While my lovely wife was in dear ol' Blighty last week, she happened to be passing by a bookstore off Piccadilly wherein Keith Richards was signing copies of his new memoir Life. Gamely, Peg got on line on my behalf and waited two plus hours for a signed copy, which was damn cool of her. I'm only about 35 pages in, but it's entirely entertaining. In any event, I've been on a bit of an unsurprising Stones kick ever since. This afternoon, I was running off to The Container Store to fetch a few items (not a recommended mission for a Sunday, by the way) and I walked by an address that always reminds me of the Stones, which prompted me to dig up the clip below.
In 1975, the band held a press conference here in New York City to announce the details of their impending world tour. The event was held at 24 Fifth Avenue just off the northwest corner of 9th Street (I've tried divining the name of the eatery at the time, albeit with no success. You can spot it in the photo below). The press summarily gathered inside, awaiting the arrival of Messrs. Jagger, Richards, Watts et al. In typically spectacular fashion, though, the band rented a flat bed truck, climbed aboard and performed as the truck slowly cruised down Fifth Avenue. I remember seeing a clip of it somewhere (I was about 8-years-old at the time, living about eighty-someodd blocks to the northeast) and being very intrigued. I think about the Stones cruising around in that flat bed truck every time I walk by it. A cool stunt indeed. U2, of course, ripped off the idea a couple of decades after for the video for "All Because of You." I guess, technically, so did Dokken about fifteen years before U2. Oh, and so did Bjork. Alright, maybe it's not that original an idea. Still, the Stones did it best.
You can read a bit more about the episode here. I did manage to find this fleeting clip of it below. Today, the establishment is split in two. The space closer to 9th Street is now fancy Thai restaurant. The space closer to 10th is up for rent. Enjoy.
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