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Sighunt
I saw them in Syracuse, NY on that tour and I really liked it. Yes, the Stones would opt for a more "professional" show by the time 1989 rolled around and make their stage tunes sound as close to the studio records as possible, but the 81 version of the Stones still (even though darker tunes like Rambler and Gimme Shelter were dropped) demonstrated swagger and attitude. Jagger- compared to the watered down, strolling, stage version of 89- was all over the stage, dancing, jumping, etc. Although I enjoyed the 89 Steel Wheels shows, I missed those elements of the 81 tour.

I grew up in Rochester n.y. I know probably 40 people who saw them in Buffalo or Syracuse that year ( me being one of them ) and not one of them didn't say that both shows sucked. The 81 shows were dead. I have shown this before just by posted video of the tour. The audiences were dead. You can see it when you watch LSTNT for example.

Interesting comments about the "static" setlist. Back then, that wasn't a big deal. No one really thought about that because no one was going online and immediately seeing that the songs were the same from gig to gig. The setlist was new to every audience in every city. What mattered was that it was a different setlist from the tour before that, and the tour before that. The setlist from, 1969, 1972, 1975, and 1978 didn't change much either. Now today, the gripe is that we've gotten pretty much the same songs on all of the last few tours.

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

I think that the Still Life Tour was the last tour of RS 1.0. The real deal so to speak. Of course there are things to complain about like playing in football stadiums, coke abuse and other things.
But really the 81/82 period has everything a fan can ask for. A good new album in TY, a big hit in SMU and a good live mix on the tour.

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straycatdevil
Best tour they ever did IMO.I wish we would get more shows from this tour. 30 or so shows were recorded.

Of the 50 shows at least 35 are available in soundboard, the rest in good to very good audience.

Mathijs

really loved the 1982 shows in Rotterdam. Had a great time. and...loved the J.Geils band.
Jeroen

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MisterDDDD


LOVED that tour!!
J Geils opening up in Seattle... two shows, two favorite bands.

Whamma Jamma lemme her ya...!!!

I think the Picture is from 1982, because of Bobby and Gene being in the pricture, whereas there is no Ernie Watts.

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RockingLonestar

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MisterDDDD


LOVED that tour!!
J Geils opening up in Seattle... two shows, two favorite bands.

Whamma Jamma lemme her ya...!!!

I think the Picture is from 1982, because of Bobby and Gene being in the pricture, whereas there is no Ernie Watts.

Ernie watts is there,front left.
jeroen

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grzegorz67

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Stoneage
I think that photo is from the last gig on the 1982 tour. From Leeds, England.

Pretty sure you're right. Bobby Keys is in there. That looks remarkably like Jeff Lynne next to Charlie.

Jeff Lynne = Magic Dick from J. Geils Band

"No Anchovies, Please"

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corriecas

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RockingLonestar

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MisterDDDD


LOVED that tour!!
J Geils opening up in Seattle... two shows, two favorite bands.

Whamma Jamma lemme her ya...!!!

I think the Picture is from 1982, because of Bobby and Gene being in the pricture, whereas there is no Ernie Watts.

Ernie watts is there,front left.
jeroen

That's not Ernie Watts; it's Gene Barge.

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

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stanlove

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Sighunt
I saw them in Syracuse, NY on that tour and I really liked it. Yes, the Stones would opt for a more "professional" show by the time 1989 rolled around and make their stage tunes sound as close to the studio records as possible, but the 81 version of the Stones still (even though darker tunes like Rambler and Gimme Shelter were dropped) demonstrated swagger and attitude. Jagger- compared to the watered down, strolling, stage version of 89- was all over the stage, dancing, jumping, etc. Although I enjoyed the 89 Steel Wheels shows, I missed those elements of the 81 tour.

I grew up in Rochester n.y. I know probably 40 people who saw them in Buffalo or Syracuse that year ( me being one of them ) and not one of them didn't say that both shows sucked. The 81 shows were dead. I have shown this before just by posted video of the tour. The audiences were dead. You can see it when you watch LSTNT for example.

If the audiences were dead, it's their own fault, not the Stones. I know there's a scene in LSTNT where there doing Black Limousine and there's a shot where the audience does, indeed look lifeless. But the Stones performance of BL in that film is absolutely cooking. One reason that might explain that is I know from my own experience being down in front in 1981 is that we were all crushed together like sardines. It was basically impossible to dance or move around much, so you just stood still and listened.

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

Agree HonkeyTonkFlash - the crowd down front (and the entire field) at the L.A. Coliseum was complete jam packed chaos.
But I don't recall much 'just standing still and listening'...there was a domino effect amongst the masses - waves of people moving en masse...especially for the first few songs.
Being my first time at a Stones show in a giant stadium with that type of atmosphere, I feared for my life!

