Rolling Stones at 50: Fans share their memories
The man who built The Buzzard on the Stones: My first encounter with the Rolling Stones was their appearance on the Hollywood Palace TV show when host Dean Martin made it clear he wasn't a fan. The first single I bought was "Tell Me." After that, it was albums. My first two Rolling Stones concerts were in 1966 and 1969 at the Boston Garden. They were neatly dressed in sport coats. I believe Keith Richards wore a tie. Brian Jones was in the band. The 1969 concert didn't start until after midnight because the band got held up in Rhode Island. I believe Keith Richards was arrested for assaulting a photographer. The mayor of Boston had to work his magic to get the Stones on a flight to Boston and did. My next three Stones concerts were in Cleveland: 1975, 1978, and 1981. Two were World Series of Rock concerts at Cleveland Stadium, one was at the Coliseum. The last Rolling Stones tour I caught was at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. in 1989. I've met Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, and Bill Wyman but not at the same time, place or year. In 1978, Kid Leo and I went backstage and got Mick to do a tenth anniversary ID for WMMS. The last Stones album I liked was "Undercover," though the single they put out late last year, "Doom & Gloom," was their best new song in decades. My favorite Stones song is "Satisfaction." It was the right song for the right time and I was the right age to get it. My second favorite is "The Last Time." I watched the pay-per-view show a few months back. They still "got it."-- John Gorman, radio analyst and former WMMS program director
Crazy night at the Cleveland Arena: My two girlfriends and I saw them at the old Cleveland Arena in June 1966. It was very hot and Brian Jones was sweating thru his white tunic. His blond hair was gorgeous. Mick Jagger bowed like renaissance knight during their performance of "Lady Jane" as though he was wearing a cape. I don't think it was sold out as I remember walking around the downstairs seats to get to various views of the stage hearing "Satisfaction" echoing throught the old hockey hall. After the concert in the parking lot piles of girls surged on top of their car so thick that you couldn't see through the windows to the Stones-no matter how hard I tried. I was right up there with them but was glad I retreated when they drove off with the fans still hanging. Can't believe how long ago that was...and how long they've lasted. --Joanne O'Connor, Cleveland
Some girls that are just dyin' to meet you: I have been a Stones fan from the very first time I saw them in person on the Mike Douglas Show in June 1964. My allegiance quickly shifted from the Beatles to the Stones and many concerts and a small fortune later, I remain a fan. One of my most memorable shows was the Cleveland Arena in June 1966. I recall there not being assigned seats and running into the arena to secure one in the front row . Security was lax and not up to the challenge of handling screaming teenage girls. As the show was coming to a close, my cousin, best friend and myself handed our purses to my sister and we dashed across the stage, down the corridor and out the door to a waiting limo. As we ran, a security guard managed to grab the sleeve of my friend's blouse and ripped it from the shoulder. My cousin made it into the limo and was quickly pushed back out. She realized her glasses had fallen off in the limo and as the Stones drove away they threw her glasses out the window. After the excitement, we focused on pooling our money together so my friend could buy a new blouse. After all, we needed to cover our tracks since our parents did not know we went to the concert. A new blouse was purchased, my friend returned home and her mom immediately recognized the new blouse. All of us were grounded, but the concert was worth the punishment. To this day, we reminisce about our first Stones' concert and still cherish the memory. -- Carolyn Abraham, Bay Village
Music great! Girls annoying: My first Stones concert was at the Cleveland Arena, June 25, 1966. My girlfriend and I had seats on the floor, about 20 rows back. I was there for the music, but from the time they came on stage girls all around us started screaming and kept it up for the whole show! The music was great! "Paint It Black" was new at the time. The girls were sure annoying, though. --Mike Stoner
1970s
