THE ROLLING STONES AT KOOYONG 1973

CENTS

As the year 1973 dawned, legendary graphic designer, the late Ian ‘Macca’ McCausland had fulfilled his brief for a Rolling Stones Australian tour poster. And the Stones loved it! The iconic image of a jet airplane winging its way into the open lips and massive tongue of the famous Rolling Stones logo over a stylised relief map of Australia captured the sense of the tour’s importance with absolute perfection. Promoter Paul Dainty, the Stones’ manager Peter Rudge and their concert production manager Chip Monck immediately asked Macca to do one for the New Zealand leg of the tour. As the Australian tour progressed, Keith Richards invited Macca to spend the afternoon with him in the inner sanctum at the Hyatt Kingsgate Hotel (Kings Cross). One can only imagine the conversation that afternoon although, as Macca has commented, Keith’s helpful piece of advice was “rub it on your gums...”.

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of The Rolling Stones’ February 1973 Australian Tour, it’s time to ‘Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!’, to get your ‘Rocks Off!’ and ‘Rip This Joint!’

By Ian McFarlane

Before we get into the details of the Australian tour, it’s worth noting that Macca’s poster design remains one of the most important and enduring visual elements of the whole story. Macca didn’t create the Stones’ tongue logo for the Australian tour poster (as has sometimes been suggested) but his great skill was incorporating it into the overall design. Trying to get hold of an original poster now is next to impossible, but when they do come on to the market expect to pay top dollar. The tour poster for the New Zealand leg depicted a curious kiwi bird poking its long beak at the tongue logo on the ground. The Australian tour poster was originally folded and slipped inside the concert programme. There are stories of multiple copies of said poster having been discarded after the Kooyong concert and filling up the gutters along Glenferrie Road. If you were lucky, you got hold of an unfolded poster. Radio stations such as 3XY in Melbourne and 6KY in Perth had been supplied with a limited number of unfolded posters, on which they overprinted their station logos on the bottom left-hand side. I’ve written before that these unfolded posters were handed over at a record shop when you bought a Stones album but have found that they were available free (plus car stickers) from Walsh’s Jeans Dungeon, on the corner of Swanston and Bourke streets in the Melbourne CBD. Just how many of these posters (folded or unfolded) still exist is impossible to determine. >>>

>>> As Macca explained in Under The Covers The Music Graphics of Ian McCausland, Graeme Webber & Steve Malpass by Ed. Nimmervoll (1998): “Ron Blackmore, who was an old mate – he was Bobby and Laurie’s manager and the Rondells’ manager – was working for Paul Dainty. He made the initial contact with me, and I went to see Dainty. They asked me to come up with an idea for a poster for The Rolling Stones’ tour of Australia. “I did a colour rough of the idea and met with The Rolling Stones’ manager, Peter Rudge, and Chip Monck (the announcer on the Woodstock stage). Chip was designing the staging for the Stones’ tour. Everybody loved my idea, so I went ahead with the final airbrush illustration. I was halfway through that when they asked me to do one for New Zealand too.

“I met the Stones at the reception at Montsalvat when they arrived in Melbourne at the start of the tour. After the concert at Kooyong, Keith Richards invited me to come to Sydney with them. They had the top three floors of the Hyatt Kingsgate Hotel in Kings Cross. There was one spot near the hotel in William Street where there must have been 200 of the tour posters in a line along this curved wall. That just blew me out. It really did. I spent the whole afternoon with Keith... which was very interesting... and listened to Mick Taylor jamming with various people. The level at which the Stones toured was amazing. Everything was laid on. It was all highly organised. Mick Jagger was also very friendly and charismatic.”

THE ROLLING STONES ON TOUR, FEBRUARY 1973

The Rolling Stones’ 26-member entourage flew into Sydney, Australia, on the 8th of February, 1973. There were 10 tonnes of equipment, handled by the road crew, and with the addition of an extra 16 people, mostly Bob Jones security guards, the tour was underway. The main entourage included: Mick Jagger (vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), Charlie Watts (drums), Bill Wyman (bass guitar), Mick Taylor (guitar), Nicky Hopkins (piano), Bobby Keys (sax, percussion), Jim Price (trumpet, trombone), Ian Stewart (stage manager), Peter Rudge (band manager and tour commander), Leslie ‘Lunchtime’ Perrin (public relations manager), Leroy Leonard (Mick Jagger’s personal bodyguard), Chip Monck (stage / lighting designer and announcer), Patrick Stansfield (production manager), Anna Menzies (assistant) and Alan Dunn (assistant). In conjunction with Rudge, promoter Paul Dainty had put together nine concerts across Australia (plus one in New Zealand). Local tour supports were Madder Lake and Chain (Melbourne), Headband (Sydney), Pulse (Adelaide) and Fatty Lumpkin (Perth) – plus I’Tambu in Auckland. This was the third time the Stones had toured Australia. In January 1965 Roy Orbison, The Rolling Stones and Dionne Warwick played to appreciative crowds, with an astonishing nine concerts sold out for the Palais Theatre in Melbourne alone. It was also the era when authority figures still looked down upon the unruly, unkempt Stones with disdain. As the band’s manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, commented at the time, “We’ve been knocked by the Australian newspapers who keep trying to dig up scandal stories and run banner headlines about the Rolling Stones having all night parties. I wish we were!” They followed that up with The Rolling Stones-The Searchers joint tour of February 1966. It’s not my purposes here to give a full Stones touring history, but it is worth noting that by the time 1973 rolled around they were hailed as the “greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world”. The years 1969 to 1973 can rightly be considered the most glorious, the most explosive (and in some cases, the most tragic) era in the band’s history. Original guitarist Brian Jones had died in mysterious circumstances on 3 July 1969. Two days later the Stones staged their free outdoor concert in London’s Hyde Park, in front of an estimated audience of somewhere between 250,000-300,000 fans. It had been planned as a launch for the band’s new guitarist, Mick Taylor, but Jones’ death cast a different light on proceedings. Jagger read out two stanzas from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Adonaïs as a tribute to Jones, and then released several hundred white butterflies. Sadly, the decade ended more tragically for the Stones, with the infamous Altamont Free Concert on 6 December, during which the Hells Angels stabbed to death young African American Meredith Hunter. The Maysles brothers captured the events in their tense documentary Gimme Shelter (1970). On a much brighter note, the Stones had just come off an unparalleled run of five classic albums – Beggars Banquet (November 1968), Let It Bleed (November 1969), Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! (September 1970), Sticky Fingers (April 1971) and Exile On Main St (May 1972) – and had already completed their next, Goats Head Soup (released August 1973). Furthermore, they were playing at the top of their game, having recently completed their boisterous and notorious (for its rock ’n’ roll excess) American Tour 1972 (aka Stones Touring Party S.T.P.) in support of Exile On Main St.

