The Summer of '65, more Stones, more music

This was the school summer holidays, many of my friends are leaving, I had decided to stay and do 'A' levels. The career advice had been limited and depressing, banks or building societies. Seeing what the future held in store looked like a horror show, girls at school would chat about jobs, clothes, boys, marriage, children and for the most part I wished I was on another planet. They were my friends and we got on fine, but now they were getting ready for the next step and I felt like I was on the wrong flight of stairs.

The tickets we have for the Stones at the Palladium are not good enough, row I,  but close enough to see Brian is dressed in the white outfit he bought in Sweden and looking great as usual. The line up was very interesting, the Steam Packet, a band with Brian Augur, Julie Driscoll, Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart, plus the Moody Blues and Sugar Pie Desanto. It's a bit of a stuffy crowd who seem shocked when we start our routine of screaming and running to the front, egged on by Brian who was grinning at me. Such behaviour at the Palladium, what on earth were we thinking?

The following day found me at the airport. There is a rather strange event going on involving the American band called The Byrds and the UK band The Birds whose manager decided to sue over the name. Presumably a publicity stunt, carried out as The Byrds arrived from California.  Leo de Clerk, The Birds manager said, 'As far as we are concerned the Americans are passing off on our name.' This was a farcical suggestion as The Byrds were the ones with the hit and the attention, but he got his column inches, the names stay the same and I get more autographs. Ron Wood was in The Birds, but at the time his brother Art was better know, with his band The Artwoods.

 I didn't have a ticket, but decided to go to RSGL, just to check the acts and get some autographs - The Byrds, Sonny and Cher, Rod Stewart and the creepy (even then) Jonathan King, all made an appearance and I get back in time to see it on TV.  The Byrds do their version of Bob Dylan's 'Mr. Tambourine Man'. Everybody loves the sound of Jim McGuinn's electric 12 string guitar. Sonny and Cher perform their hit 'I Got You Babe'.

Next Friday I meet Nico (pre Velvet Underground) at RSGL - what a really nice friendly person, she had a single out 'The Last Mile' written by Andrew Loog Oldham and Jimmy Page. Recently (Dec 2017) heard from ALO (on Twitter) that Nico was there to promote 'I'm Not Saying' ('The Last Mile' was the B side).  I apologised for the mistake, his reply:

Andrew Loog Oldham‏ @loogoldham

Jacqueline Parsons‏ @01jac 29 Dec 2017

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Jacqueline Parsons Retweeted Andrew Loog Oldham

Sorry about that!

Andrew Loog Oldham @loogoldham

Replying to @01jac @JimmyPage

She was promoting “ I’m Not Saying”

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Andrew Loog Oldham‏ @loogoldham

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Replying to @01jac

Not at all, it should have been “ The Last Mile “ then at least we’d have flopped with feeling

2:36 PM - 29 Dec 2017

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Family holiday time again, 2 weeks in Great Yarmouth, good grief I thought I'd go crazy, but luckily the Who came to save me. They are playing on the pier. Fabulous to see Keith Moon trashing his drum kit and Townsend in his union jack jacket, ramming his guitar into his speakers at the end of the pier. Dana Gillespie, Donovan and Peter and the Spectres are all introduced by 'our wisecracking compere' Chris Carlsen. The Who closed the first half after we'd seen Peter with his Spectres and Dana, the second half opened with another set from Peter and his Spectres followed by Donovan.  Chris Carlsen had been annoying throughout, but I guess I shouldn't complain. It was great to see a good show on holiday.

Top of the Pops, the Stones are on to play 'Satisfaction', Pamela and I wandered into the BBC, via the back wall, to see them perform. Mick is wearing a dramatic pair of black and white checked trousers. Brian looks great in the black and white stripy top he'd nicked from someone in another band, and he was right it did look better on him. First sighting for me of Anita Pallenberg, blonde hair, wearing a white denim jacket and skirt and holding Brian's Firebird. I wasn't impressed but I think we can safely assume she wasn't there to impress me.

Brian Jones and Cathy McGowan (RSGL presenter) mime to Sonny and Cher's 'I Got You Babe' which you rarely see on clip shows, but was pretty funny. The Stones play 'Satisfaction', 'Oh Baby' and 'That's How Strong My Love Is', good show. The weekend starts here, as always.

At the airport Brian arrives with Anita, which really pisses me off.  She doesn't stay long and takes the car back to London. Brian comes up to me and says 'Hello sweetie.' I ignore him and walk away, he goes into passport control and waves to me from behind the barrier. I did some half wave back and leave. What can I say, I was a teenager and very not happy. Someone asks Keith who she (Anita) is, he describes her as some German bird who keeps hanging around. At some point he obviously has a different perspective.

Finsbury Park Astoria, the Rolling Stones, I go to the first show and outside someone gives me a ticket for the second show, I screamed so much I couldn't ask for my bus fare home. I get to hear 'She Said Yeah', 'Mercy, Mercy', 'Cry to Me'. 'The Last Time', 'That's How Strong My Love Is', 'I'm Moving On', 'Talkin' Bout You', 'We Got A Good Thing Going', 'Satisfaction' twice - two shows in one night, great it can never be too much.

Granada Tooting, last night of the tour.  More of the same, good!

27th October The Stones are leaving for Canada for the start of a North American tour, a plane had crashed on the runway at Heathrow and everyone is very nervous, we chatted about it a bit, Keith was of the opinion it was unlikely that two planes would crash on the same day at the same airport. Hard to argue with that.
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