The Altamont Free Concert | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror
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- Опубліковано 15 чер 2024
- "On the 6th of December, 1969, 300,000 people gathered at the Altamont Raceway in California for a once-in-a-lifetime free concert..."
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TRANSLATIONS:
► This video is also available in German ( • Das Altamont Gratis Ko... )
SOCIAL MEDIA:
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
00:43 - Background
04:36 - The Altamont Free Concert
09:34 - Aftermath
MUSIC:
► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory
► "Pedal to the Metal" by Chris Haugen
SOURCES:
► "Altamont At 50: The Disastrous Concert That Brought The ‘60s To A Crashing Halt" by David Chiu, published by Forbes, December 2019. Link: www.forbes.com/sites/davidchi....
► "The Rolling Stones Disaster at Altamont: Let It Bleed" by Rolling Stone staff, published by Rolling Stone, January 1970. Link: www.rollingstone.com/feature/....
► "The Chaos of Altamont and the Murder of Meredith Hunter" by Sasha Frere-Jones, published by The New Yorker, March 2019. Link: www.newyorker.com/culture/cul....
► "Death, amphetamines and the Hell's Angels: Remembering the deadly Altamont Free Concert, 50 years on" by Far Out Magazine staff, published by Far Out Magazine, December 2019. Link: faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-roll....
#Documentary #History #TrueStories
Who could've imagined a free-for-all concert at a racetrack, policed by armed and drunk gang members would not go well?
🏍🤟🤟🎸
Dane M - The Hell's Angels were the problem. Woodstock was free, full of drugs, and had too few supplies and food.....and it worked.
@@christopherweise438 the venue and poor planning was the problem. The Hell’s Angels had been used many times before and since with no issues.
The answer: naive leftist hippies in the 1960s
+LostDutchman
That's actually a valid point if what you say about the Angels being used for successful security details before and after this is true.
I work in security, and I can tell you that no security at all is possible without a plan. Where the guards will be, where are the entry and exit points, what will each guard be doing at his post or where will he be on his patrol, etc.
These plans take time and often some money to even begin to put into motion. The basically unplanned nature of the event makes me believe that rather than even a rudimentary security plan for the venue, they simply told the bikers "just do your thing man, and fuck up anyone who gives you a hard time"
Having guards who are drunk and/or drugged is also not a good sign, even with a plan no guard on duty should be doing drugs or alcohol.
Incidents like these are why there's a basic state licensing program for security guards these days. Rather than handing random guys off the street a weapon and telling them they have power over other people now, it now takes a permit for each of these (there's an unarmed permit that lasts 2 years and an armed permit that lasts for 1 year, each needs to be renewed after expiration for the guard to continue operating), and most guards will be working as part of a security company as contractors rather than being directly hired by the venues and businesses they guard. These companies tend to take over the planning and such for operations on their end involving their people.
At the very least, security services seem to have adapted quite well and learned from these disasters and others.
Personally I think the only other addendum I might make is one I'd advise for many police departments: to very thoroughly screen out anyone who has a bully or mafia mentality where they enjoy abusing or extorting other people. Thankfully I haven't seen that sort of thing on my outfit, better a lazy guard than an abusive one I say, so long as they'll do what they need to do when the time comes.
Grateful Dead: "I recommend the Hell's Angels"
Also, Grateful Dead: "I recommend we leave, these Hell's Angels are out of control!"
I guess the dead weren't so grateful.
It's California and the GD knew the H.A. very well. They have a history together. They knew them tge best out of all the bands there and that is why they left. They saw how it was going and said "SEE YA!!".
Also, don't forget that the Rolling Stones had hired the Hells Angels for their July 1969 concert at Hyde Park. That had worked surprisingly well.
The organizers had no idea who they were 'hiring'. Same as now they are not really in touch with the general public and the world most of us live in. It's what you get when you allow those who have money lead the way...
@@renerpho Hyde Park in the UK? I don't think it's really the same group even if they have the same name.
