Seeing LSTNT on VH1 Classics tonight brought back some old memories

I was living in a waterfront apartment on Lake Ave in Worcester , Ma .( rent was $ 40.00 per week , furnished ) And watching the HBO broadcast "scrambled " . I was so stoned it just didn't matter .

if you were in worcester in '81, did you catch them at Sir Morgans?

I didnt get to worcester until '85, would have loved to have had the chance to catch that show!

All I remembered was how bad Mick sounded. I didn't know if he was just off or the mix was done poorly.

I was at a basement party with late teenagers in Berwyn, Illinois just outside of Chicago. They showed some porno movies before the show started and I remember all the while I just wanted to see the Stones!

A friend of mine had a STONES party for the broadcast. His step-dad was out of town and we wached it on a large screen TV in a large home in River Hills outside of Milwaukee,Wi.We partied quite a bit for that one.Don't remember alot...........not sure why? lol

HalfNanker Wrote:
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> if you were in worcester in '81, did you catch
> them at Sir Morgans?
>
> I didnt get to worcester until '85, would have
> loved to have had the chance to catch that show!


Couldn't get in . I was out on the street though

boston2006 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> HalfNanker Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > if you were in worcester in '81, did you catch
> > them at Sir Morgans?
> >
> > I didnt get to worcester until '85, would have
> > loved to have had the chance to catch that
> show!
>


Any reports? The set list is still murky from that long ago gem;

Were you out there for the entire show? What songs did you hear?
>
> Couldn't get in . I was out on the street though

Why, at the Hampton, VA Colleseum--of course! BOTH nights. But, it wasnt on HBO. it was a pay per view.

JR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-11-03 15:49 by stone-relics.

I've posted this before but here it is again. I wrote this for the Marilou Regan's "Fanfare From the Common Fan" book a few years ago.

Little did I know that the next time I would see them would be 8 years later at Toad's Place. Houseboy will tell IORR how he snuck into that show some other time.

HouseBoyKnows (he was doin' alright . . . that night)


Happy Birthday to Keith: Hampton, Virginia - December 18, 1981

Just about everyone knows a married couple who followed the custom of freezing a chunk of their wedding cake to help commemorate the event at future anniversaries. I don’t know what the duration record is, but in a similar vein, I have saved a piece of Keith Richard’s 38th birthday cake in my freezer since 1981 and have no intention of tossing it or eating it any time soon. How it got there is the subject of this story, my first backstage encounter with the Rolling Stones.

All longtime Stones fans and more recent devotees are familiar with the December 18, 1981 Hampton Coliseum show that became the very first pay-per-view Stones concert in the U.S. and is the subject of oft traded videos and a superb audio soundboard that came from the FM stereo simulcast. The 1981 U.S. tour had no official name but is often referred as the Tattoo You Tour.

The ’81 tour was extra special for me. For the first time, I was no longer a starving student and had some extra cash enabling me to follow the tour throughout the East coast. I saw a total of 14 shows including Mick’s press conference and the fantastic opening dates in my home town of Philadelphia.

All through November there had been tons of rumors about the closed circuit broadcast and small club venues (Bond’s in NYC for one), but finally it was confirmed just a couple weeks before the show that it would be on Keith’s birthday in the smallish (about 13,000) Hampton Coliseum in Hampton Roads, Virginia. I had just seen three incredible shows at the Capitol Center in Landover, Maryland a week before and now had to inform my skeptical wife that I was planning to drive six hours down to Virginia for two more shows on a Friday and Saturday night one week before Christmas. I was not a popular dude on the home front, but I had to see the tour’s big finale.

Tickets were easy to come by, going for half price in the parking lot. George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers opened the show in a raucous Chuck Berry style blowout. A local favorite in the Philadelphia area, we were thrilled to see him open for the Stones and the treat was enhanced with Ian Stewart banging away on the big white grand piano he used in the Stones shows.

