Like many other folks who went to London to attend the Hyde Park concerts, I took the occasion to pay a visit to Matt’s archive and was amazed at the wealth of his collection, the countless souvenirs and memorabilia.

Among the artifacts in the year 1978 section, I spotted an interesting document. That was a color map of the US of A for the logistic planning of the tour, on which handwritten words were added in clear capital letter — “STONES EUROPEAN (ECONOMIC) AMERICAN TOUR ‘78” and “EUROPE, PARIS, HAMBURG, LONDON”.

Somewhat bewildered by my find, I had a chat regarding this seemingly scrapped Some Girls European tour (albeit very limited locations) with two other fans who were there, a local gentleman who said has seen the Stones live around 100 times since Earls Court 1976, and Topi from Finland.

Whether this is common knowledge among the hardcore of the Stones fans, I don’t know. I hadn’t heard of the plan myself until I saw it at Matt’s gallery.

Does anybody have a comment on this might-have-been Some Girls European Tour that is a fascinating “what if” alternate Stones live history?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-19 02:49 by RisingStone.

I've never seen any indication of a European tour for SOME GIRLS.

Although they did release TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE in the UK only, they were in Paris shortly after continuing to record for EMOTIONAL RESCUE, but if TWFNO was gonna be a tour gag they obviously cancelled the tour way before the release.

After the 1976 tour, it seems they wanted to simplify, which is probably why they didn't want to bother with going to Europe to tour in 1979.

Mick Jagger (September 1977): Tour plans
I'd like to go back on the road, but I'd like to get another album done first, so we have a bunch of new songs to play on the raod. We've never toured the States with Black And Blue so we've got that. And if we've got another album, we'll have enough material to take it around without having to do the songs we've been playing for TOO long, so we don't get bored at ALL.

[www.timeisonourside.com]

On the 1978 tour, did they play any songs from Black n Blue?Crazy Mama and Hand of Fate would have sounded good

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Taylor1
On the 1978 tour, did they play any songs from Black n Blue?Crazy Mama and Hand of Fate would have sounded good

No, they didn't. On a regular basis they played 8(!) songs of SG, two Berry songs, All down the line and Star Star and five war horses.

I remember an article in a German music-magazine at the time that the Stones were planning to play a concert in Hamburg in 1979. Have it somewhere in the basement …
But it was only one article , no official announcement. I was hoping and wondering at the time but nothing more happened …..long waiting then as a young fan till 1982 ….

Tom



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-18 20:31 by electricmud.

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electricmud
I remember an article in a German music-magazine at the time that the Stones were planning to play a concert in Hamburg in 1979. Have it somewhere in the basement …
But it was only one article , no official announcement. I was hoping and wondering at the time but nothing more happened …..long waiting then as a young fan till 1982 ….

Tom

Yes, I remember the article. But I think it was in Spring 1978 before the release of SG. It said that the Stones will present their new album live in the Markthalle concert hall.

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django

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electricmud
I remember an article in a German music-magazine at the time that the Stones were planning to play a concert in Hamburg in 1979. Have it somewhere in the basement …
But it was only one article , no official announcement. I was hoping and wondering at the time but nothing more happened …..long waiting then as a young fan till 1982 ….

Tom

Yes, I remember the article. But I think it was in Spring 1978 before the release of SG. It said that the Stones will present their new album live in the Markthalle concert hall.

Good point. I have been thinking that these European shows of Paris, Hamburg and London may have been initially planned as warm up dates for the subsequent American tour rather than a full scale tour in 1979, following the pattern of their usual tour scheduling. That would explain the limited locations and why it was put on the map the way it was, European American tour ‘78.

I remember an adverticement for a forthcoming concert in Copenhagen in 1977 or -78. I think it was the danish promoter Knud Thorbjørnsen who put the advert in the newspaper.

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RisingStone

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django

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electricmud
I remember an article in a German music-magazine at the time that the Stones were planning to play a concert in Hamburg in 1979. Have it somewhere in the basement …
But it was only one article , no official announcement. I was hoping and wondering at the time but nothing more happened …..long waiting then as a young fan till 1982 ….

