Category Archives: Concert films

Muddy Waters and Rolling Stones live at The Checkerboard Lounge 1981

checkerboard

Muddy Waters and Rolling Stones live at The Checkerboard Lounge 1981

The Stones rushed into the small club unannounced. There was no VIP area, so they sat in front of the stage as Muddy kept playing. Drummer Charlie Watts sat out the Checkerboard trip, but Jagger, Richards, Ronnie Wood and keyboardist Ian Stewart were all willing participants. One of the highlights is “Mannish Boy,” with Waters standing up from his stool for the first time to jump up and down with Jagger as they wail “I’m a rolling stone.”

Richards swigged Jack Daniel’s straight out the bottle. Mick Jagger chewed lots of gum. “The Stones drank about five bottles of Jack in two hours,” said Thurman.

– The Chicago Sun Times (Read More)

Country Boy:

muddy waters rolling stones

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Classic Documentary: The Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter

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Classic Documentary: The Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter

“It’s creating a sort of microcosmic society, which sets an example to the rest of America as to how one can behave in large gatherings.”
– Mick Jagger

“Altamont was supposed to be like Woodstock, only groovier, and their movie would be groovier still. Instead, the Stones got what no one had bargained for: a terrifying snapshot of the sudden collapse of the sixties.”
– Godfrey Cheshire

Gimme Shelter is a 1970 documentary film directed by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin chronicling the last weeks of The Rolling Stones’ 1969 US tour which culminated in the disastrous Altamont Free Concert. The film is named after “Gimme Shelter”, the lead track from the group’s 1969 album Let It Bleed. The film was screened at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition. It is one of the greatest documentaries ever made, not just in the music documentary genre. The last third of the picture is painful to watch but difficult to turn away from.

Gimme Shelter (full documentary/concert movie):

The Maysles brothers filmed the first concert of the tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City. After the concert, the Maysles brothers asked the Rolling Stones if they could film them on tour, and the band agreed.

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Classic concert: Jan Garbarek live Wackerhalle Berghausen 2006 – Happy birthday

photo: Dimitris Papazimouris
photo: Dimitris Papazimouris
Classic concert: Jan Garbarek live Wackerhalle Berghausen 2006 – Happy birthday

Jan Garbarek (born 4 March 1947) is a Norwegian tenor and soprano saxophonist, active in the jazz, classical, and world music genres. Garbarek was born in Mysen, Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war Czesław Garbarek and a Norwegian farmer’s daughter. Effectively stateless until the age of seven (there was no automatic grant of citizenship in Norway at that time) Garbarek grew up in Oslo. At 21, he married Vigdis. He is the father of musician and composer Anja Garbarek.

Happy Birthday Jan Garbarek!

The band:
Jan Garbarek: Saxes
Eberhard Weber: Bass
Rainer Brüninghaus: Keyboards
Manu Katche: Drums/Percussion

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Classic Concert: Bruce Springsteen – Largo MD Aug 15 1978 (full concert)

first-1978-08-15-2

Classic Concert: Bruce Springsteen – Largo MD Aug 15 1978

“The screaming intensity of those ’78 shows are part of rock and roll legend in the same way as Dylan’s 1966 shows with the Band, the Rolling Stones’ tours of 1969 and 1972, and the Who’s Tommy tour of 1969: benchmarks of an era.”
– Dave March (1987)

A concert perhaps best known for the outstanding video footage available. “Backstreets” has some lines from “Pretty Flamingo” in the ‘Sad Eyes’ section. Tremendous versions of “Quarter To Three” (particularly the video) and “Prove It All Night” with the cab driver intro and an outstanding guitar solo. “Jungleland” cuts after Steve’s guitar solo, and the start of “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” is also missing – presumably due to tape changes. The show features a particularly loose and active Bruce, maybe because the next day he was going home to New Jersey for the first time in a year.
(from Brucebase)

Bruce Springsteeen’s tour of 1978 is legendary, a lot of the shows were broadcast for Radio and some were filmed as well. This show is a classic, Largo August 15 1978 sometimes referred to as Landover August 15 1978. All songs are good to fantastic, and it is in color!

The tour ran from May 1978 through the rest of the year, in conjunction with the release of Springsteen’s album Darkness on the Edge of Town. Like most Springsteen tours it had no official name, but this is the most commonly used; it is also sometimes referred to as the Darkness on the Edge of Town Tour or most simply the 1978 Tour.)

The tour has since become viewed as perhaps Springsteen’s best in a storied career of concert performances.

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Classic concert: Mink DeVille at Winterland SF June 7 1978

Ace Records press picture
Ace Records press picture

Classic concert: Mink DeVille at Winterland San Francisco June 7 1978

Bob Dylan in a Post-MusiCares Conversation with Bill Flanagan:
ARE THERE ANY OTHER PERFORMERS BESIDES BILLY LEE RILEY THAT YOU CAN RECOMMEND FOR THE HALL OF FAME?

Yeah sure, Willy DeVille for one, he stood out, his voice and presentation ought to have gotten him in there by now.

I AGREE WITH YOU, MAYBE HE’S BEEN OVERLOOKED. HE CARRIED A LOT OF HISTORY. THE DRIFTERS, BEN E. KING, SOLOMON BURKE, STREET CORNER DOO WOP AND JOHN LEE HOOKER WERE ALL THERE IN WHAT HE DID AND HOW HE PERFORMED.

I think so too.

YOU SUGGESTED THAT SOME OF THE ACTS IN THE HALL OF FAME MIGHT NOT BE TRUE ROCK & ROLL. YOU MENTIONED THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS, ABBA, ALICE COOPER. I HAVE TO STICK UP FOR STEELY DAN. NOT EVERYTHING THEY DID WAS ROCK & ROLL BUT “BODHISATTVA,” “SHOW BIZ KIDS,” “MY OLD SCHOOL” – THOSE SONGS ROCKED LIKE A BASTARD.

Yeah they might have rocked like a bastard, and I’m not saying that they didn’t, but put on any one of those records and then put on “In The Heat of the Moment” by Willy or “Steady Driving Man” or even “Cadillac Walk.” I’m not going to belittle Steely Dan but there is a difference.

Amen.

I’ve been a huge Mink Deville/Willy DeVille fan since I saw him at the 9th Rockpalast Night on tv in 1981. He behaved like a superstar from the beginning, he was just so cool.

Today’s Classic Concert was found in the archives of the late promoter, Bill Graham, who booked DeVille into the popular Winterland in the summer of 1978 on the same bill as Nick Lowe with Rockpile and Elvis Costello & the Attractions.

The best material from his first two albums are present here, including “Spanish Stroll,” “Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl,” “Guardian Angel,” “Cadillac Walk,” “Steady Drivin’ Man,” and “Soul Twist.” He gives a great vocal performance on a number of these songs, especially, “Soul Twist.” You should also check out the May 5 Concert at Capitol Theatre the same year, equally good but with lesser video quality (slightly).

Mink DeVille at Winterland 1978 the full set:

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