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  1. Summer 1969 was a busy time for free concertgoers. Blind Faith played their much-anticipated debut (and, as it turned out, only) UK show in Hyde Park in early June and just a few weeks later on July 5 came the Rolling Stones. Back then the free concerts took place on the banks of the Serpentine in a natural amphitheatre known as The Cockpit. Because they were free the location presented few problems with security and required no fences.

    On the day there was a special “Stones In The Park” edition of the Evening Standard with, most unusually for the time, a colour front cover. This showed the Stones sitting in what looked like a rehearsal room with their instruments and I was thrilled to see Keith pictured with his rare Gibson Flying V and new boy Mick Taylor with a Gibson SG Standard. I treasured that Evening Standard and kept it for years (if not decades) before it went the way of so many other seemingly trivial items during a house move.

    We arrived at the Park early to find thousands already there staking out their one square foot of grass and eventually secured a spot to the left of the stage with limited visibility. It was a hot day and we sweltered through the many support acts including King Crimson, Family, Third Ear Band, Alexis Korner’s New Church and Pete Brown’s Battered Ornaments, of which I remember very little. This was at least three months before Crimson’s debut album In The Court Of The Crimson King was released, so they were an unknown quantity to most.

    Delivered in a flat monotone Mick read the eulogy for Brian Jones which (as I later discovered) was two stanzas of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem on John Keats’s death, Adonaïs (we spoke of little else on the council estates of Sheffield, of course). Then, several hundred white butterflies were released from cardboard boxes, most of which fluttered dead or dying onto the stage.

    In retrospect the Stones sounded rough and under-rehearsed and Keith’s guitar was out of tune in parts. But that didn’t seem to matter at the time. Music wasn’t freely available like it is now and we were happy just to see the Stones (and see them for free too).

    Before the Stones came on (or it may have been between songs) MC and tour manager Sam Cutler made an impassioned onstage plea asking people to get down from the trees where they had climbed to secure a better vantage point. Couched in the hippy jargon of the time, it was along the lines of “Listen, people. There are many trees around the park and these trees have many branches. Some of them are being damaged. Please do not damage the trees. Trees have feelings too, people”.

    Although in hindsight it wasn’t a great show, the 1969 Hyde Park concert was a genuine coming of age for the Rolling Stones. It was here they made the transition from a package tour singles group into a fully fledged stadium rock band and while it wouldn’t become official for another six months or so, the Beatles were now finally out of the picture and the Stones were free to become the biggest rock band in the world.

    As the crowd drifted away a stage announcement was made offering a free copy of the Stones’ newly-released single Honky Tonk Women to anyone who collected a bin bag full of rubbish. I was tempted by the offer of a free record (hey, six shillings and eight pence – around 33p today – was a lot of money back then) but not tempted enough to get my hands dirty. Besides, I was too cool for that shit. Imagine that happening today. Health and Safety would have a fit.

    Afterwards, much was made of Mick’s “man’s dress” and dog collar combo which he wore for the opening numbers. The grown-ups weren’t impressed of course and dads across the country went into apoplexy. I think that was the first time I remember realising how cool Keith looked, too. He’d always seemed slightly nondescript in the early days, overshadowed by Mick and Brian with their great haircuts. But in Hyde Park Keith really began to look the part and his 70s elegantly wasted image took root here.

    I took the rubbish picture below on the day. Mick can be seen just above the camera being held aloft in front. Today that scene would be a sea of iPhones, but there’s just one cheap camera in sight.

    http://i.imgur.com/ZRKwWEm.jpg

    • I was there that day, but over the far side and a bit further away from the stage. I seem to recall 10 of us crammed into a little grey minivan and drove in from Watford. Or maybe that was another of the free concerts in the park. I was off my face on something or other at every single one that I attended. And whenever possible the rest of the time too. The recklessness of youth.

    • At least I wasn’t idiot dancing.

      That footage makes you realise how shit the UK Hell’s Angels were compared to the Americans. They all look a bit half-arsed and amateurish. And how dumb of the Stones to think that hiring a bunch of meatheads as security was a good idea.

      • Surely it is the other way round. The relaxed attitude of the UK Hell’s Angels probably lulled The Stones into a false sense of … ahem… security when it came to deploying Hell’s Angels in the US. We know how well that turned out.

  4. I think Sam Cutler now lives in Melbourne – I recall a review he did of the ;as tour and catching up with “the lads”. Chip Monck who did their lights and at Woodstock et al has also needed up down here.

          • Yeah but the best Zappa one was a concert from 1973! 1988 is a tough year to love.

            (Although I did like Public Enemy, who were at their peak around about then and were genuinely innovative and exciting).

            • I firmly believe that in terms of innovation, time slowed down to a crawl around 1963/64. From that point each passing month contained around a year’s worth of musical development/invention. Things speeded up rapidly in the mid 70s and almost reached warp speed in the 80s. Now each decade slips by virtually unnoticed with almost nothing new happening at all, except the re-cycling of past trends.

              I’m sure @deramdaze will agree with this theory (which is mine).

              • If we’re talking about Rock music, I agree.

                I actually think that 1987 was another year zero, like 1956 and 1965. How young you were in 1987 I think determines how you feel about rap, hip hop, R&B, EDM and the other music forms that have developed since then.

                • I should add that at 18, I was probably already too old. I don’t have too much of the genres listed above. Most of the stuff I like you’d probably like too. apart from Angel Witch.

            • Zappa’s 1988 touring band was probably his most proficient since 1973 and his most versatile ever. While it lasted.
              He was no longer writing much of any interest, though. Lots of very classy retreads of past catalogue and a mere smattering of new. When the band imploded he was probably relieved, secretly.

  6. It was a pretty extraordinary afternoon out. Not that I can remember too much.

    Do any bands do free concerts these days? I can’t imagine Coldplay, for example, doing it. Part of the reason, as you mention JC, is that Health and Safety regulations are now far more stringent. With paid security staff, cleaning up, hire of a sound system etc, it would cost some serious money in 2015.

    Musically my strongest memory is King Crimson, who were a revelation. I vaguely remember there were some African drummers with the Stones.

    This site has some photos and a lot of detail.

    http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/stones-in-the-park.html

  7. Where did the idea of giving free concerts emerge from? Similar events in the counterculture scene in San Francisco? NY Parks Department still has free concerts every summer: SummerStage.

    http://www.timeout.com/newyork/music/central-park-summerstage

    I saw War there many years ago and it was marvelous.

    The notorious Altamont gig was December 1969 and I hadn’t realised that it too was a freebie. 300,000 people turned up. Hyde Park is estimated at between 250 – 500,000.

  8. Was there, must have been close to Johnny C. Remember little except crappy sound, dead butterflies and Mick’s dress. I was still an Aberdeen boy then and I have to say I felt as though all the hip & groovy people around me were sniggering behind their hands at the uncooth choocter in their midst. Not one single memory of the support acts although that was probably due to the amount of dope we smoked…

    • The Stones’ concert came only a few weeks after Blind Faith at the same location and I tend to get the support acts mixed up. Donovan was there of course, but I had to check to confirm he was on the Blind Faith show and not the Stones.

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