“...Gimme Shelter manages to capture both sides of the rock & roll dream, the dizzy highs and the crushing lows. The first half is as inspiring as Monterey Pop; the second half is more like Night of the Living Dead. But both halves are unforgettable. Let it bleed, indeed.”
Screened in tribute to Charlie Watts (1941 - 2021)
The Rolling Stones’s free gig at Altamont Speedway outside San Francisco in 1969 is one of the most infamous concerts in rock’n’roll history. Worried about the security, the Stones made the fatal mistake of asking the Hell's Angels to keep order, only for the day to end in tragedy as violence broke out and a fan was killed. The Maysles brothers’ documentary of the preceding tour and brutal comedown and aftermath of that ill-fated date not only captures the Stones at one of their strung-out ‘n’ fagged-out peaks, but also the messy end of a decade that is still synonymous with creative expression and personal freedom.
Fans of Charlie Watts in particular will enjoy the film’s opening where the drummer is seen riding down the M6 on a donkey.
