The poster showed the heads of the five musicians, punched out like round stones. “The toughest beat band in the world” was announced. On September 11, 1965, the Rolling Stones’ first tour of Germany began in the Münsterland Hall. Further concerts followed in Essen, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin. They were double concerts with a three -part preliminary program. The first began in the late afternoon, the second was scheduled for the evening. There was only one concert in Berlin, with a well -known outcome: the Waldbühne seat furniture was broken down into individual parts. To date, the question remains open why the first Stones concert on German soil took place in tranquil and then quite conservative Münster. Was it the financial conditions? Or did the authorities and police organs be able to prevent riots in the fairly clear hall?
Until the 1960s, German hits were mainly found in the Hitlists in Germany. Dance music ran on radio, the television was in stems. From 1964 the picture gradually changed. The first songs of the Beatles were also known in the Federal Republic, in June 1965 the Rolling Stones had their first hit in Germany with “The Last Time”. In the cities, the first Beatchuppen opened, suspicious of adults and the media. In many places, Beatbands were created that tried to emulate their role models with often primitive equipment. Some groups even became known – international success had none. Perhaps this is why German bands were selected for the opening up of the first German Stones tour.
They had built up a reputation as a “Bad Boys”
The opinion was circulated among many young people that the stage was basically stormed at Stones concerts. The Rolling Stones itself, probably as part of their built-in reputation as a “Bad Boys”, flirted with it, but on the back of the LP “Around and Around” a photo of their first USA tour was to be seen on the fans on the stage and clutched the front man Mick Jagger in their rapture. It was also known that Tohuwabohu had been at a concert in the Dutch city of Scheveningen. That shouldn’t happen in Germany.
So local authorities, police and hall folders were willing to alert – after all, such events had no experience. During the concerts in Münster, several dozen police officers were constantly on stage, and the first two rows of chairs in the parquet, one of which was aligned with the audience, were reserved without exception folders – also young police officers who, dressed neatly with suit, tie and white bracelets, were also eye -catching. Every three meters of regulatory staff had been posted in the corridors. So with before and after never operated effort of all attempt by young concert goers in the bud was suffocated to approach their idols.
In the event that the worst case should still occur, a motorcycle monster with a cut exhaust and two meters high oven tube was ready behind the stage. This vehicle should be driven out of the stage with this vehicle. A water cannon had also been ordered that was posted behind the building in the courtyard. It was later announced that there were also police presidents of the cities in the hall, in which the other Stones concerts were to take place.
The venues were completely overwhelmed. Until then, the program in German city halls essentially consisted of hit sizes such as Caterina Valente and operetta melodies. There was no reason to equip the guest venues with a powerful sound system. In the Halle Münsterland, a single loudspeaker box in the form of an octahedron was attached under the hall blanket in the middle. Among other things, Mick Jagger should hear his voice to the screeching adolescent. There was neither a mixer with dozens of channels nor a thousand watt amplifier systems with house -high speaker towers, nor light shows or spots. The guitar amplifiers of Keith Richards and Brian Jones would now elicit a tired smile for every garage band, and Charlie Watts tried to spread the drum rhythm in the hall round almost solely through muscle strength. The stage is to be put in the right light by neon light and ceiling lights.
They entered the stage without moderation
The preliminary program lasted a good 20 minutes and consisted of Jimmy and the Rackets (“Skinny Minnie”), Didi & His Abc-Boys from Berlin (with the music photographer Dieter Zill, who later became known) and the Hamburg Rivets, smart boys, who were particularly well received by female concert visitors. Then the Stones entered the stage. Without moderation, there was no yet. The musician’s stage outfit was even more or less “old fashioned”, that is: normal street clothing. Only Brian Jones in the striped junction and white fur vest and Mick Jagger with a checkered pepital pants, red turtleneck sweaters and black blazers showed a little show time. A photo proves that Jagger had emerged in this clothing five hours earlier when arriving in Münster of a dark limousine.
Then: deafening noise. After a minute, the 22 -year -old hunting showed into the audience – “I need you, you, you”. Only then did you know which song they had opened the concert with: “Everybody Needs somebody to love”. The music was largely lost in the frenetic shouting of the fans. The Stones played a total of eight titles and were already in business. Previously, an EP (a double single) with the first live recordings of the band had appeared. They started and ended their concert with these four songs: “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” and “Pain in My Heart” as well as “I’m Moving On” and “I’m Alright”. There were also: “Around and Around”, “The Last Time”, “Satisfaction” and “Time is on my side”.
The greatest enthusiasm sparked “The Last Time”. “Satis Faction” was one of the first titles of the Stones that had been recorded in the United States, he had already been released there in May. In England, however, the single only came to stores in July, in Germany in early September. Hardly anyone had heard the song here. Therefore, he was not the highlight of the concert, as is always claimed.
The media reported Häme
After 25 minutes everything was over. Not ending, hurricane -like hustle and bustle. It took a good ten minutes for a voice to be heard from the off, which always tried to announce hectically and excitedly: “The Rolling Stones do not give an encore! The Rolling Stones do not give any encore!” It later became known that it was personally the Münster police chief.
Today it is difficult to understand which malice and which ridicule, even hatred in the media, were reported on the first Stones concerts. With incomprehension and in misjudgment of the development of the new music, the limits to insult were often exceeded. A large German newspaper reported “pitifully unimaginative music” and “monkey -like movements of the singer”. In a short television report, there was talk of “unwashed cave people who have just appeared from the ice age”, and of “sacrificing mick Jagger and his willing sacrifices”. In general, one believed that no one would talk about this kind of music in a year.
A moral decline of youth was feared. But this assumption turned out to be a basic falsch. Photos show that the youngsters appeared in a striking manner for today’s conditions for the first Stones concerts, far from rocker mane, leather jackets and neglect-this development only started a year or two later. The feared fall of the West failed to materialize, at least as far as the music of the Rolling Stones is concerned as the cause. The youthful concert visitors were aware that they had experienced something big, new, never before and forever unforgettable: the approach of a new time.
Politically and socially, an arc on the later eight -six -ceremony movement can also be tensioned. Although the lyrics of the Rolling Stones did not contain any social criticism – that only began in 1968 with the album “Beggars Banquet” – with the first German tour of the Stones, the path was also paved. A back at the time before how they kept politicians, media and conservative society again and again wanted to talk and talk about it, there was no longer.
Roland Berens is blues musician, songwriter and translator. At the Stadtmuseum Münster, numerous photos, documents and films can be seen for the first appearance of the Rolling Stones in Germany on September 11, 1965.