The Stones, coming on with a drawn out “Under My Thumb” intro, played one of the finest shows of the tour. They were ferocious on songs like “When the Whip Comes Down”; no doubt inspired by the pay-per-view cameras. Without changing the standard set list, the show was about 20 minutes longer than the recent shows in Maryland. This was due to the extended jamming they did on several songs like “Just My Imagination” and the long runs out on the ramps going all the way to the back of the arena during songs like “Let me Go” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”. The floor was wide open with no seats so my brother and I were able to stake out a spot in front of Keith with a big boom camera floating above our heads all night. The non-musical highlights included Keith’s birthday toast as he was attempting to start “Little T&A” and the infamous incident during the “Satisfaction” encore when Keith took off his guitar and swung it battle axe style at a fan rushing across the stage ( This was just one year after John Lennon had been murdered, and there were still real concerns about crazed fans doing the unthinkable). I loved the way Keith nonchalantly replaced the strap around his shoulders and played on unfazed.

After the show ended, we hung around as the arena emptied, having nowhere to go except back to the local Days Inn. So my brother and I went up to an area of the stands near the rear of the stage where we could look into the backstage area and see a post-concert party crowd forming. There were several of friends from the Philly, New Jersey, NYC (remember this was pre-internet and the hardcore was pretty small group). Without going into details and naming names, we came into possession of a couple backstage passes, the sticky paper kind which people slap on their shirt or jeans. We rotated one of the passes in and out of the security check until we had all gained admittance to the backstage area.

This was my first backstage experience with Stones and I was simultaneously thrilled and nervous that I could be thrown out at any time. Most of the party was happening in a big room off the main backstage corridor which was laid out with long tables and cheesy Christmas decorations taken from some stock prop supply house. I spied Mick and Charlie sitting with a small group of friends off in the furthest corner of the room. Mick was wearing a heavy wool ski hat that stood straight up on his head as if it wear a crown. I rubbed shoulders with Bill Wyman who was wearing a rainbow striped Houston Astros jacket and I was only able to say “Hi Bill” as we exchanged nods.

By now I had surreptitiously returned my backstage pass so that another of my friends could gain admittance, and I was very wary not to appear like the gape-jawed fan that I was, for fear of being kicked out without proper credentials. Instead I tried to blend in and chat with whomever looked interesting. Some of us compared notes and wondered where Keith and Ronnie were.

One of the adjoining rooms was set up with a big buffet spread and a huge birthday cake for Keith and Bobby Keys (born on the same day). There was quite a bottleneck of people at the doorway trying to squeeze through in either direction. I went in, cased the joint and saw a few people standing around chatting. Boring. So I began to inch my way through the crowd back toward the main room when I suddenly found myself looking into the face of Keith Richards, literally. We were smashed up toe to toe as I locked eyes with the coolest person on earth. I said something like “Keith, great show tonight! Happy Birthday!” He immediately responded as if he thought maybe I was somebody he was supposed to know and went into a super-friendly greeting, ”Hey man! Good to see ya!” and cupped his hand on my shoulder, before he sidestepped on through the crowd. I reversed direction and followed him back into the food room where people were chanting that it was time to cut the cake. Keith yelled for Bobby but he was nowhere within earshot. There was a crowd of about thirty or forty people now standing around the cake table and we all broke into the “Happy Birthday” song while Keith took a gigantic knife to the cake. All of this time flashbulbs were going off and I was standing directly behind Keith looking over his shoulder. I figure there have to be dozens of photos out there somewhere in Stonesland with me standing there next to the man.

After the cake ceremony it seemed that the party started to wind down and everyone was ushered back into the now empty arena for a road crew and band photo session on the stage. During this time Ronnie appeared and joined our group of friends as we watched the photo shoot. He seemed to like hanging with the real fans as he chatted, joked and answered our questions in a relaxed and tipsy manner. He explained that this was the last time everyone would be together since they were all dispersing for the holidays immediately after the final show the next night.

By the time the photo session ended, including Keith posing with a copy of Beggars Banquet, the party was pretty much over with only a handful of people hanging around. I watched Bill Graham for a few moments as he remained on the stage and gazed about in what appeared to be a mood of wistful reflection at the end of, to that date, the most successful rock’n’roll concert tour ever,

My brother and I wandered back into the backstage area, now fully immune to security hassles. Noticing the picked over remains of the birthday cake, we decided it was souvenir time. Originally, the cake had been decorated with a guitar and saxophone made out of cardboard and frosting. The guitar was gone but the frosted sax was still there. We grabbed it and carefully wrapped it in plastic plates and napkins. I also grabbed a piece of the cake. and we walked out into the parking lot around 1:00 AM with our booty.