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

Yep, My First Stones Show from this Tour, Superdome, N.O. !

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Hairball
Agree HonkeyTonkFlash - the crowd down front (and the entire field) at the L.A. Coliseum was complete jam packed chaos.
But I don't recall much 'just standing still and listening'...there was a domino effect amongst the masses - waves of people moving en masse...especially for the first few songs.
Being my first time at a Stones show in a giant stadium with that type of atmosphere, I feared for my life!

Yeah - I remember at Philly 1981, at first the crowd was packed in somewhat loosely, but when the Stones came on there was a huge rush towards the stage. I went with the flow and wound up right in front, being packed in so tight it was hard to even move your arms!

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

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stanlove

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Sighunt
I saw them in Syracuse, NY on that tour and I really liked it. Yes, the Stones would opt for a more "professional" show by the time 1989 rolled around and make their stage tunes sound as close to the studio records as possible, but the 81 version of the Stones still (even though darker tunes like Rambler and Gimme Shelter were dropped) demonstrated swagger and attitude. Jagger- compared to the watered down, strolling, stage version of 89- was all over the stage, dancing, jumping, etc. Although I enjoyed the 89 Steel Wheels shows, I missed those elements of the 81 tour.

I grew up in Rochester n.y. I know probably 40 people who saw them in Buffalo or Syracuse that year ( me being one of them ) and not one of them didn't say that both shows sucked. The 81 shows were dead. I have shown this before just by posted video of the tour. The audiences were dead. You can see it when you watch LSTNT for example.

Some very solid performances in 1981 after the Buffalo concert.

"When the Whip Comes Down" in Seattle , "Neighbours" in Tempe , "Time is On My Side" in Lexington , "Waiting On a Friend" ,"Imagination" , and "Let it Bleed" in Hampton to name a few.

Not to mention some of the great soundboard recordings of solid performances in places such as Saint Paul , Hartford etc. . A lot of good music was played by the Stones in '81.

There could have been sound problems in Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. It wasn't the best venue they played on the tour for acoustics. Remember,they had not played many domed stadium venues to that point.

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stanlove

I grew up in Rochester n.y. I know probably 40 people who saw them in Buffalo or Syracuse that year ( me being one of them ) and not one of them didn't say that both shows sucked.

What you fail to grasp is if you saw one of the very 1st shows of the tour you didn't see the 1981 tour, you saw the "1978 tour part two".
What do I mean? The 1981 found its form and substance when they added a sax player : first Lee Allen then the superb Ernie Watts.

None of the Sept. 81 gigs featured a sax and it shows : the band played like it was 1978 all over again and it sounded and felt wrong. And the band acknowledged that, it felt too much like duplicate of the 1978 sound.

So if you saw the band in Philie or Buffalo you saw a sax-less band. And the sax made the identity of the 81 tour (whether you like Ernie Watts or not).

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dcba

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stanlove

I grew up in Rochester n.y. I know probably 40 people who saw them in Buffalo or Syracuse that year ( me being one of them ) and not one of them didn't say that both shows sucked.

What you fail to grasp is if you saw one of the very 1st shows of the tour you didn't see the 1981 tour, you saw the "1978 tour part two".
What do I mean? The 1981 found its form and substance when they added a sax player : first Lee Allen then the superb Ernie Watts.

None of the Sept. 81 gigs featured a sax and it shows : the band played like it was 1978 all over again and it sounded and felt wrong. And the band acknowledged that, it felt too much like duplicate of the 1978 sound.

So if you saw the band in Philie or Buffalo you saw a sax-less band. And the sax made the identity of the 81 tour (whether you like Ernie Watts or not).

Perhaps you have a point,but I'm not in total agreement. The addition of Ernie Watts did help the band perfect the identity of the 1981 tour; his presence led to some splendid jams. But the basic template and feel was still there from the start. 1978 was almost entirely focused on Some Girls. 1981 was a much more varied mix of Tattoo You and older material, and they playing style felt a bit different to me than in 1978.

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

The Stones performed 3x in the Feijenoord Stadium, I attended 2 of the great shows with some great openers "J.Geils Band and George Thorogood & Destroyers. The bands sounded great there in the hot sun with a good crowd.
Promoter Bill Graham

the audience weren't "dead" -there was actually,believe or not, an era when the fans were actually listened to the band play.
you jumping around and waving your hands and [since you're probably white]attempting to "dance" doesn't really add to the show.

the stones playing those big stadiums at that time was a mixed bag-if you were close it sounded amazing but if you were further back the sound didn't really carry properly.
a band with a big,blasting sound had an advantage.[zep,the who etc.]the stones are more a barroom blues rock band and it sometimes got lost in the big echo chambers or the outdoor-a million mile away-shows.
after seeing them with santana[their sound really carried with all the percussion and keyboards]-swear on my life -i remember thinking in 81,they should add some more horns and back-up singers to fatten up the sound for these big places.it was kinda obvious really,and here we are....

