Now the Stones to release refectory classic
After the Who’s Live at Leeds, Jagger and Co get in on act with 13-track set taped at same venue in 1971
WHEN IT comes to concert albums by the world’s greatest bands, Leeds definitely has all the best tunes.
The Who’s Live At Leeds – recorded at the University of Leeds’s Refectory hall in 1970 – has long been regarded as a classic of the genre.
Now fellow rock legends The Rolling Stones have announced the official release of a 13-track set taped at the same venue the following year.
The Get Yer Leeds Lungs Out CD forms part of a super deluxe reissue of the band’s seminal Sticky Fingers album – and fans are being told to expect a real treat.
Ian De-Whytell, the boss of Leeds’s Crash Records store, said: “I’ve heard bootlegs of this gig before and the Stones are on top form, playing a killer live set.
“There’s a different kind of energy to the subsequent big stadium shows and it’s perfectly captured on here.
“Both this and Live At Leeds were two very special gigs that have achieved legendary status and are still being enjoyed now.”
The Stones played Leeds University Union’s Refectory as part of a farewell UK tour prior to their relocation to the South of France as tax exiles. Their show featured hits such as Jumpin’ Jack Flash and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction as well as three tracks from the still-to-be released Sticky Fingers – Brown Sugar, Bitch and Dead Flowers.
A review carried at the time by The Yorkshire Post’s sister paper, the Yorkshire Evening Post, says some fans had queued for 12 hours for a place in the 2,000-strong crowd. It also notes that 90p tickets had changed hands for princely sums of as much as £5.
Yet the expense was clearly worth it, with reviewer Pat Dean writing: “[Mick] Jagger, resplendent in satin trousers and sequinned waistcoat, strutted and danced, howling and jeering into the microphone – a parody of a rock singer. The rest of the Stones, suitably morose and sullen, laid down a driving sound as a background to his earthy vocals.”
In a sign of the more innocent times, the review ends: “Despite the excitement, the noise, the crowds, everyone behaved as one has come to expect at pop concerts – in a well-mannered and non-violent fashion.
“Apart from a few broken windows, which a union spokesman said was nothing unusual for a Saturday night hop, no damage at all was done.”
Jagger and co’s on-stage line- up of the period was augmented by a Bobby Keys and Jim Price horn section and Nicky Hopkins on piano.
The title of the new CD, meanwhile, is an apparent nod to Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!, another live album from the Stones.
Other famous acts to have played the Refectory over the years include Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Clash and Arctic Monkeys.
Sticky Fingers is being reissued next month in several different formats but the super deluxe package is the only one that will feature the Leeds show. Visit www.rollingstones.com for further information.