So my mother has a tendency to add her own details to tales...although the big picture is generally correct. She stated she was at this gig and recalls Jagger being lit and climbing the scaffolding of the stage. That security kept trying to get him to come down & he just kept partying (during the gig of course). Now this sounds a bit crackpot...BUT...she also talked about Eddie Money opening and how she was pissed off that he would not get her back stage. That Money was angry she would not go out with him several years before. Now THAT part I know to be true due to confirmation from several friends of the family including the friend of the family who first met Eddie on BART & brought him into their circle (he also gave Eddie his first acid and let me tell you...that is a great tale). In any case...anyone know of this scaffold climbing?

Now to be fair...she told me of a time at the Keystone in Berkeley when she was boozing with JL Hooker & ended up getting tossed from the club when Hooker took the stage (security didn't know who she was & she was sitting at his table). Years later...I learned this story to be totally true...other than it not involving my mother...it was my father who was boozing. She always said how Hooker was angry she was being tossed & threatened to stop the show. The truth makes more sense...Hooker was pissed that my father was being tossed...b/c he was taking the bottle of vodka with him. Now THAT makes a lot more sense. In any case...you see the variations of truth...hence my questioning the Jagger info.

Mick climbed one of the scaffolds at the New Orleans gig. So I guess it could have happened elsewhere on that tour

Dont know about Jagger being 'lit' during the show, but he seemed extremely wired when interviewed by Good Morning America just before it (they gave him a birthday cake, I think)

I was at the show and don't remember him climbing any scaffolding. Granted it was over 30 years ago,I was only 15 and we were'nt real close. But I do still rememeber the 2 hour wait in between Santana and the Stones.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

I was there also & don't remember Mick climbing anything....I really doubt this but I know I could confirm with some Bill Graham employee's.....peter

Yes, he climbed the scaffolding during the first Anahiem show
which I was at. Was backstage for a bit then reappeared on Keith and Bill's side.
It was during JJF. I remember thinking "Boy, I hope he has eaplugs."

THE STONES IN OAKLAND MICKS BIRTHDAY 1978.

I had a milk truck at the time. Gurstenslager body for you milk van aficionados.
I had converted it to a nice camper, and a huge stereo system. We loaded it up with a ton of friends and headed off to the show at about midnight. We got to Fairfield and the @#$%& van broke down. Right there at the exit west of the Nut Tree where Murrillos restaurant is. I had no idea what was wrong I knew whatever it was, I couldn’t fix it and go to the show. So I decided to go the show and fix it on the return.

My wife decided to stay and get a ride home from her sister, who she called and was going to pick her up. So the rest of us went to the restaurants in the area and find some folks going to the show. We all found a ride in the back of a pickup truck. So off we went.


We got the show and we were among the first couple of hundred lined up along the fence lining the parking lots. So we were going to get a good spot.

The bill was, The Rolling Stones, Santana and Peter Tosh, Mick’s birthday. Some Girls Tour. Day ON the Green, general admission. HOLY SHIT.

Peter Tosh opened the show. At the time, he was the darling of the Rock Royalty, especially the Rolling Stones.

Window pane.

As Peter’s set ended, he started throwing out spliffs to the crowd. I was pretty close to the front so I was within range. I jumped up (Channeling my inner Wilt Chamberlain) and grabbed one. Everyone around me that grabbed one sparked the spliff up, but I stuck mine in my pocket for later.

I was getting kind of high and the crowd was crushing up front so decided to go up the very top and chill up there and watch Santana. And puff down that spliff.

By the time the set was over, I was @#$%& flying. The windowpane had settled into a great trip, the spliff putting everything just right. Now I needed to make my way back to my friends. Somehow, I got whiff of some hash oil and thought, my friends are smoking it! And I got be there! (we had a ton of hash and hash oil then). So to the front I head, all the time sniffing that hash oil.

When I got to the field from the top deck, they had installed a wire between the scoreboards. I looked up and there was guy about to walk across it, he had one of the big poles and was just waiting. IT WAS A WINDY DAY TOO!. He started off, and I was freaking out. I didn’t want to watch but couldn’t take my eyes off of him either. I kept making my way towards the front and that still pungent aroma of hash oil.

As the guy (a Wallenda I believe) made his way across the wire (did I mention that IT WAS WINDY AS SHIT?) five big passenger helicopters landed in the backstage area parking lot. We all figured that was the Stones flying in. As the guy got farther along those helicopters arose from the backstage area and started circling the stadium. The guy on wire was just about to reach the other side and the copters were circling and then…

I was inching my way through the crowd. It was packed but the smell of the hash oil spurred me on. Packed as shit, tough slog. Just as I reached my friends, (and I was right, they WERE Smoking hash oil!)

The Wallenda guy had reached the other side! The crowd went completely insane, trapeze rigs and artists dropped out of the stage’s proscenium and all of the helicopter’s doors opened and down rained millions of multi-colored ping pong balls on the coliseum as a million multi-colored balloons rose from the crowd. THE SINGLE MOST INTENSE MOMENT EVER!

@#$%&. The perfect trip, the perfect moment and Mick jagger close enough that his sweat dripped on me. The band was fire. “Just My Imagination” was incredible. “When the Whip Comes Down” and all the great songs from “Some Girls” were incredible. This was the last time the stones set were more about the new albums than the greatest hits (there were plenty of those however in the show). Our minds were blown totally.

We got a ride back to the van, which was still right where we left it. I got in and put the key in the ignition. i turned the key and it started right up. No problem. drove it home too. ran perfect. never broke down like that again too. Weird as hell.

Happy birthday Mick Jagger!





And here :

[shidoobeewithstonesdoug.yuku.com]

This was my first Stones concert. I think it was J.J.Flash, he climbed and ran around the stadium on the top deck(front row of third deck). The song lasted so long, Keith took a seat as they played.

Now, I have to admit that I did a lot of drugs since then (lucky I slowed down after 25 and stopped soon after, well atleast 'major stuff'), so my memory could be a bit sketchy.

I've seen photos of Mick in the scaffolding from that tour. And I saw him climb up in these ropes in Boulder in '81 and hang upside down. Road crew rushed out to spot him. Anybody here see that? It was great.

Patrick MacDonald of The Seattle Times reviewed this show & yes indeed our Mick did climb the scaffold. Bill Graham had to more or less beg Mick to do this show because Joel Selvin on the San Francisco Chronicle savaged the two Stones Cow Palace shows in 1975.