The five craziest tour stories from the 1960s
While releasing records is an undoubtedly important way for artists to express themselves, it’s often on the stage where they’re truly able to prove their worth to audiences, with live music having the power to transform people’s perceptions of an act’s talent.
It’s all very well being able to make a great album, where you’re often afforded enough time in the studio to iron out mistakes and ensure that everything is as perfect as it can be, but when it comes to being able to perform live, you’re given far less room for error, and there’s no way to mask those hiccups that you could otherwise disguise through clever mixing and production. If shit hits the proverbial fan, then you’ve got an awful lot of work on your hands when it comes to cleaning up after your mishaps.
Embarking on a bad string of shows can create a blemish on your reputation that’s hard to psychologically recover from, and might prove to be eternally damaging to your confidence when it comes to being able to perform in front of an audience in the future. However, not all touring disasters are down to the musical incompetence of the artists, but often due to extraneous circumstances that are either entirely avoidable on their part, or unavoidable due to it involving the unpredictable actions of audiences.
The 1960s were arguably the decade where touring became far more prominent, with artists embarking on trips around the world rather than performing exclusively in their countries of origin, far more frequently than ever seen in the past. But despite the advent of popular music rapidly turning itself into a cultural phenomenon, the artists who were undertaking such gruelling tours found themselves open to more controversies, fallouts and sloppiness.
While there were undoubtedly some world-changing tours that took place during the ‘60s, there were also some chaotic and catastrophic ones that almost derailed some of the most promising careers, and in some cases, succeeded in bringing about their demise.
Five of the most chaotic tours of the 1960s:
The Rolling Stones – US Tour, 1969
After an exhausting yet successful tour of the States in late 1966, you’d have thought that The Rolling Stones were chomping at the bit to return to the US as soon as possible in order to further cement their status as one of the most prominent acts of the British invasion. However, a drugs bust at the home of Keith Richards in early 1967, along with charges being brought against Mick Jagger for similar offences later the same year, culminated in the band having limited scope for travel, and they wouldn’t fly back across the pond again until late 1969.
What should have been a triumphant return for the band started off well, with Mick Taylor settling into his role as Brian Jones’ replacement with ease, and critics noting how the band had significantly developed as a group in the years between their visits. However, the entirety of the tour ended up being marred by the tragic events of the Altamont Free Concert in December 1969, where violence broke out in the audience early on into their set, and the murder of attendee Meredith Hunter, leading to the event being cut short, and hanging a dark cloud over the final appearance of their tour.
The Who – Tommy Tour, 1969
While it ought to be a long way from being considered a disaster, given how it elevated the status of The Who to become global rock superstars, the tour that the band embarked on in support of their 1969 concept album, Tommy, was nothing if not filled with moments of chaos that could have overshadowed its success. Evidently made of stronger stuff than most groups, the band managed to power through a number of events that most would have considered disruptive and distracting, proving both their mental and musical fortitude.
An onstage fight between Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and a plainclothes police officer in New York City early on in the tour could have derailed the entire tour had they been charged for their assault, while unruly crowds of Teddy Boys trying to stop the band from taking to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall could have erupted into a far bigger fracas. On top of this, their performance at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw could have easily been a disaster as well, after a toppling speaker cabinet ended up injuring drummer Keith Moon as they walked on stage, although he somehow managed to power through the entire thing.
Pink Floyd – The Piper at the Gates of Dawn Tour, 1967
Despite impressing listeners with the expansive psychedelic sounds of their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, there was plenty of trouble happening within the ranks of Pink Floyd behind the scenes, mostly surrounding the rapidly declining mental state of their frontman and principal songwriter, Syd Barrett. While he had been known for his dalliances with psychedelic substances prior to them embarking on tour, it was the advent of the live shows at the tail end of 1967 that further plunged Barrett into a terrifying world.
Things got off to a bad start when the band’s visas and work permits not arriving in time for their US shows meant that they had to cancel the first six shows of the tour, but Barrett’s increasingly bizarre on-stage antics, such as choosing to detune his guitar to the point where the strings fell out during their debut show San Francisco and entering a complete catatonic state during a televised recording only amplified the unrest. To cap everything off, their return to the UK to tour alongside The Jimi Hendrix Experience saw Barrett fail to turn up to some shows, which ultimately led to the band having to recruit David Gilmour as a cover for their ailing and often absent frontman.
<strong>Small Faces – Australia and New Zealand Tour, 1968</strong>
The release of Small Faces’ third studio album, the delightfully whimsical psychedelic concept record Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake, ought to have been the moment where the band’s popularity went stratospheric. However, the positive reception that the album received from critics wasn’t enough to elevate them to a higher level, because the invitation to head on a fortnight-long jaunt down under in support of The Who just two months prior had all but destroyed any desires the band had to continue.
Exhausted from their lengthy flight from London to Sydney, the band were immediately ushered to meet with the press, which they evidently didn’t want to do, and the hostility only seemed to escalate from here. Frontman Steve Marriott endured a nightmare scenario on stage when he became trapped on a revolving platform, causing a fracas between him and the crew, and when the band were flying to New Zealand to finish off their dates, their attempts to smuggle alcohol on board were foiled, leading to the plane being diverted back. Not only was this the last time they played in Australia, but the band would find themselves collapsing within the next 12 months.
The Beatles – US Tour, 1966
Despite having gone from being four ordinary lads from Liverpool to global superstars in such a short span of time in the mid-1960s, The Beatles weren’t exactly living what they would call a life of luxury. If anything, the constant demand for new music and extensive touring made fame exhausting for the band, and when it came to returning the US in 1966, it rapidly became evident that they couldn’t sustain this level of activity much longer, hence why this tour ended up being the stage for some of the most disastrous shows they ever played, and led to their eventual decision to cease touring altogether.
The infamous comments from John Lennon about The Beatles being “more popular than Jesus” irked the more conservative members of their audience, with the band even receiving death threats and Ku Klux Klan presence at one show as a result of his inflammatory statement, but on top of this, the band were simply frustrated at the fact that performing to screaming audiences had meant that they were never able to actually demonstrate their brilliance as a live band, nor were they truly being appreciated by those fans. As a result, the band came to an agreement that their show at Candlestick Park in San Francisco would be the last show they ever did as part of a tour.
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