Rolling Stones Concert Wembley 4th July 1990 - Were you there?

ITV Studios are making a documentary marking the 20th Anniversary of the England v W. Germany semi final of Italia '90.

We are trying to find stories of where people were when that game was being played on the 4th July 1990. I've read a great story about the Rolling Stones gig at Wembley that night and people in the crowd holding hand held radios to their ears between songs to keep track of the score.

Were you there? Were you one of those people? What are your memories of the night? We'd really like to hear from you - at first just for a quick chat on the phone.

If you could contact me either by email at [email protected] or by phone on 0113 2228826

Best regards, Ben Smith

i had tickets for that particular concert...
but chose to catch a flight to Italy instead and attend the Semi Final.

The last time i attended a match featuring my national team.

Wow, that's a great story Ade. Did you actually get into the game as well?

Be great to have a chat with you if you have 5 minutes spare. All of my contact details are on the post if you'd like to drop me an email. Alternatively I can send you further details of the programme so you can see it is all kosher.

Thanks, Ben

All wembley-90 shows are audience recordings,except july 7th which was broadcasted on radio,one of the most bootlegged shows.No wonder,its fantastic
performance!
But my favorite wembey is probaply july 6th or august 24th.
Gazza must been on these shows.

I was there.  Despite being an England fan I chose to attend the concert and would not have even considered taking a radio.  Was truly staggered to see the number of folk listening to radios.  I sensed that the band were being updated too.  There was one moment when Keef was thrown off guard and, (only briefly), looked startled when a roar went up.  The sort of roar that you occasionally got in the glory days when Keef could really smash out a series of startling chunky chords!  (Usual poor Wembley sound on the day!).

captainglassback wrote on Feb 12^th, 2010 at 6:55am:



England scored during 'Almost Hear You Sigh'. You can clearly hear the roar from the crowd on the recording of the show.

There was also a big roar for another England goal during (I think) 'You Cant Always Get What You Want', but it turned out to be disallowed.

Germany's equaliser didnt get much of a cheer, oddly enough.

The band were indeed updated, I remember reading that almost had to be literally dragged away from their TV sets backstage to do the show! Jagger made a few comments during the gig as well ("is the tension getting to you?" etc)

I remember the gig being featured on Sky News that night. Being the Stones' first UK show in eight years it would have been a big news story anyway, but the fact that it coincided with the World Cup semi-final made it even bigger. They concentrated a lot on the fact that the ticket touts took a hammering, All 5 Wembley shows sold out pretty fast (360,000 tickets) and the touts thought they were going to make a fortune until England's quarter final win a few days earlier (over Cameroon if I remember right) meant that they'd be facing the old enemy in the semi finals. I think some of them were saying that many of their spare the tickets (which cost £20 or so) ended up being sold for no more than a quarter of their face value.

Like I said earlier, I didnt buy tickets for any of the Wembley shows as they were too close to the shows in Paris, Glasgow and Dublin -  I only ended up going to the two rescheduled shows (which got postponed when Keith bust his finger) because they took place at the end of the tour several weeks later and it was more affordable - plus it wasn't too hard to get tickets for them as I was able to buy tickets that fans had sent back because they couldnt go on the rescheduled dates.

The last two shows were of course the final dates of the tour, were filmed for 'At The Max' and used the 'Steel Wheels' stage instead of the 'Urban Jungle' one and were the last ones with Bill Wyman.

i was there in spirit

This was the last England game I attended......any excuse to post this photo again, Alex....




Windsor Park, September 7th 2005.

Yeah, I think it happened at the soundcheck.

He first mentioned it in Glasgow two days later ("I've bust me finger, but I don't give a shit!") and then the shows in Cardiff on the 11th and the two Wembley shows on the 13th and 14th got postponed - if I remember right the 11th and 13th July shows were both only called off mid afternoon with thousands of people standing at the gates waiting to get in.

Hello Everyone.

Still really keen to have a quick chat with people who were there that night. It really is a great story and I'd really appreciate just a quick research chat with anyone in the crowd. Wont take up too much of your time.

The two posts from people who were there on the evening sound great and I'd love to talk a bit further with you if you can get in touch.

I'm on [email protected] or 0113 222 8826.

Thanks and fingers crossed. Ben


Bensmit wrote on Feb 12^th, 2010 at 4:49am:

A mate of mine was at Wembley in 90. He was working in U.K. for a year. I was jealous as all hell because the fuckers hadnt toured here since 73 and indeed, it would be another 5 years until they came here. My mate was a true mate and rubbed it in too. But he got me a t-shirt!

He also saw Ian Dury & Devo, which impressed me too.

Only just seen your messages Ben , i'll be in touch !



  West Germany, World Cup semi-final, Turin, 4.7.90. Drew 1-1 (aet)

                         England lost 4-3 on penalties

Shilton  Parker  Pearce Wright  Walker  Butcher* (Steven)

Platt  Waddle  Gascoigne  Lineker1      Beardsley

Highlights: England saved their finest performance of World Cup '90 for this epic semi-final, but they finished up with empty hands and broken hearts as West Germany conquered them in a torturous penalty shoot-out.  A 1–1 draw after extra time was just about a fair reflection on a masterpiece of a match.  There was just one irritating incident when Thomas Berthold made a meal of a tackle by Paul Gascoigne in extra time, and Gazza was close to tears as he collected his second booking of the tournament which would have ruled him out of the final. Gascoigne had been  more prominent and productive in midfield than West German skipper Lothar Matthaus, who had been rated by many as the best player on view before this match. Peter Shilton was desperately unlucky to concede the first goal of the match in the fifty-ninth minute when Brehme's shot deflected off Parker's heel and ballooned freakishly high before coming down first bounce into the back of England's net. Lineker equalised in the eightieth minute when he hit the ball in full stride with his left foot to send it under a sliding defender and into the far corner of the net. Both Chris Waddle and Guido Buchwald hammered shots against the post during a thrilling extra-time period. Shilton elected the right way to dive for every one of the German penalties, but each time he was a fingernail's distance away from making a vital save. Lineker took the first penalty and coolly drilled it home. Brehme made it all square. Then Beardsley netted penalty number two, which was cancelled out by Matthaeus with the most ferocious spot-kick of the tournament. David Platt made it 3–2 while Paul Gascoigne looked on from the centre-circle with tears watering his eyes. Riedle brought the scores level again before Stuart Pearce took aim and fired the first blank. He was inconsolable as his low-driven spot-kick cannoned off Illgner's shins. Olaf Thon netted Germany's next penalty, meaning that Chris Waddle had to hit the target to keep alive England's hopes of reaching the final.  He had never taken a spot-kick in a major match in his career, and he produced a novice-like effort as he blazed the ball high over the bar. Germany were through to the final, but England went out with honour in a match that was a credit to the World Cup and to football in general.

I remember being at Wembley to see The Stones in 1982 when Mick Jagger told the crowd that Northern Ireland had beaten Spain 1 - 0.

I also went in to see Bob Dylan at Liverpool Empire in 1996 with England 1 - 0 up against Germany in Euro '96 , another one we lost on penalties.

I also came out of The Barrowlands in 2004 (Dylan again) just in time to see us lose on penalties against Portugal , in the company of a full pub of cheering Scottish people.