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21 August 1976: Place: Knebworth, England.
Track status: Bootleg only.
Rolling Stones with Billy Preston, Ollie Brown.
An all-day rock festival enabled the Stones to thank
British fans for their past support and for those who could not
get tickets for the arena shows. Over a quarter of a million troops
responded and witnessed a day of rock and blues set in the illustrious
Knebworth country estate. The concert was promoted by Freddie Bannister
who had a great tradition of promoting festivals at Bath and Knebworth
as well as being a well known 'sixties promoter who had booked the
Stones even before then. It was Freddie's third concert at Knebworth;
the previous years he had promoted The Allman Brothers and Pink
Floyd as headliners. His final Knebworth promotion in 1979 was the
last concert in Britain by Led Zeppelin. Appropriately in 1969 he
had organised their outdoor first concert in Bath. The support act
in 1979 were Ron Wood's New Barbarians of which we shall hear more
later. At the Wimbledon tennis championships in June, the concert
was advertised on national news by two clowns who invaded the centre
court carrying placards stating 'Stones for Knebworth'. Two topless
girls did the same at a Sussex county cricket match. Was this Les
Perrin's final publicity seeking act? (He was in ill health) The
Don Harrison Band, Hot Tuna, Todd Rundgren, Lynyrd Skynyrd and 10
cc were the support acts. Late afternoon, Lynyrd Skynyrd took the
stage and introduced to England a set of magic, southern blues boogie.
Freebird was one of the most inspired musical performances ever
seen on a British rock stage. The crowd, some perched precariously
in oak trees, were ecstatic, rebel flags waved furiously. 10 cc
had a hard job to follow this and there was a two hour delay (supposedly
to allow them to play as the sun set and increase the lighting effects)
before they hit the stage before a by now sour, sun-blistered crowd.
They were unable to recapture the atmosphere created by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The tongue-shaped stage had been especially built for the appearance
and extended into the crowd although this was not apparent until
inflatables around the stage pursed their lips just before the band
went on stage. For the first time walkways extended to the left
and right for Jagger to be able to move between more people. This
stage design was a taste of what was to come. The Stones went on
late at night when the warmth of the day had evaporated and performed
a lengthy set of over two-and-a-half hours drawing material from
the early 'sixties with Satisfaction, Get Off My Cloud, Around And
Around, Little Red Rooster, Lets Spend The Night Together, Route
66 and from the late 'sixties with the unfamiliar Stray Cat Blues,
You Can't Always Get What You Want, Honky Tonk Women (with a snatch
of Country Honk at the end in which Mick teases Ron - 'did you play
on that?'), Midnight Rambler, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Street Fighting
Man and early 'seventies with Star Star, You Gotta Move, Dead Flowers,
Wild Horses, Tumbling Dice, Happy, Brown Sugar, Rip This Joint and
up to date material including Ain't Too Proud To Beg, If You Can't
Rock Me, Hand Of Fate, Hey Negrita, Hot Stuff, Fool To Cry and It's
Only Rock 'n' Roll. There were also the two Billy Preston numbers,
Nothing From Nothing and Outta Space. In all it was a gargantuan
28 number set-list marred by technical sound difficulties but fully
appreciated as ground breaking and risk taking. The concert was
filmed and soundboard recordings are available but no legitimate
releases have regretfully been made of either. The day was a mark
of respect to hippiedom, but the tide was turning.
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