Partying with the Stones at the World Series of Rock: Saw the Stones in 1975 and 78 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Wished I were old enough to have caught the Rubber Bowl show in '72. Next saw them at the Coliseum in 1981 and, finally, on their last tour through town (I think it was anyway) Gund Arena 2002. My two favorites were the first and last. 1975 was the It's Only Rock and Roll Tour. Early on in the tour they had a giant inflatable phallic object as a prop. It got cut from the tour before the show in Cleveland if memory serves me. Just the setting of that "anything goes" time period in rock shows was perfect for a Stones show. I saw Ron Wood twice that summer. This Stones tour was his first with the band. In August he returned to do an encore tour with The Faces. The Gund show in 2002 was memorable because at each show they had a section in the set where they'd play multiple songs from a particular album. This night it was Exile On Main Street. Enough said. No plans on ever seeing them again. Bought the Christmas time pay-per-view show last December. It was fine but convinced me that I'd seen enough. -- John Hannibal, founder of Radio Hannibal
"Pure euphoria" on the 'Exile' tour: I was lucky enough to catch the Stones/Stevie Wonder tour in 1972 in Pittsburgh on July 22 just before they ended the tour in NYC. My boyfriend George Gerrity was following in Steve Popovich's footsteps, moving up from Columbia warehouse grunt to promo man . . at this time he was being courted by several labels and Atlantic invited him to the show . . so our little hippie music-loving selves got taken out to a fancy dinner . . given 8th row tickets to what turned out to be one of the most amazing shows ever . . Stevie Wonder was mindnumbing with songs like "You Are the Sunshine" and "Superstitious" and a deep set list . . and then the Stones pranced out with the big extended family of musicians that included Bobby Keys and Nicky Hopkins on that tour. It was the Exile on Main Street tour and there was "Brown Sugar," "Sweet Virigina" and "Tumbling ." I don't remember the actual set list, but I do remember the pure euphoria of the moment, somehow standing and balancing on the arms of my chair and singing and moving with nearly 14,000 other people transported by the essence of rock and roll. -- Cindy Barber, Beachland Ballroom & Tavern owner
'Hit or miss' live: For me, the Rolling Stones live shows have always been hit or miss. I saw them in each decade from the '70s through the '00s and they ranged from awful,1981 (Jagger in his athletic gear as wardrobe phase delivering a very loose and sloppy set) to great, 2002, Elvis Costello & The Imposters opened and killed it, maybe giving the Stones a needed kick, but they were great that night. Ron Wood in particular, was on fire. Jagger played some great harp, cool song selection, and they did away with the 'spectacle' of the stadium shows. 1978, 1989 and 1994 tours were all good, but not stunning. Personal preference perhaps, but every time I have seen them, they never lived up to the 'greatest rock and roll band in the world' tag. Hard one I know, but, just saying. I have several bootlegs of the Exile tour which are all simply stunning! Mick Taylor's playing was beyond words. He really pushed the band. That was certainly the peak of their live powers, alas, I never got to witness those shows first hand. I tried! I remember asking my parents to take me to see them (as well as Alice Cooper) at the Akron Rubber Bowl in '72. They just looked at me funny. By the first time I saw them, in 1978, they were kind of derailing. -- Dave Swanson, musician
Rubber Bowl memories: I have two memories of the Stones in NE Ohio. The first is the Rolling Stones' performance at the Akron Rubber Bowl. The date was July 11, 1972 and it was a packed house, as you would expect – 40,000 plus people. Stevie Wonder was the brilliant opener. Most memorable was that Mick kept saying "It's so good to be in ACK - - RON." Two distinct syllables, like they were two different towns. Almost like Dallas-Fort Worth or Minneapolis-St. Paul. Hello, ACK - - RON . . Thank you ACK – RON all night long. Now, often when I traveling through Akron, I remember his Shout-Out to the city with two names! Oh, and the show was fantastic. And any Cleveland Stones Fan knows they headlined the World Series of Rock though they certainly weren't the only attraction. The date was 6/14/1975 and the show was so memorable because the J. Geils Band and Tower of Power were just as electric and exciting as the main attraction. That afternoon and evening, 80,000 plus stood and rocked for hours, the pure definition of spectacle. --Chris Abood, Cleveland
$5.50 a ticket with Stevie Wonder as opener: The first time I saw the Stones was July of 1972 at the Akron Rubber Bowl. Stevie Wonder was the opening act tickets were $5.50 I still have the stub. Temperature was close to 90 and the concert was to start around 7 p.m . We got there at 3 p.m. and pitched our blankets in the infield about 50 feet from the stage. Kids were having a good time playing frisbee and smoking some weed when all of a sudden about 50 of Akrons finest in riot gear marched into the infield and started beating us with their clubs for no reason. They arrested whoever they caught. We ran into the stands and ended up their . The concert started around seven with Stevie Wonder. The Stones came on around 10 was a great concert except for the police action. To this day I have the press clipping from both the PD and The old Cleveland Press The best Stones concert I was at was Steel Wheels at the old muni stadium in 1989. The stage went the entire outfield from left field to right with the huge old scoreboard behind them. The were doing "2000 Light Years" when all of the lights were turned off and the band did about 10 minutes of jamming in the dark. with smoke on the stage everywhere. The it got quiet for a minute and all you heard was YOW! Yow! the lights slowly came on and there was Mick Jagger at the top of the scoreboard starting to sing "Sympathy for The Devil. It was really cool. --Jsezzy@yahoo.com
