6 December 1969: The Rolling Stones play their most infamous gig
ADVERTISEMENTSome concerts go down in history for all the right reasons. Jimi Hendrix shredding with his teeth before burning his guitar or the Sex Pistols’ notorious gig on a barge cruising down the Thames come to mind.
Other concerts are remembered not for their legendary moments but for the toll they took. For the Rolling Stones, purveyors of all things rock n’ roll, that concert took place on this day at the Altamont Speedway in California.
The gig was a part of the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, a free musical event pipped as the west-coast equivalent of Woodstock. The line-up included other greats of the decade: Santana; Jefferson Airplane; the Flying Burrito Brothers (us neither); Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; and the Grateful Dead were all performing before the headline set by the Stones.
Although accounts of what went wrong have never been completely definitive, the clear problem decision at the heart of the concert was hiring the Oakland chapter of the Hell’s Angels biker gang as the event’s security.
Associates of the bands involved have disputed how much the Angels were hired for and what exactly they were asked to do at the event. Whatever was originally intended, for the Stones’ gig, the bikers lined the low-down stage in an attempt to provide security to the band.
Throughout the opening acts, Angels drank the free beer they’d been offered as part of their fee. They dealt with the crowd with open aggression, riling up the nearly 300,000 strong crowd at the festival. During Santana’s set, the Angels and the crowd started attacking each other.
Things only descended from there. The Angels armed themselves with broken pool cues and motorbike chains by the time the Rolling Stones came onto the stage. By this point, the Grateful Dead had already forgone their set, horrified by the violent scenes already taking place.
At one point during the first few opening numbers, the 18-year-old Meredith Hunter made a break for the stage. One of the Angels hit him and pushed Hunter back into the crowd. This only enraged Hunter even more, who was then seen brandishing a revolver as he took to the stage again.
Hell’s Angel member Alan Passaro witnessed Hunter get on the stage and unsheathe his revolver. In the moment, the biker-cum-security guard took out a knife and stabbed Hunter twice, killing him.
Multiple other fights broke out during the event, but it was the killing of Meredith Hunter by a member of the Hell’s Angels that defined the Altamont Free Concert. For all the peace and love of the hippy era, here was the diametrical opposite. A rowdy, violent gig that ended in bloodshed.
For some, this is the day the 60s died. Four months after Woodstock and just three weeks before the advent of the 70s, the Stones had seemingly ushered in a new generation and witnessed its end in a matter of a few years.
