Rolling Stones – Black And Blue Paris (Apocalypse Sound AS-134)

Black And Blue Paris (Apocalypse Sound AS-134)

Les Abattoirs, Pavilion de Paris, Paris, France – June 4th, 6th & 7th, 1976

Aux Abattoirs Volume One (1st Broadcast):  Introduction, Honky Tonk Women, Hand Of Fate, Fool To Cry, Hot Stuff, Star Star, You Gotta Move, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, band introduction, Happy, Outta Space, Jumping Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man

Aux Abatoirs Volume Two (2nd Broadcast):  Introduction, Tumbling Dice, Midnight Rambler, Angie, It’s Only Rock & Roll, Brown Sugar

Bonus feature, Palalido, Milan, Italy – October 1st, 1970:  Jumping Jack Flash, Roll Over Beethoven, Sympathy For The Devil, Stray Cat Blues, Prodigal Son, Dead Flowers, Midnight Rambler, Love In Vain

Three nights at the Pavillion de Paris were video taped for a television program in June, 1976 and the result is “Les Rolling Stones Aux Abattoirs.”  Since these shows were also professionally recorded and used for the 1977 live album Love You Live, these have achieved almost definitive status for mid seventies Rolling Stones live performance.  Black And Blue Paris is taken from a low generation video tape and looks and sounds fantastic.  First telecast begins with an announcer speaking about The Stones’ visit to Paris and their past visits to the city over filmed footage of the venue and the neighborhood where the abattoir sits.  Mick and the band are shown in fourscreen speaking about their adventures in France throughout their career and how much they like playing in Paris.

The telecasts are a combination of three nights with most coming from the June 6th show.  Other tracks from from the June 7th show and one from June 4th.  There is a big continuity issue since Mick wears a different outfit for the different show.  In the June 6th footage he is wearing a red striped shirt, dark blue coat and a long scarf.  On June 7th he is wearing a white shirt and light blue coat.  It is edited so that only the songs are present with none of Jagger’s stage announcements present.  It begins with the first song from June 6th “Honky Tonk Women.”  “If You Can’t Rock Me / Get Off Of My Cloud” is skipped over for the third song of the set, and the first Black And Blue song of the night “Hand Of Fate,” also from the sixth. 

“Hey Negrita” and “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” are omitted for “Fool To Cry” and “Hot Stuff,” both from June 7th.  Jagger sings the former while playing keyboards.  “Star Star” follows in the set list and this performance is from June 6th.  “Angie” is cut (but included in the second broadcast) and the show picks up with “You Gotta Move” from June 6th and features the spectacular coda with Jagger and Billy Preston going back and forth.  The song segues into “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” with Ron Wood’s opportunity to shine on the guitar solo.  The band introductions and “Happy” are both from June 6th.  “Tumbling Dice” and “Nothing From Nothing” are both omitted and the show picks up again with Billy Preston’s “Outta Space” from June 7th.  Preston’s drummer “Ollie Brown” plays on the this track with Watts banging on percussion behind him and similar to many concerts in 1975 and 1976 he almost steals the show.  The final two songs “Jumping Jack Flash” and “Street Fighting  Man” come from the June 6th show.

The second broadcast contains five songs that were omitted from the first.  The introduction is show with a big A2 Présente superimposed over a crowd shot.  “Tumbling Dice” is from the June 7th show and by this song in the set Mick is wearing only the white shirt.  “Midnight Rambler” is also from the June 7th show and is a masterpiece of interpretive theater with the band bathed in red light during the violent section.  “Angie” is an oddball since it is the only footage used that isn’t from either June 6th or June 7th but from the June 4th show.  Watching the clip is obvious why since the cameraman does not seem to know the cues.  He focuses upon Keith for the first half of the first verse.  But there are interesting shots of the pensive audience following the words to the song.  The final two songs “It’s Only Rock And Roll” and “Brown Sugar” come from the June 6th concert.

There is extra footage in circulation including from the June 6th show “If You Can’t Rock Me/Get Off Of My Cloud,” “Hey Negrita,” “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg,” “Fool To Cry,” “Hot Stuff,” “Star Star,” “Tumbling Dice,” “Nothing From Nothing,” “Tumbling Dice,” “Nothing From Nothing,” “Midnight Rambler,” “Brown Sugar,” “Angie,” and “Outa Space.”  Since they were not used for broadcast they are not included on Black And Blue Paris, which features the actual broadcasts only.   

As a bonus Godfather include the recently surfaced amateur film from the October 1st, 1970 show at the Palazo Dello Sport in Milan, Italy.  For an audience film, there are many close ups and the quality of the color footage is spectacular.  Visual evidence of this obscure tour is hard to find and this is a must have.  The audio is a bit out of sync with the visuals.  The performance itself is great but troubled.  Two thousand youths tried to crash the gates to get into the show. Police had to use tear gas to quell the riot; there were injuries among both the policemen and the crowd, and 63 arrests were made.  This part is so good though that it could stand on its own.  Like all Apocalypse Sound releases this is on NTSC region zero and is packaged in a cardboard DVD sized sleeve and is worth having.