Why the greatest rock show in history was buried for 30 years
- aimeeelkington153
- 14 hours ago
- 8 min read
In 1968, the Rolling Stones organised possibly the best rock’n’roll show the world had ever seen. And then didn’t let it see it for thirty years.
Today we’re looking at the story of The Rolling Stones rock’n’roll Circus - the best show you’ve never seen. Or at least, you didn’t see for thirty years - but that’s too long for a title. If you are unfamiliar, you can check out the whole show here:
The Stones have always done whatever they wanted. They were never ones to sit around and wonder what people would think. And at the tail end of the 60’s, they had a bonkers idea:
'Lets put together a star studded line-up of the best rockers in the world, bring in a performing circus, stick them in a tent and film what happens.'
I think that's one of the best ideas anyone's ever had. The potential for mischief and musical brilliance is just off the scale - can you imagine Keith Richards hanging out with a bunch of trapeze artists? Keith Moon messing about with fire eaters? Come on.
And they did exactly that - but why on earth did they then bury it for thirty years?
Let's start at the beginning. The Stones were in a bit of a transitional era - they were riding high after releasing Beggars Banquet, which was a big comeback after the psychedelic experiments that hadn’t gone down too well. Brian Jones was struggling. The band’s internal chemistry was shifting. And at the same time, they wanted to do something different instead of another headline tour.
Obviously, this idea got the go ahead, so they put together an insane lineup. This was a proper celebration of rock at the time. Everyone who mattered or was about to matter, everyone the Stones admired was there. And in that sense, it was exactly the sort of project they would take on: audacious and slightly unhinged.
They had The Who, who were just about to explode in the UK and the US. Young, chaotic, and unpredictable. And of course they brought their infamous backstage shenanigans.
Then there was Jethro Tull, who were still in their early days, experimenting with the mix of blues, and rock. Ian Anderson hadn’t yet grown the full persona he’d become famous for, but even then, his style added a weird, theatrical edge to the show.
Bluesman Taj Mahal brought the music back down to its roots. At a time when British rock bands were obsessed with American blues, having someone who actually lived and breathed it perform on the same stage as the Stones was both a nod of respect and a reminder of what it was all about.
Marianne Faithfull was another interesting choice. Mick Jagger’s girlfriend at the time - she was a musician and icon of swinging London. She added glamour and a touch of celebrity intrigue.
And then there was The Dirty Mac. The name is a twist on Fleetwood Mac, and so was the band. Dirtier, more raw, and all around more badass. This is one of the greatest supergroups ever put together: John Lennon on vocals and guitar, Eric Clapton on lead, Keith Richards on bass - he probably would have played a triangle if it meant he could be in the band - and Mitch Mitchell on drums.
Mitch Mitchell… Why’s that name ringing a bell? Because he was the drummer for Jimmy Hendrix. Yeah. It’s probably the most overpowered band to ever take the stage.
And I love the story of how it came to be - it’s so typically low key of how they did things. The ‘supergroup’ spot was left empty after Steve Winwood pulled out, so they scrambled to get something together.
The Stones were friendly with the Beatles, but they knew Paul McCartney didn’t like performing without the others - and in a more selfish way, having The Beatles on the bill would kind of upstage them as the stars of the show.
But they figured John Lennon might be up for it, so they gave him a call. Michael Lindsey-Hogg (film maker for both the Stones and the Beatles) told NME in 2019:
“Mick called John and he said ‘yeah, I’ve been playing with Eric Clapton just for fun, he could play, who could play bass?’ And Mick said ‘maybe Keith could play bass’. We all liked Mitch Mitchell from the Hendrix Experience so in that one phone call we had John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richard and Mitch Mitchell to fill that supergroup spot. So that’s not too shabby”
And it was the only time these four ever played together. It was a short set, but it became instantly legendary. Or it would have done, if anyone out in the world knew about it.
Part of the magic of it was that the artists didn't just stay in their bands. There were cameos, features, people swapping all over the place.
Even the legendary Tony Iommi popped up and played with Jethro Tull, standing in for Mick Abrahams - and this was before he became THAT Tony Iommi, inventor of heavy metal guitar.
And of course they had all the circus performers there as well - jugglers, acrobats, fire-eaters, the whole thing. Including a boxing kangaroo - until Yoko helpfully informed them that would stop John Lennon from coming. Lindsey-Hogg reminisced:
“If there’s a choice between boxing kangaroos and John Lennon, you put your finger on who to go with.”
