ROLLING STONES 'STONED STONES' LIVE KNEBWORTH 8-21-76 2-LP APOLLO-786 IN SHRINK

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ROLLING STONES 'STONED STONES'  LIVE KNEBWORTH 8-21-76   2-LP  APOLLO-786  IN SHRINK
THE ROLLING STONES "STONED STONES" RECORDED LIVE ~ KNEBWORTH MUSIC FAIR UK AUGUST 21, 1976 2-LP ~ FIRST PRESSING ON BLACK VINYL ~ STILL IN SHRINK WRAP LABEL: APOLLO RECORD COMPANY (FRANCE) LP-786 RECORD LABELS: GREEN 'CHET MAR' CUSTOM LABELS RELEASED: CIRCA SUMMER OF 1980 PERFECT CONDITION ~ STILL IN SHRINK MATRIX: (SIDE A): 'LP 786 A  SIDE A'
CONDITION: VINYL: VG++   JACKET: EX- TO EX (IN SHRINK)   INSERT: EX
I've been going thru my massive vinyl record collection over the past few weeks and pulling out some LPs that I thought that someone else would want for their collection. I've been collecting records for over 45 years and it's time to pass some of them on to the next generation of collectors.
After all, we are just temporary 'caretakers' of these musical gems until the next owner and next collection takes them in.
This week on EBay I am offering up this fantastic, rare copy of the classic Rolling Stones 'Collector' album "Stoned Stones", recorded Live at the Knebworth Music Festival in August 1976.
This is my original clean copy that I purchased back when it was 'new', around 1980, 45 years ago, on one of my regular vinyl digs in the record shops of Greenwich Village.
I've taken great care of it for many years. It's been poly-line sleeved, inside and out, still in excellent condition, still in the shrink, and still 'like new'. It's about as good a copy of this rare release as you're likely to find.
See the full description of the jacket and vinyl condition below.
This record was purchased in NYC, around the summer of 1980, and the jacket says it's made in France, but I suspect it was made in the USA by one of the regular 'collector' record labels like TMOQ, TAKRL, Pig's Eye, Rubber Dubber, Ruthless Rhymes, Vicky Vinyl, or somebody like that. ~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right up front, the cover art is very cool and very 'different'. From the unusual title, 'Stoned Stones', to the odd artwork of the band in sexy, kinky, drag, to the great photos on the back of the jacket, this is an interesting cover.
This is a 2-LP set. The first 3 sides of this album were recorded at the Knebworth Music Festival on Saturday August 21, 1976. The setlist for the first 3 'Knebworth' sides of this fantastic album includes:
Around And Around Little Red Rooster Stray Cat Blues Let's Spend the Night Together Dead Flowers Route 66 Wild Horses Honky Tonk Women Happy It's Only Rock'n Roll (But I Like It) Brown Sugar Rip This Joint Jumping Jack Flash Street Fighting Man ~~~
Obviously, this isn't the complete 29-song show, as several of the 'lesser' songs have been left off, and the running order has been restructured to make it fit better on vinyl, but this album includes all the best songs and best moments from the 8-21-76 Knebworth show. 
I love how side one contains many of the 'rarities' from the show and starts with their earliest songs 'Around and Around' and 'Little Red Rooster', first performed back when they were young lads playing blues in the clubs of London, and how the side ends with the late 60's debauchery of 'Stray Cat Blues', and 'Let’s Spend the Night Together'. Pretty cool editing. ~~~
The source is a decent mono audience recording, and it sounds better than most. This same audience tape source, originally in narrow stereo, then folded down to mono, has appeared on many different Rolling Stones 'Collector' LP's over the years.
The first copy of this show that I ever heard, way back in the 70's, was on the original stereo tape, but I soon found a copy of 'Hot August Night' on the Vigotone label which was my first vinyl copy.  I now probably have 12 or 15 different albums containing this classic show.
Most all copies of this show that I know of are in Mono, but there are shorter, incomplete, stereo soundboard recordings of this show in circulation as well. ~~
This is the original First Pressing of 'Stoned Stones', from 1980, on black vinyl, with the lime green 'Chet Mar' labels.
This album was re-released in 1986 on much cooler looking blue & green vinyl but the pressing quality was poor, with lots of filling defects and uneven surfaces, and the sound was slightly worse.
For this particular Rolling Stones 'Collector' record, this early black vinyl 'Chet Mar' version is the way to go. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first 3 sides of this album were recorded at the Knebworth Music Festival in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England, on Saturday August 21, 1976. 