And yet I get goosebumps whenever I hear the Under My Thump intro on Still Life.

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Hairball
Posted this several times in the past, but here's some awesome photo's of the Oct. 11 L.A. Coliseum show with a short review from Times critic Robert Hilburn:

Rolling Stones L.A. Coliseum


Another memory I have of that tour is of the pay-per-view tv special.
A friend of mine was 'hosting' it at his house, and several of us gathered around that afternoon/evening it aired. Started drinking beer and smoking some bud around 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon (west coast) gearing up in the safety of our friends house. By the time the concert started, our friend the 'host' who paid for the show had completely passed out on the couch, missing the entire broadcast! Still tease him about it to this day!

Thanks for the link to the Oct. 11 show photos. I was 16 then and not a hardcore fan yet (not until the Hampton broadcast!), but my older stepbrother went to one of the Coliseum shows - it was the first time he'd ever seen them and thought it was fantastic. I remember he grabbed a clump of grass from the Coliseum turf and stuffed it into his Hot Rocks record sleeve, where it remained for years after. After the Hampton show, which I had recorded off the radio, I played it for him and he said it was a great souvenir of the concert he had seen a couple of months earlier.

Sadly, my stepbrother passed away in a tragic car accident last year. He was a big music guy (Beatles, Stones, Zep)...and I'll always remember him talking about that great Stones show in '81.

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Koen
And yet I get goosebumps whenever I hear the Under My Thump intro on Still Life.

AMEN.My intro to the Stones live at 12.

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HonkeyTonkFlash

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dcba

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stanlove

I grew up in Rochester n.y. I know probably 40 people who saw them in Buffalo or Syracuse that year ( me being one of them ) and not one of them didn't say that both shows sucked.

What you fail to grasp is if you saw one of the very 1st shows of the tour you didn't see the 1981 tour, you saw the "1978 tour part two".
What do I mean? The 1981 found its form and substance when they added a sax player : first Lee Allen then the superb Ernie Watts.

None of the Sept. 81 gigs featured a sax and it shows : the band played like it was 1978 all over again and it sounded and felt wrong. And the band acknowledged that, it felt too much like duplicate of the 1978 sound.

So if you saw the band in Philie or Buffalo you saw a sax-less band. And the sax made the identity of the 81 tour (whether you like Ernie Watts or not).

Perhaps you have a point,but I'm not in total agreement. The addition of Ernie Watts did help the band perfect the identity of the 1981 tour; his presence led to some splendid jams. But the basic template and feel was still there from the start. 1978 was almost entirely focused on Some Girls. 1981 was a much more varied mix of Tattoo You and older material, and they playing style felt a bit different to me than in 1978.

There's something else -they started the 1981 tour in Philly just totally unrehearsed, both in songs and in equipment. They literally didn't know have the songs they where playing (even Bill Wyman messes up tracks like Let it Bleed), and they started out on amps, cabs and wireless systems they apparently hadn't tested properly. They changed all that around the San Francisco gigs.

Mathijs

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Mathijs

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HonkeyTonkFlash

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dcba

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stanlove

I grew up in Rochester n.y. I know probably 40 people who saw them in Buffalo or Syracuse that year ( me being one of them ) and not one of them didn't say that both shows sucked.

What you fail to grasp is if you saw one of the very 1st shows of the tour you didn't see the 1981 tour, you saw the "1978 tour part two".
What do I mean? The 1981 found its form and substance when they added a sax player : first Lee Allen then the superb Ernie Watts.

None of the Sept. 81 gigs featured a sax and it shows : the band played like it was 1978 all over again and it sounded and felt wrong. And the band acknowledged that, it felt too much like duplicate of the 1978 sound.

So if you saw the band in Philie or Buffalo you saw a sax-less band. And the sax made the identity of the 81 tour (whether you like Ernie Watts or not).

Perhaps you have a point,but I'm not in total agreement. The addition of Ernie Watts did help the band perfect the identity of the 1981 tour; his presence led to some splendid jams. But the basic template and feel was still there from the start. 1978 was almost entirely focused on Some Girls. 1981 was a much more varied mix of Tattoo You and older material, and they playing style felt a bit different to me than in 1978.

There's something else -they started the 1981 tour in Philly just totally unrehearsed, both in songs and in equipment. They literally didn't know have the songs they where playing (even Bill Wyman messes up tracks like Let it Bleed), and they started out on amps, cabs and wireless systems they apparently hadn't tested properly. They changed all that around the San Francisco gigs.

Mathijs

Didn´t they rehearse a couple of weeks somewhere in Connecticut?

