Narrator / Host (mostly Dominic Sandbrook)

They have billiard cues, don't they? And motorbike chains as weapons. So 300,000 people descend on this raceway. It's a very miserable kind of grey day. Everybody gets absolutely wasted very quickly, very drunk. There's a lot of fighting. And by the time the stones come on, the mood has got very ugly.

They have billiard cues, don't they? And motorbike chains as weapons. So 300,000 people descend on this raceway. It's a very miserable kind of grey day. Everybody gets absolutely wasted very quickly, very drunk. There's a lot of fighting. And by the time the stones come on, the mood has got very ugly.

They have billiard cues, don't they? And motorbike chains as weapons. So 300,000 people descend on this raceway. It's a very miserable kind of grey day. Everybody gets absolutely wasted very quickly, very drunk. There's a lot of fighting. And by the time the stones come on, the mood has got very ugly.

If you watch the footage, Mick Jagger is constantly saying, cool down, guys, cool down, and all this kind of thing. They have to stop the third song, Sympathy for the Devil. It's actually where the Stones' kind of slightly satanic pretensions are exposed. You know, they're not really as satanic as all that because they're clearly very uncomfortable and very discomforted by the fighting below them.

If you watch the footage, Mick Jagger is constantly saying, cool down, guys, cool down, and all this kind of thing. They have to stop the third song, Sympathy for the Devil. It's actually where the Stones' kind of slightly satanic pretensions are exposed. You know, they're not really as satanic as all that because they're clearly very uncomfortable and very discomforted by the fighting below them.

If you watch the footage, Mick Jagger is constantly saying, cool down, guys, cool down, and all this kind of thing. They have to stop the third song, Sympathy for the Devil. It's actually where the Stones' kind of slightly satanic pretensions are exposed. You know, they're not really as satanic as all that because they're clearly very uncomfortable and very discomforted by the fighting below them.

And then the fourth song, this fight breaks out between the Hells Angels and an 18-year-old black man called Meredith Hunter. And it culminates with this dreadful scene, which, you know, if you're desperate to see it, you can see it on YouTube. Hunter pulls out what seems to be a long-barreled revolver. And one of the Hells Angels kind of parries him and then stabs him repeatedly.

And then the fourth song, this fight breaks out between the Hells Angels and an 18-year-old black man called Meredith Hunter. And it culminates with this dreadful scene, which, you know, if you're desperate to see it, you can see it on YouTube. Hunter pulls out what seems to be a long-barreled revolver. And one of the Hells Angels kind of parries him and then stabs him repeatedly.

And then the fourth song, this fight breaks out between the Hells Angels and an 18-year-old black man called Meredith Hunter. And it culminates with this dreadful scene, which, you know, if you're desperate to see it, you can see it on YouTube. Hunter pulls out what seems to be a long-barreled revolver. And one of the Hells Angels kind of parries him and then stabs him repeatedly.

And then the other Hells Angels kind of stamp on him while he lies dying. The Stones actually finish their set. They knew somebody was hurt, but they didn't know how seriously. And then they effectively flee the scene by helicopter. And it turns out that Meredith Hunter wasn't the only person killed that day. So two fans were run over by a car and another drowned in a drainage ditch.

And then the other Hells Angels kind of stamp on him while he lies dying. The Stones actually finish their set. They knew somebody was hurt, but they didn't know how seriously. And then they effectively flee the scene by helicopter. And it turns out that Meredith Hunter wasn't the only person killed that day. So two fans were run over by a car and another drowned in a drainage ditch.

And then the other Hells Angels kind of stamp on him while he lies dying. The Stones actually finish their set. They knew somebody was hurt, but they didn't know how seriously. And then they effectively flee the scene by helicopter. And it turns out that Meredith Hunter wasn't the only person killed that day. So two fans were run over by a car and another drowned in a drainage ditch.

And at the time... it was seen as the sort of the symbolic punctuation point at the end of the 1960s. I mean, it literally is at the end of the 1960s, at the very end of 1969. But all the kind of rock critics and stuff said, oh my gosh, you could hardly find a better kind of encapsulation of the changing mood and so on.

And at the time... it was seen as the sort of the symbolic punctuation point at the end of the 1960s. I mean, it literally is at the end of the 1960s, at the very end of 1969. But all the kind of rock critics and stuff said, oh my gosh, you could hardly find a better kind of encapsulation of the changing mood and so on.

And at the time... it was seen as the sort of the symbolic punctuation point at the end of the 1960s. I mean, it literally is at the end of the 1960s, at the very end of 1969. But all the kind of rock critics and stuff said, oh my gosh, you could hardly find a better kind of encapsulation of the changing mood and so on.

The US rock writer Ralph Gleeson a few months later wrote, if the name Woodstock has come to denote the flowering of one phase of the youth culture, Altamont has come to mean the end of it. Now, I don't actually think that's quite right. I mean, I think it already ended. Nixon had already been president for a year. The Summer of Love was over.

The US rock writer Ralph Gleeson a few months later wrote, if the name Woodstock has come to denote the flowering of one phase of the youth culture, Altamont has come to mean the end of it. Now, I don't actually think that's quite right. I mean, I think it already ended. Nixon had already been president for a year. The Summer of Love was over.

The US rock writer Ralph Gleeson a few months later wrote, if the name Woodstock has come to denote the flowering of one phase of the youth culture, Altamont has come to mean the end of it. Now, I don't actually think that's quite right. I mean, I think it already ended. Nixon had already been president for a year. The Summer of Love was over.

The optimism of the 60s was already a very distant memory.

The optimism of the 60s was already a very distant memory.