Here we
have an upgrade from Waz (Oz Archives) presenting Doris
Death’s master cassette of the Stones Sydney 26th February 1973 concert which
had to be split in 2 discs, due to the bonus track with which the total is over
80 minutes long. This is an insightful interview, by the way, just few days after
Taylor left the band, excellent is also this recording, though in mono. From
the accompanying notes:
“The Stones
hadn’t performed in Sydney since 18th February 1966. The 1973 Australian tour
was announced by Paul Dainty Organization in November 1972, the Australian
media went into overdrive, it was full of Stones this, Stones that. Tickets for
the 26th February 1973 Sydney show went on sale on the 9th December 1972 for
the sum of A$5.20, cheaper than for the Cat Stevens (A$6.60) & Joe Cocker
($A6.20) Australian Tours, a Paul Dainty Spokesman spewed forth by saying “It’s
not that the Stones are cheaper than Cat Stevens & Joe Cocker, they just
have a better organized business”, & they don’t like to see kids ripped
off, so they’ll discuss things & try to cut down costs.” How the Stones'
better organized business strategy has changed since then!
The 26th
February show made Australian show business history by selling out faster than
any other act.
With
another spokesman from the Paul Dainty Organization saying “Nobody, but nobody
has ever sold out Randwick Racecourse before”. A second show for the 27th
February was put on sale and also sold out. Statistics state there were 25,000
punters each night, but this has to be higher as many folks scaled the walls or
found other ways of getting in without paying a red cent. The Stones held the
Randwick attendance record until 1986 when Pope John Paul (minus George &
Ringo) threw a meet & great for the faithful there.
This
recording comes from Doris Death AKA Pete who donated his master cassette
decades ago.
At that
time the Stones tickets for the show were the biggest sized concert tickets
we’d laid eyes on.
They had
the now famous Australian 1973 tour poster printed on them, every show on the
tour had the same design but each was printed in a different colour, the 1st
Sydney show was red, I can’t recall what colour was used for the 2nd Sydney
show.
For the
first time in Australian musical history the Stones tickets were forged in big
numbers.
Because of
these forgeries when concert goers entered Royal Randwick Racecourse concert
security staff scrutinized each & every ticket. Once declared to be valid,
the genuine tickets were not returned to the ticket holder but tossed into
large cardboard boxes. The next night’s tickets were also forged and to this
day any original tickets of either of the two 1973 Sydney shows has appeared.
It had
rained the night before but on the day of the gig the weather was sunny, there
was a short rain shower between the support band & the Stones coming on
stage but it never made another appearance.
Jagger
mentions it after Brown Sugar when he says: God bless it didn’t rain.
The support
band was an Aussie group named Headband, the band had a female stripper on
stage with them. The first the audience knew of her was when she emerged from a
big sack ala Yoko Ono, once out of said sack she galivanted about the stage,
ditched her top then started shaking her tits at all & sundry like an
antipodean version of Stacia the topless / sometimes naked dancer with UK
1970’s band Hawkwind, she received more applause than the band did.
More people
pushed forward, steamrolling over others in their quest to get closer to the
front; verbal threats in some instances turned physical with pushing &
shoving, later actual fights did occur, audience aggravation continued even
after the Stones had hit the stage.
This
concert remains the most violent concert, albeit at the same time, the
excitement, the atmosphere in the air was electrifying, it felt alive, more so
than the Melbourne shows earlier that month.
The stage
was a streamlined but simple affair, the row of amps were clad in white covers
with an open section running along the front so the musicians could get to the
controls, at the top of the amps stage lights ran the length of them. At either
end of the amps there were stairs that led up to a walkway that was situated on
top of the amps, Jagger only used these once or twice during the show. The two
colourful fire breathing dragons painted on the stage floor used on US tour the
year before were also used here.
The stage
had been set up directly in front of the racetrack, the back of it bordered the
track the horses actually raced on. As it happens there was a reason for this.
As often
with the Stones they were running late, so every time there was movement of any
kind on or near the stage such as a moving vehicle on the race track the crowd
thinking that the Stones were inside
the crowd
would erupt, creating an even bigger upsurge to get nearer the front, then when
nothing actually happened the crowd fell silent only to explode once again when
they spotted more movement.
When the PA
music stopped (the last song played was the Beatles Don’t Bother Me) thinking
the show was about to kick off the audience went mental clapping &
stamping, then quietened down only to start up again. What those up in the
grandstands plus those further back could see that we on the ground couldn’t
was approaching the stage from the left along the actual racetrack was a black
open black coach pulled by four white horses. In that open black coach were the
Stones plus the backing musicians, an impressive way to kick off the night’s
activities.
When the
group de-coached & were making their way up to the stage, the opening bars
of 2,000 Light Years From Home were played, then from stage left the Stones
plus the backing musicians came into view. Mick was the last to appear
clutching a handheld masquerade mask which he abandoned quickly then darted
from left to right across the stage. Mick says. Sounds like a good lot,
referring to the audience’s reaction, then straight into Brown Sugar, the
volume was incredibly loud, louder than Led Zeppelin that played the year
before. With the sound being so loud it’s a wonder that both available
recordings aren’t distorted. There was a musical hiccup at the start of Gimme
Shelter but it didn’t last long..
Brown Sugar
marked the start of more upheaval in the audience. From the moment the Stones
hit the stage just about everyone stood up, those closest to the stage were the
first to do so creating a backwards domino effect, we behind them then had to
stand up as we could not see, add to this the surge of people pushing us
forward, anyone deciding to sit down would have would have been in
trouble.