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RockingLonestar

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Mathijs

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HonkeyTonkFlash

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dcba

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stanlove

I grew up in Rochester n.y. I know probably 40 people who saw them in Buffalo or Syracuse that year ( me being one of them ) and not one of them didn't say that both shows sucked.

What you fail to grasp is if you saw one of the very 1st shows of the tour you didn't see the 1981 tour, you saw the "1978 tour part two".
What do I mean? The 1981 found its form and substance when they added a sax player : first Lee Allen then the superb Ernie Watts.

None of the Sept. 81 gigs featured a sax and it shows : the band played like it was 1978 all over again and it sounded and felt wrong. And the band acknowledged that, it felt too much like duplicate of the 1978 sound.

So if you saw the band in Philie or Buffalo you saw a sax-less band. And the sax made the identity of the 81 tour (whether you like Ernie Watts or not).

Perhaps you have a point,but I'm not in total agreement. The addition of Ernie Watts did help the band perfect the identity of the 1981 tour; his presence led to some splendid jams. But the basic template and feel was still there from the start. 1978 was almost entirely focused on Some Girls. 1981 was a much more varied mix of Tattoo You and older material, and they playing style felt a bit different to me than in 1978.

There's something else -they started the 1981 tour in Philly just totally unrehearsed, both in songs and in equipment. They literally didn't know have the songs they where playing (even Bill Wyman messes up tracks like Let it Bleed), and they started out on amps, cabs and wireless systems they apparently hadn't tested properly. They changed all that around the San Francisco gigs.

Mathijs

Didn´t they rehearse a couple of weeks somewhere in Connecticut?

Of course they rehearsed, but as was - I think - true in the old days of jamming onstage, they didn't find their groove till a few gigs in. Shows generally got better and tighter as a tour progressed. The start of the 1978 tour was also a bit rough but they got a lot better as seen in SGLIT. And in Hampton 1981 they were way better than at the start of the tour.

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

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RockingLonestar

Didn´t they rehearse a couple of weeks somewhere in Connecticut?

Yes they did in Long View Farm.
Mathijs's right : they went from several weeks of loose rehearsing in a glorified country barn to a tour premiere show in front of 60000 or more without even playing a dress rehearsal show in the empty Phile stadium.
Ouch...

They were partying more than rehearsing.

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dcba

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RockingLonestar

Didn´t they rehearse a couple of weeks somewhere in Connecticut?

Yes they did in Long View Farm.
Mathijs's right : they went from several weeks of loose rehearsing in a glorified country barn to a tour premiere show in front of 60000 or more without even playing a dress rehearsal show in the empty Phile stadium.
Ouch...

Long View Farm is in Massachusetts.

Connecticut was the '89 warm-up concert.

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dcba

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stanlove

I grew up in Rochester n.y. I know probably 40 people who saw them in Buffalo or Syracuse that year ( me being one of them ) and not one of them didn't say that both shows sucked.

What you fail to grasp is if you saw one of the very 1st shows of the tour you didn't see the 1981 tour, you saw the "1978 tour part two".
What do I mean? The 1981 found its form and substance when they added a sax player : first Lee Allen then the superb Ernie Watts.

None of the Sept. 81 gigs featured a sax and it shows : the band played like it was 1978 all over again and it sounded and felt wrong. And the band acknowledged that, it felt too much like duplicate of the 1978 sound.

So if you saw the band in Philie or Buffalo you saw a sax-less band. And the sax made the identity of the 81 tour (whether you like Ernie Watts or not).

Maybe you could call the first few '81 shows part two of the Philadelphia / Cleveland leg of the '78 tour but it was not close to being on par with the better section of the '78 tour (Detroit '78 etc.) .

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Winning Ugly VXII

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dcba

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stanlove

I grew up in Rochester n.y. I know probably 40 people who saw them in Buffalo or Syracuse that year ( me being one of them ) and not one of them didn't say that both shows sucked.

What you fail to grasp is if you saw one of the very 1st shows of the tour you didn't see the 1981 tour, you saw the "1978 tour part two".
What do I mean? The 1981 found its form and substance when they added a sax player : first Lee Allen then the superb Ernie Watts.

None of the Sept. 81 gigs featured a sax and it shows : the band played like it was 1978 all over again and it sounded and felt wrong. And the band acknowledged that, it felt too much like duplicate of the 1978 sound.

So if you saw the band in Philie or Buffalo you saw a sax-less band. And the sax made the identity of the 81 tour (whether you like Ernie Watts or not).

Maybe you could call the first few '81 shows part two of the Philadelphia / Cleveland leg of the '78 tour but it was not close to being on par with the better section of the '78 tour (Detroit '78 etc.) .

Yes, SGLIT is dramatically better than the 1978 tour opener I saw in Philly. Just as Hampton 1981 is way better than the tour opener I saw in the same city.

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

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DandelionPowderman
They were partying more than rehearsing.

So very probably true!

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."