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Altamont: A Festival of Remembrance
Posted: 02 Dec 2009, 14:50
by Quiff Boy
interesting article in today's independent about the rolling stones' fated 'altamont speedway' gig in 1969 where hells angels were employed as security and went mental and fans died
http://is.gd/5a1fu
the psychological fall-out from that gig stuck with the stones for years, and is credited by some as signalling the end of 60s (counter) culture
there's a dvd documentary available of it too, called "gimme shelter" (
http://is.gd/5a1H8 ) - i've got it and it's pretty grim viewing tbh
eldritch pays homage to this legendary gig in the original by-line of the sisters' 1985 royal albert hall gig:
Wake
Altamont: A Festival of Remembrance
later changed to
Wake
Choruses from Under the Rock
von also stole the idea of using bikers as roadies/security from there... i'm not sure if they ever really did use bikers, but i remember reading an old interview where he said they had done at some stage... that could just have been more of his posturing to wind up the music press however
anyways, i thought the article (& the book it mentions) might be of interest
Re: Altamont: A Festival of Remembrance
Posted: 02 Dec 2009, 15:14
by Silver_Owl
Quiff Boy wrote:...von also stole the idea of using bikers as roadies/security from there...
Wasn't that Lemmy's idea? I assumed they were part of his entourage.
Interesting article though and an interesting cultural milestone.
And yes - the documentary is not pleasant viewing is it?
Re: Altamont: A Festival of Remembrance
Posted: 02 Dec 2009, 15:22
by Quiff Boy
Hom_Corleone wrote:Quiff Boy wrote:...von also stole the idea of using bikers as roadies/security from there...
Wasn't that Lemmy's idea? I assumed they were part of his entourage.
you might be right actually... a few of my mates are part of motorhead's crew when they play manchester, and one of them went round the uk and europe with them roadying (sp?) a couple of years ago. they all like to consider themselves hard-living rock-and-roll motherf*ckers
so lemmy nicked the idea from the stones, and then von nicked it from lemmy?
Re: Altamont: A Festival of Remembrance
Posted: 02 Dec 2009, 15:23
by Silver_Owl
Quiff Boy wrote:Hom_Corleone wrote:Quiff Boy wrote:...von also stole the idea of using bikers as roadies/security from there...
Wasn't that Lemmy's idea? I assumed they were part of his entourage.
you might be right actually...
so lemmy nicked the idea from the stones, and then von nicked it from lemmy?
Well, he probably suggested it to him. Reports have it he was backstage dishing out the white lines.
Posted: 02 Dec 2009, 18:09
by moses
I have a copy of this
which gives a good account of Altamont
Posted: 02 Dec 2009, 18:25
by radiojamaica
Gimme shelter is worth a view for the Tina Turner footage alone!
Posted: 02 Dec 2009, 22:50
by road_kill
http://www.vamp.org/zines/egozine-3.html
INT: I know I have to get going, she's telling me to get running. There's just one thing I want to know, there's another quote here I took from your press release. "The Sisters writhe in the legends of Altamont..." well they meant Altamont as in Altamont Speedway the Rolling Stones, when they played early seventies San Francisco, Altamont Speedway right?
AE: One of the reasons Gimme Shelter is so important. We changed the words around in Gimme Shelter. The original was about how love's just a kiss away and war is just a shot away. We turned it around. Altamont's very important. If there's a part of history where rock music stopped for a second and we began. If there's a point were the seeds of what we do were sown, it's probably Altamont, cus it encapsulated everything wonderful at the time. The good things and the bad things, and a lot of both. It's when the trip turned sour and it's when the best music was.
INT: It was slightly dangerous at that time. Really, for a few minutes there.
AE: For one guy especially. But it encapsulates so much, Altamont.
Posted: 03 Dec 2009, 00:00
by sam1
I have a copy of decembers issue of Record Collector which has a 9 page article on Altamont and talks to some of the people that were there........any one who wants it can pm me and I'll sent it to them
Posted: 03 Dec 2009, 00:56
by sam1
copy going to Being645
Re: Altamont: A Festival of Remembrance
Posted: 03 Dec 2009, 01:35
by eastmidswhizzkid
Quiff Boy wrote: i'm not sure if they ever really did use bikers, but i remember reading an old interview where he said they had done at some stage... that could just have been more of his posturing to wind up the music press however
the sisters did use bikers as security for a time. the "wide receivers" credited at the end of the wake video are
"boyd steamison for merciful release" and
" the asfield mofos "; the ashfield mofos were a motorcycle club.
i know this for a fact because one of them is a very good friend of mine, as previously mentioned
"here".
