This is the type of plane we toured with in 1965

I always thought of the Rolling Stones 1965  tour as “If It’s Tuesday, This Must be Belgium”.  Each city blurred into to a mirror image of itself and it became a McDonald’s and mini mall world with all city’s looking the same.  We would, usually, arrive via our small charter plane, at 1 or 2 AM, immediately drive to the hotel/motel we were staying at and immediately search for food.  The food available usually was fried chicken, beef stew, mostly all night diner fare.  We’d stay up another couple of hours unwinding and then up in the morning to get the troops together for an afternoon (about 2 PM)  sound check.  Off for dinner and relaxing? until the show.  I would have to get to the venue’s early to prevent promoter trickery.  I had been tipped off by our William Morris agent, Jerry Brandt as to some of the scams.  A typical example would be the promoter advertises tickets at $8 at the door or advance purchase at $5.  If you don’t get to the door and check the ticket numbers you shouldn’t be surprised that “all” the tickets were sold in ‘advance’  without a way to prove otherwise.  I always had to get the ticket count before the doors opened while making sure ‘the boys’ got to the venue. 

Exception to the rule-

Sometimes we arrived and got a police motorcycle escort from the airport to our hotel and then after the show to the airport.  These were usually harrowing events.  The motorcycle entourage would leap frog intersection to intersection to stop traffic.  The minute we went thru a light, that officer would jump on his motorcycle and speed up to catch and pass us to get to another intersection, past the one where another officer was holding off traffic.  These guys were flying at over 100 miles an hour , which we also did in some instances,  but were usually doing about 80 throughout the cities.  It was amazing, exciting and scary.

29th October – 6th December: 4th North America Tour.

651029B  29th October: Montreal, Canada, Forum

651030A  30th October: New York City, Hilton Hotel. Press conference.

651030B  30th October: Ithaca, New York, Barton Hall, Cornell University
651030C  30th October: Syracuse, New York, War Memorial Hall

651031A  31st October: German TV (Radio Bremen) ‘Beat Club’.
- footage from the famous Waldbühne-gig in Berlin 15.9.65

651031B  31st October: Toronto, Canada, Maple Leaf Gardens

651000A  October: US radio (WSFA) ‘Teen Time’, incl.
- BJ, MJ, CW & BW reading letters with requests from listeners

651101A  1st November: US radio (Radio Boston), New York.
- recording of ads for the upcoming concert

651101B  1st November : Rochester, New York, Memorial Auditorium
651103A  3rd November: Providence, Rhode Island, Auditorium
651104A  4th November: New Haven, Connecticut, Loews State Theater (1st show)
651104B  4th November: New Haven, Connecticut, Loews State Theater (2nd show)
651105A  5th November: Boston, Massachusetts, Gardens
651106A  6th November: New York City, Academy Of Music

651106B  6th November: US TV ( ), Philadelphia.
- interview with one or more Stones

651106C  6th November: US TV (ABC) ‘Shindig!. Incl.
- Good Times (Sam Cooke) -promofilm
- Mercy Mercy (Don Covay/Ron Miller) -promofilm

651106D  6th November: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Convention Hall
651107A  7th November: Newark, New Jersey, Symphony Hall/Mosque Theater (1st show)
651107B  7th November: Newark, New Jersey, Symphony Hall/Mosque Theater (2nd show)

651109A  9th November: New York, Lincoln Square Motor Inn. Jam-session
(a/k/a ‘The Lost Jam’ due to electricity breakdown)
Line-up: BJ (acgtr, harm)/Bob Dylan (voc, acgtr)/Robbie Robertson (p)/
Bobby Neuwirth (acgtr)

651110A  10th November: Raleigh, North Carolina, Reynolds Coliseum

651111A  11th November: US TV (NBC) ‘Hullabaloo’, New York.
- She Said Yeah (Sonny Christy/Roddy Jackson) -playback with live vocals
- Get Off Of My Cloud (MJ/KR) -playback with live vocals
+ Charlie Is My Darling-footage
Note: The movie-footage was dubbed with Satisfaction played by the
Hullabaloo-orchestra. Televised on the 15th November.
Released on video in 1998 (see 980326A).