Two films had come off the back of that tour. The concert film Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones by Rollin Binzer only saw a limited theatrical release in 1974. It got an Australian VHS release in the early 1980s and has since come out on DVD. It’s a brilliant depiction of the Stones in their prime, being a tightly shot concert film sans unnecessary commentary. Secondly, Robert Frank’s Cocksucker Blues was a documentary shot in cinéma-vérité style. The Stones weren’t impressed, and they placed a court order which forbade the

film from being shown other than in very restricted circumstances; i.e. only to be shown once a year with the director present in person. The film has since surfaced online in various bootlegged versions of varying quality. Following the US tour, and as they were recording the new album, events took a turn which could have derailed the planned Pacific tour. It’s worth rolling out here the relevant dates and events covering November 1972 to February 1973.

THE ROLLING STONES AUSTRALIAN TOUR

(aka PACIFIC TOUR) 1973 - A CHRONOLOGY

(sourced from The Rolling Stones Chronicles: The First Thirty Years, 1990)

25th November - The Rolling Stones arrive in Kingston, Jamaica for four weeks’ recording sessions at the Dynamic Sound Studios. 30th - Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Mick Taylor fly to Los Angeles to plan their forthcoming Pacific tour. 2nd December - Warrants are issued in Nice against Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg for drug offences. 4th - The other Stones fly to Nice to clarify matters relating to the alleged drug violations, both at Keith’s house in Villefranche-sur-Mer and aboard his yacht Mandrax. They return to Jamaica to continue work on the new album.

12th - The Stones may be forced to cancel their record-breaking Japanese tour (55,000 seats sold in five hours) due to the drug problems with the French police. 22nd - The Stones’ tour manager Peter Rudge returns to London after a 35,000 miles journey negotiating and finalising details for the Pacific tour with both governments and promoters. 23rd - An earthquake devastates Managua, Nicaragua, home of Bianca Jagger’s parents. 26th - Mick and Bianca leave London enroute for Nicaragua to search for her parents and relatives.

31st - In Managua Bianca is safely reunited with her parents

1973

4th January - One of the Stones is reported to have been refused entry to Australia. Neither name nor reason is given. 8th - Mick Jagger is banned from entering Japan because of his drug conviction six years earlier. 9th - Al Grassby, Minister for Immigration in the Whitlam Labor government, announces that there is no longer any ban on the entry of any member of The Rolling Stones. 10th - US magazine Billboard votes The Rolling Stones the Best Band of 1972. Mick Jagger announces his plan to give a benefit concert for Nicaraguan earthquake victims. 11th - It’s confirmed that the Stones’ Japanese tour has been cancelled. 14th - They are in Los Angeles rehearsing for their Pacific tour. 18th - They play the Nicaraguan benefit concert at The Forum, Inglewood California. They raise $516,810 and are presented with a commemorative plaque by the Nicaraguan Ambassador. 20th - They fly to Honolulu. 21st/22nd - They start their Pacific tour with three shows at the International Sports Centre, Honolulu. 23rd - They return to Los Angeles 5th February - They play two shows at the Football Stadium in Hong Kong 8th - They arrive in Sydney. 9th - They hold a press conference in Sydney. 10th - They fly to Auckland, New Zealand 11th - Concert at Western Springs Stadium, Auckland.

13th - First Australian concert at the Milton Park Tennis Courts, Brisbane. 14th - Second concert at Milton Park. 16th - Press conference at the artists’ colony Montsalvat, Eltham, Victoria. 17th - They play two concerts at the Kooyong Tennis Courts, Melbourne. 18th - Third Melbourne concert at Kooyong. 20th - Concert at Memorial Drive, Adelaide. 21st - Second concert at Memorial Drive. 24th - Concert at the Western Australia Cricket Ground (WACA), Perth. 26th/27th - They wind up their Australian tour with two concerts at the Royal Randwick Racecourse, Sydney. 28th - The Stones leave Australia, going their separate ways on holiday. Bill Wyman flies to the States, Charlie Watts to France. Keith Richards to Jamaica, Mick Taylor to Indonesia and Mick Jagger to the States via Jamaica.