Re: Altamont: A Festival of Remembrance
Posted: 03 Dec 2009, 01:52
by Big Si
Quiff Boy wrote:interesting article in today's independent about the rolling stones' fated 'altamont speedway' gig in 1969 where hells angels were employed as security and went mental and fans died
http://is.gd/5a1fu
the psychological fall-out from that gig stuck with the stones for years, and is credited by some as signalling the end of 60s (counter) culture
there's a dvd documentary available of it too, called "gimme shelter" (
http://is.gd/5a1H8 ) - i've got it and it's pretty grim viewing tbh
eldritch pays homage to this legendary gig in the original by-line of the sisters' 1985 royal albert hall gig:
Wake
Altamont: A Festival of Remembrance
later changed to
Wake
Choruses from Under the Rock
von also stole the idea of using bikers as roadies/security from there... i'm not sure if they ever really did use bikers, but i remember reading an old interview where he said they had done at some stage... that could just have been more of his posturing to wind up the music press however
anyways, i thought the article (& the book it mentions) might be of interest
I've got an ok (well in fact a "Get Bent!" according to
James Blast) quality audience recording I found a few years back.
There's a few clips on youtube including The Jefferson Airplane vs The Hells Angels incident
And an online copy of the DVD 
There was a fairly extensive feature in The Sunday Times Magazine about Meredith Hunter a few years back, which first piqued my interest and has left me fascinated with the festival ever since. When I was growing up popular culture only ever mentioned Woodstock and to a lesser extent Monterey, there was little or no mention of Altamont. I'd never seen anything in print or anything shown on TV as to what exactly happened, just that people got beat up by Hells Angels and someone died during Sympathy For The Devil (actually Under My Thumb). Meredith's mom was also interviewed in the feature and I remember she wasn't too complimentary about The Stones (***EDIT -
found it!***).
road_kill wrote:http://www.vamp.org/zines/egozine-3.html
INT: I know I have to get going, she's telling me to get running. There's just one thing I want to know, there's another quote here I took from your press release. "The Sisters writhe in the legends of Altamont..." well they meant Altamont as in Altamont Speedway the Rolling Stones, when they played early seventies San Francisco, Altamont Speedway right?
AE: One of the reasons Gimme Shelter is so important. We changed the words around in Gimme Shelter. The original was about how love's just a kiss away and war is just a shot away. We turned it around. Altamont's very important. If there's a part of history where rock music stopped for a second and we began. If there's a point were the seeds of what we do were sown, it's probably Altamont, cus it encapsulated everything wonderful at the time. The good things and the bad things, and a lot of both. It's when the trip turned sour and it's when the best music was.
INT: It was slightly dangerous at that time. Really, for a few minutes there.
AE: For one guy especially. But it encapsulates so much, Altamont.
That's the often quoted Interview I remember from
about Altamont.
Posted: 03 Dec 2009, 06:08
by Garbageman
According to an interview with Sonny Barger,the Stones wanted dark and dark they got......chilling to say the least.
Posted: 03 Dec 2009, 14:16
by moses
Using 'bikers' for security I imagine is a great deal different to using 'Hells Angels' for the same purpose. Hence the relative difference between the outcome of Altamont and Wake: 'The greatest era in the history of mankind' ends in death versus The Sisters with Lemmy & his entourage retire to Dingwalls for a few more beers then go home to bed.
Hells Angels - Hunter Thompson had them pinned.
Re: Altamont: A Festival of Remembrance
Posted: 03 Dec 2009, 14:19
by Silver_Owl
eastmidswhizzkid wrote:Quiff Boy wrote: i'm not sure if they ever really did use bikers, but i remember reading an old interview where he said they had done at some stage... that could just have been more of his posturing to wind up the music press however
the sisters did use bikers as security for a time. the "wide receivers" credited at the end of the wake video are
"boyd steamison for merciful release" and
" the asfield mofos "; the ashfield mofos were a motorcycle club.
i know this for a fact because one of them is a very good friend of mine, as previously mentioned
"here".
