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Some concerts are remembered for the setlist. Others become famous because everything around them feels slightly out of control. The Rolling Stones arrived in Oakland on July 26, 1978, to close their U.S. tour with a stadium packed to the rafters, a blazing California afternoon, and a birthday celebration for Mick Jagger that was anything but ordinary. Bill Graham’s legendary Day on the Green series provided the backdrop, but once the band launched into Miss You, the rest of the world briefly stopped mattering. Hot, loud, chaotic, and wonderfully excessive, this was the Stones doing exactly what they did best.
July 26, 1978: Alameda Coliseum, Oakland, California, USA (last show of The Rolling Stones U.S. Tour 1978) Let It Rock/All Down The Line/Honky Tonk Women/Star Star/When The Whip Comes Down/Beast Of Burden/Lies/Miss You/Just My Imagination/Shattered/Respectable/Far Away Eyes/Love In Vain/ Tumbling Dice/Happy/Sweet Little Sixteen/Brown Sugar/Jumpin’ Jack Flash/Satisfaction Read: Rare 1978 photos of Rolling Stones fans at an epic Day on the Green(from Datebook, The San Francisco Chronicle)
A Birthday Bash… Rolling Stones Style
July 26, 1978. The Rolling Stones crashed into Oakland for a surprise show—on Mick Jagger’s 34th birthday, no less. The band hadn’t originally planned a Bay Area stop on their Some Girls U.S. tour, but local legend Bill Graham worked his magic and squeezed in one last hurrah. With only two weeks’ notice, fans went wild. The show, cheekily dubbed a “Very Special Day on the Green” sold out in under 24 hours, and scalpers were flipping $12 tickets for five times the price. People camped out at the gates overnight just to get close to the stage.
Sun, Delays, and Pink Jumpsuits
The day of the show? Pure chaos—and pure Stones. It was a hot Wednesday afternoon, and traffic in the Bay Area was a total mess. Thousands played hooky just to catch a glimpse of rock royalty. After openers like Santana and Eddie Money warmed up the crowd, the Stones finally hit the stage—two hours late—to a sun-drenched crowd of 64,000.
Jagger, decked out in a birthday-cake-pink outfit, poured water on his head, scaled scaffolding, and tossed his shoes into the sea of fans. The band tore through 19 songs, including nearly every track from Some Girls, ending with a loud, sweaty encore of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.
The show dominated the next morning’s front page of The Chronicle, even above news of the world’s first test-tube baby. But not everyone was thrilled. Rock critic Joel Selvin called it “a pitiful reminder of how great the Stones once were.” Still, for most of those 64,000 fans? It was a sunburned, late-starting, utterly unforgettable day.
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