Tom

Yes, I remember the article. But I think it was in Spring 1978 before the release of SG. It said that the Stones will present their new album live in the Markthalle concert hall.

Good point. I have been thinking that these European shows of Paris, Hamburg and London may have been initially planned as warm up dates for the subsequent American tour rather than a full scale tour in 1979, following the pattern of their usual tour scheduling. That would explain the limited locations and why it was put on the map the way it was, European American tour ‘78.

The little article I m referring to was published after the SG - Tour. Saying that there will be no European Tour but one concert in Hamburg ( beside very few other dates ) .

I think the Euro 'tour' 1978 is referenced in the Live in Texas '78 DVD booklet. This was the first time I had ever heard of 1978 European dates. IIRC, the plan was to play European dates between some of the US dates which would have been logistically very difficult.

Theres no way they ie Jagger could risk Keith getting busted again, crossing borders in Europe. He was getting off heroin in -79 but still using. One more bust and it wouldve been over.

RisingStone: Funny you mention this because recently I was looking through a backissue of Billboard Magazine from May or June 1978 and it listed tentative a Rolling Stones itinerary, including London, Paris and one West German city. There were no actual dates listed for Europe.

Presumably this was penciled in for August 1978 and never happened.

Matt who? And where is this archive?

The 13 May 1978 issue of Billboard magazine had this:

"...while touring the U.S. will detour to Europe for one concert each in a British, French and West German city."

Article title: Stones Are Set To Roll On U.S. Tour.

Harold

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24FPS
Matt who? And where is this archive?

matt lee

posibly the greatest collector of everything stones ever

his archive is in london

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24FPS
Matt who? And where is this archive?

[iorr.org]

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RisingStone

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24FPS
Matt who? And where is this archive?

[iorr.org]

Thank you. You were very helpful. I'd love to read that Bill Wyman resignation letter.

Im not sure Mick's worries about Keith would have been helped when Keef n Ron
hit the road in 79 as The new Barbarians....not sure how many gigs they played?.

Knebworth I think in the UK, were and what did they rehearse?

If the quoted Billboard article is accurate, I wonder why the Stones management team put together such a grueling schedule in the first place, three European dates sandwiched between two legs of the US tour. Jet lag, the transfer of the gear back and forth between the two continents…asking too much. Beast of burden indeed.

FYR the Some Girls album was released on 9 June, 1978, and the US tour started the next day, 10 June, and lasted until 26 July, playing 25 shows.

[en.wikipedia.org]

I also speculate that, if the Markthalle (capacity: appx. 1,000) was penciled in for Hamburg, most likely the other two venues would have been the Olympia in Paris and either Hammersmith Odeon, Rainbow Theatre, Lyceum or Roundhouse in London (N.B. Neither Brixton Academy, Shepherd’s Bush Empire nor London Astoria was used as a music venue in 1978). If these shows had materialized, no doubt they would have been legendary among the fans, the Stones folklore.

[N.B. Some time after posting this comment, I added the Roundhouse for a possible candidate for the London venue as it still hosted a music event once in a while in 1978, before it entered a long hiatus from the 1980’s till the 2000’s]



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-21 01:29 by RisingStone.

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django

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electricmud
I remember an article in a German music-magazine at the time that the Stones were planning to play a concert in Hamburg in 1979. Have it somewhere in the basement …
But it was only one article , no official announcement. I was hoping and wondering at the time but nothing more happened …..long waiting then as a young fan till 1982 ….

Tom

Yes, I remember the article. But I think it was in Spring 1978 before the release of SG. It said that the Stones will present their new album live in the Markthalle concert hall.

I remember the article as well - in my memory there was something about a concert in Frankfurt in autumn 1978 as a part of a very limited European Tour.

I've always been puzzled by this poster from New Orleans, referencing a "1978 World Tour."

[www.ebay.com]

I recall they had the idea to do a 1979 Euro tour with smaller venues, but that it was cancelled due to the high costs of the tour due to all the border crossings.

