from Mick Martin's Facebook post:


An auspicious rock history day today, involving the Rolling Stones and Sacramento.

In 1965, Keith Richards was knocked unconscious by an electric shock on stage at the Memorial Auditorium, when his guitar made contact with his microphone during their fourth song. Our own bluesman Mick Martin was 17 and in the front row. Richards, dressed in brown pants and a white sweater, grazed the neck of his guitar against an ungrounded microphone stand and the electrical surge fried his guitar strings. In a flash of blue sparks, Richards went down. "I was right there in the front row, in front of Keith. I saw the blue light. I literally saw Keith fly into the air backward. I thought he was dead. I was horrified. We all were. Silence fell over the crowd."

The loud electrical crack left concert promoter Jeff Hughson (a few years later to become KZAP Music Director) wondering if it was a gunshot. The curtain dropped, ending the show and sparking chaos and confusion in the arena. Mick ran outside behind Memorial Auditorium to catch a glimpse of Richards, to see if he was alive.

"They carried him out with oxygen tubes, and he was semiconscious," Martin said. "I patted him on the shoulders and said, 'I hope you're going to be OK.' " The hit song the Stones were playing ? "The Last Time."


plexi

That might have been the secret to his longevity - electrocution!

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Technically, the definition of electrocution is "death by electrical shock". Thankfully, he was only severely jolted by an electrical current!

That shock was like the voltage injected into Frankenstein. It gave Keith immortality.


plexi



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-12-04 07:56 by timbernardis.

Once there was footage of this on YouTube...Not anymore.

Thusly, Jumping Jack Flash was created..lol



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-12-04 08:08 by swampnuts.

Maybe I am a moralist here but I do not think it is funny to make jokes on an accident that could have killed Keith Richards. Sorry, I understand all Kind of humour, even black humour, but not themaking fun of such tragic accidents (even if they're from very long ago)

did the guitar survive.

It was December 3rd, according to Nico Zentgraf's fine site

Keith Richards: 'My Most Spectacular Moment Was In Sacramento'

The Sacramento Bee | By Joe Davidson (05/07/2013)


The Rolling Stones have embarked on their "50 and Counting" tour, celebrating half a century of extraordinary staying power with a raucous Oakland show Sunday at Oracle Arena and a San Jose stop to come Wednesday at HP Pavilion.

Mick Jagger still works the stage, prancing and preening, while the rest of us wonder what it'd be like to have 2 percent body fat. He turns 70 this summer.

And then there's Keith Richards. How does one fully explain Jagger's "Glimmer Twin?" One defies age, the other defies death.

Richards, 69, has been delivered to death's door, by his own estimation, "a dozen or so times." One of his closest calls came at Sacramento's Memorial Auditorium on Dec. 3, 1965, when Richards was nearly electrocuted when playing a then-new release titled "The Last Time."

The accident, which has become something of a local legend over the decades, occurred just as the Stones' popularity was soaring, not long after an appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Local bluesman Mick Martin attended the concert, then a star-struck 17-year-old senior at West Sacramento's James Marshall High School.

A former music critic for the Sacramento Union, Martin recently recounted the scene that prompted Richards to tell the New York Times while promoting his 2010 memoir "Life" that "my most spectacular (moment) was in Sacramento."

The Stones were four songs into their second show of the day in front of a reported crowd of 5,000 fans, many of them shrieking teenage girls.

Richards, dressed in brown pants and a white sweater, grazed the neck of his guitar against an ungrounded microphone stand. In a flash of blue sparks, Richards went down. The loud electrical crack left concert promoter Jeff Hughson wondering if it was a gunshot, saying later: "Oh no! Someone shot Keith!"

But Richards had been shocked, not shot, and the electrical surge fried his guitar strings. Jagger, wearing gray pants, a white button-down shirt and black vest, stood over an unconscious Richards.

The curtain dropped, ending the show and sparking chaos and confusion in the arena.

