While they will soon celebrate their sixty-year career with a new European tour, the Rolling Stones have announced the release of a new live album hitherto unreleased, recorded in 1977 at the El Mocambo club in Toronto (Canada).
The Cockroaches, “the cockroaches”, it is under this false stage name that the Rolling Stones burst into El Mocambo, a popular Toronto music club, on March 4 and 5, 1977 for two surprise gigs opening for Canadian hard rock band April Wine. The Stones, then at the height of their popularity, performed in front of the 300 people who won their tickets for the April Wine concert following a contest launched on a Canadian radio station, certainly not expecting fall on the group led by Mick Jagger. But it is finally April Wine who will do the first part of this unexpected concert of the Stones, which will be released on May 13 on the occasion of the new tour of the British group.
Live at the El Mocambo will include the 23 tracks played on March 5, 1977 as well as three songs played the day before, between rock and blues covers and classics from the Stones’ repertoire (Brown Sugar, Jumpin’ Jack Flash,Let’s Spend The Night Togetheretc.) Two titles have officially been released online, It’s Only Rock’N’Roll and Rip This Joint. Until now, only pirated versions of these two concerts have circulated on the web, with the exception of the four titles present on the album. Love You Live (1977), compilation of the Stones’ North American and European tours in 1975 and 1976. This surprise concert in El Mocambo caused a lot of noise in the media, in particular because of the presence in the audience of Margaret Trudeau, ex-wife of the Premier Minister at the time Pierre Trudeau, who would have had an affair with Mick Jagger having precipitated their divorce.
As a reminder, the Rolling Stones will start their big anniversary tour next June, SIXTY, and will be present in France for two new concerts at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon (July 19) and at the Hippodrome de Longchamp (July 23). On stage, they will be accompanied by Steve Jordan, replacing drummer Charlie Watts who died in August 2021, who according to Keith Richards is currently helping the Stones refine their new album, the release date of which has not yet been revealed.
