One of the great tours of the first half of the 1980s was undoubtedly the one that the Rolling Stones performed in promotion to their latest studio work: "Tattoo You", released on August 24.1981 The album's release was preceded by the single "Start Me Up / No Use In Crying" on August 14. Single that quickly climbed to the charts reaching number 2 in the United States and Canada.
Between June 30 and July 2, 1981: The Rolling Stones shoot straight studio-performance video clips in New York City for "Start Me Up", "Hang Fire" and "Worried About You". "Neighbors" at the Taft Hotel in New York City and . "Waiting on a Friend" on the streets of Greenwich.
After promoter Bill Graham and Keith Richards convinced Mick Jagger of the need to embark on a new world tour, the band met at Long View Farm, North Brookfield, Massachusetts, from August 14 to September 25 to rehearse. But before starting rehearsals Mick and Keith hold a meeting to discuss the tour and tell Ron Wood he will have to curb his cocaine habit if he wants to join them.
August 26, 1981: Mick Jagger holds a press conference at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, announcing the Rolling Stones' 1981 Tattoo You U.S. Tour. Worcester on September 14 in front of 11,000 fans, the tour began in Philadelphia on September 25 at John F.Kennedy Stadium, with all tickets sold out, with 181,564 spectators. The tour grossed $50 million in ticket sales when the average ticket price was $16. The Stones were estimated to have reaped about $22 million after expenses.Roughly three million attended the concerts, but unfortunately, this was the Stones' last tour of the United States until 1989.
October 15, 1981: A fan dies at a Stones concert in Seattle after falling 50 feet off a railing. The New Jersey concerts are filmed by director Hal Ashby for the indoor show portion of the film Let's Spend the Night Together. December 13perform at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe (Pheonix), Arizona, where the outdoor part of the film Let's Spend the Night Together is shot. Next day,Kansas City, ick Taylor joins in on the first night and stays through the whole set. The Rolling Stones end the 1981 Tattoo You U.S. Tour with two arena concerts in Hampton, Virginia, with the first concert (on Keith Richards' 38th birthday) telecast across the country on pay-per-view TV. During the show, Keith swings his guitar at a fan rushing the stage during Satisfaction.
February 1982: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards join director Hal Ashby in Los Angeles to start work on the concert film "Let's Spend the Night Together" and on the soundtrack for the film at the Power Station in New York City: a double lp. Ordered Bob Clearmountain and David Hewitt to mix a live album. Mixtures that were made at the Record Plant studios in New York, with the idea that the album coincided with the start of the European tour on June 2, 1982 in Rotterdam.
The original project was to be a double album, where three of its sides were recorded live during this successful American tour Bit.ly/82RsSL and the last one would feature some tracks from Chicago's Checkerboard Lounge with Muddy Waters, the night of November 22,1981..A DVD-CD of the performance is released in 2012. Something similar to what had been done a years ago with "Love You Live". With the next line-up:
Side A: (19:06)
1. "Intro: Take the 'A' Train". (0:26)
2. "Under My Thumb". (4:18)
3. "Let's Spend the Night Together". (3:51)
4. "Shattered".(4:08)
5. "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)". (5:18)
6. "Twenty Flight Rock". (1:45)
Side B: (18:06)
1. "Going to a Go-Go" (3:13)
2. "Let Me Go". (3:30)
3. "Time Is On My Side". (3:37)
4. "Beast Of Burden". (4:53)
5. "Little T& A". (3:33)
Side C: (20:33)
1. "Tumbling Dice". (4:24)
2. "Honky Tonk Women". (3:42)
3. "Brown Sugar". (3:37)
4. "Start Me Up". (4:19)
5. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". (4:23)
6. "Outro: Star Spangled Banner" (0:48)
Side D: (19:34)
(A.k.a: The Lost Checkerboard Lounge Side).
1. "Introductions". (1:13)
2. "Hoochie Coochie Man" (4:13)
3. "Mannish Boy".(10:27)
4. "Got My Mojo Workin' (3:41)
But finally the project is edited between March and April 1982, Because the documentary film was delayed until February 1983 and what should have been his soundtrack was changed and matched with the start of the European tour, because of the need.to make it as commercial as possible summarizing its contents to a single Lp, changing the order of some songs and relocating others to B-sides.
"Let´s spend the night together" film was filmed at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey (5–6 November 1981) and at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona (13 December 1981). 26 tracks, most of them edited. with slightly different footage and the additional song "When the Whip Comes Down" for European version.
May 7-24, 1982: The Rolling Stones hold tour rehearsals at Shepperton Studios in London, England. The European tour begins, on June 2, 1982, the first of the two singles "Going To A Go Go" was released, with one of the discarded songs of the double albuim: "Beast Of Burden". which became a Top 30 hit in the United Kingdom and United States; the follow-up single, "Time Is on My Side" / "20 flight Rock", this last song instead of "Little T&A";;reached the lower part of the UK charts. Still Life was a commercial success, reaching #4 in the UK and #5 in the U.S., and going Platinum in the U.S. and Canada, as well as Gold in the UK, but was not critically well-received.
The cover had several designs one of them was this, but it was finally that of the one made by the Japanese artist Kazuhide Yamazaki, whose work inspired the tour's stage design. Years later it was recovered in part, inside the series "From The Vault", as the cover of the double CD/DVD - "live at Hampton Roads, Virginia. 1981".
Ok.., enjoy it!. and see you son.