I was at the Altamont concert, and that is what happened. My girl and I left during the Stones' first song, Jumping Jack Flash, because it got too weird and scary. Well done!
That is a great story of you and you girl who were at altamont and later left because of those violence ocurred at altamont
This pairing of communication efforts made my brow furrow.
It was odd, and I enjoyed it. :)
@@ThisHandleFeatureIsStupid what?
@@ThisHandleFeatureIsStupid i don't get it 😒
You and your girl went, but left because it got too weird and crazy. Thanks for the story!
The Flying Burrito Brothers actually performed between Jefferson Airplane and CSNY, and were the only band to play a set without any issues, violence or drama. Not only that, but Gram Parsons got to hook up with Michelle Phillips after the show, making him arguably the only person who was there who had a good day.
It's rare I come across a Gram Parsons story I don't enjoy. Sure wish we coulda seen him grow old and keep singing tunes. He's one of my favorite artists of all time. My dad showed him to me and said he made it possible for the beer drinkers and the stoners to meld together lol.
I remember that performance as well. They were like a breath of fresh air.
Maybe Michelle Phillips also had a good day.
@@powertrip6426really?
correct here the timeline of how things went from bad to worse. Santana opens the concert with the final song being "Smoove" but they had to stop when the crowd rushed the stage. The Hells Angels then sent Denise Kaufman out there she went on and sang her song "Love" the crowd rushed the stage and someone threw a beer bottle at Denise and she got beaned and hit the stage she was taken out on a stretcher to the hospital for stitches and to deliver her baby.
Next Starship took the stage and sang "The Other Side of This Life" they had to stop the concert again when the crowd rushed the stage. Marty from Starship picked a fight with Animal thats what started it. Marty dropped 4 F-Bombs and when the 4th F- Bomb left his lips Animal slugged him and the crowd rushed the stage. Grace Slick went out there and said that Animal punched Marty and Starship refused to go on and left the concert .
Next the Burritos went out there was no problem but when CSNY went out Santana told them to leave and they left the concert with Starship. Then Graceful Dead went on Santana told them to leave also. Then the Stones went on thats when things went from bad to worse. Jagger exited his chopper someone punched him and when Jagger sang "Under my Thumb" they rushed the stage again thats when Hunter showed up and tried to assassinate Jagger. Al went out there and stabbed him later it was ruled as self defense.
Jagger did not pay up until a month later for what happened at Altamont.
The Grateful Dead recommended the Hell's Angels for security and then peaced out when things got too crazy. Classy move.
Grateful Dead sound like cowards.
This comment triggered me to laugh
The Airplane recommended the Angels. Jack Cassidy was really tight with the San Francisco branch of Angels since Rio Honda
Not True. It Was Jerry Garcia
@@robertpiekosz7470 you should properly annotate your answer so this Ball character sees it. He probably still thinks he's right. Notice how I did it and you got a heads up?
The thing people forget about Woodstock was that it was a once in a lifetime fluke. The reason there were so many people was because those who didn't have tickets just showed up anyway, trampled the temporary fencing, and joined in the festivities. It was a lighting in a bottle situation, and trying to recreate that will never work. Also less talked about is that there were injuries, it was filthy, not everyone had a good time. There is such a rose colored nostalgia to Woodstock, but it was just a music festival that did get out of hand, and miraculously didn't end in major tragedy.
At the opening of Woodstock, the farmer who owned the property, Max Yager, got on stage, looked over the huge crowd, and said, "the only way we're going to get through this thing is if you remember that the guy next to you is your brother." Your last sentence is correct considering the number of things that did go wrong. Maybe the drugs were better in the east?
You are so right, the fact that nothing of the like happened at Woodstock was a miracle, trying to recreate this will ultimately end in disaster. But I guess having a violent, armed motorcycle gang there as 'security' didn't do much good for this specific concert.
My oldest brother and his then wife attempted to go to Woodstock. The mud made them turn away. Just as well.