Rock ’n’ roll tours of Australia had been a fixture on the musical landscape since the time of Lee Gordon’s Big Shows of the late 1950s. Once again, it’s not in my purposes here to give a history of that, but let’s consider this; since May 1971 Australian rock fans had been treated to the following: Deep Purple-Free-Manfred Mann Chapter Three (May 1971); The Kinks (May 1971); Pink Floyd (August 1971); Elton John (October 1971); Led Zeppelin (February 1972); John Mayall (March 1972); Chicago (June 1972); Jethro Tull (July 1972); Cat Stevens (August 1972); Joe Cocker (October 1972); Black Sabbath (January 1973); and Slade-Status QuoCaravan-Lindisfarne (January 1973). Promoter Paul Dainty had toured Roy Orbison, Cat Stevens and The Kinks but with the success of the Stones tour it launched him and his company on to greater heights. Writer Stuart Coupe discussed this in his book The Promoters (Inside Stories From The Australian Rock Industry) (2003). He described the Stones tour as “the tour that really established Dainty’s name and gave him the stamp of credibility that he’s maintained for nearly thirty years”. Dainty had initially got a call from Peter Rudge in his agency’s London office; Cat Stevens’ manager had told Rudge how well his Australian tour had gone. Rudge came to the office and after a night of talking and drinking said, “Right, you’ve got the tour”. Dainty had to go to the ANZ bank in London and get a loan in order to finance the tour. He secured the £100,000 he needed as a deposit for the tour. >>>

>>> Coupe wrote, “The 1973 Rolling Stones tour, still one of the most memorable visits by a band to this country, made Dainty a lot of money – and became his calling card forever. The tour was not without its incidents. I tell Dainty that Keith Richards doesn’t remember any of the concert at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney because someone spiked his and saxophonist Bobby Keys’ drink with LSD and the effects kicked in just as they headed towards the stage.” Dainty built a strong relationship with the Stones, going on to promote their Voodoo Lounge (April 1995) and Licks (February 2003) Australian tours.

“I’VE ALWAYS FELT MORE SEXUAL THAN POLITICAL.”

(Keith Richards)

With such a high-profile tour in progress, it was inevitable that the band came under a lot of attention and scrutiny. A crew from the ABC-TV’s rock show Get To Know (GTK) followed the tour, day and night. Reporter Jeune Pritchard basically had unlimited access. As well as going to the press conferences and concerts, Pritchard established an excellent rapport with the musicians and interviewed Jagger and Richards face-to-face. The subsequent ABC-TV documentary, The Rolling Stones In Australia, narrated by Pritchard, gave an incredible insight into how a rock ’n’ roll tour should be run. The documentary is readily available to view on-line. The interviews were filmed at the Montsalvat press conference, and the concert footage was from Kooyong. At the start, as Pritchard describes how the Stones are on their way to Kooyong for their first Melbourne concert a grinning Jagger says, “Hello Jeune, how are ya luv, awright? See ya after.” In fact, Jagger conducts himself with the utmost professionalism throughout. Pritchard’s commentary aimed at various members is both pertinent and amusing. She says: “Michael Philip Jagger, leader of The Rolling Stones for 10 years. He’s on his way to another Australian concert. He’s feeling the strain of performing in extreme heat in open air venues. But the tour is going well.

Keith Richards at Montsalvat

The Stones have been living up to their reputation as the Greatest Rock & Roll group. The only disappointments have been for the press, no hotel sieges, no mass hysteria and no major scandals. On the Australian tour the music was to be more important than the headlines.” “Keith Richards, guitarist and songwriter, maybe the creative genius within the group, a ‘Deadly Nightshade’, who won’t live to 70.” “Mick Taylor, guitarist, he’s into the music more than the performance. Jagger treats him gently for he seems rather fragile.” “Charlie Watts, drummer, audiences seem to identify closely with him, he seems the most approachable but is easily bored. At press conferences he relates more to his glass of Blue Nunn.” “Bill Wyman, bass man.” “Peter Rudge, The Rolling Stones’ manager, the tour commander, the ringmaster, he has complete authority which usually goes unchallenged.” “Leroy Leonard, Mick’s personal bodyguard, he’s always on stage and gathers the clothes and jewels that Mick discards.” Pritchard asks Richards: “What are your feelings in a radical way or a sexual way? You’ve never really gotten into a lot of political stuff. The Stones usually have sexually based songs.” He replies: “Yeah, well, I’ve always felt more sexual than political. I could never get that worked up about Edward Heath, you know. It’s just whatever reaches you first.” Pritchard says that the Australian mainstream press tried very hard to find a sensational angle with the headlines. Two ounces of a grass-like substance was found in the charter plane carrying the Stones equipment to Brisbane, but there was no direct link with the band and the issue was dropped (seems that one of the road crew may have taken the rap). In Adelaide, fans were arrested when a crowd of 4,000 tried to storm one of the concerts, but there really was no big news to be manufactured. The only hiccup occurred in Sydney when unscrupulous individuals forged 200 tickets, selling them for $5.50 (30¢ above the official price of $5.20). There were some last desperate headlines in the broadsheets – “Forgeries Check: Fraud Squad at Stones Concert” and “Scalpers trick Stones fans - $4,000 goes in Forged Ticket Scandal” – but that was it. And with no scandals regarding hysterical groupies clambering for the Stones’ attention, many were left scratching their heads. When Pritchard asked fans outside the Kooyong concert, the response was: “Nah, I wasn’t interested in going out to the airport for their arrival, I’m just interested in their music.” “No one’s interested in that anymore. I think we’re growing out of that sort of thing. That was back in The Beatles days. People don’t do that anymore, they come to hear their music.” “Nah, too much bother.” “I think most people come for the music. That’s what I came for.” At the press conferences, a couple of reporters attempted to ensnare the Stones. It highlights the rather parochial attitude still prevalent in Australia at the time. The musicians took it in their stride, being firm with their responses and with relatively good humour. Sydney reporter: “With respect (sic), you look like the Wreck of the Hesperus with the kind of gear you’re wearing...” Mick Jagger: “The Hesperus! Is that mythological?” Reporter: “No, it’s not mythological. You look very different from what we expect people to look like. Is this the way you like to dress?” Keith Richards: “That’s because you live down here and I live somewhere else.” (Jagger lets out a huge guffaw and grins madly.) Reporter: “That may be so but is there any reason? Why do you like to dress like you do?” KR: “Probably the very same reason you like to dress the way you do.”

