Fact #100769
When:
Short story:
The year's second Hyde Park, London, UK, concert, takes place. This one stars The Rolling Stones (just days after the death of their guitarist Brian Jones), plus Family, Battered Ornaments, King Crimson, Roy Harper, Third Ear Band, Alexis Korner's New Church and Screw.
Full article:
Charlie Watts (drummer, Roling Stones) : I used to enjoy playing in clubs best. When we decided to make our comeback, Mick wanted three hundred thousand in Hyde Park and I wanted to play in Kenny Colyer's to about twelve hundred.
I like the actual playing but I hate the living out of suitcases that goes into it. Before the Hyde Park concert I was only nervous that the band would fall apart at some time, not nervous at all about playing in front of all those people.
(interview with Ray Connolly, July 1969)
Keith Richards (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : There was just a feeling amongst us that we just had to get on with it, and the best way was just to do it as soon as possible, and show everybody that the rest of us were still alive and kicking. That's probably the best thing we could have done.
Mick Taylor (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : The Hyde Park Concert was to be my debut with the band and so we began rehearsing at The Beatles' studio in Savile Row. That too was also something of a shock. I'd only really heard The Stones on record before, yet here we were rehearsing with Fender Twins and the sort of small PA system I was used to using with John Mayall, meshing two guitars together is never easy at the best of times.
Stefan Gradofielski (security) : We weren't Hell's Angels. We were the Forest Gate Greasers. We all liked the band so about 10, 12 of us turned up the night before and slept out in the park. We weren't Hell's Angels but there were some of them there.
(Source : Mojo, August 2009)
Robert Fripp (guitarist, King Crimson) : I was totally amazed at the sense of community, the great weather and the whole atmosphere of the event. I couldn't help sensing how huge it was, all held together by a feeling of goodwill, especially around the stage area. Even my current bank manager told me he went to the gig as a lad and climbed a tree to get a good view, which is all right by me!
(Source : http://www.songlink.com/hydepark.html.)
Mick Taylor (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : I wasn't as nervous about playing with The Stones as I was when I was playing at The Marquee with John Mayall when I was 17! In a strange way, when you play on such a large stage, it's a whole lot easier; the audience is far more remote. Plus it was a different sort of band; it wasn't focused on one individual's guitar style. It was a band playing songs with guitar solos. Keith and I never planned anything out - particularly in a live situation. We would switch from lead to rhythm, back and forth. We never had a set pattern and that was what made playing in the band so interesting.?
Keith was great to work with, very loose and we were a little bit sloppy and out of tune sometimes, but there were no electronic tuners in those days!
Bill Wyman (bassist, Rolling Stones) : The crowd went wild, hundreds dancing, everyone on their feet. We soon went out of tune in the heat but performed for 50 minutes with amplification so powerful we could be heard half a mile away, against the wind, at Marble Arch. If it wasn't our most musical performance, it was certainly the most heartfelt.
Mick Taylor : I wouldn't call Hyde Park a great concert. It was a great event. It wasn't a great concert for the Stones musically, because it was the first time they played together in two years. I would say by the time we did the second American tour, we were really tight and really good.
(Source : interview by Gary James at www.classicbands.com)
Ronnie Wood (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : I remember walking around the periphery of Hyde Park in ’69, and this big car pulls up through a whole sea of people and out steps Mick and [Stones drummer] Charlie [Watts]. Mick comes up and says, ‘Ullo, Face,’ which is what he called me then, ’cause I was in the Faces. And we talk away for a while and then they say, ‘Okay, we gotta go and play. We’ll see you soon.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, sooner than you think.’ I was always confident I would end up in this band, and a few years later I did.
(Source : interview in Stuff magazine, 2014)
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I like the actual playing but I hate the living out of suitcases that goes into it. Before the Hyde Park concert I was only nervous that the band would fall apart at some time, not nervous at all about playing in front of all those people.
(interview with Ray Connolly, July 1969)
Keith Richards (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : There was just a feeling amongst us that we just had to get on with it, and the best way was just to do it as soon as possible, and show everybody that the rest of us were still alive and kicking. That's probably the best thing we could have done.
Mick Taylor (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : The Hyde Park Concert was to be my debut with the band and so we began rehearsing at The Beatles' studio in Savile Row. That too was also something of a shock. I'd only really heard The Stones on record before, yet here we were rehearsing with Fender Twins and the sort of small PA system I was used to using with John Mayall, meshing two guitars together is never easy at the best of times.
Stefan Gradofielski (security) : We weren't Hell's Angels. We were the Forest Gate Greasers. We all liked the band so about 10, 12 of us turned up the night before and slept out in the park. We weren't Hell's Angels but there were some of them there.
(Source : Mojo, August 2009)
Robert Fripp (guitarist, King Crimson) : I was totally amazed at the sense of community, the great weather and the whole atmosphere of the event. I couldn't help sensing how huge it was, all held together by a feeling of goodwill, especially around the stage area. Even my current bank manager told me he went to the gig as a lad and climbed a tree to get a good view, which is all right by me!
(Source : http://www.songlink.com/hydepark.html.)
Mick Taylor (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : I wasn't as nervous about playing with The Stones as I was when I was playing at The Marquee with John Mayall when I was 17! In a strange way, when you play on such a large stage, it's a whole lot easier; the audience is far more remote. Plus it was a different sort of band; it wasn't focused on one individual's guitar style. It was a band playing songs with guitar solos. Keith and I never planned anything out - particularly in a live situation. We would switch from lead to rhythm, back and forth. We never had a set pattern and that was what made playing in the band so interesting.?
Keith was great to work with, very loose and we were a little bit sloppy and out of tune sometimes, but there were no electronic tuners in those days!
Bill Wyman (bassist, Rolling Stones) : The crowd went wild, hundreds dancing, everyone on their feet. We soon went out of tune in the heat but performed for 50 minutes with amplification so powerful we could be heard half a mile away, against the wind, at Marble Arch. If it wasn't our most musical performance, it was certainly the most heartfelt.
Mick Taylor : I wouldn't call Hyde Park a great concert. It was a great event. It wasn't a great concert for the Stones musically, because it was the first time they played together in two years. I would say by the time we did the second American tour, we were really tight and really good.
(Source : interview by Gary James at www.classicbands.com)
Ronnie Wood (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : I remember walking around the periphery of Hyde Park in ’69, and this big car pulls up through a whole sea of people and out steps Mick and [Stones drummer] Charlie [Watts]. Mick comes up and says, ‘Ullo, Face,’ which is what he called me then, ’cause I was in the Faces. And we talk away for a while and then they say, ‘Okay, we gotta go and play. We’ll see you soon.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, sooner than you think.’ I was always confident I would end up in this band, and a few years later I did.
(Source : interview in Stuff magazine, 2014)