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The Rolling Stones in the press: “Benefit for Blind – Richards’ Court-Ordered Concert” (by Robert Hillburn)
The Stones’ life was a wild mix of music and legal drama. While Mick and Keith were writing during a stressful trial, their manager was getting them cool new offices with “niblets.” Meanwhile, Keith’s Toronto arrest and trial for heroin possession caused a stir, with fans and politicians divided on his sentence. The band, joined by a nervous Keith and even John Belushi selling T-shirts, still managed to deliver a powerful performance, showing they were just changing direction, not losing their edge.
TORONTO— We’ve long heard about captive audiences, but rock fans experienced a first here Sunday: a captive performer.
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, 34, was joined by the four other Stones for two benefit concerts that had been ordered last October when Richards pleaded guilty here to heroin possession charges.
Because the afternoon and evening performances probably were the only times all the Stones will be on stage together in 1979, scalpers were commanding upwards of $400 for two $15 tickets.
Fear of Injury
But—as part of the court order—an estimated 1,400 blind people and their escorts got in free to the 5,200-seat Civic Theater in suburban Oshawa. For most, it was their first live rock concert, and they were the real story.
A segment of the Canadian blind community had raised objections to the show. A group called BOOST (Blind Organization of Ontario With Self-Help Tactics) charged that the concert provision in the court ruling was an insult to the visually handicapped. A BOOST spokesman said last weekend that many of the blind who had been given tickets had sold them either in disgust or because they feared being injured at the concert. When hundreds of sighted fans rushed the stage to welcome Richards and get close to Mick Jagger, it was easy to question the wisdom of putting so many blind people into such a rambunctious setting. Most of the blind fans, however, had been seated to the sides or rear of the auditorium, normally the home of minor-league hockey games. Thus they avoided being caught in the crush near the stage. Still, it was a touching scene—the isolated groups of mostly subdued, seated blind people among rows of cheering, standing sighted fans.
But the fact that they remained seated didn’t mean they didn’t enjoy the show. Most of those questioned after the concert were thrilled. It was a six-hour ride from Shadow Falls to Oshawa for Fred Virgin, 18, who is blind, and Judy Yakes, his 25-year-old counselor. But Virgin, a guitar player, loves rock music, so he took advantage of the free tickets.
Lingering after the show, he was full of questions: “Can I meet the Rolling Stones? . . . What kind of car did they come to the show in? . . . Who cooks for them? . . .”
An Aural Thrill
But no one seemed more excited than Rita Bedard, 24, of Montreal. A long-time Stones fan, she is legally blind but can make out images with the help of a binocular-type device. Bedard followed the Stones by Greyhound bus on most of the band’s 1978 U.S. tour, and attended all of Richards’ court appearances in Toronto. Some in the Stones entourage have speculated that her presence in the courtroom gave Judge Lloyd Graburn the idea of having Richards do a benefit for the blind as part of his one-year probation sentence.
Ushered backstage between shows, she sat in the Stones’ hospitality room next to Keith Richards, who introduced her to everyone who passed through. “Music—the Stones—is my whole life,” she said. “It’s the thing that helps me carry on. I wanted to follow the Stones in 1978 and I showed I could get around the country by myself. I was happy that my blind friends could see a show. “It’s the first time that many of them got a chance. It’s hard for them to get in line and wait for tickets. Now they know what it’s like.” The Stones’ rehearsal for the Oshawa shows technically was Sunday morning, not Saturday night, but there in the rehearsal studio, live, was John Belushi.
When the band took a break around 2:30 a.m., Belushi entertained the dozen or so members of the Stones party by pulling some T-shirts from his briefcase. Acting like a vendor hawking his wares, he offered Blues Brothers shirts for $5 and Conehead shirts for $4. A Grateful Dead shirt rtwas just $3.
But most of the attention there—and all weekend—remained on Keith Richards. For once, Mick Jagger wasn’t the Stones’ centerpiece.
Richards was arrested in Toronto in February, 1977, on heroin possession and trafficking charges while the Stones were in town to record the “Love You Live” album. The trafficking complaint—which could have meant a life sentence—was dropped after Richards pleaded guilty to the lesser possession charge. Though the prosecution asked for at least a six-month jail term, Judge Graburn decided on the probation and a concert for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
While Stones fans in the courtroom cheered the verdict, not everyone was pleased. The joke among the antirock contingent was that the judge should have made Richards play a benefit for the deaf.
On a serious note, former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, among others, expressed outrage over the leniency of the sentence. “Preposterous,” he barked.
Since then, the Federal Justice Department has announced it will appeal the sentence. By returning to Canada for Sunday’s concerts, Richards made himself available to be notified of the appeal—a first requirement in the appeal process. But he had no choice. By not returning, he would haveviolate dthe terms of his probation.
Belushi was back on the scene at Sunday’s concerts, introducing the opening-act New Barbarians band. That group, which also includes Richards, was put together by the Stones’ other guitarist, Ron Wood. It begins a U.S. tour tonight in Ann Arbor, Mich., and includes a May 19 date at the Inglewood Forum. The tour will mark the first time Richards has played in America without the Stones.
Though the Barbarians contains such well-known musicians as bassist Stanley Clarke and saxophonist Bobby Keyes, the most applause came Sunday when Keith Richards was announced. Wearing a black sport jacket over a red shirt and red pants, he stepped nervously to the microphone holding what appeared to be a prepared speech, “I’m happy to be here tonight—this afternoon,” he said haltingly. Then he threw down the paper, repeated that he was happy to be there, and started to play.
The sound mix was muddy, making it difficult to decipher much of Wood’s lead vocals. Many of the blind fans complained that the music was too loud and the sound quality wasn’t what they were accustomed to on records. The response was enthusiastic, but the concert didn’t really ignite until Richards took over on lead vocal on his own “Before They Make Me Run,” a song written after his Toronto arrest.
Another huge cheer greeted Mick Jagger when he walked onstage to sing a growling version of the bluesy “Prodigal Son,” accompanied on acoustic guitar by Richards. Then came the Stones. Despite only four hours’ rehearsal, the band played a nine-song set, stressing “Some Girls” material, with a spirit that belied suggestions during the ’70s that the band had lost its steam.
It was unclear Sunday how much money—if any—had been raised by the two concerts for the Canadian institute. The show grossed around $100,000, but production expenses may have been $75,000 or more. But the thrust of the court order was that Richards donate his talents as a public service. Counselor Judy Yakes felt that the show had accomplished that purpose. Though not as many blind people attended the concert as first predicted, a few hundred were there. “This opened a door for them. It was a real enriching experience,” said Yakes.
How did Richards feel? “I feel half-punished,” he joked backstage between the two shows. “No,” he quickly added, more to the point. “It was great. It felt good out there. I always like playing.”
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