Fact #137644
When:
Short story:
Tonight's gig at El Mocambo, a 300 capacity club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is advertised as featuring local band April Wine. In fact, The Rolling Stones play unannounced, under the pseudonym of The Cockroaches, and record their album Love You Live. They also write the song Miss You.Full article:
Enzo Petrungaro (co-owner, El Mocambo) : The Rolling Stones’ shows in 1977 put The El Mocambo on the world stage.
(Source : http://thenandnowtoronto.com/tag/the-rolling-stones/)
Miles Goodwyn (singer, April Wine) : April Wine’s shows were just a cover, really, for what was about happen.
Duff Roman (Chum FM Radio founder) : The plan that we constructed, was to have a contest: ‘What would you do to see the Rolling Stones play live?’ This way we could select the 300 top entries and guarantee that real fans would be there for the event. The prize would be a chance to see April Wine at the El Mocambo. People wrote in and we cherry-picked the best ones. As you might expect, there were lots of nude Polaroids. When the band came in to judge the winners, they slipped the photos into their pockets and took them home.
Dave “Blue” Bluesmen (booker, El Mocambo) : We had natural cover, because if anything got out, we could say, ‘No, look, April Wine is playing. That’s the gig. It says so right here,’ Another band was added to the April Wine shows called ‘The Cockroaches,’ which was The Stones’ alias. On the day of the first show, the band rehearsed upstairs and soundchecked for the live recording.
Miles Goodwyn : People won tickets from the radio station and got to attend the shows for free. It was only a 300 seat club. April Wine played three nights and then, the fourth night, we told the crowd ‘We’ve got some special guests tonight … Ladies and gentlemen, The Rolling Stones!’
Man, it was like giving everybody a million dollars. It’s something we’re going to remember forever. It was very different.
Duff Roman : I got on the mic on one of the buses (taking competition winners to the show) and said, ‘I have some bad news. There’s a change to the show tonight.’ People were disappointed and started to boo. I continued: ‘Along with April Wine, you’ll also be seeing a band called the Rolling … yes, the Rolling … the Rolling Stones!’ For a moment, people sat in utter bewilderment. Then there was a lot of cheering and shouting when they realized where they’d be going.
At about 7:30 p.m., all of the buses rolled down Avenue Street, came across College and, somehow, navigated behind the El Mo, in the alleyway, so no one would notice, and we could just spirit the fans in through the back door without creating a commotion or scene of any kind. It was remarkable that it was all kept under wraps. No one knew about the show until after it ended, and fans started calling their friends.
Mick Jagger : She (Margaret Trudeau) just dropped by. Someone said she wanted to come to the gig, so we took her. I had never met her before but I guess she likes to go out to clubs and go rocking and rolling like everyone else - a young girl, you know?
Duff Roman : When people say, ‘Margaret Trudeau was in the dressing room’ - which she was - you get the wrong impression, because there were a hundred other people there, too. It was a zoo.
Mick Jagger : It was fun on stage but all these girls were grabbing my balls. Once they started, they didn’t stop. It was great, up to a point, then it got very difficult to sing.
Mick Jagger (vocalist, Rolling Stones) : I got that (Miss You) together with Billy Preston, actually. Billy had shown me the four-on-the-floor bass-drum part, and I would just play the guitar. I remember playing that in the El Mocambo club when Keith was on trial in Toronto for whatever he was doing. We were supposed to be there making this live record.
Duff Roman : Back then, there was almost a shared sense of being together, witnessing what people were witnessing — a concert by a stadium band to 300 people in a club — without having to share it, or tell others. History was happening, but that it was happening was enough. It didn’t have to be all immediately announced. It could just be lived and experienced, and, look, it’s an unbelievable thing that happened. In our city. In our time.
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(Source : http://thenandnowtoronto.com/tag/the-rolling-stones/)
Miles Goodwyn (singer, April Wine) : April Wine’s shows were just a cover, really, for what was about happen.
Duff Roman (Chum FM Radio founder) : The plan that we constructed, was to have a contest: ‘What would you do to see the Rolling Stones play live?’ This way we could select the 300 top entries and guarantee that real fans would be there for the event. The prize would be a chance to see April Wine at the El Mocambo. People wrote in and we cherry-picked the best ones. As you might expect, there were lots of nude Polaroids. When the band came in to judge the winners, they slipped the photos into their pockets and took them home.
Dave “Blue” Bluesmen (booker, El Mocambo) : We had natural cover, because if anything got out, we could say, ‘No, look, April Wine is playing. That’s the gig. It says so right here,’ Another band was added to the April Wine shows called ‘The Cockroaches,’ which was The Stones’ alias. On the day of the first show, the band rehearsed upstairs and soundchecked for the live recording.
Miles Goodwyn : People won tickets from the radio station and got to attend the shows for free. It was only a 300 seat club. April Wine played three nights and then, the fourth night, we told the crowd ‘We’ve got some special guests tonight … Ladies and gentlemen, The Rolling Stones!’
Man, it was like giving everybody a million dollars. It’s something we’re going to remember forever. It was very different.
Duff Roman : I got on the mic on one of the buses (taking competition winners to the show) and said, ‘I have some bad news. There’s a change to the show tonight.’ People were disappointed and started to boo. I continued: ‘Along with April Wine, you’ll also be seeing a band called the Rolling … yes, the Rolling … the Rolling Stones!’ For a moment, people sat in utter bewilderment. Then there was a lot of cheering and shouting when they realized where they’d be going.
At about 7:30 p.m., all of the buses rolled down Avenue Street, came across College and, somehow, navigated behind the El Mo, in the alleyway, so no one would notice, and we could just spirit the fans in through the back door without creating a commotion or scene of any kind. It was remarkable that it was all kept under wraps. No one knew about the show until after it ended, and fans started calling their friends.
Mick Jagger : She (Margaret Trudeau) just dropped by. Someone said she wanted to come to the gig, so we took her. I had never met her before but I guess she likes to go out to clubs and go rocking and rolling like everyone else - a young girl, you know?
Duff Roman : When people say, ‘Margaret Trudeau was in the dressing room’ - which she was - you get the wrong impression, because there were a hundred other people there, too. It was a zoo.
Mick Jagger : It was fun on stage but all these girls were grabbing my balls. Once they started, they didn’t stop. It was great, up to a point, then it got very difficult to sing.
Mick Jagger (vocalist, Rolling Stones) : I got that (Miss You) together with Billy Preston, actually. Billy had shown me the four-on-the-floor bass-drum part, and I would just play the guitar. I remember playing that in the El Mocambo club when Keith was on trial in Toronto for whatever he was doing. We were supposed to be there making this live record.
Duff Roman : Back then, there was almost a shared sense of being together, witnessing what people were witnessing — a concert by a stadium band to 300 people in a club — without having to share it, or tell others. History was happening, but that it was happening was enough. It didn’t have to be all immediately announced. It could just be lived and experienced, and, look, it’s an unbelievable thing that happened. In our city. In our time.