On the album jacket, it claims that side 4 was made up of recordings from Memphis, August 1978 and Munich, West Germany, June 17, 1976, but the back cover has incorrect dates for the non-Knebworth material on side 4.
Side 4 is actually a selection of six excellent sounding, soundboard quality songs, taken from other famous and popular Rolling Stones 'Collector' records.
The actual dates and locations of the songs on side 4 are as follows:
'HOUND DOG': June 28, 1978 Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, TN 'BYE BYE JOHNNIE': July 26, 1972 Madison Square Garden, New York  'ANGIE': October 17, 1973 Vorst National (early show), Brussels, Belgium 'LET IT ROCK': March 13, 1971 Leeds University, Leeds, UK 'PRODIGAL SON': April 22, 1979 CNIB Benefit Civic Aud. (late show), Oshawa, Canada 'GIMMIE SHELTER': September 9, 1973 Empire Pool, Wembley, London ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the summer of 1976, The Rolling Stones were not only the world’s biggest and best band, they totally defined what rock’n’roll should be.
They were still darlings of the UK and American music press and if you were a rock fan in the UK in 1976, the Stones at Knebworth was the hottest ticket of the summer.
The Rolling Stones’ European Tour of 1976 began at the end of April in Frankfurt, and finished near the end of June in Vienna, covering 22 cities and 9 countries.
Part of that tour was a 4-night run of shows at Earl’s Court in London the previous May which were considered sloppy and disappointing by both fans and the press. The Stones saw Knebworth as a chance to redeem themselves.
This Knebworth concert was a 'one-off' special performance and wasn't part of that European tour. It happened in August 1976, 2 months after the tour ended, but the show still included the full band from that tour, including their 'new' guitarist Ronnie Wood, good pal Billy Preston, and percussionist Ollie Brown. The Rolling Stones 'horn section' of Bobby Keys and Jim Price were not part of the European tour or this Knebworth show.
At the time, there were also rumors going around that, due to 'tensions' in the band, and Keith's spiraling drug use, that Knebworth was going to be their 'send-off' and last live concert ever. Demand for the Stones had never been stronger, which drove ticket sales sky high. Over 100,000 tickets were sold for the Knebworth Music Festival. 
On Saturday August 21, an unmanageable sea of humanity, over 104,000 fans, poured into the park and filled it to the horizon in every direction.  ~
Fans paid between $4.00 - $4.50 each ($20-$25 today) for the all-day Music Festival at Knebworth Park.
The Rolling Stones were clearly the Headliners and the big draw, but the other bands that played that hot, sunny, Saturday in the park were; the Don Harrison Band, Hot Tuna, Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and 10cc. 
Imagine paying just $25 to see the Rolling Stones, and 5 other bands, today! My pretty crappy seats for the 2024 ‘Hackney Diamonds’ Tour cost me about $200 each.
The opening act for the day was the Don Harrison Band, and the young English fans likely had no idea that two of the original members of Creedence Clearwater Revival, drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford and bassist Stu Cook were the rhythm section of Harrison's band for the show. They were hired to produce Harrison's first LP, but ended up in his band instead.
Hot Tuna and Utopia were reported to be only "OK' because technical problems dogged much of the show's performances. The glitches also made the whole day's events run very late. ~~
For the event, the Rolling Stones had insisted on creating a circus-like, carnival atmosphere in the park around Knebworth House. They hired a large number of clowns, jugglers, circus acts, and face-painters to walk around the park and entertain folks.
That's why so much of the promotional material and posters from this show feature clowns and jugglers. The clowns did little to ease the tensions, and calm the frustrations, of the crowds who had to ride out lengthy waits between the musical acts caused by various technical, lighting and sound problems.
As a bonus with this record, I'll include a colorful, round, paper promotional piece for the Festival, which features one of the clowns and lists the bands.
I forget where I found this, but I had it stashed inside the plastic sleeve along with the record, so I'll include it. It's actually pretty cool and goes well with this record, so I'll toss it in. I showed a picture of it in my photos. ~~
The highlight of the afternoon was the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, who most of the crowd had never heard of, but were soon blown away by.
The band showcased their brand new guitarist Steve Gaines and they reportedly played an exceptional and iconic set featuring their classic "Sweet Home Alabama" and a long, blistering version of "Free Bird" with their triple lead guitar attack. In the UK, the band went from unknown long-haired rebel rousers to full-fledged rock stars that day. 