"I was right there in the front row, in front of Keith," Martin said last week by phone. "I saw the blue light. I literally saw Keith fly into the air backward. I thought he was dead. I was horrified. We all were. Silence fell over the crowd."

Martin said he rushed outside and into the back of Memorial Auditorium. He wanted to catch a glimpse of Richards, to see if he was alive.

"They carried him out with oxygen tubes, and he was semiconscious," Martin said. "I patted him on the shoulders and said, 'I hope you're going to be OK.' "

Richards was rushed to a city emergency room. Years later, Richards recalled a doctor standing over him saying, "Well, they either wake up or they don't."

According to the guitarist, another physician suggested that the rubber soles of Richards' new Hush Puppies suede boots saved the musician's life.

Richards recovered and the Stones took the stage the next night in San Jose.

While Sacramento isn't a stop on the "50 and Counting" tour, the band used to make regular visits to the capital city.

The Stones first performed in Sacramento in 1964, twice the following year and in 1966, all at Memorial Auditorium.

The night that Richards was electrocuted, concert promotional posters read: "The Fabulous Rolling Stones Show." Tickets ranged from $2.75 to $4.75.

The last time the Stones performed in Sacramento was in 1999 at Arco Arena, when Richards joked about the shocking '65 moment. Over the years, he's become infamous for other death-defying stunts.

Richards was hooked on heroin throughout the 1970s and '80s. He fell out of a fruit tree in Fiji in 2006, cracking coconuts upon landing, his included.

"It does come up over the years, how Keith keeps living," Martin said. "He's meant to be here."

Martin has seen the Stones live six times over six decades.

He said he's just as moved by them now as he was 48 years ago.

"They set the bar for concert performances and spectacle," he said. "Every time they came back, it was more dramatic."

[www.huffingtonpost.com]

OMG he's like Frankenweenie!
[movies.disney.com]

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with sssoul
It was December 3rd, according to Nico Zentgraf's fine site

Yes, and I posted it on December 3rd.

plexi

Has Keith ever discussed this?
It seems he would tell a great story about it, and probably with a hearty laugh.
Similar to snorting dad, getting punched by Chuck Berry, etc.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Quote
Hairball
Has Keith ever discussed this?
It seems he would tell a great story about it, and probably with a hearty laugh.
Similar to snorting dad, getting punched by Chuck Berry, etc.

Yes, in "Life"
[wwwcrazymama.blogspot.co.uk]


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Thanks Deltics - slipped my memory, will dig it up later.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

[www.iorr.org]


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Was his Epiphone Casino damaged? Did he ever play it again after this incident?

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saltoftheearth
Maybe I am a moralist here but I do not think it is funny to make jokes on an accident that could have killed Keith Richards. Sorry, I understand all Kind of humour, even black humour, but not themaking fun of such tragic accidents (even if they're from very long ago)

Your reply does not "shock" me. The years of heroin abuse he put himself
through probably got him closer to death than that jolt decades ago wouldn't you say?

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Deltics

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Hairball
Has Keith ever discussed this?
It seems he would tell a great story about it, and probably with a hearty laugh.
Similar to snorting dad, getting punched by Chuck Berry, etc.

Yes, in "Life"
[wwwcrazymama.blogspot.co.uk]

What page number?


p

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timbernardis

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with sssoul
It was December 3rd, according to Nico Zentgraf's fine site

Yes, and I posted it on December 3rd.

You're way out west, aren't you. The timestamp on your post is December 4th.
Confusing to people who tune in later.

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with sssoul

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timbernardis

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with sssoul
It was December 3rd, according to Nico Zentgraf's fine site

Yes, and I posted it on December 3rd.

You're way out west, aren't you. The timestamp on your post is December 4th.
Confusing to people who tune in later.

Unfortunately us Europeans have the nasty habit of setting our IORR timestamps to local time!

And now, a chorus of that old favourite: When it's night time in Italy, it's Wednesday over here...

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Deltics

[www.iorr.org]

These are stills of the video that was removed from YouTube.

Maybe we should search Stones records for backwards messages that the real Keith is dead.

