THE ROLLING STONES LIVE
17th
APRIL 1967
Panathinaikos Stadium
Athens,Greece
THE FIRST BIG GIG IN GREECE… AND THE LAST
ONE!
I first heard
about the concert on Mastorakis’ radio show, “A Bus
Named Melody”. I was at
home, listening to the radio. In the beginning of the show, Mastorakis
mentioned a surprise he would disclose later on. When I first heard this, I
don’t know how or why but I immediately thought: The Rolling Stones are coming
to Greece. My hunch was confirmed by the middle of the show: the Rolling
Stones would be in Athens, April 17. I was out of my head! I left home and
ran to meet my friends, to tell them the good news.
I bought a
ticket on the first day they were issued. The cheap ones cost about 30 or 50 drachmas
and there were the ones costing 80 – 120 drachmas. Mastorakis had said that the
first eighty persons to reach the airport to welcome the band would be awarded
a free ticket. I of course went to the airport. Police started beating people
up and in order to escape, we hid near a stream. I saw Brian Jones in
his limo and started running behind the car.
I went to the
gig with my brother and his company. My brother was more into the Animals and
at first he didn’t want to go to the gig. “I don’t want to see these fags” he
used to tell me. Needless to say he went mad when he actually did see them. At
the time, there was no Beatles – Stones duel in Greece. Most people were into
the Animals and there were the Stones fans. The Animals were considered
wilder… I wouldn’t buy the Modern Vibes magazine. It was way too childish, but
there were no other music magazines either. We used to buy NME and Melody Maker
but our English was not good enough and we didn’t know how to read them.
So we went to
the concert and I was the only one with a ticket. My company was walking around
the stadium, trying to find a way to sneak in. They found an old man collecting
chains which were used to prevent people without tickets from getting inside.
So my brother says to him: “Come on now grandpa, in your age you shouldn’t be
lifting heavy things. Here, lets us help”. They helped him and so they went in.
There were many people, about thirteen thousand. There would have been even
more if it had not been for all the fuss a day before. I knew some guys from
school who had bought tickets but didn’t come to the gig because they were
afraid they might be beaten up by the police. The police couldn’t care less.
They’d beat anyone up in a minute.
Before the
Stones came on stage, there were the Greek support bands: Loubogg, M.G.C.,
Idols and the rest. Mastorakis had promised these bands that if they were
good enough, the Stones would take them along. Papastamatis sung Sinatra’s
“Strangers In The Night” and received almost as many cheers and clapping
as the Stones.
When they came
on stage, I was speechless. They started playing the Last Time.
In “Lady
Jane”, Jagger was holding a rose and dancing amazingly… the girls
were ecstatic.
In “Ruby
Tuesday”, I see Brian Jones grabbing an instrument and there I go
grabbing the binoculars of the guy standing next to me. The guy was yelling but
I couldn’t stop. When Jones played harmonica, the whole stadium went silent
just to listen to that. All of a sudden, everyone was speechless.
They also
played “Let’s Spend the Night Together”. I was going crazy just by
looking at Richards. In front of me there was a policeman, standing with
his back at the band. I told him: “Don’t look at us screaming. Look at them,
you ain’t gonna see them again”.
Bad things
started happening during “Satisfaction”. A guy sent from the mayor
handed two baskets with carnations to Jagger. Supposedly, all proceeds from the
gig would be granted for the camps of the Municipality of Athens.
There were two
bouquets, one with red and one with white flowers. Jagger picks up the red
flowers, kisses them and hands them to an English man to throw them over to us.
Police attack the guy and beat him up. Wyman was the first to notice
what was happening. The Stones were wild, they wouldn’t hesitate and they went
off the stage to help over. Mastorakis comes on the stage and starts shouting:
“Gentlemen, it’s a shame”. After a while, the Stones end the fight, go back up
on stage, finish off “Satisfaction”, unplug and leave. The crowd would refuse
to leave yet. Then they turned off the lights. Mayhem followed. Girls
screaming, boys teasing them. No-one knew exactly what was going on. We left
the stadium and still policemen were beating people up. We were searching for a
way out of the mess.
Next day Jagger
said that this was the last concert of their tour and they were planning to
play up until two o’clock in the morning. For a long time after that, I was
feeling as if I had lost my mind. I was totally stuck on Jagger’s statement.
No other band
had played in Athens before the Stones. It was the first big gig in Greece… and
the last!
Takis Kakos,
“eye-witness”, friend and known to people going to the Jazz Rock café in late 70’s – early 80’s.