THE ROLLING STONES

1966 Australian Tour

Sydney 2UW Radio Broadcast (Unknown Airdate)

Commemorative Auditorium
Sydney Showgrounds
Sydney, New South Wales
Australia
18th February 1966 (1st Show)


01. Stones Arrival At Sydney Airport 16th February 1966 #1
(Soundtrack From UK TV Report)
02. Stones Arrival At Sydney Airport 16th February 1966 #2
(Ward Austin 2UW Report - Cuts out / then 2UW Ward Austin Stones Interview - Start of interview missing)

2UW Sydney Radio Broadcast
03. Ward Austin Introduction
04. Mercy Mercy
05. She Said Yeah
06. Play With Fire
07. Not Fade Away
08. The Spider And The Fly
09. That�s How Strong My Love Is
10. Get Off Of My Cloud
11. 19th Nervous Breakdown
12. (I Can�t Get No) Satisfaction


================

Mick Jagger : Vocals & Tambourine,
Brian Jones ; Guitar, Organ, Harmonica & B/Vocals
Keith Richard : Guitar & B/Vocals
Bill Wyman : Bass Guitar & B/Vocals
Charlie Watts : Drums

================


Cassette History

I was given this cassette of the 2UW 1966 Stones Sydney broadcast in 1972 (I was 16) by a chap only 4 years older than me who went on to be one of Australia�s leading music historians.
Hadn�t seen him for years except on the telly /radio or on the rare occasion on the opposite side of a music venue.
After The Monkees Sydney Opera House June 2019 concert I bumped into him in the foyer, re-introduced myself, we chatted, then shared a train ride home to my suburb where he had parked his car.
I took the opportunity to quiz him about the 2UW Broadcast cassette he had given me decades before.
Such as, did he record it himself from the radio at the time? If not did someone else tape it, was my copy a dub from a cassette or reel to reel, did he have any idea when 2UW broadcast the show?
I was dead set gobsmacked when he replied he couldn�t remember having this cassette & most likely it was his copy that he gave me.
So what do I have? Methinks i have either a 1st or 2nd generation.
I�m sure this would have been aired on radio like the Melbourne 3UZ 1966 broadcast with advertisements / radio station ID, probably too hard to edit them out at the time of taping so possibly this cassette could be a dub from that but with the ads removed.
What is present In track 12 Satisfaction at the 3.41 mark are 5 loud pips.
I�ve been told that these could represent that it�s 5.00 PM at the time of this broadcast or the 5.00 PM news was coming up next.

The cassette also included two radio reports. The first of these is about the Stones arrival at Kingsford Smith Sydney Airport on the 16th February 1966.
The second a short interview with the Stones in Sydney most likely before the 18th February shows.
Unfortunately both are incomplete. Both conducted by Ward �Pally� Austin, a Sydney Radio 2UW DJ. In the 60�s he was probably Sydney�s most famous albeit notorious disc jockey.
Ward also introduces the band at the concert.

The 2UW Feb 1966 interview with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones (I think Keith Richards is in there as well) cuts in after a discussion has already started regarding As Tears Go By.
Jagger states he recorded it first before Marianne Faithful but his voice was deemed to be a bit camp so they decided to re record it again in a deeper voice.
Mick & Brian talk about engagements prior to marriage. Ward asks the boys what they�re going to do while in Sydney.
Jagger in an exaggerated Aussie accent talks about going down the beach, doing a bit of water skiing, watch the old sheila�s, sheilas being Australian slang for females, young or old.
(The equivalent of the terms birds in the UK & broads in the USA.)

During the interview a voice comes on to tell us that at the time 2UW was one of Sydney�s lowest rated radio stations but they�d been building a new image of 24 hour nonstop teenage music.
The voice continues that this has paid off because 2UW is now Sydney�s 3rd highest rated radio station & Ward is the top DJ.

In the 80�s I had a fling with a 2UW employee who when I asked if they had access to the station's radio library, replied they did as it was part of the job.
I asked if it they would be agreeable to conduct a search of the 2UW library for me looking for the broadcast, �no worries� was the reply.
And if located could they one way or the other obtain a copy of it for me. They searched high & low but nowhere could they find the 1966 Broadcast nor could any documentation regarding the broadcast be found.
Probably long ago wiped or discarded.