Reporter: “Which is what?” KR: “Don’t tell me your reason for dressing the way you do.” Reporter: “That effeminate gear that you’ve got on? I’m not trying to be offensive, I’m just asking why you look like you do?” KR: “Then don’t be offensive.” Reporter: “I’m not intending to be offensive.” KR: “Then you’re doing it very well.” MJ: “That’s alright, we just dressed up like this for you today.” There’s a discussion about letting bands into the country in order to tour. MJ: “I think that’s to do with the previous government.” KR: “Australia doesn’t have a very good reputation as far as bands are concerned, as far as hospitality. You’re known as the most inhospitable country.” MJ: “Well, not the people, we’re just talking about officials.” KR: “We’re not here to take over the country, or the world, or anything like that, man. We’re just rock ’n’ roll musicians.” MJ: “I think the mafia would find it easier to get in here than we would.”

At Montsalvat, a Melbourne reporter was put in his place when he said: “There is a story going round that someone tried to smuggle some pot into the country, is that right?” MJ: “Who did?” KR: “What kind of pot?” MJ: “I don’t understand the question.” Reporter: “You don’t understand the question? It’s not true then?” MJ: “I don’t understand the question.” Reporter: “I thought the question was quite plain enough.” MJ: “No, I’m very sorry sir, there was no one trying to smuggle pot into the country. Phone up anybody.” Reporter: “Mr Grassby, our immigration minister...” MJ: “Yeah well, ask him, phone him up and ask him.” Reporter: “He defended you very strongly, he came out very much in your favour. What do you think of him?” MJ: “Well, one thing he wanted to put across was that Australia was part of Southeast Asia, which was very admirable, I thought. After years of isolation. The only way I can see that happening is more Southeast Asians coming here. It’s very difficult to be part of SEA if you don’t understand that mentality. He was very nice.” (Al Grassby had said, “The Rolling Stones are an excellent example to Australian Youth. I told them I was putting my faith in them and that they would do the right thing. I have no regrets that I let them in. Yes, I went out on a limb to give them visas. To give a man a bad name and hang him is immoral and unAustralian.”) The reporter asks something else which is inaudible and at this point Jagger loses his cool, pointing his finger as he says, “Then if you start on that story, that’s why we can be rude to you because you’re starting on that. If you want to follow up with that TV journalism rubbish, then you’re pretty low. So, watch out boy!” Music writer Jen Jewel Brown was at the Montsalvat press conference, in her role (known then as Jenny Brown) reporting for The Digger. It was her 21st birthday and she plucked up the courage to invite the Stones to her party that night in the leafy eastern suburb of North Balwyn. Unexpectedly, at 3am, Richards, Taylor and Keys arrived in a limo and stayed at the party for about an hour and a half. As Brown explained to Tony Wilson in The Best Music Writing Under The Australian Sun (edited by Christian Ryan, 2014), “They blessed me with their royal presence.” In Wilson’s chapter of the book, ‘Keith’s Melbourne Wife: In quest of a woman in a paragraph’, he draws our attention to said paragraph in Richards’ book Life (2010). Richards writes that he met a woman, “She had a baby. Sweet, shy, unassuming, she was on the scuppers; the old man had left her with the kid.” She could also get him pharmaceutical cocaine, and rather than waiting for her to arrive at the hotel, he explains that he simply moved in with her. “Living in the suburbs of Melbourne for a week with a mother and child was kind of weird. Within four or five days I was like a right Australian old man.” He says he took care of the baby while she went to work, even changed his diapers; “There’s somebody in a suburb in Melbourne who doesn’t even know I wiped his ass.” How Richards fitted that week in, given the tightness of their Melbourne stay, is dubious. As Wilson writes, “Still, a bit of mystery makes this story folklore, and Keith is the master of folklore.” He was inspired to go on a quest to find the woman. With Jen’s help he does find her, Karen, who it turns out was at Jen’s 21st birthday party that night. To cut a long story short, Karen met Keith there, Keith asked if she could get cocaine (which she could), he invited her back to the hotel, she got the cocaine from her dealer (about “five thousand dollars worth”) and attended all three of the Kooyong shows. >>>

Al Grassby and The Rolling Stones by Chris Grosz

>>> So, Keith’s ‘week in the suburbs’ was more like a long weekend, then. He did, however, take a limo ride out to Karen’s house in South Caulfield. He’d brought along his guitar and also played with her son, Shannon, but as Karen told Wilson, “I didn’t leave Keith in charge of my son!” and “He changed his nappy once. It was just a wet one. Not poopy.” Shannon’s father was Barry ‘Big Goose’ Sullivan, legendary bass player with Chain who also supported the Stones. Keith’s last words to Karen were, “Lady, you’ve got soul.” Go-Set reporter Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum followed the tour and had much to write. The cover for the 3 March issue featured the headline AT LAST! THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH! and a close-up live shot of Jagger, with tongue poking out (taken by photographer Richard Crawley). In his usual hyperactive, non-sequitur strewn prose Meldrum let everyone know how much he enjoyed the concerts. He asked Jagger, “Have you been surprised by the audience reaction in this country?”. The singer replied, “Yeah, it’s been really nice. Actually, it was a total surprise to me. A lot of things have changed in this country over the last two or three years.” After the conclusion of the last Sydney show, Meldrum wrote, “We have over the past three weeks witnessed the performances of the GREATEST ROCK AND ROLL BAND IN THE WORLD... and I openly admit that when the STONES swung into STREET FIGHTING MAN at the second and final SYDNEY RANDWICK CONCERT I really had to fight back the odd tear of two... it’s been a magnificent tour in every sense of the word.” David N. Pepperell, writing in Go-Set, focused on Melbourne support band Madder Lake, “They impressed just about everybody at the Rolling Stones concerts. It was an enormously difficult task to open a show featuring the Greatest Rock Band in the world and they certainly gave their all, as usual, to the crowd. Their sound and presentation were first class and caused Peter Rudge, the Stones’ tour manager, to remark on what a fine band they were. The raving ‘12lb Toothbrush’ had the audience rocking and excited, and ‘Goodbye Lollipop’ had even the die-hards tapping their feet. Mick Fettes was a thoroughly pleasing lead singer, sometimes humorous, sometimes screaming and rasping, sometimes just rapt in the music and completely oblivious to anything else. Brenden overcame the problem of a leg injury magnificently and played with extreme taste – I especially liked his use of wah wah and feedback effects.”

