Posted by Rick Campbell on June 2, 2011





The Rolling Stones crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time on June 1, 1964, landing in New York to a Beatle-esq welcome. After a couple of days there, they were on a plane again, flying across the country to Los Angeles for a couple of days. Then their whirlwind journey took them back to the middle of the U.S. for a four performances  at the Teen Fair of Texas in San Antonio over the weekend of June 6-7.

Just four months after The Beatles took the U.S. by storm, the Stones launched their invasion. After a couple of  TV appearances, the Stones played their first U.S. concert in San Bernardino, Calif., on June 5. Early the next morning,  they boarded a plane for Texas, where a culture shock awaited them.

According to skimpy news reports from the time, the crowd at the Joe Freeman Coliseum — at the event that has been referred to over the years as the San Antonio State Fair and the San Antonio Teen Fair —was less than enamored with those bad boys from England. According to one report, the Stones were booed off the stage, resulting in the previous act returning to the stage — a troupe of performing monkeys.

A newspaper review, found on the website of San Antonio drummer John Gates, showed that the Stones and San Antonio weren’t grooving together:

“ROLLING STONES FLOP IN TEXAS”… Only 3000 of 20,000 available seats were filled when they topped the bill at the TEEN FAIR of TEXAS, in SAN ANTONIO (along with BOBBY VEE, several local bands and circus-type juggling and animal acts).. Those that came weren’t too impressed, one young fan quoted as saying ” All they’ve got that our own school groups haven’t is hair”

Bassist Bill Wyman and guitarist Keith Richards recalled the Texas experience in their memoirs.

Wyman, in Stone Alone: The Story of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Band (1997):

On the bill with us were George Jones, the great country singer, and singer Bobby Vee. Here we first met  Bobby Keys, who was playing sax with Vee’s band. Keys was born in Lubbock, Texas (the same town as Buddy Holly) on the same day as Keith, which practically made them blood-brothers. …

The concert was in the open air and everyone got a poor reception from a mixed crowd of cowboys and kids. We had to go on after some performing monkeys. What the hell were we doing here? People didn’t know whether to take us seriously or as a joke! …

What had we let ourselves in for? Crowds were great to us at airports and hotels but these two shows set us back years!  …

The next day while we were sunbathing around the hotel pool in a temperature of 95°, a young waiter who was serving us drinks said that a guest had complained to the hotel that girls were at the pool, swimming and sunbathing topless — that was us!

Richards, in Life: (2010):

On to Texas and more freak show appearances, in one case with a pool of performing seals between us and the audience at the San Antonio Texas State Fair. That was where I first met Bobby Keys, the great saxophone player, my closest pal. … The other guy on that gig was George Jones. They trailed in with tumbleweed following them, as if tumbleweed was their pet. Dust all over the place, a bunch of cowboys. But when George got up, we went whoa, there’s a master up there.

Keys, who would go on to play an integral role with the Stones, quoted by Richards in Life:

The American music scene, the whole set of teenage idols and clean-cut boys from next door and nice little songs, all that went right out the f****** window when these guys showed up!

The morning news on television in his hotel room after the Stones first night in San Antonio was a wake-up call for Richards. He recounts the experience in a snippet from 1971 on the Time Is On Our Side website:

The reason I remember San Antone so much is waking up and this is, I mean, a young English cat never been face to face with the realities of American life… I put on the TV the first morning: 15 killed last night in a brawl down on the river Brazos or whatever it is. I thought, God, they’re riotin’ down here, what’s going on? Is it a race riot, old chap? Did you hear that?… Turn on the TV next morning, 18 people killed last night and it slowly began to sink in, right, every night around 15 or 20 people get it done to them in San Antone. … I mean, that’s amazing.

It’s impossible to know whether the Stones really were bad in San Antonio or if they just couldn’t connect with an audience that wasn’t ready for them. But it’s hard to imagine a band being at the top of its game when it’s doing five shows in three days — after flying across the ocean and making two TV appearances.

At the end of October, a couple of days before the Stones returned to San Bernardino for a second concert, they headlined the T.A.M.I. Show that was filmed for theatrical release in December. If there were doubts in June 1964 that they were going anywhere, their performance in the movie should have wiped obliterated them.

Here is a photo of the Stones onstage in San Antonio on June 6, 1964, from Photobucket.




And here’s the Rolling Stones performing at the T.A.M.I. Show.

It would be another two years before the Rolling Stones finally rolled into Houston. If you were at the July 11, 1966, show at  Sam Houston Coliseum and have a story to tell, drop me an email - [email protected]  


Houston Chronicle
 
Real, live, gin-u-wine monkeys opened the show - and got an encore!

They musta been good...

You can tell, even from these two pictures, that it was an energetic, exciting show. I've read that the Stones fared better on both coasts---but the folks in the middle of the country didn't know what to do with them yet. I would love to have seen one of those early shows!!

Thanks Lefty, love those articles/stories of The Stones in the early days, I can imagine the reaction they caused, I remember the 60's & trying to grow long hair, the remarks I used to get, "Do you squak when you take a piss"? & especially in Texas, KKK territory or very red neck, like right out of that restaurant scene in Easy Rider.
It's hard to believe in these days having Rock acts with animal acts, seals & monkeys like back then.