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saltoftheearth
Maybe I am a moralist here but I do not think it is funny to make jokes on an accident that could have killed Keith Richards. Sorry, I understand all Kind of humour, even black humour, but not themaking fun of such tragic accidents (even if they're from very long ago)

FYI, even Keith jokes about his near death experiences, i.e. most recently when he fell out of a tree several years ago. Plus his running gag is that he is amazed he is still alive ('i'm happy to be anywhere') ... Lighten up, you'll live longer yourself.

Mick Martin is a local (Sacramento) bluesman. He has a Saturday afternoon blues show on the local PBS radio station. I think you can stream it. Taylor welcomed him on stage to play harmonica when he played in Chico a number of years ago now. Martin was thrilled to be there and was grateful to receive a recording of the show from me. I have sent him recordings some years back and it was a kick to hear some Brussels performances played on the radio. Nice guy. He loves the Stones and plays them often. He has had this under the radar career and tells some nice stories about the musicians he has met over the years. Give his show a listen if you can.

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with sssoul

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timbernardis

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with sssoul
It was December 3rd, according to Nico Zentgraf's fine site

Yes, and I posted it on December 3rd.

You're way out west, aren't you. The timestamp on your post is December 4th.
Confusing to people who tune in later.

Well, let's put it this way ... it was December 3rd when I posted it both in Sacramento (Pacific time) and in Montana (Mountain time). I am from Sacramento but moved to Montana in 1983. My brother attended this show in '65.


plexi

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pmk251
Mick Martin is a local (Sacramento) bluesman. He has a Saturday afternoon blues show on the local PBS radio station. I think you can stream it. Taylor welcomed him on stage to play harmonica when he played in Chico a number of years ago now. Martin was thrilled to be there and was grateful to receive a recording of the show from me. I have sent him recordings some years back and it was a kick to hear some Brussels performances played on the radio. Nice guy. He loves the Stones and plays them often. He has had this under the radar career and tells some nice stories about the musicians he has met over the years. Give his show a listen if you can.

spot on, pmk. I have known Mick since his days with the Orion Express. We exchange e mails regularly and disks occasionally. In fact, he sent me the disk of his Chico show with Mick Taylor, didn't know the originator was you, thanks!

And he has his own band, Mick Martin and the Blues Rockers, which toured Europe a few years back. He does harp and vocals.

And the radio station is Capital Public Radio, capradio.org, go to the programs tab and select Mick Martin's Blues Party. Podcasts of his show are archived there. Today (Saturday, December 5th, withsssoul) he played a long set of Stones in honour of the 50th anniversary of the electrocution.


plexi

Quote
pmk251
Mick Martin is a local (Sacramento) bluesman. He has a Saturday afternoon blues show on the local PBS radio station. I think you can stream it. Taylor welcomed him on stage to play harmonica when he played in Chico a number of years ago now. Martin was thrilled to be there and was grateful to receive a recording of the show from me. I have sent him recordings some years back and it was a kick to hear some Brussels performances played on the radio. Nice guy. He loves the Stones and plays them often. He has had this under the radar career and tells some nice stories about the musicians he has met over the years. Give his show a listen if you can.

oh yes, and you can stream his show indeed, it is on from 1 to 5 Pacific time Saturday afternoons. I listen to the podcasts quite frequently at work.

plexi

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LeonidP

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saltoftheearth
Maybe I am a moralist here but I do not think it is funny to make jokes on an accident that could have killed Keith Richards. Sorry, I understand all Kind of humour, even black humour, but not themaking fun of such tragic accidents (even if they're from very long ago)

FYI, even Keith jokes about his near death experiences, i.e. most recently when he fell out of a tree several years ago. Plus his running gag is that he is amazed he is still alive ('i'm happy to be anywhere') ... Lighten up, you'll live longer yourself.

If Keith's jolt happened today and he survived it as he did then it would be on AFV (America's Funniest Videos)...lol



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-12-06 17:00 by swampnuts.