Quote
HouseBoyKnows


... or the magenta suit Bill wore at MSG.

Exile, did you see the email I sent you with new '81 pix for posting. I used the address from our exchange last year.

HBK

Hey, House Boy Knows,

You're doin' all right with that camera! They look pro shot to me and I've been a
professional photographer for decades. Thanks for the awesome pics!


NEW YORK CITY


The Rolling Stones rock the ultimate Rolling Stones venue, Madison Square Garden
on November 12, 1981.
credit: HouseBoyKnows

more to come...

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-07-23 07:54 by Plink.

ABERDEEN

               


                 


               
[movingimage.nls.uk]

more Aberdeen 1982: [iorr.org]

Many thanks to Exilestones for helping me learn how to post my photos. I saw 14 shows in 1981 and have a bunch of shots from those shows where I was able to sneak my camera in with me.

Here is my first

Capitol Center Maryland - 7 December 1981

HBK

Thanks Houseboy for your contribution!

Good grief, the Aberdeen shots....who's playing the sax?

Quote
shattered
who's playing the sax?

Gene Barge

Thanks

Quote
shattered
Thanks

Bobby and Gene formed a horn section for the entire 1982-tour, hence they sounded a little different than in 1981.

None of them played as much as Ernie Watts, either

Quote
HouseBoyKnows

I saw 14 shows in 1981 and have a bunch of shots from those shows where I was able to sneak my camera in with me.

Here is my first

Capitol Center Maryland - 7 December 1981

HBK

Thanks for sharing. You did your homework!

Great pic!

I decided to post my 1981 photos in chronological order. So we'll start with that beautiful Fall afternoon in Philadelphia. I started by going to the rear of JFK Stadium (since demolished as was Veterans Stadium behind it) to get a shot of the stage before the Stones came on. Then I moved to a spot within the mob about 100 feet from the stage for the rest of the show.

I've seen plenty of pro-shots on this thread which are much better, but maybe you'll all appreciate the fanboy views. Here's the first batch.

HBK

Philadelphia 25 SEP 1981













Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-08-15 18:28 by HouseBoyKnows.

Quote
HouseBoyKnows
maybe you'll all appreciate the fanboy views. Here's the first batch.

HBK

Philadelphia 25 SEP 1981

Thanks. House Boy Knows. I love this pic above in particular.

I can never get enough of the openers in Philadelphia. You had to be there to understand. The weather was great too!




It’s funny thinking about the Rolling Stones sticking to a schedule – especially in the darkest days of the ’70s when Keith Richards was at his most strung out. And yet, the Stones always toured North America every three years. Starting with 1966, then ’69, ’72, ’75, ’78… it was like clockwork.

But a 1981 tour met with some resistance from Mick Jagger. Although a newly clean (if not sober) Richards was raring to go on the road in 1980 to promote Emotional Rescue, the frontman had thwarted any notion of a tour that year. Keef got his way in ’81, but he had to personally guarantee (and insure) that Ronnie Wood would not upset the band’s plans. Woody was freebasing cocaine at the time, and some of the band members were worried it could derail the tour.

“Anything to get the Stones on the road,” Richards recalled in his memoir, Life. “I figured I could handle him.”

In ’80, the Stones had an album, but no tour. A year later, it was the other way around. With Richards and Jagger not getting along creatively at the moment, and precious little time, the “new” album Tattoo You was cobbled together from scraps of leftovers, then given some needed structure and a quick polish. When released in August, it ended up delivering one of the Stones’ biggest hits in “Start Me Up.”
Amidst the album’s release, the Stones started practicing for the fall tour, which Jagger formally announced at a Philadelphia press conference. Following a small, warm-up gig in Worcester, Mass., the band launched its 1981 American Tour with two shows at Philly’s JFK Stadium on Sept. 25 and 26, 1981.

Although most of the songs were familiar and the Stones’ lineup – Jagger, Richards, Wood, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts – remained intact, this tour displayed a new evolution for the band. Gone were the dark and dangerous days of ’70s, replaced by the bright colors and arena spectacle of the ’80s. When Philly fans arrived to the concert, they were greeted by a stage flanked by giant cartoon drawings. Goodbye “Memory Motel,” hello Romper Room.

“We worked with a Japanese designer, Kazuhide Yamazari [on the stage set],” Jagger recalled in 2003. “Those were daytime tours; there were no night-time shows… So we had the bright, bright primary colors, which were designed by Kazuhide and we had these enormous images of a guitar, a car and a record – an Americana idea – which worked very well for the afternoon shows.”

