“ANIMALS, TIGERS, BEAUTIFUL GIRLS…”
IT’S remarkable how small the music world was back then. The Rock And Roll Circus was essentially done out of Mick Jagger’s address book. My abiding memory of directing the show is, halfway through filming, going backstage to see everyone.
It was a slow shoot and I was apologising for the delays. There they all were, in the dressing room: Mick, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and Keith Richards, playing old Tamla Motown songs, with Keith Moon playing spoons on the table. It’s one of my great memories. These amazing musicians in a room together, just playing music as friends. It was like a village fête, only with a group of guys who’d changed the way we looked at the world. Fashion, music, sex, politics… they were all blowing up, and it was thanks to a handful of people in this room who were all pals. They were certainly a very curious bunch to have under one roof for a day!
BY the late ’60s, the most powerful bands in England wanted more control not only over their music, but their presentation. They wanted to do videos. Starting with The Beatles in ’66, I did “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”, then “Happy Jack” with The Who. The Stones wanted to do the same.
“The Who were the first ones we asked” LINDSAY-HOGG
I never considered myself friends with The Beatles – we were collegial – but I was friendly with The Rolling Stones, because I was shooting them regularly on Ready Steady Go!. I filmed them several times, including “Satisfaction” and “Paint It, Black”, and they liked the dynamic look it gave them. Other shows like Top Of The Pops sat back and observed the chaos of rock’n’roll, whereas I always wanted to be part of the chaos, moving, zooming and shaking.
We had two goes at “Jumping Jack Flash”, their first video. One was them performing on
