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Kennedy
I've never seen good photos from the Alpine Valley shows. Were they able to get the whole Steel Wheels stage set up there?

No, they used parts of it but the actual stage was much too tall and wide. They had runways going to each side and then forward. Mick used the stage left riser, for example, rather than top of the tower for Sympathy. The stage was pretty crowded with the parts they could use. At the time we didn’t think much about it until we saw the show at Busch Stadium a week later. Then it was like, “Holy sh-t!”

On google Maps you can see current photos of Alpine Valley Music Theater, and it is difficult to imagine how they installed the stage in that place!

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rbk

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Kennedy
I've never seen good photos from the Alpine Valley shows. Were they able to get the whole Steel Wheels stage set up there?

No, they used parts of it but the actual stage was much too tall and wide. They had runways going to each side and then forward. Mick used the stage left riser, for example, rather than top of the tower for Sympathy. The stage was pretty crowded with the parts they could use. At the time we didn’t think much about it until we saw the show at Busch Stadium a week later. Then it was like, “Holy sh-t!”

Did they have a runway forward like Licks Tour or 2012-2019? I don’t remember they did.

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gastonl74
On google Maps you can see current photos of Alpine Valley Music Theater, and it is difficult to imagine how they installed the stage in that place!

I googled with “Alpine Valley Music Theater images” and a number of photos have turned up. No Stones pics are available, but the stage size is definitely too small to house the Steel Wheels set, the roof is too low in particular.

I found some screen shots from a bootleg DVD of Sept 8. These photos give the impression of a greatly reduced set — I don’t think the crowds there got the full impact of the Steel Wheels stage that was so huge, so spectacular, so overwhelming. A little revelation after all these years.

[www.beatlesondvd.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-08-11 09:19 by RisingStone.

I remember thinking how good the sound was at Alpine Valley. Better than '81.

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Happy Jack
I'm wondering if it wasn't something to do with taxes or local restrictions. The Who also played East Troy in 1989 in lieu of a Chicago Date. Paul McCartney chose Rosemont instead of a Chicago venue also in 1989.

The Stones not playing there in 1989 because of the Bears made sense but The Who? It must've been a lot cheaper to rent Alpine than Soldier Field.

Alpine has been on the market. No one will buy it. In 2017 they had zero shows. A big draw like the Stones or the Who worked OK at Alpine back then but based on some reading it's fallen out of favor for a number of reasons.

East Troy, 9/9, 1989, public recording:
[www.youtube.com]

The Who almost always play Tinley Park and Alpine Valley. A quick search tells me The Who have never played Soldier Field. Interesting.....
Saw The Who in Tinley Park in 2000 and 2002 both GREAT shows!

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TumblinDice76
The Who almost always play Tinley Park and Alpine Valley. A quick search tells me The Who have never played Soldier Field. Interesting.....
Saw The Who in Tinley Park in 2000 and 2002 both GREAT shows!

That's weird. They played mostly US football stadiums in 1989. That was their last big stadium tour from what it looks like. They've played the United Center. They seem to like Rosemont.

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J.J.Flash
Sucks my first time seeing them was in Wisconsin. 22nd row center was awesome though. I sat there for half the opening song just staring thinking "they're real" look they're right there. It was weird. lol

BEEN THERE WITH THE "THEY'RE REAL" THING. It would have made more sense to see them on TV when I first saw the Stones live.

"Did they have a runway forward like Licks Tour or 2012-2019? I don’t remember they did."

No, just the left and right. The ramps went all the way to the sides and turned out toward the audience about thirty feet. They used pieces and parts of the big set up on the main stage. It was crowded.

Again, in '89 we had no point of reference. The tour had only recently begun and there was no internet splashing pictures all over the world in real time. The staging at Alpine Valley seemed awkward but a week later we were awestruck when we saw it set up in St. Louis. It was so tall it had a light at the top so planes wouldn't hit it.

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rbk
"Did they have a runway forward like Licks Tour or 2012-2019? I don’t remember they did."

No, just the left and right. The ramps went all the way to the sides and turned out toward the audience about thirty feet. They used pieces and parts of the big set up on the main stage. It was crowded.

Again, in '89 we had no point of reference. The tour had only recently begun and there was no internet splashing pictures all over the world in real time. The staging at Alpine Valley seemed awkward but a week later we were awestruck when we saw it set up in St. Louis. It was so tall it had a light at the top so planes wouldn't hit it.

LOL it wasn't because of airplanes - it wasn't tall enough for that, it was just a light at the top. That stage was 82 feet tall.

