Underplayed Gems

Stones in the Park (1969)

Stones in the Park poster
Original title
The Stones in the Park
Directed by
Leslie Woodhead
Genre
documentary film
Country
United Kingdom
Runtime
53 min
Rating
7.7 of 10 from 6 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

This documentary covers a 1969 free concert in London's Hyde Park headlined by the Rolling Stones. It was their first public show in two years and took place just two days after the death of former band member Brian Jones. The film shows the performances and the crowd's tribute to Jones.

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What happens

The Stones in the Park was a free outdoor festival held in Hyde Park on 5 July 1969, headlined by the Rolling Stones and featuring Third Ear Band, King Crimson, Screw, Alexis Korner's New Church, Family and the Battered Ornaments, in front of an estimated audience between 250,000 and 500,000 spectators. It was the Stones' first public concert in over two years, and was planned as an introduction of their new guitarist, Mick Taylor, though circumstances inevitably changed following the death of former member Brian Jones two days earlier. The band rehearsed at the Beatles' studio in a basement on Savile Row, and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards came up with a 14-song set; the Hyde Park concert would be the first time many of the songs had been played before a public audience. The PA system was supplied by Watkins Electric Music, who had handled amplification at previous Hyde Park events. Fans started to arrive at the park with candles on 4 July in tribute to Jones, and by the morning of 5 July, 7,000 people had already gathered. Jagger read a short eulogy on stage before the Stones' set began, reading two stanzas of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem on John Keats's death, Adonaïs, from a calf-bound book. After this recital, several hundred cabbage white butterflies were released. While the event is considered a memorable one by several critics, they also agree that it was not one of the Stones' best performances. In a 1971 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Richards evaluated their performance, "We played pretty bad until near the end, because we hadn't played for years ... Nobody minded, because they just wanted to hear us play again." The Stones' portion of concert, together with interviews with the Stones and concert-goers, and backstage scenes, was filmed by Granada Television and broadcast that September. It has since been released on DVD and Blu-ray. In April 2013, the band announced their intention to play two return concerts on 6 and 13 July, although the performances were not free. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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