Long story short, I became pretty aware of Mandrake's in Berkeley, CA after talking with my step-father about going there in 1969. This place really had incredible shows almost every night for about a 4 year run. I stumbled upon a woman who says she worked there & certainly knew A LOT about the place. She claims The Rolling Stones had rented out the venue one night after the actors left (acting during the day, music at night), dressed in stage clothes & played. The woman who owned the place knew quite a few people, and Mandrake's became a place where people wanted to play. Anything is possible.
Oh, this would have been right around Halloween 1969. Date wise, this would work out & would be in the correct general location (western US).
Anyone know of other "lost" Stones gigs? No doubt there are more than a couple...but I thought some folks here might like to hear about this one.
Here is what that women wrote about it:
You wouldn't believe me if I told you the name of the really famous rock group who rented Mandrake's one fall night for a rehearsal/private party. They performed, but weren't ever listed as one of the performing acts.
The Bay Area was rich in music, and Berkeley shared in the bounty. Name that band? Well, ok ..... They rented the place when the Magic Theater was putting on a triology of plays on Friday nights ("Supersargeant", "The Teddy Bear Picnic", and "Spider Rabbit"). The band even got onstage themselves for a few numbers and had borrowed bits and pieces of costumes from the theatrical "wardrobe room" (a small trunk upstairs pushed into the corner to make room for the sound and lights table). So they performed "incognito." Honest! (Not a word to any one now ... the Stones!)
think they were hanging out in the Bay Area quite often at that time, and this wasn't a formal rehearsal by any stretch of the imagination. Just something to do. The Magic Theater were performing at Mandrake's regularly every week for a number of weeks. The time frame had to be around Halloween as I and another waitress borrowed some of their greasepaint for facial decoration for our "costumes" for the Commander Cody show which was also Halloween (ed. note—the Stones’ 69 American tour began on November 7, 1969, so Halloween would have been just before the tour began).
Check out the bands that played here & when at the bottom of this site:
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