TO ACCENTUATE the positives of this Rolling Stones live album  >  it’s the songs from the 300-seat El Mocambo club gig in Toronto.

The club crowd is super-up > a once in lifetime chance to see the stadium-filling Rolling Stones up-close-and-personal in a small club. The band also revel in their surrounds.

It’s the Stones at their back-to-the wall best > and this could indeed be The Last Time, with Keith Richards seriously busted for heroin a few days before.

The Canadian Mounties swooped on his Toronto hotel room and Richards was charged with “possessing heroin for the purpose of trafficking” > which could carry a life sentence.

The Rolling Stones played two nights at El Mocambo > the gig promoted as Canadian band April Wine to try to prevent a flood of fans descending on the club.

Mick Jagger was also determined to keep the rock magazine press out > but alas two journos managed to get in one night. The singer took revenge by throwing a bucket of water over them. “Everything all right in the critics’ section, plenty to drink have you” he says on Love You Live after dousing them.

Jagger also delights in taking the piss out of each band member’s image when introducing them to the crowd > Richards fires a shot straight back across the bows.

Multi-lingual Mick also says a few words in French at the Parish show, interpretation unknown.  [ “Sacre bleu! Who does diss Mick Jagger thienk that he is. Dareng to speak our French to us. Who is dis eediot” ]

“It’s the bottom pincher. It’s the bottom pincher from last night. Watch out for your bottoms Keef”
> Mick Jagger up close and personal with a fan at the club gig, on Love You Live

THE SONGS

THERE’S great renditions of blues stalwart BB King’s I’m A Man, the band’s own blues gem Little Red Rooster and Chuck Berry’s rocking Around and Around > all from the El Mocambo gig.

Jagger’s at his sexual sneering best on I’m A Man > promoting his sexual prowess over the top of Richard’s wild howling as the band lay down a bold blues beat. “When I make love to you baby, you just can’t resist,” Jagger extols.

The remaining song from Toronto is a reggae/skiffle version of big boss blues man Bo Didley’s Crackin’ Up > one of the Rolling Stones better Rastafarian renditions.

But that’s only four songs and one side of a double vinyl LP.

The rest is cobbled together from stadium shows and leaves you wondering why the Rolling Stones didn’t just release the full El Mocambo show. In comparison > except for Sympathy for the Devil > everything else is pretty much second best to the club songs.

There’s plenty of strong guitar work but the overall sound doesn’t possess that Stones kick and almost seems rushed > most disappointing is Jagger’s lack-lustre vocals.

Stones fans have long awaited the release of more songs from the El Mocambo shows, but going into 2016 there was still no sign of this happening.

KEITH CRASHES HIS CAR AND > WOULDN’T YOU KNOW IT > ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES WERE FOUND IN SAID VEHICLE

STONES guitarist Keith Richards crashed his Bentley through a hedge and fence > into a field off England’s M1 motorway > about 4am on May 19, 1976. There were several adults in the car and his seven-year-old son Marlon.

Richards was taken to a police interview room and searched. In a jacket pocket they found a piece of folded paper which they suspected contained LSD. Found in the car was a silver chain holding several objects, including a silver tube later found to have traces of cocaine.

Judgement day was January 15, 1977 > the charges possession of LSD and cocaine.

 The defence’s argument centred around Richards denying the cocaine chain was his as the car was also used by other members of the group > and the same went for the jacket holding the LSD.

“We all wear each other’s stage clothes,” he had told officers at the time of his arrest.

 After a three-day trial, the jury finds him not guilty on the LDS charge but guilty of possessing cocaine. He’s fined 750 pounds and warned that next time he will go to jail.

 OF COURSE THERE WAS A NEXT TIME > but not in England.

WHAT A COCK UP

TALK about penis envy > one of the props on the Rolling Stones 1975 tour of America and Canada was a 20-feet-high inflated penis which Mick Jagger straddled during the show > ride ’em, cowboy.

The stage was in the shape of a five-petal lotus flower > all bunched up before lowering out to reveal the band.

Joining the Rolling Stones on stage were percussionist Ollie Brown and soul singer/keyboardist Billy Preston.

The 45-show tour took in more than $US10 million > a huge amount at the time. The European tour the following year was about 40 shows.

> WRITTEN by MALCOLM LIVERMORE