THE "ROCKS OFF" ROLLING
STONES SETLISTS PAGE
BY GARY GALBRAITH (with Gerardo
Liedo)
1975 TOUR OF THE
AMERICAS
5th
Avenue, NYC - May 1, 1975 - Announcing the tour! (Only Brown Sugar was played)
with Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston as guests (Ronnie first public
performance with the Rolling Stones)
1975 Tour of The
Americas overview
The Stones didn’t tour in 1974 – after 1968, the only
calendar year thus far in their career that they hadn’t done so, and the only
one where they made no public appearances at all – but they weren’t exactly
inactive in the 18 months between the end of the 1973 European Tour and the
announcement of the grandly titled ‘Tour Of The Americas’ on May 1st
1975 which was marked by a performance of ‘Brown Sugar’ on the back of a
flatbed truck on New York’s Fifth Avenue. In the interim period, they had recorded and
released ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll’ and then Mick Taylor had announced that he
was leaving the band just before they assembled in Munich a couple of months
later to start work on its follow up. Much
of the early part of 1975 was spent auditioning his replacement whilst
recording the album that would eventually be released in April 1976 as ‘Black
and Blue’. With the band unable to
settle on a replacement, Ronnie Wood was brought in ‘on loan’ from The Faces
for the 1975 tour (he would go on to do a US tour with them after finishing his
commitments with the Stones). A very different type of musician to Taylor and
more of a showman his playing style met with Keith’s approval who was quoted as
saying ‘with Ronnie, we seem to be able to get back to the original idea of the
Stones, when Brian was with us, in ‘62-63. Two guitars have always been my particular
love because I think there’s more that can be done with that particular
combination than almost any other instrument….’. A somewhat funkier sound was brought to the
band’s sound with a more prominent role in the show for Billy Preston – who was
also afforded a two-song mini set of his own backed by the Stones each night –
and the addition of percussionist Ollie Brown. Save for a brief cameo at the
shows in LA in July, the band had dispensed with a brass section.
Ronnie’s opening night in Baton Rouge was a baptism of
fire with two 135-minute shows in one day on his 28th birthday. It would be the only occasion on the tour where
they played a matinee and an evening show. Most of the shows clocked in at
anything from two to tour and a half hour in length – way longer than any concerts
they’d played before – with songs like ‘Midnight Rambler’ and ‘Sympathy for the
Devil’ (on the few occasions when it featured as an encore) being stretched out
to 13-15 minutes at times. With ‘Its
Only Rock ‘n’ Roll’ having been released 9 months before the band hit the road,
technically they weren’t really touring behind a new record (their record label
had cashed in on the tour with a new compilation ‘Made in the Shade’,
showcasing songs from the first four albums on Rolling Stones Records). Despite
the title of the tour, it ended up merely consisting of 44 arena and stadium
shows in the US plus two in Canada – plans to spend August 1975 touring Latin
America were cancelled for mostly economic and security reasons, resulting in
about 15 shows in Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela being pulled from the schedule.
Despite the claim on the sleeve that ‘Love You Live’ comes
from performances in Paris 1976 and the 1977 club shows in Toronto, three of
the songs are actually from 1975. ‘Fingerprint File’ (which was only ever
played in 1975 and which exists as a raw soundboard as well as a near excellent
audience source running for over 3 minutes than the heavily edited released
version) and ‘Its only rock n roll’ were taken from the Toronto 17th
June concert and ‘Sympathy’ is from the 9th of July show at the LA
Forum. In 2012, as part of the series of
six archive releases to mark the band’s 50th anniversary, the Los
Angeles show from 13th July was made available as a download.
(Confusingly, they used the bootleg title ‘LA Friday’ which applied to the 11th
of July show). In 2014, a long available pro shot of the 11th of
July show was officially released as a DVD by Eagle Rock along with a 2-CD set
of the 13th of July concert. The
Sunday concert is the superior of the two performances.
Most of the 46 shows on the tour circulate amongst collectors
in varying degrees of sound quality, with a few soundboard tapes being
available.
Number of shows – 46
Number of shows in circulation – 39
Recommended shows – aside from the official releases, Toronto 17th
June, New York 27th June (probably the best show of the tour for me,
featuring a rare and raggedly glorious ‘Cherry Oh Baby’ and an epic encore of ‘Sympathy’ with Carlos Santana), the
first and fourth Los Angeles shows (there’s also a very good partial soundboard
of the first 70 minutes of the 12th July LA show), San Francisco 15th
July, Fort Collins and the soundboard of the first 85 minutes of the show in
Detroit on 28th July.
Personnel - Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie
Watts, and Bill Wyman with Ronnie Wood (guitar), Billy Preston (keyboards),
Ollie E. Brown (percussion) and occasionally Ian Stewart on piano.