With all the front sections now
standing this pissed off those further back as now their view was blocked, the
evitable sit-down chants started up, quickly followed by a variety of objects
being thrown in our general direction such as assorted foods, soft drink cans,
bottles.
The sit
down-stand up scenarios can be heard on both sources, but more so on Doris’s
recording as he was further back in or in front of the lower tier grandstand
whose occupants view were obstructed.
The aggro
starts up in Rocks Off, at 01:29 a female can be heard yelling Sit down, fuck
ya. The worse occurrence is during Love In Vain.
The fine
example of Australian womanhood heard in Rocks Off can now be heard again
around 00:42 telling someone near her to sit down, she follows this up by
saying: I didn’t pay 5 bucks to look at your arse, so sit down will you, she
continues her tirade by saying Sit down you little fuckwit, yelling out to
others Sit down you fuckwits, someone else cops a serve when she calls them A
bloody idiot.
In amongst
this plus after Love In Vain finishes you can hear others telling the people
asking them to sit down to stand up.
Mick wore
at this show around his neck an extremely long scarf, both sides of it trailing
nearly down to the ground, he’d discarded it earlier but picks it up in a
non-singing part of Love In Vain to perform a slow type of Dance Of The Seven
Veils (minus 6) with it.
For Sweet
Virginia Mick sports a cowboy hat borrowed from someone on the stage.
On
completing the song said he says: You can have your hat back Newman, which
means the hats owner is Newman Jones The 3rd who was at the time Keith’s guitar
technician.
Nice touch
in All Down The Line is when Mick can be heard saying: Go Mick just before he
does his lead break.
One of the
numbers that got the crowd jumping & considered to be one of the evening's
highlights was Midnight Rambler, Jagger at one point laid down on the stage
with the microphone between his knees,
then he
stood up, took off his belt, dropped to his knees & did his trick of
belting the stage with it. I’m positive it was during the instrument section of
the song that Mick climbed up onto Nicky Hopkins piano, laid down flat across
it then proceeded to dry hump it like he was on top of an invisible Hollywood
starlet!
When
introducing the band Mick dead set forgot to introduce Bobby Keyes, however the
next night after introducing Bobby Keys he simply said: Forgot him last night.
During
Jumping Jack Flash Bobby Keys grabbed a tambourine playing it while he danced
around.
On one
number, possibly the last number of the night Street Fighting Man, Ian Stewart
& Jim Price sat down either side of Nicky Hopkins at the piano for a quick
tinkle on the ivories.
For Street
Fighting Man they pulled out all the stops, as it built to the finale the music
seemed to get louder, faster with Mick standing in the one spot with arms
outstretched spinning around & around.
He’d do the
same the next night but this time with hundreds of multi coloured ping pong
balls being poured down over & around him by roadies above.
As soon as
the song was finished off they went, the audience begging for an encore but to
no avail, instead we got over the PA Land Of Hope & Glory along with a
fireworks display.
Next day’s
newspapers ran stories that when the fireworks were taking place the 300 odd
horses that are stabled at Randwick went mental.
Next
morning the powers that be at the Racecourse wanted the fireworks to be banned
for that night’s gig show, however a compromise was reached so the fireworks
were set off a mile from the racecourse so not to spook the horses for a second
time.
The set
list was basically the same as on the 1972 US Tour, apart from two differences,
the first being Honky Tonk Women which in 1972 was an occasional encore but now
was inserted into the middle of the set. The second change was that for the
last 4 Australian gigs Little Queenie replaced Bye Bye Johnny, possibly because
the live version from Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out was released in 1971 as a single in
Australia, reaching No 29 in the charts. It achieved respectable airplay so it
was a song known by a Australian audience.
It’s was
the next night’s concert on the 27th February that Keith has famously been
quoted as saying that he dropped acid before the show & on hearing a
playback of the show back at the Kingsgate Hotel
he thought
he played great. The 27th February show can be identified by Micks Jumpsuit
being shredded from the knee down, also the ping pong footage shown briefly in
the Stones film Crossfire Hurricane is from the 27th.
The Stones
musicianship on the 1973 Australian tour seems to have been to be a notch above
the much loved 1972 American Tour.
IMHO the
band especially by the time they get to Sydney are running on all cylinders
with extra fuel in the tank than the year before, add to this Jagger’s
Australian performances he seems to be
far more
energetic, more theatrical & flamboyant, for example look at him in Gimme
Shelter & Happy in Deniz Teks recently surfaced 1973 Randwick footage.
Jagger‘s mum was Australian making him half Australian, to this day Mick has
many relatives living in Sydney.
When it was
announced in 1969 that he would be playing the lead role in a movie about
Australian national hero albeit a murdering criminal Ned Kelly he was rubbished
unmercifully in the Australian media, along the lines of how dare that pale
pasty faced skinny effeminate English pop singer portray Ned Kelly. Jagger was
pissed off with the negativity he received by taking on that role so maybe
because of the media attack on him he decided that on the Stones first
Australia tour since then to camp it up when performing here.
The only
bootleg release of Doris’s recording is The Rolling Stones Winter Tour 73 a 2CD
set on Idol Mind Productions IMP -CD 106-17, taken from an unknown high
generation cassette. This tape here of course is superior to that. Note that Sydney
wouldn’t play host again to a Stones gig for another 22 years!
At the end
of Side Two of Doris’s cassette he’d taped a Mick Jagger Interview from Sydney
Radio 2SM broadcast in December 1974 where Jagger basically talks about Mick
Taylor leaving the Stones.”
