hey:

last night I read in the James Karnbach (sp?) book "IORR", that the Stones played a 6 hour club show, in (I think) late December 1963. Of course, this would put the Knebworth concert (21 Aug 1976) to shame! God (no, not Clapton!) only knows what the setlist would have been.

anyway, I though this was interesting, as "the longest stones show" has been discussed here recently.

Never heard of it. If a set list were available, whixh I doubt, Bill Wyman would have been the one to compile it. generarlly, they speak of those early club dates as to which a sample set would have been.

#......Go ahead....Bite the Big Apple....Don't mind the Maggots.....Uh Huh...#

Yeah right!

It's true - 5 hours waiting for them to come on stage/one hour performance

They played every song they knew 9 times. Walking the Dog followed by I Just Walked The Dog then Time to Walk The Dog, Again................if you don't know how to do it, by now, I'll show you how to walk the dog.

They rarely played for over 30-40 minutes in those days!
This Karnbach bloke's having a laugh!

Is it posssible he's referring to several sets over a period of 6 hours?

well, i don't think the length of time of that concert could be proved/disproved either way. Karnbach doesn't list his source, and, of course there is no known surviving writtem set list (if there ever was one), no any audio/video.

this issue does raise the serious possibility that some early club shows may have been longer than Knebworth (in time onstage and/or set list). without documentation, we'll never know. Out of the hundreds of club shows the band did 1962-64, you'd think that there would have been some lengthy sets.

In all of the Stones books I've read, I've never read anything about this. I believe most of the club shows were under an hour. At that point in their career, they probably only had 50 songs or so to choose from. On their early tours, they usually played two concerts per day in each city.

A six hour set by the Stones? No way, not at the fast pace they have always run. Even if they did lots of slower blues numbers they wouldn't have done a six hour gig without numerous breaks in between that would have probably left them playing for an hour or two at the most.

For what it's worth: here is the date/location/venue from Nico's site (his site doesn't mention length of set--probably a wise move):

631228A 28th December [1963]: London, Club Noreik, Tottenham, ‘All Night Rave’

It is well documented that the Beatles pulled horrificlly long sets off early in their career; fueled by amphetamines. Most of these were on their trips to Germany.

As groundbreaking as the Stones were/are, I think by the time they actaully formed, the Beatles had become famous enough that the British groups that follwed did not have to go through the same rites of passage. It is highly doubtful that Brian, even in the early days, by matter of temperment alone, could have put on a six hour show.

six hours??? they did not have enough songs.....maybe 3 shows in one night???

Six hours gig? No way, not in those days! They didn't have material for six hours in 1963. Not even Springsteen plays six hours!

The Stones' longest gig was definitely Knebworth 1976.

reminds me of that trout I caught in '67.
honestly it was <---------------this---------------------------------------------->big

they would have possibly played different sets to fill in time but no way would they have played a single 6-hour show

Maybe they were one of many bands playing and the whole of the show was six hours.

It was their short run Grateful Dead phase...with Keith and Brian....spending 45 minutes between songs tuning and just general "noodling"

It's not often documented but I believe it to be true...I think Jerry Garcia said he was inspired by this event in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 1971, he was visiting London as a tourist at that time and happened to be in the audience.

They would have done about 75 songs!

The key phase is 'All Night Rave.' The Stones may have been hired - and/or came up with the idea - to play an all night gig. As noted above, they likely took lots of breaks. Also as noted above, they wouldn't have had a huge repertoire, but likely would have felt quite OK with doing very long blues jams, etc.

For a band just starting out, especially one that prided itself on being authentically in the blues tradition, 'playin' all night long' isn't a stretch. Only speculation, but it's certainly feasible they did this.

Long club gigs in the early days of legendary bands are common. The Beatles were REQUIRED to play six hours a night at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany as well as the other clubs they played there in the Reeperbahn district, and the Who supposedly played four hours a night during their residency at the Marquee Club in London back in '64/'65.

I think Rock'n Roll Circus took forever. So if somebody took the time it was probably some sort of record.

Bjornulf

The misunderstanding probably springs from the Stones playing AT a 6 hour 'All-Night Rave' show, at which they probably contributed 30 minutes.
Don't you think Wyman, Phelge or Dalton amongst many others would have at least mentioned such an outstandingly long set in their books?

I had to reply to this. On New Year's Eve-Day 1978-79, my disco band played an all-night gig with Starbuck (remember them? "Moonlight Feels Right") at a club in Alabama. We started at 10 pm and the two bands alternated sets till 5 or 6 am. That was the longest gig I EVER played, so, under these circumstances, a 6-hour club gig for the Stones doesn't beggar credulity at all.

Of course, I was only 21 at the time, and I kept going with some heavy fuel LOL.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2005-10-08 21:52 by bassplayer617.

Like any club band starting at 9pm they could play for forty minutes, take a twenty minute break and then return - til 3am I suppose. Of course in 1963 they only had an hour of material so hopefully they turned the house a few times.

R Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Like any club band starting at 9pm they could play
> for forty minutes, take a twenty minute break and
> then return - til 3am I suppose. Of course in 1963
> they only had an hour of material so hopefully
> they turned the house a few times.

That's exactly what I'm talking about, either 40-20 or 45-15 sets. That's the standard for club gigs, then AND now.

Bill's book lists a concert in Tottenham in December 28 but he doesn't mention anything about it. He does say they recorded Ready Steady Go on Dec 27th. He also mentions that their show on Dec.22 at St.Mary's Hall, Putney, London had the Detours, who later became The Who as the support band. It was at that show that Townshend said he saw Keith swinging his arm in a wide arcing motion, a gesture that inspired Townshend's famous windmill strum.
I recall reading a Keith interview where he says he didn't remember doing that, although I'm sure he's forgotten alot of things!

Bill does mention two all night shows that the Stones participated in:

All Night Rave Friday June 26th 1964 at the Alexandra Palace London. Started at 9 pm and ended 6:30am next morning. Bands included Millie & The Five Embers, John Lee Hooker, John Mayall's Blues Breakers, The Barron Knights, Jimmy Powell & The Five Dimensions, The Downliners Sect, Tony Colton & The Crawdaddies, Alex Korner and others. Stones took the stage in the very early hours and ended the show at 6:30am. Show was put on the by the Rolling Stones Fanclub. It's All Over Now was released that day.

London Students Carnival Limited Glad Rag Ball All Night Rave Empire Wembley Nov. 20-21 1964. Stones, Animals, Long John Baldrey and Humphrey Lyttelton. It was at this event that the press first found out about Charlie's marriage. The band also played Ready Steady Go earlier that day.

Further to my reply above, Bill's book does actually have a small newspaper ad for the rave which did take place on Saturday Dec.28, 1963. The Club Noreik had several listings for All Night Raves. Dec 21 Dusty Springfield, Dec.28 Stones, Jan 4 Shane Fenton and Jan 11 Bern Elliott. Each started at midnight and went to 6 am. Each rave had full supporting bands including Dave Davani and the D Men and Keith Conway and the Aristokats.
So it appears the Stones did participate in the All Night Rave similar to the other two I mentioned previously, but they were just the headlining band and certainly didn't play 6 hours by themselves. Probably played the final hour of the rave or so.
Question solved?