Concert Listing
No. |
Date |
City |
State/Province |
Venue |
Notes |
1 |
1-May |
New York City |
New York |
Fifth Avenue
on a flatbed truck! |
Tour announcement – 1 song only (*) |
2 |
1-Jun |
Baton Rouge |
Louisiana |
Assembly Hall,
Louisiana State University |
Early Show |
3 |
1-Jun |
Baton Rouge |
Louisiana |
Assembly Hall,
Louisiana State University |
Late Show |
4 |
3-Jun |
San Antonio |
Texas |
Convention Center Arena |
|
5 |
4-Jun |
San Antonio |
Texas |
Convention Center Arena |
|
6 |
6-Jun |
Kansas City |
Missouri |
Arrowhead Stadium |
|
7 |
8-Jun |
Milwaukee |
Wisconsin |
County Stadium |
|
8 |
9-Jun |
St. Paul |
Minnesota |
Civic Center |
|
9 |
11-Jun |
Boston |
Massachussetts |
Boston Garden |
|
10 |
12-Jun |
Boston |
Massachussetts |
Boston Garden |
|
11 |
14-Jun |
Cleveland |
Ohio |
Municipal Stadium |
|
12 |
15-Jun |
Buffalo |
New York |
Memorial Auditorium |
|
13 |
17-Jun |
Toronto |
Ontario |
Maple Leaf Gardens |
|
14 |
18-Jun |
Toronto |
Ontario |
Maple Leaf Gardens |
|
15 |
22-Jun |
New York City |
New York |
Madison Square Garden |
|
16 |
23-Jun |
New York City |
New York |
Madison Square Garden |
|
17 |
24-Jun |
New York City |
New York |
Madison Square Garden |
|
18 |
25-Jun |
New York City |
New York |
Madison Square Garden |
|
19 |
26-Jun |
New York City |
New York |
Madison Square Garden |
|
20 |
27-Jun |
New York City |
New York |
Madison Square Garden |
|
21 |
29-Jun |
Philadelphia |
Pennsylvania |
Spectrum |
|
22 |
30-Jun |
Philadelphia |
Pennsylvania |
Spectrum |
|
23 |
1-Jul |
Largo |
Maryland |
Capital Center |
|
24 |
2-Jul |
Largo |
Maryland |
Capital Center |
|
25 |
4-Jul |
Memphis |
Tennessee |
Memorial Stadium |
|
26 |
6-Jul |
Dallas |
Texas |
Cotton Bowl |
|
27 |
9-Jul |
Los Angeles |
California |
The Forum |
|
28 |
10-Jul |
Los Angeles |
California |
The Forum |
|
29 |
11-Jul |
Los Angeles |
California |
The Forum |
|
30 |
12-Jul |
Los Angeles |
California |
The Forum |
|
31 |
13-Jul |
Los Angeles |
California |
The Forum |
|
32 |
15-Jul |
San Francisco |
California |
Cow Palace |
|
33 |
16-Jul |
San Francisco |
California |
Cow Palace |
|
34 |
18-Jul |
Seattle |
Washington |
Center Coliseum |
|
35 |
20-Jul |
Fort Collins |
Colorado |
Hughes Stadium,
Colorado State University |
|
36 |
22-Jul |
Chicago |
Illinois |
Chicago Stadium |
|
37 |
23-Jul |
Chicago |
Illinois |
Chicago Stadium |
|
38 |
24-Jul |
Chicago |
Illinois |
Chicago Stadium |
|
39 |
26-Jul |
Bloomington |
Indiana |
Assembly Hall,
Indiana State University |
|
40 |
27-Jul |
Detroit |
Michigan |
Cobo Hall |
|
41 |
28-Jul |
Detroit |
Michigan |
Cobo Hall |
|
42 |
30-Jul |
Atlanta |
Georgia |
Omni Coliseum |
|
43 |
31-Jul |
Greensboro |
North Carolina |
War Memorial Coliseum |
|
44 |
2-Aug |
Jacksonville |
Florida |
Gator Bowl |
|
45 |
4-Aug |
Louisville |
Kentucky |
Freedom Hall |
|
46 |
6-Aug |
Hampton Roads |
Virginia |
Hampton Roads Coliseum |
|
47 |
8-Aug |
Buffalo |
New York |
Rich Stadium |
|
(*) See ‘Miscellaneous
Non-Tour Appearances’ for details
INDEX
Part 4: 22nd July to 8th August
NOTE: The reason of the name "Tour of the Americas"
The tour was originally supposed to include shows in the following cities:
August 7 - 10 México City, México - "Auditorio
Nacional": 14 - 17 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - Maracanzinho : 19 - 21 Sao
Paulo, Brazil : Convention Hall : 24 Sao Paulo, Brazil - Anhembi Hall : 28 - 31
Caracas, Venezuela - El Poliedro. This leg of the tour was
cancelled due to currency problems, in addition, at that time all groups that
dared to perform in México and South America had security problems and the
audience always rioted.
©GARY GALBRAITH 1999 - 2022