The concerts also featured Jagger in a cherry picker tossing out flowers during “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and a massive balloon launch. As for the music, fans remain divided over the merits of the Stones’ ’81 sound. Some see this era of the band as a wiry outfit’s last gasp, before big horn sections and a row of background singers joined up. But others disliked the Stones’ “thin” sound and Jagger’s “barking” delivery of the band’s classic tunes.

Either way, the group’s opening shows didn’t earn high marks from critics or even the band members themselves. Writing for Rolling Stone, Kurt Loder described a couple of messy concerts with bad sound (which was marginally improved for the second gig) that annoyed the Stones. He also noticed that the fans didn’t seem to mind. Once the tour was over, Jagger confessed the difficulties the band had at the tour’s start.

“I was a bit nervous at first because we went straight from doing one club gig to Philadelphia, which is in front of all those people. Yeah, I was a little nervous until I got on the stage and realized that although it was a little sloppy we got away with it,” Mick said in 1982. “It took us a few gigs to get with it – like... five, which were all huge gigs.”

Almost all of the ’81 shows were huge, played in domes, arenas and stadiums, with the exception of a lone stop at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre. As a live entity, the Stones were getting bigger, playing to more people in larger spaces. 180,000 people saw the first two Philadelphia shows, about 3 million attended the 50-date tour, which set multiple records for event attendance.

The Stones also made more money this time around. Rolling Stone reported the band’s gross income from the ’81 tour to be in the neighborhood of $50 million. Much of that came from tickets and merchandise, but a $1 million-plus sponsorship from Jovan Musk also helped. The perfume manufacturer paid to put the company name on Stones tickets in the first major tour sponsorship in rock ’n’ roll history. Former London School of Economics student Jagger oversaw every financial detail.

The Stones made even more coin on recordings from the tour, including a pay-per-view broadcast on Dec. 18, the 1982 live album Still Life and a Hal Ashby-directed concert film, Let’s Spend the Night Together. After the ’81 trek ended on Dec. 19 in Hampton, Va, the Stones took the show to Europe in ’82.

Here's a few more from Philly Day 1. Next post will be Philly Day 2 and a wardrobe change. On Day 2, I brought a milk crate into the stadium to stand on amidst the mass of rowdies up front. I saw folks with coolers, chairs and more on Day 1 . . . talk about No Security.

HBK















Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2018-08-27 20:34 by HouseBoyKnows.

Thanks for sharing these

Quote
HouseBoyKnows
I decided to post my 1981 photos in chronological order. So we'll start with that beautiful Fall afternoon in Philadelphia. I started by going to the rear of JFK Stadium (since demolished as was Veterans Stadium behind it) to get a shot of the stage before the Stones came on. Then I moved to a spot within the mob about 100 feet from the stage for the rest of the show.

I've seen plenty of pro-shots on this thread which are much better, but maybe you'll all appreciate the fanboy views. Here's the first batch.

HBK

Philadelphia 25 SEP 1981

HouseBoy, you got a great eye for those shots. Love that one of the faNS AND THE FLAG. It would make a great back drop on a laptop screen.
One thing that struck me about the 81/82 stage clothes of Jagger, was that he was as usual outrageous in the appropriation of the football outfits. yet, every once n a while he chose to change it up. But the alternative was (for him) kind of conservative; a dress down.

September 25, 1981 Philadelphia

Journey set list:

Escape
Where Were You
Line of Fire
Don't Stop Believin'
Stone in Love
Keep on Runnin'
Lights
Stay Awhile
Wheel in the Sky


The Rolling Stones set list:

Under My Thumb
When the Whip Comes Down
Neighbours
Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
Shattered
Let's Spend the Night Together
Black Limousine
She's So Cold
Time Is on My Side
Beast of Burden
Waiting on a Friend
Let It Bleed
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Tops
Tumbling Dice
Hang Fire
Let Me Go
Happy
Start Me Up
Miss You
Honky Tonk Women
All Down the Line
Brown Sugar
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Street Fighting Man
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction



George Thorogood and The Destroyers set list:

Who Do You Love?
Shot Him Dead
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
It Wasn't Me
Move It On Over
Ride On Josephine
Reelin' and Rockin'





September 26, 1981 Philadelphia



Journey set list:

Escape
Where Were You
Line of Fire
Don't Stop Believin'
Stone in Love
Keep on Runnin'
Lights
Stay Awhile
Wheel in the Sky


Rolling Stones set list:

Under My Thumb
When the Whip Comes Down
Let's Spend the Night Together
Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
Shattered
Neighbours
Black Limousine
Down the Road a Piece
Mona
Twenty Flight Rock
She's So Cold
Time Is on My Side
Beast of Burden
Waiting on a Friend
Let It Bleed
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Tumbling Dice
Little T&A
Hang Fire
Start Me Up
Miss You
Honky Tonk Women
All Down the Line
Brown Sugar
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Street Fighting Man


Philadelphia 1981 comments:

I hobbled in with a cane after a knee operation and was there with my brother and a couple friends. A group of teenybopper girls seated in front of us all sported custom T-shirts that read...."Mick-gasm"! - Sid Firestone

++++


Back in those days, you could actually bring a cooler with cases of beer in it.....the god old days. I can recall thinking then,,,wow, this is one old band. And that was 35 years ago. Unreal. - Joseph Swety

++++


Mic went out on a cherry picker to drop a basket of rose petals on the crowd. The petals were in the sun all day and fell like a brick on the crowd. It took some convincing to get mic out there. Eagles John Schirra #21 jerseys were popular after that. - Earle Hager

++++


I was there. Opened with Journey and George Thorogood. Great show, terrible venue. - Frank Petro

++++


Still have the ticket stub and have the CD from the soundboard to boot! - Glenn A. Manko

++++


I remember it like it was yesterday they were on top of their game so glad I was there! - Richard Kapushinski

++++


I went second nite. Gates opened 8 am me and friends sprinted to 10 yard line. Got close. Journey was fantastic so was thorogood and stones! - Matt Engel

++++


I was there paid $10 for a ticket right outside. - Timmy Finn

++++


Cut school was at the Friday show! - Beth Salamone

++++






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-08-19 19:07 by exilestones.

Philadelphia Day 2

Back again with Houseboy shots from Day 2 in Philly. Again, the view from the crowd in front of the stage . . . not pro-shot from the pit.

Next Stop, Madison Square Garden.





























Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2018-08-27 20:33 by HouseBoyKnows.

Keith and Marlon
Long View Farm, August 1981

Quote
exilestones
LOUISVILLE

Great shots, exilestones, I have never seen these!!!
Thanks for digging!!

New York City

I'm back. So we left off in Philly on Sep 26 which was followed by a stadium show in Buffalo before the tour headed west and south, not returning to arenas on the East Coast until early November. I saw all 3 nights at Meadowlands, NJ but security was tight and my seats weren't close enough for decent photos. However, at the first Madison Square Garden show on the Nov 12, I observed that there was no security whatsoever, so I brought my camera the next night. My ticket was obtained through the infamous JC, so I had a decent view of the stage from the side. Here are some of my better shots, a bit fuzzy, but it was the best camera I could afford at the time.











More MSG photos coming soon.

HBK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-08-27 20:28 by HouseBoyKnows.

             Thanks, HouseBoyKnows! Great shots from November 13th.

   I've never seen a pic of Mick up top like this in '81. A rare photo indeed!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2018-08-27 19:29 by exilestones.

Great photos. Thanx

Cool stuff, again.

Best ever thread. Thanks to everyone

OK, I'm back with my next set of photos from 1981. We left off with my shots from NYC MSG. My next stop on the tour was Syracuse Carrier Dome for two shows on Fri/Sat of the Thanksgiving weekend. I decided not to bring my camera and just enjoy the shows. Sound was a horrible echo, but I was able to move up front for both shows where it was loud and clear. I met Stu in the hotel newsstand on the afternoon of the second show and was able to chat with him for a few minutes.

In the meantime (I can't recall the date) one of our hardcore fan community connections in the Baltimore/DC area got the inside word that tickets for the Capital Centre shows would go on sale at the box office after the Washington Capitals NHL hockey game completed that evening. So a couple of us hopped in the car and drove from Philly to Landover and were among the first in line for tickets. What a great feeling. We could buy 4 at a time and just kept getting back in line until we had great seats up front for all 3 shows.

These photos are the first batch I will post from the first night. I won't be able to post again for a couple weeks, but there are many more like these coming.


Capital Centre Landover MD 7 DEC 1981