Quote
GasLightStreet
Would love to be able to listen to/hear all 50 versions of Under My Thumb from the 1981 tour.

The music started out rather fast-paced at the beginning of the tour a

It seems to me, based on what I've heard, that that song had the most differences in it show to show vs, say, Whip or Shattered etc.

              
              Ron Rownall photo

The Cockroaches played a single show in their career, but it was memorable. They packed the 300-seat
Sir Morgan's Cove in Worcester on Sept. 14, 1981, with 4,000 cheering fans outside the club.



Never heard of Little Boy Blue & The Cockroaches? Not surprising since it was the nom de guerre used by The Rolling Stones
as they prepped for their 1981 U.S. tour.



Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the boys chose the intimate Green Street club, later known as The Lucky Dog Music Hall and now The Cove Music Hall, to warm up less than two weeks before the tour's official kickoff at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.

The tour had eyed Boston's Orpheum Theater, but Mayor Kevin C. White turned them down citing public safety concerns.

The Rolling Stones had been staying at Long View Farm in North Brookfield in the weeks before the Worcester show. News reports at the time estimated the band paid $2,000 a day to rent the 140-acre farm to rehearse and prepare for their first tour in three years.

WAAF-FM worked with the band to select the proper right club for the warm-up and gave away tickets to the gig. Stones keyboardist Ian Stewart reportedly chose Sir Morgan's Cove after touring other Worcester nightspots

On the night of Sept. 14, a 30-foot motor coach pulled up to the Worcester club with 75 police officers dispatched to control the crowd, which was understandably excited, but not unruly. Only four arrests for disorderly conduct were made.

Once inside, the Stones played a mix of old and recent tunes for the lucky audience.

The exact setlist for the show is uncertain with some fans maintaining the band played a dozen or so songs, while others insist the Stones performed as many as 22 songs that night.

Among the classic Stones hits played were "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Sympathy for the Devil," and "Honky Tonk Women."

The band offered more recent material, like "Start Me Up," "She's So Cold" and "When the Whip Comes Down."

After the show, the Stones returned to North Brookfield.

Days later, a private jet took them from Worcester Airport to Philadelphia for the start of the tour.

                                            


Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones filming Waiting on a Friend video, St Mark Place, East Village, NYC, 1981.
photo Peter Bennett

"In 1981 my friend Paul Spector told me something special was going to happen
 at our bar, the St Marks Bar & Grill in the East Village. Paul was the bar 
manager and I was a bartender. He told me he had just negotiated for the 
Rolling Stones to shoot their video for a new song - Waiting on a Friend. The 
day of, I shot these outside, but we soon moved inside for the rest of the 
shoot. I took up a barstool in the back, you can see me in the background of 
the video trying to get my dopey mug into the scene. After they finished they
 all picked up their instruments and jammed for awhile while we sat inches away
 watching a bit of musical history. I got drunk and asked Mick what he did for 
a living, he didn’t laugh." - Peter Bennett
                                            

                                            



      [4-peter-bennett.pixels.com]