Frontman Ronnie Van Zant ignored the Rolling Stone's clear instructions not to use their Tongue-logo walkway in front of the stage, which really miffed Mick Jagger. Not only did Skynyrd steal the day's thunder, they stole the Stones' stage.
Skynyrd caused a real buzz backstage and people were wondering how anyone could follow them. The English band 10cc were up next, but they had a tough act to follow.
10cc used a lot of synchronized pre-recorded tape effects in their songs and there were lots of problems getting their gear all working together. There was a constant Buzz and Hum in their system which took forever to figure out and solve.
Years after the Festival, promoter Freddy Bannister insisted that 10cc purposely introduced the hum in order to stall the show, and get the Rolling Stones' coveted evening slot at the Festival. ~~~
That didn't bother the Stones. After Lynyrd Skynyrd's dazzling set, the Rolling Stones were in no hurry to play. They were too busy acting like rock stars.
Backstage, Moet and Chandon were hosting a pre-show champagne reception and party for the Festival's 'special' guests that included Paul & Linda McCartney, Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour, Van Morrison, 'Papa' John Philips, Traffic’s Jim Capaldi, Ian McLagan from The Faces, and many others, including Jack Nicholson and millionaire rocker John Paul Getty III.
It goes without saying that there was much more than champagne being shared backstage, and the Stones were in ho hurry to perform. ~
The Festival had a midnight curfew that was drawing close and the Stones had yet to take the stage.
Festival infrastructure, secondary stages, crowd distractions, cheap food, clean water, and public toilets for festivals were unheard of in 1976, and the crowd was getting restless. As the delays continued, an ominous mood descended. 
The huge crowd, estimated at over 100,000, were trying to banish the thoughts of another Altamont and hoping that the local police wouldn't shut things down.
Rumors started circulating that the Stones part of the concert wasn't going to happen, and that the Stones had already left the site.
To try to calm the crowd, the park's lights were turned off and Pink Floyd’s 'Echoes' was played repeatedly over the PA system. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally, countless searchlights seared the darkness of the park and Aaron Copland’s 'Fanfare For The Common Man' blared out of the PA, signalling the arrival of The Greatest Rock’N’Roll Band In The World. 
Keith Richards slashed out the opening riff to 'Satisfaction' and they were off. Mick Jagger pranced out onto the Tongue stage in a leather jacket and tights combination that the next morning's 'Daily Mirror' newspaper said made him look like "‘a gay Richard III"
Starting almost 3 hours late, the Stones finally hit the stage at 11:30 pm. They played for about 2 hours 27 minutes, 29 songs, and ended up playing until just after 2am. The Stones delivered a performance that was, to Bill Wyman’s calculations, “the longest show we had ever played”. 
The Stones' extremely long set helped make up for some earlier unrest among the crowd. 
The audience at Knebworth knew they were seeing a great band, at the peak of their powers, and witnessing a special 'moment' in rock that they would never experience again.
The Stones' set featured classic album tracks from all their best albums; 'Beggars Banquet', 'Let It Bleed', 'Sticky Fingers', 'Exile On Main Street', and their most recent 'new' album 'Black and Blue'.
There were also tracks from many of their previous albums, going all the way back to their early days, with the first live performance of "Little Red Rooster" and "Around and Around" since their 1965 tour. The set also included the first live version of "Let's Spend The Night Together" since the 1967 tour, and a rarely played 'Get Off Of My Cloud'.
Although not on this album, my favorite song from this concert is their loose, crazy, drunken, reggae-ish version of  'Hey Negrita' which immediately followed a similarly loose version of 'Stray Cat Blues'. Mick, Billy and Ollie all getting sexy and loose, while Ronnie plays bottle-neck slide all over it. It's the first song Ronnie 'wrote' for the Stones, but being the 'new' guy, he got no credit. Just thanks for his 'inspiration' on the album jacket. Superb, sloppy, sexy, sloshy, seventies Stones. Great stuff!
After the traditional show-closer 'Street Fighting Man', the show eventually ended at about 2am and the promoters were severely fined for going past the curfew.
After the show ended, The Who’s 'Baba O’Riley' played on repeat over the sound system as the remaining fans stumbled and staggered off into the breaking dawn. 
Knebworth would be the last concert the band played until after Keith's Toronto drug bust and their club dates at Toronto's El Mocambo club in early March 1977. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Knebworth concert was critical for the stones. By 1976, their reign as the Kings of rock ‘n’ roll was starting to wane. Punk rock was getting popular in England, and other new music was overshadowing the importance of the Stones, both on the radio and on record store shelves.