Madder Lake. Courtesy of Bruce Thomas.

“THANK YOU FOR BEING SO SWEET”

(Mick Jagger)

So, what about the actual concerts? Even before we mention the music, the first thing to note is that the Stones looked magnificent, Jagger and Richards in particular presenting as the height of gypsy chic, all draped scarves and shining jewellery. Mostly they played the regular 15-song set list, kicking off with a blistering version of ‘Brown Sugar’. It’s been noted elsewhere that they weren’t slick, they’ve never been that type of band but the musical communication between the members was sheer perfection throughout.

Melbourne set list:

1. ‘Brown Sugar’ 2. ‘Bitch’ 3. ‘Rocks Off’ 4. ‘Gimme Shelter’ 5. ‘Happy’ 6. ‘Tumbling Dice’ 7. ‘Love In Vain’ 8. ‘Sweet Virginia’ 9. ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ 10. ‘Honky Tonk Women’ 11. ‘All Down The Line’ 12. ‘Midnight Rambler’ 13. ‘Bye Bye Johnny’ 14. ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ 15. ‘Street Fighting Man’ Adelaide got ‘Little Queenie’ in place of ‘Bye Bye Johnny’, as did Perth and Sydney which the Stones then followed with ‘Rip This Joint’ making for a 16-song set. The Saturday Kooyong shows were notable for being on a sweltering hot Melbourne day, over 35° C. There was a huge canopy over the stage, to shield them from the sun’s relentless rays. Jagger pranced onto the stage with a parasol, which he soon discarded, while Watts got his own beach umbrella. Jagger’s bodyguard, Leroy Leonard, stayed on stage in the heat, clapping the whole time. Jagger wore a fetching blue velvet jump suit with a long red scarf wrapped around his impossibly thin hips. He strutted, he pouted, he jumped, he waved, he waggled his finger, never remaining still, and all the while he was splendid. During ‘Midnight Rambler’, he ripped the belt out of his jump suit, dropped to his knees and while screaming “Did you hear about the midnight rambler!” hit the stage three times with said belt. The crowd went wild.

swash-buckling rock ’n’ roll pirate he’s always been. Meanwhile Taylor, Wyman, Watts, Keys, Hopkins and Price clicked the whole machine into place. As front man, Jagger’s demeanour was impeccable even if his stage patter was well drilled. Generally, he did band introductions before ‘Bye Bye Johnny’. At the afternoon Kooyong show he said, “Thank you! I’d like to just tell you you’ve really been a good crowd this afternoon, you’re really acting great in this heat. I’d like to tell you who’s playing with us this afternoon. On piano we’ve got Nicky Hopkins (applause). On trumpet and trombone Jim Price (applause) on saxophone, and surprisingly sober, Mr Bobby Keys (applause). On guitar Mick Taylor (applause), ain’t he sweet? What else we got? (All the while the musicians were tuning their guitars, with strings having loosened in the heat.) We got... we gotta tune up don’t we. On drums we got Charlie Watts (applause). All he needs is an elephant, someone to brush the flies off ’im. Sorry, no flies on Charlie. On bass we got Bill Wyman (applause). And we got Keith Richards an’ all! (Loud applause).” As ‘Street Fighting Man’ ended Jagger signed off with, “Thank you very much, good afternoon, goodbye”, followed by Chip Monck saying in his inimitable, deep tones which we recall from the Woodstock movie, “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much on behalf of the Rolling Stones, they’re very hot, very tired. Thank you, good afternoon and good evening.” With 9,000 fans inside, the first Adelaide show hit a tense moment when some of the 4,000 fans listening outside decided they wanted to be inside as well. They tore down barbed wire fences, threw beer cans and clashed with police. It was reported that four policemen were injured and that 21 people were arrested. The next day, Jagger said he knew nothing about the riot. “We were playing and everybody in the audience was beautiful,” he said. There were also beer cans thrown at the Western Springs Raceway in Auckland, New Zealand, but seems that was due to ructions within the 30,000 strong crowd. Rolling Stone magazine reported that Jagger responded to the beer cans with kissed carnations. He faced the traditionally inhibited working-man audience, with a dramatic “I want to thank you all for being so sweet.” Still in Auckland, days after The Rolling Stones had departed, the local Rotary Club held a charity auction of the linen the band had used at the Hotel Intercontinental. “Sixteen cotton sheets and 16 pillowcases,” the Daily Times reported on Page 1, “went under the auctioneer’s hammer outside the hotel. Bidding was furious, and the prices soon went past the range of average Rolling Stones fans.” One man paid $459 for 12 sheets, which he cut up into handkerchiefs for sale, to benefit Boys Town. The four remaining sheets were the ones that had encased Mick Jagger; those went for $200 each.

