Narrator / Host (mostly Dominic Sandbrook)

They don't bother with the singles market at all. They just want to make albums largely for slightly older listeners who actually aren't the teenage girls who empowered this at the very beginning. There's a brilliant discussion of this in a book by Charlie Gillick called The Sound of the City. And he talks about what a contrived and artificial sort of cleavage it is between pop and rock.

They don't bother with the singles market at all. They just want to make albums largely for slightly older listeners who actually aren't the teenage girls who empowered this at the very beginning. There's a brilliant discussion of this in a book by Charlie Gillick called The Sound of the City. And he talks about what a contrived and artificial sort of cleavage it is between pop and rock.

But we're now so used to it. We've fallen for the PR, basically, because it's ultimately about working out how to sell more records. Older people won't buy music that they think is for teenagers. So this is the way you basically say, no, it's not. It's a whole new genre. And that's how they do it.

But we're now so used to it. We've fallen for the PR, basically, because it's ultimately about working out how to sell more records. Older people won't buy music that they think is for teenagers. So this is the way you basically say, no, it's not. It's a whole new genre. And that's how they do it.

But we're now so used to it. We've fallen for the PR, basically, because it's ultimately about working out how to sell more records. Older people won't buy music that they think is for teenagers. So this is the way you basically say, no, it's not. It's a whole new genre. And that's how they do it.

Anyway, let's end the episode, this enormous episode, and indeed the story of the Stones in the 60s with the final act of that American tour. So all through this tour, they have had massive criticism for their high ticket prices. And they decide, because they're kindly people, that they will end with another free concert like Hyde Park.

Anyway, let's end the episode, this enormous episode, and indeed the story of the Stones in the 60s with the final act of that American tour. So all through this tour, they have had massive criticism for their high ticket prices. And they decide, because they're kindly people, that they will end with another free concert like Hyde Park.

Anyway, let's end the episode, this enormous episode, and indeed the story of the Stones in the 60s with the final act of that American tour. So all through this tour, they have had massive criticism for their high ticket prices. And they decide, because they're kindly people, that they will end with another free concert like Hyde Park.

And they say, let's do it in San Francisco, in the city of the counterculture. We'll have a little festival. We'll get the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane and Californian bands to come and join us.

And they say, let's do it in San Francisco, in the city of the counterculture. We'll have a little festival. We'll get the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane and Californian bands to come and join us.

And they say, let's do it in San Francisco, in the city of the counterculture. We'll have a little festival. We'll get the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane and Californian bands to come and join us.

But partly because of their kind of outlaw reputation, but also because the cultural and political climate has changed, swung against the counterculture with Nixon's election and so on, they don't get permits. So they decide they will do it at the Altamont Raceway, which is 60 miles from San Francisco in the absolute middle of nowhere.

But partly because of their kind of outlaw reputation, but also because the cultural and political climate has changed, swung against the counterculture with Nixon's election and so on, they don't get permits. So they decide they will do it at the Altamont Raceway, which is 60 miles from San Francisco in the absolute middle of nowhere.

But partly because of their kind of outlaw reputation, but also because the cultural and political climate has changed, swung against the counterculture with Nixon's election and so on, they don't get permits. So they decide they will do it at the Altamont Raceway, which is 60 miles from San Francisco in the absolute middle of nowhere.

When we were on our tour, Tom, US tour last year, we drove not a million miles away from the Altamont Raceway, didn't we? And it is, you know, California is a big place. You go inland, you're a long way from the cities. It's very rural. And that's where they're going, to the kind of, just a sort of suburban scrub of nowhere.

When we were on our tour, Tom, US tour last year, we drove not a million miles away from the Altamont Raceway, didn't we? And it is, you know, California is a big place. You go inland, you're a long way from the cities. It's very rural. And that's where they're going, to the kind of, just a sort of suburban scrub of nowhere.

When we were on our tour, Tom, US tour last year, we drove not a million miles away from the Altamont Raceway, didn't we? And it is, you know, California is a big place. You go inland, you're a long way from the cities. It's very rural. And that's where they're going, to the kind of, just a sort of suburban scrub of nowhere.

And this place, it's like a bowl and the stage is at the bottom of the bowl, at the bottom of a slope. So a slightly weird arrangement. And to protect the stage, the management of the Grateful Dead, who have said they'll help to organise it, enlist the local Hells Angels and they pay them with $500 worth of beer. We mentioned the Hells Angels at Hyde Park. This is a very different atmosphere.

And this place, it's like a bowl and the stage is at the bottom of the bowl, at the bottom of a slope. So a slightly weird arrangement. And to protect the stage, the management of the Grateful Dead, who have said they'll help to organise it, enlist the local Hells Angels and they pay them with $500 worth of beer. We mentioned the Hells Angels at Hyde Park. This is a very different atmosphere.

And this place, it's like a bowl and the stage is at the bottom of the bowl, at the bottom of a slope. So a slightly weird arrangement. And to protect the stage, the management of the Grateful Dead, who have said they'll help to organise it, enlist the local Hells Angels and they pay them with $500 worth of beer. We mentioned the Hells Angels at Hyde Park. This is a very different atmosphere.