The Rolling Stones knew that Knebworth was a unique chance to win new fans by performing in front of a huge young audience. It was their chance to show a new generation just how cool, relevant, and what a fantastic live band they still were.
The Stones knew they had to put on an excellent show, and they did. A fantastic, long, 29 song set, including many rarely performed songs.
The concert 'introduced' many younger fans in the UK to the Stones' classic songs and music, and the concert really helped push the band's notoriety, profile, and record sales.
The Rolling Stones would go on to have a significant career resurgence following their late-night Knebworth performance, winning a new generation of fans as they continued to battle against the punk and new wave movement. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The very first Knebworth Festival was in 1974. It soon became an annual summer Rock Festival held on the grounds of Knebworth House, near Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England.
The iconic August 1976 Knebworth show helped turn the annual Knebworth Festival into one of the largest, most popular, and most successful Rock concerts in the UK.
Future Knebworth Festivals would feature such iconic artists as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Oasis, and Freddie Mercury’s final performance in 1986. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This 1976 Knebworth concert was an important concert for the band, a great show with many rarely performed songs, and a key show to have in your Rolling Stones collection. ~~~~~~~~~~~
CONDITION: I tried to show good hi-resolution photos of the cover, labels and vinyl in my pictures.
I purchased this copy 'new' back in 1980, and have taken great care of it since. I typically taped these sorts of records on first play, listened to the tapes. and rarely played the vinyl.
VINYL: The vinyl looks excellent. Clean and bright. The only 'fault' is a small scuff, not a scratch, at the end of side B. It's cosmetic and doesn't affect play, but should be noted. I showed a detail of it in my photos.
Other than that, it looks great, like new, and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it. You can see from my photos how terrific it looks. 
The Deadwax has the simple etched matrix numbers, but not much else. No 'messages' or secret wisdom from Keith. See the full Matrix markings above.
LABELS: This is the First pressing of this album and is pressed using green 'Chet Mar' labels. No mention of the band, which was common. The labels are clean and bright. No marks or defects. I only showed one label as they are all identical, and all clean. Same with the sides of vinyl, all pretty identical. I did show some details of the various sides of the vinyl. 
Not sure if the labels are intentionally printed this way or just some 'spare' labels they had lying around. Likely 'spares'.
The spindle holes are still sharp and clean, suggesting minimal playing and my careful handling over the years.
I tried to show some close-up pictures of the vinyl to show how good it looks. I'm sure you'll be happy with it. Note the small 'scuff' on side two.
I haven't messed with this record or cleaned it, other than my trusty 'DiscWasher' brush, in 40 years. It's a little 'dusty' and could use a good deep cleaning to make it even better looking and better sounding than it already is. 
JACKET: As you can see from my pictures, this still looks very nice for a 45 year old OG copy. Clean and bright and still in the shrink wrap, 'like new'. The artwork is bold and bright. The red color is deep, with no fading. I've seen copies of this record that have turned almost 'pink' from fading over the years, but this one still looks red and terrific.
The Jacket does have some very minor corner 'bumps' from shifting around in my collection for 45 years, otherwise it looks terrific. A nice survivor in great condition.
Overall, I'll call the record VG+ to keep everyone happy, but you can see what a nice clean copy this is.
This record has been sleeved and stored properly for decades, and is still quite nice for an original pressing. This copy is all original, and a real gem. I'm sure you'll love it.
Add this rare, classic, Rolling Stones record to your collection. It has some great, rare songs and the famous Knebworth show holds a special place in the history of collectible Rolling Stones records.
This 2-LP set from Knebworth 1976 belongs in any Rolling Stones collection or rock vinyl collection. ~~~~~~~~~~~~
** NOTE: I'm selling this rare Rolling Stones 'Collector' record "AS IS" and "NO RETURN". It's rare and as described and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it. You almost never see this album turn up for sale anymore. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’m recently retired and downsizing and letting go some gems and rarities from nearly 45 years of vinyl record collecting. Check out the many other fantastic 45s and 33s coming soon to my page!
All records have been carefully evaluated and graded by me. I visually inspect all records under bright light, personally gently clean them with a soft cloth and then, if unsure, play them on a modern high-end turntable to get a true picture of condition. 
Please look at all the high-resolution pictures I added. They are all my own and are of the actual record being sold. The pictures are part of the description and can show small details, label variations, and condition better than I can put into words. 
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THANK YOU for looking and reading if you got this far. I hope it was entertaining and informative.  -- JOHN