I almost got through this piece without mentioning any of the multitude of bootlegs of the Australian shows that have turned up over the years. The audience recorded ones, as you might expect, generally have dodgy audio. The genuine stereo soundboard ones, however, are tremendous, with the Perth show (released as Rocks Off!) being one of the best – even though ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and ‘Street Fighting Man’ are missing. At the start Jagger says “Aw-right! Oh good lord sounds like... ” and he’s immediately cut off as Keith crashes in with the razor sharp opening chords of ‘Brown Sugar’. During his usual band introductions Jagger says of Watts, “... never misses a beat.” It was Nicky Hopkins birthday, so Jagger sang (an out of tune) ‘Happy Birthday’ and affectionately says, “In’t he lovely”. To heighten the moment more, stagehands brought out an enormous orange birthday cake festooned with candles. One wonders, was there a cake fight after the show? At the Perth show, after the support band had played, Monck walked on to the stage and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to an acrobat from Canada, Kaye Miller!” She wore a spangly costume and entertained the 15,000 strong crowd for a while and then the main event kicked off! In a final display of opulence if not decadence, for their Sydney concerts the guys arrived at Randwick in an open carriage drawn by four white horses. As the last strains of ‘Street Fighting Man’ faded, and the crowd screamed out for more Jagger said, “Thank you, thank you very much indeed, and good night, sweet dreams.”

Brenden Mason – top right.

Monck signed off again, “Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of The Rolling Stones, we bid you good night.” BRENDEN MASON

(Guitarist, Madder Lake)

Mason was hot on the spot, and he told me, “The thing I remember most about Madder Lake supporting The Rolling Stones at Kooyong, was that I was on crutches. I’d had a long-term knee issue, bone fragments in my knee, so I was finally convinced to have an operation. Straight after playing Sunbury ’73, I went into hospital for this knee operation. Leading up to the concert, I was supposed to have been released on the Thursday but the surgeon kept me in longer. And the expletives that came out of my mouth were beyond description because I missed out on the party with the Stones at Montsalvat on the Friday. It was for the press conference, and the other guys in Madder Lake got to go to this party. “I made it to Kooyong for the concerts. It was a stinking hot day, one of those classic Melbourne February summer days. I was hobbling around on crutches, holding my two guitars which were tuned and I never let anyone touch my guitars once they’re tuned. It took all my concentration to stay upright. The Stones had a hospitality area and we were allowed in, so we met Nicky Hopkins, Bobby Keys, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman. Mick Jagger was in another compound completely, and Keith Richards may have been on another planet for all I know. The other guys were fantastic to talk to. And we had access to all this food and alcohol that was laid on by the promoter. >>>

>>> “We went on stage and we immediately had a scary moment when our front line amps blew. Fortunately, Drak, our ever vigilant roadie, had brought along a second set of amps and set them up. That was a nerve-wracking moment, but we got through the set and we played really well. It was the most fabulous experience. Mickey Fettes was in his element, 100%, as the front man. We played our regular set, and one of the things I’ve heard from people over the years is that they loved Madder Lake that day. People were singing ‘na na nah nunna na nah’ on the tram after the concert. I thought ‘isn’t that nice!’.

“We stayed and got to watch the Stones play; they were great. I was never a Stones fan growing up, I thought they were too much like show ponies. But you make your judgements when you’re young then you see them in a setting like that and the screen is lifted. Mick Taylor was the standout musician in the band, such a quiet guy when we met him.

“We also have to thank Michael Gudinski for getting us the gig. He was in the process of launching Mushroom Records and he put his weight behind our profile, and also Chain’s profile. He was very determined and had a definite path for success in mind.”

BRIAN NANKERVIS

(RocKwiz MC)

Nankervis wrote in his article ‘Temperature Rising’, “I treasure that initial, heady thrill of seeing the band walk onto the stage in the blistering afternoon heat and begin playing. I laughed out loud when they launched into the first song, ‘Brown Sugar’. Laughed with sheer exhilaration and relief. Laughed to hear Keith Richards play those perfect chords out front of Charlie’s rock-solid beat. Here they were, The Rolling Stones playing right in front of me. I can still see the rows of amps covered in white material, Keith swaggering elegantly in bell-bottom jeans, Bill standing like a statue, Mick Taylor playing his guitar effortlessly, Bobby Keys stepping forward to play sax solos just like he played them on the records and the black security guard who sat on the side of the stage, clapping along with every single song while trams rattled along Glenferrie Road. “Surprisingly, I also recall a fleeting sense of disappointment watching Mick Jagger. I wanted him to look and move like he did in Gimme Shelter and yet three years later his hair seemed too short, the scarf and jump suit too glam and he appeared to be running rather than dancing. Be careful what you pray for. “But it was the Stones at last and I could easily dismiss these minor gripes and let myself get carried away with the show. They were loud and raw and a little loose, but the crowd soon spilled from their seats and danced in the concrete aisles and we were united, experiencing that intangible magic we’d been yearning for.”

MAX CRAWDADDY

(3RRR DJ)

Crawdaddy told me a little about his experience at The Stones’ Kooyong ’73 show, “I had just hit my teens and was a recent convert to The Rolling Stones, after spending my younger years totally devoted to the Fab Four. Thanks to a good friend who suggested I had a listen to Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!, which of course led me to purchasing Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St and the rest they say, is history. And again, thanks to a good friend, we scored tickets to see them at Kooyong. It was a stifling hot day and they opened with ‘Brown Sugar’, then hit us with ‘Bitch’ followed by ‘Rocks Off’. “Maybe it was the heat but the rest of the gig is a bit of a blistering-blur. I remember Mick’s blue satin jumpsuit and red scarf and the other Mick (Taylor) playing brilliantly, as did Charlie, Bill, Keith, along with Nicky Hopkins on keyboards and Bobby and Jim on the Horns. My other recollection, after the gig, was walking back exhausted to the railway station and noticing so many Tour posters in the gutter, because they weren’t stapled in, and they’d slipped out of the Tour souvenir programmes. I still have my programme and poster but thinking back now, I really wished I’d scooped a few up.”

