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Our History: The Stones once rolled in Shreveport (Read 592 times)
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Our History: The Stones once rolled in Shreveport
Nov 16th, 2015 at 5:28am
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Our History: The Stones once rolled in Shreveport

John Andrew Prime, [email protected]
November 15, 2015



Friday marks an important date in the musical life of Shreveport, not just for people who today can enjoy top-billed artists in places as large and comfortable as the CenturyLink Center or any of the performance halls at area riverboat casinos.

It was 50 years ago that day, Saturday, Nov. 20, 1965, that the Rolling Stones, then one of the world’s best rock-and-roll bands and even today arguably one of the past century’s most influential musical groups, invaded Hirsch Memorial Coliseum.

“You had to look fast to see them, though,” wrote Welton Jones, The Times amusements editor, who reviewed the show. “Their private plane arrived at the Greater Shreveport Municipal Airport after the opening acts had already taken the stage at Hirsch. They went on at about 9:40 p.m. and finished at about 10:05 p.m.” Less than 10 minutes later, their limousine — with a police escort — was headed back to the airport for their flight to Dallas.

“These guys don’t fool around,” Jones noted. “During the 10 some-odd minutes they were on stage, they spoke only thrice — lead singer Mick Jagger said three ‘thank yous.’”

The Stones’ opening acts were the Rocking Ramrods, Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles and the Vibrations. Tickets, which were first advertised about two weeks prior to the show, cost $4.50 and $5.50 at Stan’s Record Shops, Southern Maid Donuts and Lee Martin Stores.

The stop in Shreveport was the 17th of 41 shows in the band’s second American tour, supporting the release of the “Out of Our Heads” album. The tour began that Oct. 29 at The Forum in Montreal, Quebec, and ended Dec. 5 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Shreveport was sandwiched between stops in Memphis, Tennessee and Fort Worth, Texas.

Bill Fountain, who a decade later was part of the Shreveport Bicentennial Planning Commission and who helped conn Mayor Calhoun Allen into signing a letter inviting Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead to perform here — a gig that never happened, sadly — also was at the Stones show.

“I was there wearing madras pants,” Fountain remembers. “Later (I) saw them in Baton Rouge and Miami.”

Caddo Parish Registrar of Voters Ernie Roberson also was there.

“I was an usher for the concert,” he recalled. “The Fair Park High School Student Council had the contract for the Fair Association. I do not recall how long (the Stones) played. It seems ‘Satisfaction’ was their final song. ‘Last Time’ was also on the list. Odd as it may be, I remember that a plywood barrier with a door built into it was covering the east side hall. It blocked any entry to the backstage. To me that was a first and two SPD cops stationed there for security.”

The crowd, reviewer Jones noted, only filled about a third of the hall, say perhaps 3,500 people, and hardly merited the 100 or so police hired.

“It was a good show, actually,” Jones noted. “The Stones music is neither as complicated or as interesting as that, of say, the Beatles, but it has an elemental pull that was obvious in Hirsch Saturday night.”

According to reviews and features at the time, it was the first modern rock show at Hirsch, built in phases in the early 1950s, starting as a roofless U-shaped hall and winding up as today’s well-known echo chamber. Fans of modern American pop music would argue that claim as incorrect, because Elvis Presley performed there almost a decade earlier.

In the years after the Stones show, the old concrete hall got quite a workout, with the Monkees, the Byrds and others performing there.

Just one week after the Stones performed, the then-hot Dave Clark Five performed at Hirsch, along with John Fred & the Playboys, the Greek Fountains and The Group in a benefit for the March of Dimes.

“I told my mother I needed to go to both,” remembers local insurance executive Joe Littlejohn. “Tickets were $5 each. She told me to pick one. I chose the Dave Clark Five! Big mistake, historically speaking! I do have some great pictures of the Dave Clark group taken at the old Shreveport Airport on Hollywood Avenue.”

In later decades, bands ranging from Earth, Wind and Fire and the Isley Brothers to Cheap Trick and KISS performed there.

Hirsch also has been used by some major groups to put together touring shows, since its construction allows use of full pyrotechnic effects. ZZ Top put together tours there, as did Van Halen, which also was an opener, along with the Doobie Brothers, to the Rolling Stones’ July 13, 1978 concert in the Superdome in New Orleans. That 25-show tour supported the release of the album “Some Girls.”

John Andrew Prime wrote for The Times for more than 37 years, from 1978 to late 2015. He is the coauthor of a book on Barksdale Air Force Base and has contributed to books on area music. He is co-author of the pending Arcadia/History Press book “Legendary Locals of Shreveport.” Email him at [email protected] or visit his website at japrime.com.


http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2015/11/16/history-stones-rolled...
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“What rap did that was impressive was to show there are so many tone-deaf people out there,” he says. “All they need is a drum beat and somebody yelling over it and they’re happy. There’s an enormous market for people who can’t tell one note from another.” - Keef
 
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