The broadcast does not feature the 1st song of the concert The Last Time, it starts with the 2nd song of the night Mercy Mercy.
audiowhore & myself have tried to find the actual date of the broadcast but have been unsuccessful.
But he did find a newspaper ad for the Brisbane 4BH Stones 1966 live broadcast aired on the 22nd February 1966, so perhaps the Sydney broadcast was aired the day after the show as well.
Hopefully one day the Brisbane broadcast might magically surface just as the Melbourne 3UZ 1966 broadcast did decades later.

We couldn�t find any reviews of the Sydney 1966 concerts apart from a very brief show report in Go-Set magazine (see below) but I have the next best thing.
Someone who not only attended this very show but took photographs as well.
My friend Big Knob (Big from here on in) attended this concert as a 20 year old, not as a professional photographer but as a fan whose hobby / passion was photography.
Not even a year after attending this show he would be drafted into the Australian army & fighting in Vietnam.
I asked him if in his days of being an audience member taking photographs at concerts (starting with The Beatles in 1964) was he hassled in any way for doing so.
He replied no, it was the opposite, people would come up to him asking why was he was bothering to take photographs.
He told me that if any newspaper photographer did bother to turn up to shoot a show, they would grab a few photos & then bugger off asap.

When audiowhore & myself searched newspaper articles regarding the Stones Australian 1966 tour we located a few pro-shot B/W Sydney photos but they hadn�t been reproduced in very good quality & in all honesty Big�s photos piss all over them & in colour too!
It�s his photographs that he has so kindly allowed me to use for the artwork. The inside front cover photograph with Brian playing harmonica was taken during Not Fade Away.
The back cover photograph with Brian sitting down playing the organ is That�s How Strong My Love Is.

The show was held in the Commemorative Auditorium which is one of the halls inside the Sydney Showgrounds complex, it�s only a hop, skip & jump from the Hordern Pavilion where I would see many groups in the early 70�s to late 80�s.
In some of the photographs you can see in the background a stained glass window of a reversed map of Australia on which NSW is the only state coloured in & because this was the early show the sunlight is streaming through it.
Of course outside the building the map was the correct way round.

The concert was advertised (as can be seen in the newspaper add on the Back Inside Cover artwork) with the band being on the Centre Revolving Stage, which Big informed me was transported over from the Sydney Stadium at Rushcutters Bay.
This would have been a bit of a task to do so. This stage was not electric but hand cranked around by stage hands, with a few songs performed to the front, them cranked around to the right for the next couple of numbers & so on.

In the artwork photographs you can notice that the reversed map of Australia appears in slightly different positions.
The photograph of the Stones taken from the back that features on the back inner artwork was taken when the stage had revolved around.
I asked Big if he had moved around to take that particular photograph but he replied that he taken all his photos basically staying in the same position.

Before Not Fade Away Jagger can be heard asking �Will you stop this thing this going round� referring to the stage. Apparently it was annoying him in some way.
Big can�t remember if Jagger�s plea was granted but he does remember that the American singer P.J. Proby's scarf was caught up in this stage the year before.
Jagger says �Where are we?� followed by �Wait right there� & then something undecipherable in Satisfaction that could also be a another reference to the revolving stage.

Big definitely remembers the endless screaming of the sheilas, says it was just as loud as it was for the Beatles Sydney shows two years previously.
He added that some brave girls would dash out of their seats, run past the cops to throw streamers at the stage, in the photographs some of these can be seen wrapped around various Stones & their instruments.
I was aware that on this tour the Stones where supported by another UK band The Searchers plus New Zealand band Max Merritt & The Meteors but I was unaware until Big informed me that two Australian acts were also on the bill.
They being Tony Barber and Steve & The Board.

Although this recording is certainly not Hi-Fi by any stretch I love hearing Brian�s contributions in this Sydney show. This live version of Satisfaction being my mid-60�s favourite version.
Revisiting this show finds me wishing that one day soon hopefully the Stones From The Vaults series will release a Brian Jones era live concert instead of endless latter day releases that feature Ron Wood -
the king of bum notes & out of tune solos.

I first traded this recording with Stones collectors in the late 70�s, but when I told people I had this recording I was asked a number of times how could I be sure this radio show was Sydney.
Easy I wrote back - Ward Austin who can be heard introducing the show was a Sydney DJ plus Jagger himself can be heard shortly before Satisfaction starts saying �Thank you very much Sydney�.
Although the word Sydney is not as loud as the preceding words because of background tuning, Jagger definitely says Sydney.

I�m sure it was one of my trades that became the source for it�s appearance on the Japanese Silver Bootleg VGP Label entitled He Is Not Dead because it has the same tape wobble in Get Off Of My Cloud plus the radio pips in Satisfaction.
But Ward Austin�s concert introduction is missing and the two 2UW radio segments didn�t make it either.
IMHO my original cassette version has slightly more definition & is somewhat superior than the VGP title & other CD-R versions I�ve heard.