Rolling Stones poster courtesy of the Max Crawdaddy Collection.

JAMES YOUNG

(Owner/booker Cherry Bar, Hotel Westwood, Yah Yah’s)

Young is a massive Stones fans and said, “The 50th anniversary of the 1973 Australian tour just reminds us of what an incredible band The Rolling Stones are. I’ve been very lucky to have seen them dozens of times since then, and they’re the band that I love more than any other. They’re also the longest-lived band of all time. “I was 6 years old when they toured in 1973. My parents had three tickets, one for my father, one for my mother and one for their friend. Dad got chicken pox, which was going around at the time, so he couldn’t go and they didn’t use the spare ticket. Maybe they sold it outside Kooyong. But they left the 6-year-old me at home! They could have taken me to my first rock concert, but it didn’t happen. “Fortunately, I have several bootlegs from the tour and one of the Melbourne shows, which is called Temperature Rising, is a favourite. The Perth concert (Rocks Off!) sounds incredible too. They’d just come off that five album chapter of classic albums, their greatest period ever, so they were playing at the top of their game. And Mick Taylor is the greatest guitarist that they’ve ever had.

“Going back 10 years ago, in partnership with Brian Wise, we organised the 40th anniversary tribute shows at the Corner hotel. We had Tim Rogers on vocals, the dual guitar assault of Davey Lane and Ashley Naylor, Matt from Even on drums, Ross from Snout on bass, Jack Howard from the Hunters on trumpet, Ben on sax and Eliza and Talei Wolfgramm on backing vocals (which the Stones didn’t have then but which I thought was a great idea). We also did a 45th anniversary show. So, for the upcoming 50th anniversary, I’m hoping I can weave a bit of magic, get the same band together and put on a tribute show in a certain larger venue. It’d be a big show, provided we can get permission and make it happen.”

DENIZ TEK

(Guitarist, Radio Birdman)

There’s also the story of Radio Birdman guitarist Deniz Tek selling a guitar to Keith Richards. Ann Arbor-born (MI, United States) Tek had arrived in Australia in February 1972 to commence his medical studies at NSW university. Tek had grown up listening to the MC5, The Stooges, The Rationals, Alice Cooper and all the other Detroit-based bands of the late ’60s-early ’70s. He was also a hardcore Stones fan. As he explained in Vivien Johnson’s book Radio Birdman (1990), he’d bought tickets for a concert in every city on the tour. He hitchhiked around the country to each gig. Before the last Sydney concert, he decided to meet the Stones. Having spent all his hard-earned cash on his Stones tickets, he had to sell a guitar, a 1948 National Town and Country. He found a way to contact Newman Jones, Keith Richards’ guitar tech, at the Hyatt Kingston and made his pitch. “Yeah, Keith really likes those. Bring it down to the hotel after the show tonight. It’s the last show, we’re leaving the country tomorrow, so it has to be tonight.” In the early hours of the morning, having got through two levels of security, Tek was finally on the top floor of the Hyatt, in the midst of a Stones party. Jones introduced him to Keith who started playing the guitar along to a soundboard recording of the Sydney show just completed. >>>

>>> Richards explained open G tuning, and other methods of his craft to Tek. It was a revelation for the young guitarist who had spent many hours trying to understand the secrets of how Richards played. “There were these things that I’d been trying to figure out for so many years, that were now told to me.” With the sun coming up, Richards peeled off a stack of $20 bills that someone had given to him, handed the money to Tek and the deal was done. “Hope you get yourself a nice guitar and thanks for this one,” Richards said. Tek also ventured to ask for a tour T-shirt to show his friends but because Richards was fresh out of Australian tour t-shirts, he gave him one from the 1965 American tour, a genuine collector’s item. Tek said, “I bought a Gibson SG and used that for a while. Yeah, it was great, fulfilled a dream for me – I felt like a rich person for a day – this great experience, money in my pocket. The next peak I had that rivalled it was recording with Radio Birdman at Rockfield studios five years later.”

The Rolling Stones – Kooyong 1973

By Brian Wise

“Nostalgia is a marvellous thing. Through its prism events can appear much better than they actually were and, given the filter of time, they can become increasingly so over the years.” That was what I wrote a decade ago reflecting on The Rolling Stones at Kooyong in 1973. Even allowing for the nostalgia factor, it is still the greatest concert I have ever attended. Not the most technically perfect. Not the most emotional. But the one that focused a whole range of factors through that prism to make it the greatest. To make it an even more personally important, The Rolling Stones had been the first band that I ever saw in concert. That was in February 1966 at The Palais, St Kilda. (Actually, the opening acts Max Merritt & The Meteors or The Searchers might have been first, but let’s not spoil the story). I had only been allowed to go because a much older friend, Graeme, from the local cricket club got tickets to the Saturday matinee show (remember them) and we drove to St Kilda in his Fiat 500.

Brian Wise and five friends at the Saturday afternoon show. Can you pick them?

