An Irish Diary

‘I Was There’ – An Irishman’s Diary on the Rolling Stones in Dublin in 1965

Keith Richards and Mick Jagger at a press conference before performing at the Adelphi in Dublin in 1965. Photograph: Dermot Barry

Deaglán De Bréadún's face
Deaglán De Bréadún
Mon May 7 2018 - 00:01

It was all down to Mick Jagger: thanks to him and his colleagues, I got my first outing in the national media and my glorious career in journalism was kick-started. The memory of it all was prompted by the news that the band was coming to Croke Park on May 17th. This is clearly an appropriate time to say: “Thank you, Rolling Stones” or, in local dialect, “Good on ya, Micko!”

The Stones first played in the city at the now-defunct Adelphi Cinema in Middle Abbey Street on January 7th, 1965. I was still at an early stage of secondary school in CBS Synge Street and, having missed the Beatles when they appeared at the same venue 14 months earlier, I was determined this would not happen in the case of their nearest rivals.

Astonishingly, the Beatles concerts became the subject of a lead story in this newspaper on November 8th, 1963, under the headline: “Many arrested as city crowds riot”. Written by Cathal Óg O’Shannon and Tony Kelly, the opening paragraph reads: “More than a dozen men were arrested and taken to various Dublin police stations last night, when fights broke out while the Beatles, the Liverpool ‘beat’ singers, were playing at the Adelphi Cinema.”

The scuffles took place when the audience of 3,000 fans were leaving after the first performance and mingled with a further 3,000 making their way in for the second show. Cars were overturned and four people were taken to hospital, including a youth who had been stabbed in the head.

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I was quite dismayed by the foul-mouthed taunts of certain 'jackeens' in the audience who shouted abuse about 'culchies' and used the F-word

Tickets for the Beatles began at six shillings and sixpence for the back-stalls and the price for the Stones was maybe slightly dearer at seven-and-six (they cost a bit more than that for Croke Park).

There was a strong force of gardaí on duty outside the Adelphi on the night to prevent any repetition of the previous rowdy scenes.

But there was a spot of trouble inside. The audience was expecting Jagger and his friends to arrive on stage but, prior to that, they were treated to a surprise performance by Brendan Bowyer miming to his record, The Hucklebuck, with a troupe of dancers in the background.

Disgracefully, there was loud booing and swearing from the crowd. It was no way to treat Brendan Bowyer, one of our finest singers and highly-respected as a performer. However, it wasn’t a good idea to put him on stage at this particular event. There was a clash of musical cultures, eg, you wouldn’t have Michael Bublé performing at, say, a heavy metal concert.

There was also a country-city dimension. Dubs who considered themselves trendy and hip were not always well-disposed to showbands. As a lad whose family had moved from the country to the city a few years before, I was quite dismayed by the foul-mouthed taunts of certain “jackeens” in the audience who shouted abuse about “culchies” and used the F-word at a time when it was still considered shocking and had yet to become widespread in everyday parlance.

A fairly lengthy correspondence ensued in the "Postbag" page of the Evening Press (now, sadly, gone the way of the Adelphi Cinema). A letter from "Pop Fan, Drimnagh" strongly criticised the crowd for booing one of their own: "These teenagers let themselves down in front of an English group".

As for the performance by the Stones, it was wonderful and I was greatly impressed by Mick Jagger's stage presence

I was eventually moved to intervene myself and, using the pseudonym “I Was There, Ranelagh”, my letter stated: “Disgusted though I was by the behaviour of the anti-Bowyer element at the Stones show, I was not surprised that he was booed. Nobody in the general audience asked Brendan to get up and mime to his latest record. The whole thing looked pre-arranged to me – where did the ‘Huckle-girls’, in their uniforms, come from?”

The same day that my letter was published, a missive from Mr Bowyer himself appeared in which he said that the audience booed because they were told the Stones were not appearing just yet, but that this changed to cheering when he arrived on stage.

As for the performance by the Stones, it was wonderful and I was greatly impressed by Mick Jagger’s stage presence. Brian Jones, meanwhile, spent most of the time staring into space and one wonders now if this was the result of drugtaking: sadly, he would be dead within a few years.

Reading my own letter again, I am taken with its factual content and balanced presentation.

No wonder that young lad ended up writing for The Irish Times.

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