What a memory I must have.
Posted: 04 Dec 2009, 00:52
by sultan2075
moses wrote:Using 'bikers' for security I imagine is a great deal different to using 'Hells Angels' for the same purpose. Hence the relative difference between the outcome of Altamont and Wake: 'The greatest era in the history of mankind' ends in death versus The Sisters with Lemmy & his entourage retire to Dingwalls for a few more beers then go home to bed.
Simply glorious.
Posted: 04 Dec 2009, 11:49
by GC
Was AE friends with Lemmy? I can't really see it myself.
Posted: 04 Dec 2009, 12:22
by Silver_Owl
Gollum's Cock wrote:Was AE friends with Lemmy? I can't really see it myself.
Yes.
Posted: 04 Dec 2009, 12:33
by lazarus corporation
Hom_Corleone wrote:Gollum's Cock wrote:Was AE friends with Lemmy? I can't really see it myself.
Yes.
Indeed.
The oft-quoted story is that Lemmy was backstage at the Royal Albert Hall gig in 1985 (the gig released on video as "Wake") and it was he who persuaded AE to perform the 2nd encore - persuasion was presumably needed due to AE's broken ribs.
Rumours that the "persuasion" probably took the form of a couple of lines of something fast are purely speculative.
Posted: 04 Dec 2009, 13:23
by radiojamaica
lazarus corporation wrote:Hom_Corleone wrote:Gollum's Cock wrote:Was AE friends with Lemmy? I can't really see it myself.
Yes.
Indeed.
The oft-quoted story is that Lemmy was backstage at the Royal Albert Hall gig in 1985 (the gig released on video as "Wake") and it was he who persuaded AE to perform the 2nd encore - persuasion was presumably needed due to AE's broken ribs.
Rumours that the "persuasion" probably took the form of a couple of lines of something fast are purely speculative.
Hey, whatever works... right?!
Posted: 05 Dec 2009, 12:34
by GC
lazarus corporation wrote:Hom_Corleone wrote:Gollum's Cock wrote:Was AE friends with Lemmy? I can't really see it myself.
Yes.
Indeed.
The oft-quoted story is that Lemmy was backstage at the Royal Albert Hall gig in 1985 (the gig released on video as "Wake") and it was he who persuaded AE to perform the 2nd encore - persuasion was presumably needed due to AE's broken ribs.
Rumours that the "persuasion" probably took the form of a couple of lines of something fast are purely speculative.
Lemmy might have just been taking the p*ss "Go on get back out there. The crowd love you"
Posted: 06 Dec 2009, 21:13
by H. Blackrose
Excuse me, given that AE has repeatedly made it clear that Motörhead are a huge influence on the Sisters, exactly why do you think it weird that he and Lemmy might get on with each other?
Posted: 06 Dec 2009, 21:18
by James Blast
Gollum's Cock wrote:Lemmy might have just been taking the p*ss "Go on get back out there. The crowd love you"
I'll go with that version with a big BUT! - there is absolutely no mention of Mr. E in "White Line Fever"
Posted: 06 Dec 2009, 21:30
by GC
H. Blackrose wrote:Excuse me, given that AE has repeatedly made it clear that Motörhead are a huge influence on the Sisters, exactly why do you think it weird that he and Lemmy might get on with each other?
The Sisters have had a huge influence on my life, that does n't mean I could necessarily be friends with AE or vice versa.
Posted: 06 Dec 2009, 21:33
by GC
James Blast wrote:Gollum's Cock wrote:Lemmy might have just been taking the p*ss "Go on get back out there. The crowd love you"
I'll go with that version with a big BUT! - there is absolutely no mention of Mr. E in "White Line Fever"
That's what I was thinking.
s**t book by the way, only interesting fact was that Lemmy was brought up in Benllech (Anglesey). That's where I was born, small world...
Posted: 08 Dec 2009, 00:46
by Ed Rhombus
There was a very nice Hell's Angel employed to look after The Smuphs when they supported The m*****n at The Shep Bush Empire last year.
Wasn't McCoy knocking around with some too?