The day before the show I was totally surprised that my father, who would drive through the city on his way home from work and occasionally pick me up from school, actually stopped off to go to 3UZ where the Stones were visiting Stan Rofe. I still cannot understand why I was allowed to see the Stones but just two months later was forbidden from seeing Dylan. Perhaps it was simply that I didn’t have an older friend who could get tickets. After that 1966 concert, my academic results crashed and became in direct inverse proportion to my interest in music. My future as a brain surgeon was doomed. In class, I sat next to my friend John who had been at school with me since prep and was even more obsessed with music than me. He combed his hair to resemble Brian Jones; he did look a little like him and affected the same pout. He also played guitar quite well. I bought a pair of Cuban heeled boots and a corduroy jacket. I have a photo taken in front of our back shed where I am pretending to be Keith Richards. That friendship was a dangerous combination. In class we drew up lists of band names. I devised a weekly Top 20 chart. The first No.1 was ‘Security’ by Thane Russal & Three, and it stayed there for 11 weeks. We would often get detention. John lived in

Ivanhoe and had a massive bungalow out the back of his house with a full-size pool table. He also had a real hi-fi system with huge speakers when most of us just had record players or radiograms. John had another school friend, also named John, whose father owned an import business and who travelled overseas often and would bring back the latest albums which we got to hear before anyone else. (I recently discovered that another friend shared the same experience at the same time just along the road with that same school friend - but that’s another story.) Music had inserted itself into our lives and was to become a life-long obsession for both of us. By the time the Stones returned in 1973, I was at Monash and by then involved in helping to set up 3MU, the student landline radio station. John was at RMIT and lived in Carlton. Our other school friend Kirk joined and then John’s girlfriend Jenny (later to be his wife) would be part of a tight group. We would spend Friday and Saturday nights at the Clyde Hotel – when we weren’t at a concert. The great 3UZ DJ Stan Rofe, whom I had known since 1966, lived opposite and would entertain us. Stan would give me albums that he was never going to play on his radio show. After the pub or a concert, we’d sit up all night at John’s flat in Wilson Street listening to music and talking all night. These were the days of (too much) wine and roses, when you thought your friendships would never end (and in some cases they haven’t). Somehow, possibly via the people who ran the record stall at Monash Uni, we discovered how to import records from the USA. We imported eight copies of Exile On Main St in August 1972 to avoid having to wait weeks for its local release. On my way to bring them to the Clyde I stopped for petrol and someone saw them in the backseat of my car. Word spread immediately and I sold five copies on the spot to other customers for $10 each! That was the sole extent of our import business. We spent the entire weekend listening to it, convinced that it was the greatest album ever released. Music had become more than an obsession; it was our life. A few months later we lined up overnight outside the MSD in Bourke Street, Melbourne, to buy tickets for the Kooyong shows. I think the ticket price was $5 and we could only afford one show. (I still have the Ian McCausland designed ticket with the set list written on the back). ‘Rain Hail or Shine - We Play’ it said. We celebrated with breakfast at the Pancake Parlour over the road. By the time the Stones actually arrived Exile On Main St had been out about six months when the Stones toured. We’d already agreed that 1969’s Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! was the greatest live album of all time and it had arrived in the middle of a sequence of albums that is still, I think, unparalleled, bookended by Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed then Sticky Fingers and Exile. We arrived for the first Stones show on the scorching afternoon of Saturday February 17, four of us piled into in my friend’s Triumph British racing green TR4. We parked on the fields across the road from Kooyong and entered the stadium to the insistent strains of Madder Lake playing ‘12lb Toothbrush’. I am sure they played it more than once. The other music we heard was Lou Reed’s Transformer album over the PA which had only been out for three months. ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ seemed adventurous. There was a seemingly endless wait for the Stones to appear under the beating sun. Most people didn’t wear hats or caps. (We’re paying for it now). The excitement was palpable, more so than I had ever felt at a concert before. The 1969 US tour had gone into legend, and they had completed another one there in July 1972 which we would have read about in Rolling Stone or Go-Set. Since the band last toured here in 1966, they had transformed their sound and adapted it, via some huge chugging riffs, for stadium and arena shows. This was undoubtedly the world’s greatest rock ’n’ band, and we were about to see its best line-up ever. Seated in the first tier of the grandstand to the right of the stage we had a perfect view. Finally, there was the roar of the audience as the Stones finally arrived and everyone stood to greet them as Keith struck the chords to ‘Brown Sugar’. It was like a massive sigh of relief that that were finally back. We followed Mick Jagger’s every move as he strutted across the stage while his bodyguard Leroy Leonard sat at the back surveying the audience in case someone attempted to invade the space. When Mick pounded his belt into the stage during ‘Midnight Rambler’ we emulated him. Mick Taylor stood at the back to the right of Charlie Watts’ drum kit, looking almost studious as he played mellifluously. The bell-bottomed Keith pounded out the riffs. Bill Wyman stood still, as ever. (Three years later I saw them in London after Taylor had been replaced by Ronnie Wood and it was definitely not the same band). The show was thrilling. Brilliant. Imagine the buzz from the best show you have ever seen then multiply it by ten. That is how it felt. Years ago, this was confirmed to me when someone sent me a film of the concert transferred to VHS with the Perth soundtrack dubbed in. (That’s a bootleg you must have!) The Kooyong set list was mainly taken from the band’s two most recent albums at the time - Exile and Sticky Fingers: ‘Brown Sugar’ / ‘Bitch’ / ‘Rocks Off’ / ‘Gimme Shelter’ / ‘Happy’ / ‘Tumbling Dice’ / ‘Love In Vain’ / ‘Sweet Virginia’ / ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ / ‘All Down The Line’ / ‘Midnight Rambler’ / Band introduction / ‘Bye Bye Johnny’ / ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ / ‘Street Fighting Man’. Of the 15-song set list, they still played at least seven during their 2022 shows. Afterwards, on a high, we drove back to the Clyde Hotel in Carlton for a post-mortem drink or six. Stan Rofe suddenly appeared brandishing tickets for the evening show and asked if we would we like to go? We piled into the TR4 again and sped back out to Kooyong for the second greatest show I have ever seen! Even allowing for the distortion of the sometimes-unreliable nostalgia lens, most people who saw The Rolling Stones at Kooyong in 1973 agree that it is the best rock ’n’ roll concert they have ever seen. That certainly has not changed for me but on reflection I realise that it was the culmination of a lot of factors: love of music, youth, but most importantly friendship.