The Rolling Stones are the most famous long-running band in the world. For over fifty years, they’ve been gathering no moss, constantly lighting up live venues around the globe, usually to sell-out audiences. With so much experience under their belt, they’ve entertained millions from smoke-filled stages and even amongst so many occasions, a few stand out:
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 18 February 2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6lJ071MeKA
The largest crowd the band ever played to was at a free concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Estimates say 2 million people flooded the beach, while the streets of the area surrounding it were also rammed with crowds. With so many people, the Stones had a special bridge constructed from their beachside hotel to the stage so that they didn’t drown in the throng.
Altamont Speedway Free Festival, California – 6 December 1969
The Altamont Speedway gig is infamous in music lore, with a cultural impact that sounded the symbolic end of hippy innocence. A few weeks before, the Stones decided to perform at this free gig in response to criticisms that their recent concerts had been too expensive. Unfortunately the initial venue pulled out three days before, and a slipshod concert was put together at a speedway with organisers desperately persuading a gang of Hell’s Angels to run security in exchange for beer. During the Stone’s seventh tune, a young man called Meredith Hunter, high on methamphetamine, pulled a gun on one of the Hell’s Angels who promptly stabbed him to death. This literal death was also the death of hippy innocence, an acknowledgement that drug use could lead to tragic consequences, and that it wasn’t always peace and love all the time.
Manhattan, New York – 1 May 1975
One legendary performance by the Stones consisted of a single song, and started a much copied trend. For the announcement of their 1975 US tour, the band didn’t show up to the standard press conference but rather rode around on a flatbed truck to the corner of the venue on 5th and 9th street and started playing a long version of Brown Sugar. After they finished, the truck rode off with the band on it, leaving the reporters at the conference both enthralled and confused.
Hyde Park, London – 5 July 1969
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-YCqUMQ29U
The Summer of Love in 1969 contained tragedy for the Stones after founding guitarist Brian Jones quit the band and was then found dead a month later in his swimming pool. The remaining Stones held a poignant free outdoor concert in London’s Hyde Park just two days after Jones’ earthly departure, and commemorated him by reading a Shelley poem and releasing over 2,000 butterflies into the air.
Warsaw, Poland – 13 April 1967
The Rolling Stones’ one concert during the 1960s in the Soviet Bloc occurred in Warsaw, capital of Poland. They played in the Sala Kongresowa, one of Warsaw’s largest concert spaces, set in the city’s most famous intimidating building, the Palace of Culture and Science. The bizarre juxtaposition of the liberal and provocative Stones playing two sets to people mostly made up the ruling communist party made the evening a surreal one to remember. The audience was very well-behaved though since the party threatened to throw out anybody who acted too lively. After the gig, the band drove around the streets, decadently throwing their records to passers-by, people who would normally have to stand in day-long queues for basic groceries.
Crawdaddy Club, London – February to September 1963
Perhaps this small club in Richmond may not be the most legendary, but this venue is where The Rolling Stones cut their teeth, playing a residency here for seven months straight in 1963, the period during which they first became popular and were given their debut tour. The Crawdaddy’s house band then became The Yardbirds, another iconic British band. The club recently came back from the ashes through the efforts of local music enthusiasts.
Glastonbury Festival, England – 29 June 2013
Despite being England’s most famous band, The Rolling Stones didn’t play England’s most famous music festival until 2013, just as the band was approaching their 50th anniversary. Fittingly, loudspeakers blared out the sound of cows mooing before the band took the stage, reminding the crowd of the festival’s farm roots during the rest of the year.
Featured image by xiquinhosilva
