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July
5th 1969. |
The Stones in the Park.
Rolling
Stones, Family, Battered Ornaments (without
Pete Brown), King Crimson, Roy Harper , Third Ear Band, Alexis
Korner's New Church, Screw.
photo © George Wallis |
This
is the only Hyde Park concert
about which is easy to find TOO MUCH information .However, 99% of what is
available is related to the Rolling Stones
performance, -which was dodgy to say the least - but there is almost nothing
about the other bands, who in general out performed the Stones on the day.
There was so much hype about this show, and so much emotion, that when the
event actually occurred, there was no way that it could have managed to
live up to its expectations. Also, true to form , it was NOT a good place
to debut a new line-up, like Blind Faith, the
Stones were not particularly well prepared , Jagger
seemed ill at ease, Keith was inexplicably reduced to a cipher. Whilst Mick
Taylor did well to perform so well in front of such a huge audience
he had not yet become an integral part of the bands sound .
I was there, along with a couple of hundred thousand others , but I must admit that I got far more enjoyment out of seeing The Who and good old Chuck Berry wow a couple of thousand souls in the Albert Hall later on in the afternoon- but I digress, more of that later...... |
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Is it really necessary to recap on the events leading up to this show ? Perhaps , if only for the younger readers benefit.... .Briefly, after many months of problems too numerous to recount here, founder Stone ,Brian Jones , left , or was chucked out of the band for good . Some said he was treated dreadfully by the Stones, thus exacerbating his personal problems, , others maintained that he was clearly past his musical use by date and was a washed up drug addled waste of space. Whatever, he left and very shortly was found dead in his swimming pool -in dubious circumstances that have never been properly explained . The free concert in Hyde Park that The Stones had planned to debut their new wunderkid guitarist Mick Taylor suddenly became a memorial concert in Brian's name as the shocked Stones tried to come to grips with the finality of Master Jones demise........ |
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However,
as I've already said, this was not a musical triumph by any means. By the time
we got to the show, there must have already been around 80.000 there and we
managed to squeeze ourselves into a niche with a reasonably good view and some
shade ,around the line of the first trees. If you look at the photo above, we
were in the shade about a third of the way in from the left. Not exactly ringside
seats, but near enough to get some idea of what was going on on-stage and to
experience fairly good sound .
There were highlights, of course,
Family were as usual , great , possibly the highlight
of the day , but slightly muted by the distance. Roger Chapman , their manic
lead singer, he with the voice that sounded like a mix of a strangled goat and
an elderly parson having a seizure, or gargling some unpleasant liquid , was
his usual over the top self and the crowd response was good. The fledgling King
Crimson were a hit, their speedball paced "21st Century Schizoid Man" and Court
Of The Crimson King , impressing many in the crowd, including myself. I was
particularly taken by Fripp's guitar playing, more so than the material itself
, which I always found a bit overbearing in those days, I really came on board
the Crimson flagship around the Larks Tongues in Aspic era.
| These were the highlights for me .There were a lot of bands, but the others did not really hit the musical g spot. The Battered Ornaments ,without Pete Browns patent madness ,were just not the same , Alexis Korner -who I admired greatly- was ok , but came nothing near his real potential, even though he had some very good players in his band . Screw have faded away completely due to the fact that they were pretty awful , I liked the Third Ear Band , but they were too ethereal for this show to make any real impact and I can't remember Roy Harper even being on the bill, but then again, I saw him so many times in this era that the gigs just all melt into one mass . He was the sort of performer one needed to see close up to really appreciate his true worth - which was ( and still is ) considerable. |  |
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A couple of attendees also maintain that Donovan did a very short set , but so far I have yet to see any press reports that confirm this , its possible, but they also may just be confusing two concerts as Donovan also played at the Blind Faith show a few months before. The
Stones themseleves were really pretty underwhelming and since we've all
been able to view the film of the event, we can see that they were not
on top form. However,
its also fairly easy to see just why they were uncertain of themselves.
They were under a lot of criticism about Brian Jones'
death , many people saw the booting out of Jones as unfair in the
first place and there were rumours that he had killed himself in despair
over his ousting by Jagger and Richards. Then this was the debut of Mick
Taylor. It must have been pretty daunting for Mick -to go out boldly
armed only with a split infinitive and his axe and be expected to impress
an audience of 250,000 in less than ideal circumstances. In the circumstances
he did very well , in fact he probably played better then Keith did .......
