Ethan Russell - Let It Bleed

Los Angeles, CA, November 8, 1969

The night after the Fort Collins show, I was in the back of a limousine sitting next to Pete Bennett, that paragon of Chicago-mobster style. We were driving into the Los Angeles Forum for the Stones show that really kicked off the tour, when our car was stopped by a helmeted member of the LAPD. He blocked our entry and refused to let us pass. The driver, frustrated, started to lose his temper. Pointing with his truncheon, the cop responded: Move it now.

The Forum vibrated on its foundations, the crowd was absolutely gone, and the Rolling Stones were back in America: blowing it away.

Pete Bennett stepped out of the limo. He asked to see the officer in charge. The cop took one look at Pete and took a step back. Another officer came over and, with a couple of others, huddled with Bennett for a few moments, quietly conferring. I dont know what passed between them, but the barricades were moved and we drove smoothly through, just like in the movies. Thank you, gentlemen, Pete said, waving from the window as we passed.

In America in 1969 a rather slippery etiquette had evolved around the concept of security at events like a Stones concert. The Stones needed security. For years, theyd been mobbed whenever theyd performed. They wanted security. At the same time, the security couldnt be the police. Chronologically, this was after the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention, where hordes of helmeted police clubbed mobs of demonstrators in the parks, streets, and hotels. Our tour followed years of confrontation between civil rights marchers and police. Thats the police in America. In England the police had been either arresting or attempting to arrest the Stones for years. In both cases, the police were the problem, not the solution. Uniforms are a definite bad scene, said Keith.

As a result, it was written into the Stones contracts that there would be no uniformed police in front of the stage. But as we pulled up to the backstage entrance to the Forum, there was a squadron of cops, white helmets, black jackets, jodhpurs. Apparently, rock-and-roll contracts meant nothing to the LAPD. Once backstage at the Forum, Tony Funches, the imposing black man who provided security at Stephen Stillss house, was standing in front of the Stones dressing room door. Making sure that the Stones didnt get hassled at any time on the tour was his job. Effective but low-key, Funches was the kind of security the Stones appreciated.

THERE WERENT A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE OUT THERE that could do what I was doing, said Tony. There were the Free Clinic peace-and-love guys at the concerts who would say Please dont climb on the stage as people just blew past them. Or you had the jocks that detested the concert scene and the hippies to begin with. If they bothered to do anything, theyd just smack people down. Between those two extremes well, there werent a lot of us. At first it was just me, twenty-four seven. That night at the Forum, Tony had it covered, buttoned down. The dressing room and the hallways nearby were peaceful.

Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, and Mick Jagger approach the stage at the Los Angeles Forum.

The Los Angeles performance started late, with the Stones not going on until nearly two in the morning. It didnt seem to matter, because the Stones lived up to their billing as the greatest rock n roll band in the world. The show was, in the hip parlance of the time, a stoned gas. The band was great and the audience beyond enthusiastic. When Jagger called for the house lights to be brought up (Let me see you out there, LA. Youre beautiful.), they came rushing into the aisles and toward the stage, ecstatic.

From where I stood that night, sandwiched between the stage and the crowd, the energy crackling back and forth was palpable. The Stones channeled the spirit of rock and sent it into the audience. The audience redoubled and beamed it back to the Stones. At the height of this show the Stones broke into Honky Tonk Woman. Then one rocker followed another until the crowd was roaring, surging through the security guards, who wisely let them pass, crushing against the stage, pinning me to it so tightly that I had to raise my cameras above my head, shoot a few frames blind, and slowly squeeze out.

By the time I got clear and backstage again, Jagger and the Stones were riding the energy of the crowd and slamming out the pulsing anthem of Street Fighting Man. The Forum vibrated on its foundations, the crowd was absolutely gone, and the Rolling Stones were back in America: blowing it away.

Banned from being in front of the stage, the LAPD huddles together at an entrance below the Inglewood Forum.

Backstage at the Forum. Left to right: Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman (hidden), Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards (lying down).

Gram Parsons (back to camera), Stanley Booth (standing, far right), and, in front, Bukka White. (Stanley Booth describes him as BB Kings older cousin, a convict freed from Parchment Farm because he sang the blues.)

Left to right: Glyn Johns, Bukka White, unknown, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Mick Taylor, Astrid Lundstrom, and (back to camera) Stanley Booth, Gram Parsons.

Bukka handed the guitar to Keith, who started playing Dust My Broom. Mick joined him singing a couple of choruses, then they did Keys to the Highway. Bukka listened, his head cocked to one side, and said, Thats good. These boys is good. Has you ever made any records?

STANLEY BOOTH

Cathy and Mary. All I really wanted to do was hang out with the Rolling Stones, and we got to do it.

It seems Im to wear a white tuxedo. Its going to cost them a bloody fortune to have me play with them, and even more if I have to wear a tux. Cash every night. One thousand dollars. Two thousand with the tux.

IAN STEWART

Ian Stewart was a founding member of the Rolling Stones, and was later their road managerhe still played piano, both on their records and onstage with them.

Klein was telling him there must be no uniforms near the stage while the Stones were playing. The fat man nodded in disbelief. What happens if twenty thousand kids rush the stage? Well cross that bridge when we come to it, said Klein. And the fat man said Oh, I see, great.

STANLEY BOOTH

Sam Cutler points at someone trying to climb onstage.