Mathijs

did the 1979 small gig idea not turn into...... The New Barbarians debuted as the Rolling Stones' support act at two charity concerts to benefit the CNIB at the Oshawa Civic Auditorium near Toronto, Ontario on 22 April 1979, The band's eighteen-gig US tour followed, then uk Knebwoth and a couple of new things to me

1, They played a Jan 1980 make gig in the US but without Keef and Bobby keys.

2. Ronnie wood relased a live double CD of one of the shows in 2006, and a very limited tripple cd special edition, now I would like that for christmas!

Such an upheaval of time for The Rolling Stones while redefining themselves ala SOME GIRLS and EMOTIONAL RESCUE.

I know ER is skewed here but it really is a great album. Considering what they'd been through in 1977-78 it's really something they were able to create what they did for ER yet alone what was left off for what became TATTOO YOU.

The personal aspect of the band gets lost because of Miss You and Emotional Rescue, no tour for the second batch, and then a complete change from 1978 with 1981.

Just as they are now, with Charlie dying, they're people just like the rest of us. What Keith went through, and in result put the band through, in 1977 onward... where SG was a very focused Oh punk? kind of album, ER seemed to be more Let's expand.

The issue fan wise being the songs didn't reach like they did on SG. That's life. TY benefitted from it.

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GasLightStreet
I've never seen any indication of a European tour for SOME GIRLS.

Although they did release TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE in the UK only, they were in Paris shortly after continuing to record for EMOTIONAL RESCUE, but if TWFNO was gonna be a tour gag they obviously cancelled the tour way before the release.

After the 1976 tour, it seems they wanted to simplify, which is probably why they didn't want to bother with going to Europe to tour in 1979.

Mick Jagger (September 1977): Tour plans
I'd like to go back on the road, but I'd like to get another album done first, so we have a bunch of new songs to play on the raod. We've never toured the States with Black And Blue so we've got that. And if we've got another album, we'll have enough material to take it around without having to do the songs we've been playing for TOO long, so we don't get bored at ALL.

[www.timeisonourside.com]

Hey Gaslight, I think TWFNW was released worldwide except for US/CDA. I live near Vancouver and back in the early 80s, my sister went on vacation to Mexico and bought me a Mexican copy of that album!

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Redhotcarpet
Theres no way they ie Jagger could risk Keith getting busted again, crossing borders in Europe. He was getting off heroin in -79 but still using. One more bust and it wouldve been over.

This is the most logical reason why there was no European tour . This makes to much sense .

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GasLightStreet
Such an upheaval of time for The Rolling Stones while redefining themselves ala SOME GIRLS and EMOTIONAL RESCUE.

I know ER is skewed here but it really is a great album. Considering what they'd been through in 1977-78 it's really something they were able to create what they did for ER yet alone what was left off for what became TATTOO YOU.

The personal aspect of the band gets lost because of Miss You and Emotional Rescue, no tour for the second batch, and then a complete change from 1978 with 1981.

Just as they are now, with Charlie dying, they're people just like the rest of us. What Keith went through, and in result put the band through, in 1977 onward... where SG was a very focused Oh punk? kind of album, ER seemed to be more Let's expand.

The issue fan wise being the songs didn't reach like they did on SG. That's life. TY benefitted from it.

Pardon me for going off on a tangent. If Some Girls is the Stones’ ‘punk’ album, Emotional Rescue feels like their ‘New Wave’ album. The ambience of the soundscape they created on ER reminds me of some of The Police’s contemporary releases for example, Regatta de Blanc (out on 2 October, 1979) in particular. From punk to New Wave — seems to me a natural progression in parallel with the music scene of the day.

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RisingStone

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GasLightStreet
Such an upheaval of time for The Rolling Stones while redefining themselves ala SOME GIRLS and EMOTIONAL RESCUE.

I know ER is skewed here but it really is a great album. Considering what they'd been through in 1977-78 it's really something they were able to create what they did for ER yet alone what was left off for what became TATTOO YOU.