82 Feet tall ......
That's only about as high as five '59 Cadillacs end on end ....



ROCKMAN

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GasLightStreet

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rbk
"Did they have a runway forward like Licks Tour or 2012-2019? I don’t remember they did."

No, just the left and right. The ramps went all the way to the sides and turned out toward the audience about thirty feet. They used pieces and parts of the big set up on the main stage. It was crowded.

Again, in '89 we had no point of reference. The tour had only recently begun and there was no internet splashing pictures all over the world in real time. The staging at Alpine Valley seemed awkward but a week later we were awestruck when we saw it set up in St. Louis. It was so tall it had a light at the top so planes wouldn't hit it.

LOL it wasn't because of airplanes - it wasn't tall enough for that, it was just a light at the top. That stage was 82 feet tall.

Actually, Mark Fisher made the Steel Wheels stage modular so it could be shortened or expanded depending on the size of the venue. At it's biggest and most complete setup, the Steel Wheels stage measured 306ft wide and 112ft tall!

[www.goupstate.com]

[www.sun-sentinel.com]

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RisingStone

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rbk

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Kennedy
I've never seen good photos from the Alpine Valley shows. Were they able to get the whole Steel Wheels stage set up there?

No, they used parts of it but the actual stage was much too tall and wide. They had runways going to each side and then forward. Mick used the stage left riser, for example, rather than top of the tower for Sympathy. The stage was pretty crowded with the parts they could use. At the time we didn’t think much about it until we saw the show at Busch Stadium a week later. Then it was like, “Holy sh-t!”

Did they have a runway forward like Licks Tour or 2012-2019? I don’t remember they did.

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gastonl74
On google Maps you can see current photos of Alpine Valley Music Theater, and it is difficult to imagine how they installed the stage in that place!

I googled with “Alpine Valley Music Theater images” and a number of photos have turned up. No Stones pics are available, but the stage size is definitely too small to house the Steel Wheels set, the roof is too low in particular.

I found some screen shots from a bootleg DVD of Sept 8. These photos give the impression of a greatly reduced set — I don’t think the crowds there got the full impact of the Steel Wheels stage that was so huge, so spectacular, so overwhelming. A little revelation after all these years.

[www.beatlesondvd.com]

Thanks for posting this RisingStone. It's pretty much the only available footage or pics available of the Stones' east troy gigs. For years I couldn't figure out how the hell they put the Steel Wheels stage into this venue. And then, when I saw this private fan footage a couple of years ago, I finally found out: they didn't! lol

So, there we have it: Soldier Field wasn't available due to the Bears' schedule, Wrigley Field wasn't allowed to be used for concerts until recently, and it appears that the White Sox didn't allow Comiskey Park to be used for concerts after Michael Jackson/The Jackson 5 played there in 1984 (and for my fellow completists: the first band the White Sox allowed to perform at their ballpark following that ban was the Stones in 2002.)

There really is something about these East Troy shows that are unique among the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour that make them special to listen to. I don't know if it's because of the rarities played there like "One Hit" or because it's at that early point in the tour where the off-the-road rust, cobwebs and nerves are now off and the inner fire is raging, but they're a great joy to listen too. I'd love to have them released as part of the archive series.

FYI: ABC partially filmed one of the East Troy shows for 20/20. I don't know which one, but the version of "Sympathy" they used is among the finest versions off all time--Mick is literally singing the way he did in 1969/1970.

Stevecardi-100% agree. I've had these shows sitting on the shelf for about 10 years and hadn't listened to them in 10 years. Great shows-Dead Flowers, Play with Fire, One Hit, Harlem Shuffle...quickly becoming my go to shows for listening to at work!

Despite the inevitable reduced stage presentation, the East Troy shows may have made it up with the quality of the performances. In Stone People (the Japanese Stones-zine) back in the day, this keen follower of the band from Japan published the travelogue in which he reported a couple dozen shows from the tour’s very beginning, and he commented, “The Stones in East Troy were just great!” There you go.

There were no shows at all at Soldier Field between Madonna in 1987 and Paul McCartney in 1990 so there must have been some internal decision to not allow concerts there during that time.

That means all the big stadium tours of the era, Monsters Of Rock, The Who, Pink Floyd, David Bowie's Glass Spider and the Rolling Stones among whatever I am forgetting did not play stadium shows in Chicago.

The McCartney show on July 29th only went on sale June 20th and still sold out (remember the good old days where 6 weeks was the norm because either people could afford to go or they couldn't).

There were some turf concerns by the Bears over the McCartney show ...

I read thru some of newspapers.com and couldn't find any specific reason listed. The answer could still be in there somewhere.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-07-12 04:03 by Dan.