Posted in: Rock by chris73 on May 7th, 2009 | 4 Comments
Unknowingly Rolling Stones became perhaps the first who sabotaged a dictatorship in a strange way.
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Rolling Stones’ 1967 European tour started in Sweden (25th March 1967) and ended in Athens, Greece (17th April 1967). The last Rolling Stones concert tour including Brian Jones.
The tour was episodic from its very benning. Problems occured in all countries customs and almost every gig ended in a riot. In Sweden, policemen aided by trained dogs, tried to “enforce order”. In Vienna, one of the fans lit and threw a smoke producer causing turmoil. In Warsaw, Stones were the first band to play in the Eastern Bloc and great collisions took place among the police and youngsters from early in the morning until late at night.
On April 15, while the Stones were in Holland, the Greek magazine “Modern Vibes” advertised the upcoming gig of “the number one band in the world” in Athens. Nikos Mastorakis co-organizer of the gig and journalist of “Modern Vibes” said about: “I had bootlegs of their shows in England and America, along with the Kinks, the Four Tops and Cliff Richard and I used to play those gigs on the air on my Picnic radio show… In one of these Stones concerts I managed to get in touch with their manager and so it started. We had some talking and they told us they would be free, some time in April. Then we contacted mayor of Athens, Mr. Giorgos Plitas, who agreed to chip in as a sponsor. If I remember right, their wage at the time was 350.000 drachmas (about $ 875). This included setting up the gig and accommodation at the Hilton hotel”.
On Monday, April 17 1967, the day Stones reached Athens, the town was deep inside a pre-election political storm between left and right party .In the evening, and while Brian Jones was sleeping, they gave a press conference.
-”What do you know about Shakespeare?” A (stupid) journalist asked to show how ignorant are all these guys.Jagger, the only talkative, answered: “And what do you know about Homer?”. Later Jaggerstated that he “had nothing to do with drugs” and the rest of the conference went on in an easy listening path:
skylite May 7th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Great article,well informed !
kate smedley May 8th, 2009 at 2:05 am
Another great story about one of my all time favourite bands – I knew nothing about this Chris, thanks for sharing it. They were and still are brilliant.
Francois Hagnere May 11th, 2009 at 4:12 am
A really interesting and very informative article. Times have fortunately changed…
Rynn Michaelz June 4th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
One of my favourite bands, this article is very good. I too hd no idea about this.