ORAL HISTORY OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS ROCK TOURS IN MUSIC HISTORY
In November 1969 the Rolling Stones toured the United States for the first time in three years. Gone from the band was founder member Brian Jones, replaced by Mick Taylor from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Gone too were the Top Ten-laden 30-minute sets played over inadequate PA systems to crowds of screaming, gawping teenagers. In their place was a fully-fledged 75-minute rock show drawing heavily on the new Stones albums Beggar’s Banquet and Let It Bleed, utilising innovative lighting and staging. Led by the Glimmer Twins – Mick Jagger and Keith Richards – the Rolling Stones rocked across America on a 24-date tour whose essence is captured in the live album Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, heralded by many as the finest live rock album of all time. From an unpublicised opening night in Fort Collins, Colorado through to the tragic events at Altamont, California a month later, Is Everybody Ready For The Next Band? (taking its title from Chip Monck’s nightly stage introduction for the band) mixes contemporaneous press reports with previously unpublished first-hand accounts to present the story of a tour that has gone down in history as the first rock tour of the modern era, in the words of the people who were there.