The personal aspect of the band gets lost because of Miss You and Emotional Rescue, no tour for the second batch, and then a complete change from 1978 with 1981.

Just as they are now, with Charlie dying, they're people just like the rest of us. What Keith went through, and in result put the band through, in 1977 onward... where SG was a very focused Oh punk? kind of album, ER seemed to be more Let's expand.

The issue fan wise being the songs didn't reach like they did on SG. That's life. TY benefitted from it.

Pardon me for going off on a tangent. If Some Girls is the Stones’ ‘punk’ album, Emotional Rescue feels like their ‘New Wave’ album. The ambience of the soundscape they created on ER reminds me of some of The Police’s contemporary releases for example, Regatta de Blanc (out on 2 October, 1979) in particular. From punk to New Wave — seems to me a natural progression in parallel with the music scene of the day.

Your tangent is well put.

Although they've generally been beind the times regarding what was big, they nailed it with Miss You and Emotional Rescue as singles.

It seems that the esoteric romanticism of the era has been lost on a lot of people because of Miss You (or how great the LP was). What they did with SG and ER is remarkable, actually. The living era of that duration does not translate to now or a decade ago so it's viewed as weak.

ER is not like SG but it has some of the same energy (albeit a leftover or two). It, like UNDERCOVER, the true studio band recording follow up, is a great album for its time. The songs hold up etc.

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GasLightStreet

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RisingStone

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GasLightStreet
Such an upheaval of time for The Rolling Stones while redefining themselves ala SOME GIRLS and EMOTIONAL RESCUE.

I know ER is skewed here but it really is a great album. Considering what they'd been through in 1977-78 it's really something they were able to create what they did for ER yet alone what was left off for what became TATTOO YOU.

The personal aspect of the band gets lost because of Miss You and Emotional Rescue, no tour for the second batch, and then a complete change from 1978 with 1981.

Just as they are now, with Charlie dying, they're people just like the rest of us. What Keith went through, and in result put the band through, in 1977 onward... where SG was a very focused Oh punk? kind of album, ER seemed to be more Let's expand.

The issue fan wise being the songs didn't reach like they did on SG. That's life. TY benefitted from it.

Pardon me for going off on a tangent. If Some Girls is the Stones’ ‘punk’ album, Emotional Rescue feels like their ‘New Wave’ album. The ambience of the soundscape they created on ER reminds me of some of The Police’s contemporary releases for example, Regatta de Blanc (out on 2 October, 1979) in particular. From punk to New Wave — seems to me a natural progression in parallel with the music scene of the day.

Your tangent is well put.

Although they've generally been beind the times regarding what was big, they nailed it with Miss You and Emotional Rescue as singles.

It seems that the esoteric romanticism of the era has been lost on a lot of people because of Miss You (or how great the LP was). What they did with SG and ER is remarkable, actually. The living era of that duration does not translate to now or a decade ago so it's viewed as weak.

ER is not like SG but it has some of the same energy (albeit a leftover or two). It, like UNDERCOVER, the true studio band recording follow up, is a great album for its time. The songs hold up etc.

Emotional Rescue is the Goats Head Soup of the slightly later Stones. Some Girls was such a hit, with huge singles, that Emotional Rescue was highly anticipated, and a bit of a letdown. It doesn't have the smash hit that Angie was, but it had a couple smaller hits in ER and She's So Cold.

A tangent further. Musically speaking, of the songs collected on Some Girls, those classified as ‘punk’ songs are When The Whip Comes Down, Lies, Respectable and Shattered — just four. Others are disco (Miss You), Motown cover (Just My Imagination), blues rock (Some Girls), country (Far Away Eyes and Beast Of Burden) and archetypal Stones signature rock ‘n’ roll (Before They Make Me Run) — quite a variety there. And especially considering that Miss You was chosen as the lead single, I sometimes wonder why SG is generally regarded as the Stones’ ‘punk’ album. Some of the music was certainly inspired by punk, but the end product is more than that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-21 12:42 by RisingStone.