Left: The two Micks onstage , photo @ Rob Walls 1969 |
However, by this time, we were gone , running like the hounds of hell were after us, across the park and through the subway to the Albert Hall .just in time to see The Who and Chuck Berry , both of whom knocked the spots off the Stones performance wise, but thats another story........
Howard Posner has this to add about the Who Berry show later on in the day
Yes.
For what it's worth I agree with you about the Albert Hall gig
later that night being far better than the day concert.
In those days they hadn't cracked outdoor rock concert accoustics
properly.
But
the Albert hall gig that night was legendary mostly 'cause of the Who. Chuck
Berry got on stage first, the Hells Angels with energy to burn from the day
gig went mad,and Chuck lasted about half an hour
(admittedly brilliant) before security got him offstage with the bikies wrecking
the seats in the stalls and causing general mayhem.
Pete
Townsend came on, to much abuse from the pit, and proceeded to play the whole
of Tommy + lots more to help keep the lid on things. Went for about 3 and a
half hours. In front of him it was like a warzone,with
running fights between security and the bikies. Single best live performance
I've ever seen, 'cause it was seriously violent down there.
I was lucky enough to be in a box, observing and grooving with other beautiful
young things. (Oh to be a beautiful young thing again).
The others in our box were, I think, Howard Abrahams, Suzy Shearman, Peta Heskell
and my brother Jim. Maybe not, time blurs things.
Howard Posner
Screw
Chris Turner (harmonica),
Al Kinnear (guitar),
Nick Brotherwood (drums),
Stan Scrivener (bass)
Pete Hossell (vocals)
The personnel included GRAHAM NEILL on guitar. He is still very much around and performs the world over as a world class guitarist. Please put him on the site list, he's missing.
David Turner
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Alexis Korner (guitar)
Peter Thorup (guitar, vocals)
Nick South (bass)
Ray Warleigh (sax)
Sappho Korner (percussion, vocals)
I would just like to reply to your request to contribute any info on this concert. My name is Nick South and I played bass with Alexis Korner's New Church at this 'Stones In The Park' concert. Colin Hodgkinson did many gigs with Alexis but on this occasion I was playing bass with Alexis. Alexis and I and the rest of New Church had been playing in a new band with Brian Jones right up to his unexpected death and we went on to play this concert.
It was quite an experience, but the egotism of youth often stops you being aware of how relevant to others the situation you are in is.... I remember being startled on stage when the giant potted palm tree fell over on Peter Thorup who was playing guitar and singing backup. I didn't have a big backstage experience, I was locked into my playing thing before the gig, and then I went out to find friends after - I never really was that involved in the backstage thing.
Colin
joined more permanently with Alexis a little later and I went on to play with
Robert Palmer in Vinegar Joe and then a lot of other bands... I've added a LP/CD
release that shows some shows we did in Germany in June '69 just before the
Stones gig in the park. Colin Dick Morrissey, Kenny Gutmann, Ron Aspery and
Adrian Tilbrock did the later tracks 7 + 8 in '75.
Cheers,
Nick South
| Alexis
Korner "... Meets Jack Daniels"LP Side 1 1. New Worried Blues 2. Rosie 3. Mary Open The Door 4. Funky Side 2 5. (Will The Circle Be Unbroken) Polly, Put The Kettle On 6. Clapping Song 7. Fly United 8. Vicksburg Blues Track 1-6 recorded Live in Germany on June 30th, 1969 - the first New Church gig at Recklinghausen Track 7- 8 are from German TV appearance (titled "Musiksack") at WDR TV3 in 1975 Alexis Korner, Peter Thorup, Sappho Korner, Nick South, Ray Warleig, Dick Morrissey, Kenny Gutmann, Ron Aspery, Adrian Tilbrock and Colin Hodgkinson Produced and published by Flashback, LP, L-2449 Luxemburg, Flash 01.91.0136-33 |
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| Battered Ornaments
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| Family.
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| Third Ear Band
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Photo courtesy © Chris Eve
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