651112A  12th November: Greensboro, North Carolina, Coliseum

651113A  13th November: Washington, D.C., Coliseum. Unverified set:
(Everybody Needs Somebody To Love/Play With Fire/Mercy Mercy/
Around And Around/The Last Time/That’s How Strong My Love Is/
Get Off Of My Cloud/Satisfaction)

651113B  13th November: Baltimore, Maryland, Civic Center

651114A  14th November: Canadian TV (CBC) ‘This Hour Has Seven Days’, incl.
- interview with all five Stones by Larry Zolf (on a plane, late April 1965)

651114B  14th November: Knoxville, Tennessee, Civic Coliseum Auditorium

651115B  15th November: Charlotte, North Carolina, Coliseum
651116A  16th November: Nashville, Tennessee, Municipal Auditorium
651117A  17th November: Memphis, Tennessee, Mid-South Coliseum
651120A  20th November: Shreveport, Louisiana, State Fair Youth Center
651121A  21st November :Fort Worth, Texas, Will Rogers Memorial Center
651121B  21st November:Dallas, Texas, Memorial Auditorium
651123A  23rd November: Tulsa, Oklahoma, Assembly Center
651124A  24th November: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Civic Arena
651125A  25th November: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Arena Auditorium
651126A  26th November: Detroit, Michigan, Cobo Hall
651127A  27th November: Dayton, Ohio, Wampler’s Hara Arena
651127B  27th November: Cincinatti, Ohio, Gardens
651128A  28th November: Chicago, Illinois, Arie Crown Theater, McCormick Place (1st)
651128B  28th November: Chicago, Illinois, Arie Crown Theater, McCormick Place (2nd)
651129A  29th November: Denver, Colorado, Coliseum
651130A  30th November: Phoenix, Arizona, Veterans Memorial Coliseum

651200A  Fall: US radio (Boss Radio 90 KHJ), incl.
- jingle by MJ for the upcoming gig at L.A. Sports Arena

651201A  1st December: Vancouver, Canada, Agrodome
Note: The whole show was filmed for a police documentary.

651202A  2nd December: Seattle, Washington, Coliseum
651203A  3rd December: Sacramento, California, Memorial Auditorium (1st show)

651203B  3rd December: Sacramento, California, Memorial Auditorium (2nd show)
Note: A colour super-8 film with KR getting an electroshock during this gig exists.

651204B  4th December: San Jose, California, Civic Auditorium (1st show)
651204C  4th December: San Jose, California, Civic Auditorium (2nd show)
651205A  5th December: San Diego, California, Community Concourse, Convention Hall

651205B  5th December : Los Angeles, Calornia, Sports Arena
Note: A 10-15 minutes police-film about this concert is reported to exist.

651205C  5th December: Los Angeles, Beverly Rodeo Hotel. Press conference.

By the time I got to New York, the office was in a flurry as they got ready to send the Stones out on the road in ’65.  At about 3 PM, Allen called me over and said, “I want you to go on the road with the Stones and represent me in the box office.” I had a few hours to pack and get ready, which was interesting in itself.  I lived in Newark, New Jersey, but my clothes weren’t there. Unbeknownst to anyone in the office, Candy Leigh had literally taken me under her wing and my clothes were at her apartment.  While being closer in Manhattan, it presented another problem as I didn’t have a key to the apartment and had to get my clothes.  Candy was in a closed door meeting with Allen and the other key Stones people.  Time was running out. She did manage to get an envelope passed out of the meeting to me with the key in it.  The person that gave the envelope to me figured out that it was a key but kept it quiet..I think.  He confronted me years later.

This tour led to my first airplane flight ( it was on a Marin 404 twin prop ), my first rock and roll tour and wild and crazy times..

Representing Allen in the box office became an interesting proposition as Allen had removed comp tickets from the promoter agreements  These are the tickets that the promoter’s give to the press, friends, family, politicians, etc.. Every time I went to a box office to do the accounting and pick up the money, I had to compute the total ticket sales.  Every promoter freaked when they realized they had to pay for their giveaways and would threaten me. Most of them calling me a little punk, I wouldn’t leave alive, they would break my arm or leg…..  I would collect the cash and send it off immediately.. Sometimes the promoters would appear at my hotel room, wanting the money back..but, “it’s in the mail” always worked to get them off my back..