A fact that many do not know is that the main source of power was running through a buried cable right underneath the audience and the stage. Due to the rain and the number of people, it came uncovered and was lying exposed to the masses. Someone finally pointed it out, and they were able to get it covered up again. If the sheath of the cable had been exposed, it would have electrocuted anyone around it! Good times!
Through this whole video I was thinking "Wasn't Woodstock actually a disaster?" I don't know how such a large crowd could be a good time in any circumstance. Humans suck pretty badly when they form large groups. They have tried to recreate Woodstock many times through the years and it always ends up badly. You're right that the original one was just a fluke and it wasn't even supposed to happen that way.
I actually work with a guy that attended this concert back in the day. He said the vibes were really bad, particularly because of the behavior of the Hells Angels. He said the local chapters were really cool but they had invited all sorts of other chapters from further away because of the size of the concert, and those were the ones that were behaving badly and making it unpleasant for all the concert goers. He said they were doing mean shit like driving around on peoples blankets, walking up to them taking their drinks, taking their food without asking etc. He had nothing nice to say about his memories of that day.
filed under stuff which didn't happen.
@@andrewwhyte4753 Yeah, bud. It absolutely happened. Were you there? Your parents probably werent even born yet. Go stare at your phone.
@@Heathcoatman very witty comeback, if words of one syllable are your fetish, at least.
@@andrewwhyte4753 Did you think that was a good comeback? Sorry bro, I had no idea you were 'special'. I was raised not to pick on the 'challenged' so you have a good day little fella
@@Heathcoatman That literally makes no sense at all. You clearly lack education, or class. Probably American or something.
I had been at Woodstock and it had been such an amazing experience that I was super-eager to go to Altamont when it was announced. Some friends were not so sure. Word had gotten out about the Angels being in charge of security and pretty much everyone (except the organizers) knew this was a very bad idea. At the last minute about half our group or 8 people including myself decided not to go. None of the ones that went came back unscathed. 2 were beaten, 3 crushed to the ground in the crowd and trampled on, one suffered such severe dehydration and sunstroke he was hospitalized for over a week and the last fell off one of the speakers and broke both his legs.
Wow! Going with such optimism, returning never forgetting the nightmare.
Good times
Sunstroke in December? I think not. The sun is very low in the sky in he Bay Area that time of year. It's not warm enough for sunstroke. Dehydration maybe but that can happen any time of year.
Damn dirty hippies
WOW.... fun fun fun !!!!?
I'm honestly surprised that there weren't more fatalities - it was bound to be a disaster from the beginning
There probably was more.
Technically the death count was zero, as 4 babies were born during the event.
Other events have used the hell's angels before, it usually ended with several injuries or even death. On paper it looks like a good idea and the whole premise behind using them is hoping their reputations precedes them. but yes hippies and hells angels don't mix well.
honestly knowing this channel I was expecting a human crush
@@kd67876 That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works
My dad was there. Everything was so slapdash and shoddy. The fact that they had the Hells Angels as security is still mindbogglingly crazy as well. When Woodstock 2000 happened, Pops likened it to the travesty at Altamont, minus the biker gangs.
Also new outro music whaaaat
No one who was around for the original could believe Woodstock 2000…nothing but a corporate cash grab 👀
@@ShanKatOD Woodstock '99 (not 2000) was like the prototype for Fyre Festival, yet somehow with even worse results because 3 people died.
@@Unownshipper and so many people were raped :(
@@FixedGearFox Outro music sounds the same to me.
I was there, 18 at the time. Hindsight says our good fortune forced us to park so far away, felt like days walking in, but that put us a long way back. At some point we knew things were going very wrong up front. They implored us to move back, and thankfully we did, seemingly a rolling wave of humanity complying with an urgent command from very, very far away. Somehow we got out, and I remember being so glad I’d worn my 2nd hand raccoon coat which I was cursing earlier in the mid-morning sun.
