New OrleansJack Thornell December 7, 1981
Jack Thornell
Jack Thornell
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MY FIRST CONCERT ROAD TRIP, SEEING THE ROLLING STONES IN NEW ORLEANS
by Pat Adams
In 1981, it was announced that the The Rolling Stones were playing
two shows at the New Orleans Superdome in Louisiana on December
5th and 6th. Tickets were being sold in my home town of Nashville
Tennessee. A friend of mine and myself decided we would make that
trip to New Orleans to see the Stones. After all, I had seen them back
in 1972 at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, which by the way was
the best concert that I had ever attended at that time.
We purchased our tickets for $18.50 at a Nashville record store for
the December 5th show. We left Nashville late the night before the
concert, planning to arrive the next morning in time to check into our
hotel room. We made it into New Orleans the next morning. We
checked into the hotel, rested up a bit and headed to the concert.
We got there early and was among the first people to get in the
Superdome. We enjoyed walking and up and down the ramps
checking out this massive venue, eventually ending up on the floor
level when the concert began.
The opening bands were the Neville Brothers, followed by George
Thorogood & The Destroyers. Both acts were good. They flashed up
on the sign that the concert had set a record for the largest indoor
concert ever held with 87,500 people, a record that stayed put until
recently. At one point they brought out a water hose and sprayed the
crowd from the stage, possibly to back people off away from the stage
or to cool the crowd up front. Then came time for The Rolling Stones
to come on. They came out and opened the show with the 60’s hit
Under My Thumb. They went on to perform songs including Shattered,
Time Is On My Side, and Beast Of Burden, before dedicating Waiting
On A Friend to John Lennon who had been murdered the year before.
They went on to play Miss You, Start Me Up, Honky Tonk Women,
Brown Sugar, Jumpin' Jack Flash, and others followed by the classic
Satisfaction as the encore. What a show!
I think most the crowd ended up in the French Quarter after the
concert, making it the most people the French Quarter had ever seen
at one time. It was wall to wall people, while many of them were yelling
“Rolling Stones“. We had some drinks, shrimp-on-a-stick, and bought
some souvenirs, before heading back to the hotel. We got some sleep
and made the trip back to Nashville the next day.
A very memorable trip.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2016-02-15 23:09 by exilestones.