Thanks to my old friend for the original cassette, Big Knob for his photographs & audiowhore for the 2019 transfer and mixing.
Sometime later on this year more Stones shows from early 70�s cassette trades plus my own recordings will be upped.

Enjoy, Waz

============

Below is the short Sydney 1966 show review accompanied by snippets about how anti-Stones the Sydney Press were after the band�s Australian 1965 press conferences.
Plus a Searchers fan letter about the Searchers & Stones shows.

The Sun Herald
13th February 1966
Mike Walsh
MEMO FROM MIKE to the Stones:
Play it cool with the press fellas. Many of them remember your last Sydney press conference and are out to get you this time!

The Sun Herald
20th February 1966
Mike Walsh
Congratulations to the Stones on a vastly improved performance at their Sydney news conference when they hit this ole town this week.
Even one hard bitten newspaperman, with never a kind word about anyone, said he was amazed at their intelligence and interest.

Go-Set magazine
Volume 1, No 4 - 21st February 1966
By Stan Rofe
Well Mr Jones and all the Stones are here!
It is rumoured that the Sydney press is �out to get� the boys. Seems the Group gave them a pretty tough reception last time!
The Stones, unlike many of their contemporaries do not need the (daily) press, and I hope they snub them again this time.
By the way, 3UZ has exclusive recording rights on this show!

Go-Set magazine
Volume 1, No 4 - 21st February 1966
By Doug Panther
SCENE: Press Conference, Sydney
QUESTION: �How did you come to choose the name The Rolling Stones?�
MICK JAGGER: �You would be the one billionith idiot that�s asked me that question�.
And another Sydney reporter sinks so small that even when stretched tip toe he still couldn�t see out of his Aspro (Headache Pill) packet.

DISGUSTING! RUDE! VULGAR! DIRTY!
And nearly every other adjective commonly reserved for rapists and satirists turned up in Sydney papers the next day.
Very very disenchanted were they with the Stones.
Why were the Stones disenchanted with them. Why did they behave this way?
On Sunday last Go-Set got to met the Stones ON THEIR OWN and found out why!
Unaccustomed as they are to teenage idols.... the Australian press has an international reputation for being the most uninspired colourless and thoroughly BORING institution in the world.

How would YOU like to tell a hat full of yes-men journalists in a dozen different countries and a thousand different towns that your favourite colour was red and that �Ya countree�s be-ute-iful!!!

For GO-SET, the Stones unthawed and came to life.
I found them intelligent AND quite willing to talk...as long as they had something worth talking about!
All the Stones are forthright personalities, and quieter than most. But when called upon to comment on something worth commenting on,
They usually answered intelligently and pointedly. There is something of a mystery surrounding them, and their quiet, sometimes bluff manner is in marked contrast to what we normally hear from them, so it is often viewed with suspicion.

SCENE : Sydney�s Showground
Sydney has never seen a more electrifying act than the Rolling Stones onstage.
On the revolving square stage, dramatically spot lit in the centre of Sydney�s crammed Showground�s Auditorium, the only effect they produced can only be described as sensational.
Facing each corner in turn and moving the audience with one emotional hit on top of another, they gave the army of beefy bewildered cops not a hope.
No matter how carefully cops aimed the hysterical fans, before they had time to turn around there were thousands more to take their place....and they did.....all night long!
As the audience at the auditorium grew more excited MICK stalked the stage. Every now and again he�s turn and look searchingly at the audience in back.
If they couldn�t scream any more, they fainted.

Go-Set magazine
14th March 1966

Searchers Fan

Dear Go-Set,
Everyone is raving about the Rolling Stones tour and their stage act; but how about the Searchers who were also on that tour (is this news to anybody?).
Go-Set is the only paper that has written anything about the Searchers. Personally I enjoyed the Searchers act more than the Stones.
They did their utmost to get the audience going and they certainly succeeded. Their act was far more polished than the Stones.
While the Searchers seemed to have improved the Stones seemed to have gone the other way........down.
After seeing the terrific show the Stones put on last year I was quite bored by this year�s.
Mick�s movements had completely changed and reminded me of a ballet dancer.
I also felt that the Searchers went on stage with the thought to do their best to entertain but the Stones went on just to earn their money.

Yours Truly,

KRIS KINST
(A Searchers Fan)


==========

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show: