Fact #155030
When:
Short story:
The Rolling Stones begin a European tour at The Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria, Europe.Full article:
Michael Putland (photographer) : I used to do a lot of work for Atlantic Records, who were their record company at the time. There was a wonderful lady called Annie Ivil, who was the press agent there, she went on to be vice president in the States actually. One day she called me up, just when I was starting to get a lot of work after the usual penniless-ness, and said, "Hello darling, I wonder if you'd like to tour with the Stones?" So I said, "Well give me a couple days to think about it." I was absolutely thrilled. It was the 1973 European tour.
I went to all of the gigs and the soundchecks. The soundchecks were very laidback, in those days Keith would come on stage right before the show started.
It was wonderful, they were the hottest band in the world. It was very exciting. But I was very tense about getting the right pictures. The first gig was Vienna on the 1st of September. It was an extraordinary show. Funnily enough I was actually quite professional about it. I was just taking the pictures. I didn't get hung up on the lifestyle, because by that stage I'd toured with a couple of bands. It gets tiring, you're running from a laboratory in one city, making prints and couriering them back. You're a bit divorced from everything really. I did three or four days on and a couple of days off to get the film developed.
Mick was very charismatic and a huge star. I was a little bit on edge with him because I was the new kid on the block as a photographer. But I'd sit and talk to him about cricket. He's always been very sweet to me, they all have.
The live stuff, Mick always moved so fast, you had to be right on top of it. And you don't have the light you do at concerts nowadays, you had less light to play with which made it difficult to arrest movement. I look back on the photographs and wish I'd done better, but there were a handful of great images that reflect the tour nicely. My regret is that I could never get them off stage to do a group shot.
They had these super trooper search lights on the stage and a mirror above, so the lights would shoot up to the mirror and come down onto each individual member of the band. During "Jumping Jack Flash", Mick would jump up and down with his hands above his head and palms facing the audience and the mirror would turn. As they turned the mirror, the spotlight would gradually take in the first few rows of the audience and go all the way back, it was extraordinary, the power of the man. As the light went back you gradually saw everyone jumping up and imitating him with their palms forward, patting the air. It was extraordinary really.
I remember during "Midnight Rambler", Mick would bring it down to almost a whisper and then bring it back up, it was amazing.
(Source : http://www.stonesarchive.com/interviews/)
Mike Putland : On that Vienna gig, I shot the show, then next morning I jumped on a plane back to London, processed the film, made the prints, got in my car and dropped the pics round to the music press, then I got another plane back to Europe and joined them at the next show. That's how the tour went. Do a couple of shows, come home, then fly back to Europe. In fact, in the middle of the tour I also did Roger Daltrey of The Who and Fleetwood Mac while I was in England. Funny, but I remember Christine Perfect being very impressed that I was shooting The Stones.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, Aug 2017)
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I went to all of the gigs and the soundchecks. The soundchecks were very laidback, in those days Keith would come on stage right before the show started.
It was wonderful, they were the hottest band in the world. It was very exciting. But I was very tense about getting the right pictures. The first gig was Vienna on the 1st of September. It was an extraordinary show. Funnily enough I was actually quite professional about it. I was just taking the pictures. I didn't get hung up on the lifestyle, because by that stage I'd toured with a couple of bands. It gets tiring, you're running from a laboratory in one city, making prints and couriering them back. You're a bit divorced from everything really. I did three or four days on and a couple of days off to get the film developed.
Mick was very charismatic and a huge star. I was a little bit on edge with him because I was the new kid on the block as a photographer. But I'd sit and talk to him about cricket. He's always been very sweet to me, they all have.
The live stuff, Mick always moved so fast, you had to be right on top of it. And you don't have the light you do at concerts nowadays, you had less light to play with which made it difficult to arrest movement. I look back on the photographs and wish I'd done better, but there were a handful of great images that reflect the tour nicely. My regret is that I could never get them off stage to do a group shot.
They had these super trooper search lights on the stage and a mirror above, so the lights would shoot up to the mirror and come down onto each individual member of the band. During "Jumping Jack Flash", Mick would jump up and down with his hands above his head and palms facing the audience and the mirror would turn. As they turned the mirror, the spotlight would gradually take in the first few rows of the audience and go all the way back, it was extraordinary, the power of the man. As the light went back you gradually saw everyone jumping up and imitating him with their palms forward, patting the air. It was extraordinary really.
I remember during "Midnight Rambler", Mick would bring it down to almost a whisper and then bring it back up, it was amazing.
(Source : http://www.stonesarchive.com/interviews/)
Mike Putland : On that Vienna gig, I shot the show, then next morning I jumped on a plane back to London, processed the film, made the prints, got in my car and dropped the pics round to the music press, then I got another plane back to Europe and joined them at the next show. That's how the tour went. Do a couple of shows, come home, then fly back to Europe. In fact, in the middle of the tour I also did Roger Daltrey of The Who and Fleetwood Mac while I was in England. Funny, but I remember Christine Perfect being very impressed that I was shooting The Stones.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, Aug 2017)