed that there was a lot of light and a band playing, turned around, and trudged backstage again.” She collapsed in giggles. “Now that’s professionalism,” Mr. Jagger said, deadpan.

The Pop Life; The Stones Roll On, Refusing To Become Show-Business Slick

OK, so that that’s what that was about. Of the show itself, Palmer writes…

The band, raging like a forest fire, burned up 26 songs in less than two hours, yet every song got the attention it deserved; none was thrown away or walked through.

So this was the stuff the millions were clamoring to see. No wonder. The Rolling Stones’ Atlanta show was one of the most exciting rock concerts I have ever seen, and the fans seemed to agree.

This one sure did.

With that expert affirmation of my memory under my belt, what more could be found? How about a recording of the entire show: Recorded live at Fox Theater, Atlanta, Georgia, October 26, 1981. It’s a somewhat muddy mono mix from the sound board, but it’s astounding to me that it exists at all. All 26 songs. It even includes Mick Jagger mispronouncing Chuck Leavell’s name, which I laughed at when it happened (Chuck was from Macon, and an acquaintance of mine … so I freaked to see him on stage playing piano with the Rolling Stones).

About the only thing I didn’t find was a photo of me at the show. And I would not bet against it being out there on the Internet somewhere.

In closing, a Keith Richards bonus from the same tour:

During their encore song, “Satisfaction”, thousands of balloons were released and a fan, taking advantage of the confusion, ran past security and onto the stage, directly at Keith.

Keith nailed the guy with his Telecaster, then put it back on and kept playing.

The video of this Keith-administered Telecaster-bashing on that page is an absolute hoot.