The next night we enjoyed the last show of the tour. I had no idea that I would not see the Stones play live again for almost eight years. When we got back to Philadelphia the frosting sax was an unrecognizable mess and had to be tossed. My piece of Keith’s 38th birthday cake with a smidgen of red tongue frosting remains to this day wrapped for posterity in three layers of plastic bags inside an old coffee can in our freezer. It’s probably completely inedible, but continues to be my most unusual and laugh-provoking piece of Stones memorabilia.

What a fabulous story. Lucky man!

In a house full of drunk and high people in Arlington tx trying to explain to a self proclaimed Stones authority that Mick Taylor was the one to start giving Jagger guitar lessons,not Brian Jones!(Mick said in a 70s interview Brian would never take the time). But still a lovely time had by all.

Great story, House Boy. I'm pretty sure there is a picture of this event in an old back issue of BEGGARS BANQUET.

rocky, point well taken! maybe I was the highest or/and the drunkest!!!

Excellent story, House Boy! Hope the archivists will find a picture and post for us!

i was a sperm

I beleive Houseboyknows. He has no reason or motive to stump this forum.

What a great experience, and damn, I wish of the same experience. Pics as SomeTor.Girl requested or asked is the consensus.

On my left arm there was my first born child on my right hand there was my wife pregnant from our second child

__________________________

I was on the other side of the world, probably tucked up in bed asleep, as I was 6 years old and had school the next day, and if i had of heard of the ROLLING STONES< it would have been becsue i ahd over heard my next door neighbours TATTOO YOU album playing on their stereo

I was "drinkin' a few beers, smokin' a few joints at home..." with some fellow Stones fans in Manhattan Beach, CA.

Listening to the free Radio simulcast on KOME in Central California finding blank tape after blank tape to keep my recording going. I had been at the Candlestick shows two months previous but I could not believe how long some of those versions were...what a cool night!

Snot flyin' dronk in a gay bar in Seattle, New Year's Eve '81, dancing my ass off!

Had my buddies over to my parents. They agreed to let us party and watch it on the tele...was such a buzz, we had just seen them recently at the Pontiac Silverdome...

3DTeafoe Wrote:
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> I was "drinkin' a few beers, smokin' a few joints
> at home..." with some fellow Stones fans in
> Manhattan Beach, CA.


AAHAHAH nice! finally someone said it.

It was at a friend's house in Northridge, CA.
Back then, in LA, you either had ON-TV or SELECT.
I can't remember which one it was on.
Very few people had pay-per-view back then as cable-TV
hadn't really caught on yet. It was exciting, a new tchnology
still in its infancy. It wasn't on 24 hours a day. If our friends had it, it was usually in their parent's bedroom. I can still picture the ON-TV box on top of their TV. We used to try to sneak in and watch R-rated movies.
I do remember the naked girl at the beginning with the radio-station tattoos.
Do the boots nowadays have that?
A friend of mine actaully recorded the whole thing on a new device
at the time called a VCR. I still have the original tape.
It must weigh 2 pounds!

What a story!

what a fine thread...brings so many smiles

well here in the Hampton area they blocked the broadcast.
i was really mad, since i wanted sobadly to go. i was 13 and already my fave band.

so at the last min. a local TV video music program, was allowed to show the first 15min or 3 songs and also the radio station K-94(or WNOR) was allowed to play the whole show. i taped probably 10 songs on my new cassetee recorder. i felt a bit better then.

the build up here was really intense, lots of sightings, clipped the newspapers, not sure if they still exsits

Rocky Dijon Wrote:
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> Great story, House Boy. I'm pretty sure there is a
> picture of this event in an old back issue of
> BEGGARS BANQUET.


click on this link , lots of info here regarding '81 pre tour preparations .

[studiowner.com]

Hmmm, good question! I don´t know really, I wasent born in 1981 so I don´t know.

I don't remember what we were doing or even if we watched it. We'd been to Cedar Falls (a really good show w/Stray Cats) and then to K.C. twice (w/G.Thorogood). The first night was on a local FM station's "Party Bus", followed by a last minute decision to return the following night. I remember it was tough ticket. Both K.C. shows were good too with Keith possibly drinking too much the 2nd night. I think he almost passed out during YCAGWYW. I also remember we ran out of gas on the way home and had to walk up to a farmhouse and ask for a gallon or so. Lucky I didn't get pelted with buckshot out there that night at 2am. Yikes.