A veteran of 34 concerts: I discovered the Stones when I was 14 years old. Have seen them 34 times – in 1975 I asked my neighbor's mom if I could take him to see the Stones, she said yes – I brought him back about two weeks later. We saw the Stones in Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Louisville and had a great time. He is a few years younger than I – I call him my little brother and he calls me his big sister! Rock On! -- Susan Pucci, Canton
June 14, 1975: World Series of Rock Show was my second Stones show. We spent the night outside gate A waiting to get in to the show. About 20 minutes before the gate opened someone threw a cherry bomb right next to me. My hearing returned sometime after Joe Vitale's Madmen finished the first set. When the gates opened such a crush of people tried to fit through the old gates that I was picked up off my feet. I was petrified. Thoughts of being killed by the pushing mass of humanity was real. I pushed and shoved my way between the gates. The crowd eased and I got in. Horribly crowded with 88,000 insane people, way too messed up with hundreds passed out. Today's concerts are like going to church in comparison. And, oh yeah, the Stones were at their pinnacle. Spraying the crowd with a firehose set off a roar that had to be the loudest in stadium history. It was Cleveland's craziest rock show of all time. A moment in time never to be forgotten. -- John McGory, Columbus
Cleveland rocks: As Rock fan's growing up in Cleveland in the 70's and 80's, we were fortunate that every great rock band played Cleveland; the Rolling Stones were no exception. The Stones are my favorite band and I saw them in Cleveland six times from '78 to '02. In '78 (Some Girls tour) at the old stadium - the Stones had 80,000 Rock fans singing along to a Country song ("Far Away Eyes"). In'81 when they played the Coliseum I didn't have tickets, so the night of the show I went out to Richfield and stood along Rt. 303 with a sign that read: "Need Two." I scalped two tickets (for a whopping $35) and subsequently called off work the next day ("concertitis"). When I returned to work the following day my boss asked how I liked the Stones concert… I asked why and was told I was I was seen holding a sign ("Need Two") …on the evening news! In '89 they were back at the stadium (Steel Wheels tour). A friend took a front row picture of Keith Richards - my favorite musician- from that show which I was able to later have autographed by Keith. During that tour the Stones were celebrating their 25th anniversary - which is a long time for a band – that was 25 years ago! I'm hopeful the Stones will add Cleveland to the "50 and counting" tour. -- Tom McGuire, Cleveland
Sweat, laughter and getting hammered: I saw the Rolling Stones at Municipal Stadium four times. The best were the Belkins Productons World Series of Rock events in 1975 and 1978. These were all day affairs co-starring J Geils and other note worthy bands. Can you say sweat, laugh, and get hammered? It's always special to see them. At the 1975 concert, Mick Jagger whipped out a firehose from a trap door on the stage and cooled down the crowd to our amusement. There are none better. -- gdh8sacwrd
More World Series of Rock memories: The 1975 World Series of rock was the best Stones show I ever seen. When they came back in the '80s they had a lot less energy and the whole experience was not as good. It's Only Rock and Roll is one of the anthem of good time rock and roll. It would be a slap in the face of loyal Cleveland fans if they don't do a Cleveland show on this tour. --Don'tBelieveTheHype
English bands and English term papers: I was about 16 when I noticed a record in my older brothers collection. It was "Made in the Shade" a Stones greatest hits record that included "Happy," "Brown Sugar" amongst other hits. I put that record on and the love affair started. I persuaded my parents to let me see them at the '78 WSOR show at Muni Stadium. My high school pal and I left my house at 4:30 in the morning. . . That was the " Some Girls" tour that was regarded as the Stones "big comeback," but for me that was just the beginning. I preceded to write my senior HS English term paper on them as to why they were the "Worlds Greatest Rock and Roll Band" and got an A for it. ! --drbtheking