]]> http://meandtherollingstones.com/blog/one-minute-i-was-dancing-to-satisfaction-and-a-month-later-on-the-road-with-the-rolling-stones/feed 0 http://meandtherollingstones.com/blog/clothes-make-the-man http://meandtherollingstones.com/blog/clothes-make-the-man#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:18:27 +0000 ron schneider http://meandtherollingstones.com/blog/?p=1007

I graduated the University of Miami, with a BBA in 1965.  After a couple of vacation weeks in the summer, I packed  my car and drove to New York.  As I started work  my uncle, Allen Klein called me into his office.  He also called in Candy Leigh.  Candy was about 5 years older than me.  Candy was the in house Public Relations press person working at ABKCO.  I always thought of Candy as a strong independent woman. She had been a model and she now had her own business, Call Candy, which was a telephone answering service (check your history books)in addition to her work as  PR person.  Allen said that I needed some suits for work.   I needed suits because I was a Miami boy (even though I was born in Newark I grew up in Miami) …growing up in Miami left me with a wardrobe which consisted of shorts, T shirts, flip flops and no need for a suit.  He wanted me to go to this specific suit designer who dressed all the top business men, stars (Ed Sullivan)  and entertainers in New York,  and get some clothes.  He told Candy to go with me to help me pick out a wardrobe and he gave me $400.00. I was only making $80 a week, the $400 was a welcomed gift that I never forgot,  nor the instructions I received to go with the suits. which I will detail on a “on the road with the Rolling Stones posting” as well as how Candy became ‘my older woman’ and why my suits were at her place when I got called to go on the road and the problems that caused

By my second summer, I was being sent to do the bookkeeping for different accounts that ABKCO represented.  I was to write up their checking accounts, and any and all transactions that the clients transacted.  A lot of these clients were in the famed Brill Building and I still remember walking down the halls hearing music, a piano playing, a guitar strumming and the voice’s of  song writers’  pitching or creating their songs.  I recall doing the books for Scepter Records, which had the Shirelles, Nancy Brown, the Isley Brothers , BJ Thomas,  the song Louie Louie and Dionne Warwick.  Not bad for a bored housewife, Flo Greenberg who started the label. Sometimes I would get a chance to talk to some of the singers, I recall that I loved to walk and talk with Nancy Brown.

One of the nicest guys I recall meeting was Neil Sedaka. I would go to his office to do his books.  His mother ran his office and I would come over and sit at a nearby desk and write up his publishing income and his expenses.  Neil would always be at a piano playing and creating some new song that I would hear on the radio months later.

I believe that Allen started my visits to the offices and the banal bookkeeping work, to see how I did while interacting with the talent and doing the business of entertainment. After doing this for a year, I got to join him when he worked with the other artists he represented.  The first being, Bobby Vinton.  Allen had done a ground breaking record deal for Bobby and was managing his act as well. I would sit and watch Bobby rehearse as Allen helped pick the structure of his show.  The main premise always was, “leave the audience wanting more”.  Most talent never know when to stop.  If they have an adoring audience they will perform forever, so guidelines have to be set (sorry fans).  Allen would help in structure,  building excitement, leveling off, and then building to a wow closing, leaving the audience wanting more.  I joined Allen and Bobby on many shows in the Catskills and major clubs in NY.  Bobby was amazing , his father was a band conductor which led to Bobby playing about 15 instruments. He would amaze the audience that came to see him sing, Mr. Lonely, or Roses are Red when he would break out a dozen instruments and play them.. Another cute trick I noted from the shows.. every night when Bobby would introduce the band to the audience, he would say.. “and let’s hear it for our drummer, it’s his birthday today”….:-) I always wondered what people thought that came more than once to see his show..

Working with Bobby led to Sam Cooke.  Besides an amazing record deal for it’s time, Allen Klein got bookings for Sam that were unheard of for black entertainers at that time. I recall many great shows we went to –I remember July 1964 at the Copacabana (even though Sam had played it earlier he had been treated poorly ). The ’64 show was a blockbuster .  I had a lot of writing to do recording the record royalties for Sam and his publishing company, Kags Music with J.W.Alexander.  I had to compute the royalty splits and write them up by hand as all we had was a calculator.  I have since heard that my handwritten work had been digitized and entered into the ABKCO database..My hand writing now is illegible.

Sam told me that there were two things to his act. One–he would hop over the microphone cord and Two–he would bite his lower lip.  That’s all he needed as his voice did the rest. Those were great years, I recall Allen gave Sam a Silver Cloud Rolls Royce.

I was in my car in Miami back home to finish my final year at the U of M, when I heard he had been shot and killed.  A very sad day and once again, the good die young.

When one thinks of accounting or bookkeeping, they usually visualize some guy sitting over a desk, scribbling numbers and being very boring-at least that is the reaction I always got when I said I was going to be an accountant.  I had no idea of what I was getting myself into when my adventure began.