Throughout the whole performance, the circus performers were doing their thing, entertaining the crowd in between sets.
Members of the Stones and others also made cameo appearances throughout, with everybody introducing everyone else, little comedy skits, fire eating acts, clown acts. It was a proper circus. A tiger even made an appearance, apparently.
The idea was to blur the line between spectacle and music, to make the whole thing feel like a performance piece rather than a straightforward show.
At least that's the artistic way of saying it - I suspect the Stones probably just thought it would be a bloody good time. It was absurd. It was chaotic. And that’s exactly why it worked - sort of. The music worked, but actually putting all this into one live show proved harder than they expected.
So - a surprising amount of rehearsal and testing went into this whole thing. They tested out several different filming studios and setlists, before finally settling on one and converting it to a ‘circus tent’ with the classic bell top set.
They even brought in a mobile sound studio.
But what they didn’t take into account was the sheer scale of having all these acts playing, changing over stages, and most importantly - filming.
In fact, they were using fancy new cameras that shot the film and sent the audio feed out to a separate line to the sound studio for better control. It came with two problems: One, they broke down a lot. And two, the film canisters needed changing every ten minutes, according to the producer.
This wasn’t the day of 1 terabyte SD cards - this was good old 16mm film. It’s big and heavy and someone has to shift it. Camera’s and lights needed moving and setting up, stages needed altering for different bands - or animals.
And let's be honest, we’re not dealing with actors on a movie set with precise scripts and call lists.
It’s live rock’n’roll in the 60’s, and literally a circus. Mick Jagger probably spent half his time in a back tent with a contortionist.
In fact there’s plenty of reports of everyone getting along fantastically. Lindsay-Hogg told the LA times:
“The clowns and The Rolling Stones got along very well. And it was great backstage. They were all sitting in a room – John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton – playing blues on guitar and harmonica. Keith Moon was playing spoons on a table.”
I’d sell my right arm to have been there.
All in all, it took many hours. 15 of them.
Yep, this mammoth performance went on for 15 hours. Keith Richards reckons they were up for 36 hours. By the time the stones were ready to go on, it was 5AM. The first band had gone on at 2PM the day before. Richards told the LA Times:
“It was an incredible shoot, I think, 36 hours or something. I remember not remembering everything towards the end… I know we went through two audiences. We wore one out. My main memory of it is the utter chaos”
They, the crew and the crowd had sat through half a day's worth of rock brilliance and court jester silliness. With all of the extras that come with a live rock’n’roll show. David Dalton, the founding editor of Rolling Stone magazine, told LA Times:
“A good third of the people there seemed to be on hard drugs and the performers and things, you know. I mean, maybe I was imagining it. It was really heroin-drenched, I felt, that whole thing.
They were absolutely exhausted and more than slightly worse for wear.
But the Stones were not happy with their performance. All that effort, all the pieces in place, and they felt like they flopped.
Some sources even say they felt like The Who's set was better than theirs. Which meant they shelved the film.
I'm going to say it - that is not very Rolling Stones at all. What happened to the Cheshire Cat grin and the middle finger?
But there’s a sadder element to all this - this was the last show Brian Jones ever played with the Stones. At this point, he was really unravelling. He was struggling badly with substance abuse issues, and had become alienated with his bandmates.
In fact, the night before the show, he told Lindsay-Hogg that he wasn’t going to do it because:
“They’re so mean to me… no-one listens to me or cares about me anymore”
Several people that were there have since made remorseful comments about the sad state of Brian that day. Perhaps this is another part of the reason the film was shelved.
Certainly his tragic death just a few months later most likely did.
Happily for his memory, and the world of music and performance, the film was eventually found, dusted off, and given a new life in 1996.
And I'm so glad it was - it’s really got everything they were trying to do. Brilliant music, comedic chaos, a TV show atmosphere with a live audience - it’s just great.
It’s a brilliant time capsule of that place, that time. It’s absolutely authentic and just.. Rock’n’roll.
As Keith told the LA Times:
“It’s like wine, you know? Like some good wine. It got more interesting 10 years later. Looking at it now it’s much, much better than I thought it was at the time. You’ll never see 1968 again, and it catches the flavour. It’s aged well, which is more than you can say for a lot of us.”
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