Toronto

Saturday, July 15 (2 shows)

 

    The press harvest in Toronto is quite bountiful, featuring contributions from three local dailies, two Canadian music papers (plus Melody Maker), one Sunday magazine, and one very rare underground rag.  Sadly, however, there are no outright reviews of the unbooted first show by itself, and some of the available clippings meld both concerts into composite accounts that are tough to parse for assignable set list evidence.  For example, the Beetle reviewer cites 14 of the expected 15 songs, but because he had acquired “tickets for both shows” we cannot be certain from his otherwise generic text that he saw all 14 at the early performance, the late one, or both.  Indeed, one puzzling report says that the Stones played only “about 45 minutes” at the first show (as opposed to “about 70 minutes” at the second), and this shortness would suggest fewer than 14 matinee songs.  Too bad we don’t have a complete first show tape to confirm or refute this purported (and unlikely) timing.

 

    The Toronto nightcap does bring the first verified (in words and photographs) STP wearing of the gold jumpsuit.  (This Jagger outfit reappears at the second Boston concert.)

 

 

2nd show

 

Guerilla

 

Grapevine

 

Weekend Magazine

Brown Sugar

Brown Sugar

 

 

Bitch

 

 

Rocks Off

 

 

Gimme Shelter

 

 

Happy

 

 

Tumbling Dice

 

 

Love In Vain

 

 

Sweet Virginia

 

YCAGWYW

 

 

 

All Down The Line

 

Midnight Rambler

Midnight Rambler

Midnight Rambler

 

Bye Bye Johnny

 

 

Rip This Joint

 

 

JJF

JJF

 

SFM

SFM

 

Jagger: “gold crushed velvet jump suit with two red scarves and a strange bluey denim jacket”

 

 

 

Opening: Stevie Wonder

 

 

Jagger: “denim jacket and cap” with “gold jump suit”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“15 songs”

 

Weekend Magazine: “Jagger had had two hours sleep since a big, encore-climaxed Rolling Stones show in Detroit the night before. He and the Stones now had to do two Toronto performances before flying to bed in Montreal.”

 

Toronto Star: “Master of Ceremonies Chip Monck gave the crowd instructions before the shows began. He banned tape recording devices, and asked people with flash cameras to use them only during the first song.”

 

Toronto Sun: “A thousand Kodak flashbulbs pop at Jagger, outlandish in poor-boy cap and floor-length red scarf.”

 

Globe and Mail: “It ought to be pointed out that Jagger wasn’t at his very top whirling form by Saturday night’s second show. How could he be? This was the 30th evening’s work on the present tour, and two shows on one night, given the kind of raw power the Stones pour into their act, seems too demanding to be sensible.”

 

Toronto Star: “It was forceful spontaneity compressed into precision and technique; the two shows, for all their vehement inspiration and stage flair, were virtually identical, though perhaps the early performance was just marginally the more thrilling.”

 

Melody Maker: “The frenzy grew during each of the two performances as Jagger used his college-length red scarf to whip up the audience.”

 

Toronto Star: “At the end of the first show, Jagger showered the audience with crimson rose petals. At the end of the second, an even greater benediction: Jagger simply threw cold water.”

 

Toronto Sun: “[Jagger] spins like a whirling dervish, baptizes them in confetti and water and exits. His disciples stand screaming and stomping for him for a full 90 seconds. The Rolling Stones have delivered a socko 67 minutes of friendly frenzy and now it’s time to go home.”

 

Weekend Magazine: “The Stones were far below peak form in Toronto. It was their eighth performance in seven days, their second that night, and it was the hottest night in the history of the world. Jagger said it was 150 degrees in Maple Leaf Gardens...The Toronto audience didn’t know that Keith Richard, hard-driving lead guitarist and on-stage director, signalled an early end to the last song because he was reeling from heat exhaustion. Richard collapsed in a dead faint as soon as he got backstage. The troupe doctor revived him, fed him salt pills and put him to bed in a dressing room while the rest of the Stones sped to the airport.”

 

Guerilla: “When the Stones finally packed it in, everyone was drained but yelling anyway, for them to encore. No such luck – they couldn’t have had much to go on by that time.”

 

Weekend Magazine: “’What do you remember of Toronto?’ ‘Not much,’ said Jagger, ‘Fatigue. Heat. Not just the heat, but the lack of oxygen. Why isn’t there any air conditioning in Canada? It was terrible.’”

 

 

 

Selected Press Clippings

 

Beetle1 * 2

 

Globe and Mail1 * 2

 

Grapevine

 

Guerrilla

 

Melody Maker

 

Toronto Star2a * 3 * 4