I recall being given an aptitude test as I was entering high school.  This test was supposed to give you direction as to a career or job direction.  The guidance counselor called me in and told me I could be what ever I wanted.  I had high scores in math and science.  Science really interested me as to the challenge of discovering cures for diseases and solving other mysteries excited me.  For a science project I had tried to feed an amoeba to make it visual to the naked eye.  I thought I had accomplished my goal but it may have been a speck of dust I was viewing instead of an amoeba.  I realized that I did not have the patience to document and spend a lot of time on losing propositions,  so I quickly gave that up. Next choice was being a doctor.  The adolescent plus side was that I could see naked women.  Unfortunately I quickly realized that all my patients would not  be Playboy bunnies plus I had no patience for complainers or whiners.  Not a good thing for bedside manner.  That dream was gone.

While discussing my future choices with my mother she said, "My brother is an accountant and you could work with him".  A guaranteed job with someone I knew sounded great.  I did well with numbers as they dealt with facts and I liked facts.  I started with bookkeeping and accounting courses.  I was very lucky to have, what I called then, a semi photographic memory.  I could read a book and remember the contents for quite a long time.  Most teachers gave tests, 'by the book' and I did well as did my friends who sat next to me :-)  I really liked auditing and finding errors (before graduation I was offered jobs by two of the top accounting firms as a traveling auditor:  Peat, Marwick and Mitchell and Arthur Anderson ).  I decided to major in accounting at the University of Miami and at first I minored in law.  Accounting was working out well  but expecting law to be fact based and black and white turned out to be an idealistic dream.   In law class, we were to do a mock business law trial according to the facts of an actual case, the result to be revealed after our trial.  I was the lead defense attorney and our class genius (he later got MBA's and is quite renowned now) was the prosecutor.  He was reserved and intellectual and the head of the scores in our class where I was second and a wise ass.  My defense was something I pulled out of the air.  According to the case something had happened on a Sunday and since there were blue laws (no work on Sundays) I made up a defense that since nothing could have happened business wise as it was a Sunday, nothing happened and the defendant was innocent. I won and of course in reality I should have lost and the teacher berated the 'jury'.  That instance taught me that the law was gray and that personality and not facts decided the cases and I dropped law as a minor.  I have been proven right on many occasions since.  Further to:  As this was the time of the Vietnam war a lot of the people I knew went on to law school, simply to avoid the draft.  This giant group of people that took law to avoid the draft graduated and had to have something to do.  I think that is what started this country on to it's standing as a litigating society--they had to make money somehow.

It was decided that during my summer breaks from school, I would go to New York and work with my uncle in his accounting practice.  I drove up in my '62 Chevy Impala convertible and would spend the summers working in New York, living with my aunt and grandmother in Union, New Jersey.. and so it began. 

After we shook hands on the deal, we were invited to lunch in the executive dining room, replete with butlers and waiting staff. As I had stated in my earlier getting to London discussion, AB only ate roast beef and drank coca cola.  Since our meeting was in the early afternoon I had figured we might all ‘do lunch’ and had a discussion with AB before the meeting.  I told him that he was not going to embarrass me or fit the typical American caricature throughout Europe by asking for a cheese burger and Coca Cola and more than likely we would be served what the kitchen had prepared for the exec’s lunch, so eat it.  I felt bad when the first course was poached fish! I saw the look of fear in his eyes and noted that he pushed the food around his plate to make it look like he was eating it.  The butler came by with wine and asked if AB wanted some or would prefer something else to drink–I had to glare at him and he declined to drink anything.  He didn’t even like iced tea or water so AB suffered on and luckily got roast beef as the main course.

That night I took AB to a casino which turned out to be the biggest mistake I could have made.  He had never been to a casino.  He won at roulette that night and was addicted immediately.  The next afternoon we had a meeting and AB didn’t show.  I got a call from the casino telling me that my friend was trying to sell his watch and had lost all his money – please come get him. It seems that first thing in the morning he was at the casino as the doors opened and learned the fact about gambling, the house usually wins.  The next time we were at a casino, I was asked to leave with him because he was hanging around the ladies bathroom.  When they asked him why he was there, he said it was because it smelled better.  He told me he was following a California girl he met while watching people gamble and was waiting for her outside the ladies room and questioned and his wise mouth got him in trouble.  He was telling the truth as we met the girl and her sister both in from San Diego, later.  That’s another story..

Later I will tell of the negotiations..which I will call…No Coke..