While I disagree that this brought an end to the era of “peace, love & good vibes”, no doubt all of us left changed. I carry everything good about the 60s with me today and wish any 20-something currently self-identifying as a hippie could truly understand the ethos birthed at that very special time. What a long, strange trip.....susan madden.
Naaah … the whole ‘peace and love’ and hippie movement was little more than a bunch of dropout kids on drugs.
it was a shitshow. i was a UCSC student, hitchhiked out there with a girl friend. it's when i fell out of love with people. but it would be wrong to reject the values of the love generation. great ideas, but over optimistic about huge groups of people.
@@bassiejazz most of the "drop outs" were in vietnam or in prison for draft dodging.
@@DrFaust-pr8vw uh, no.
@@Matt-xv2cp and how old are you? You just gotta love when people who weren't even born yet will tell people who lived through it "akchtually that didn't happen."
I was there. I was 16. Seeing all the planes and helicopters flying overhead, I thought “They’ve gathered everyone together here to kill us.” Paranoia from too much sunshine, I guess. I went and got my 52 caddie and came back for the two girls I came with. People piled on my car and I was driving looking out the windshield between the legs of people sitting on the car. Elaine and her friend emerged from the crowd, and we somehow drove home over the Hayward Bridge.
PS We got to hear Santana.
I’m gonna be honest. When I saw there were only 4 deaths it caught me off guard. I really believed an event like this along with the circumstances and very poorly chosen security would have had quite a few more deaths than 4. Of course I’m glad the death toll isn’t higher. But of course it’s still tragic to see any loss of life at all during events like these to begin with.
Yes it could have been even worse very easily
Yeah like there could have been a major crush or even worse a fire.
4 dead, but a lot beaten with pool cues.
There probably would have been many more deaths if this had been in an enclosed area.
4 deaths and 5 births lol
As someone with a dislike of crowds (partly due to this channel), when the manager described the approaching concert goers as an 'invading army', I just thought.... 'Well, here it comes...'
Ugh, same. I get claustrophobic just thinking about it.
Yes! Large, uncontrolled crowds are now a very rational fear I have.
Here it comes, here it comes
Here comes your nineteenth nervous breakdown.
You have a dislike for crowds because of words? 😂😂
I’ve always think of crowds like a heard of cattle that are easily spooked.
I was there. Getting there early, I spread a blanket 50 yards from the stage. There were two experiences. The rude crazies forced their way through the crowd and packed the stage area like human sardines. Late arrivals picked their way through the crowd to force themselves near the stage. No one was in charge. Everyone was uncomfortable. The music was great, the sound pretty good for a last minute setup. I could see waves and waves of people moving, like currents in heavy surf. I did not realize I was witnessing the violence. I only learned thescope of the disaster when I got home and watched the news.
One thing you don't mention is that the Rolling Stones had used the Hells Angels as security in England. They behaved different in Britain. The backlash against the Angels changed their public image. At that time, they were respected parts of the counter culture. This was a public relations nightmare they never recovered from. Before, stories of violence were mixed with them stopping along the highway to assist motorists with car and motorcycle trouble. After, they were see as violent drunks and criminal dope fiends best avoided.
Altamont marked the end of peace and love bul*sh*t. Whatever the hippie movement was, it died that day. My generation moved on to reluctant adulthood as a result.
Or to Vietnam. Perhaps it felt like they were part of the culture to some, but they have always been a gang, they have always been junkies and/or drug dealers, they have always been violent. They didnt change, people just finally realized it.
@@Heathcoatman Their violent ways were well documented in the 50's.
I was 8 years old in 1969. Even then I didn't like hippies. Then and now, I have always thought they were stupid.
@@dsrtflwr6093 Uh. ok. You hate hippies.
@@dsrtflwr6093 You weren't wrong about that.
I was there. My girlfriend and I left once the assholes on motorcycles started racing them up and down through the crowd. That was during the long delay, and we could feel the audience growing restless. Fights started breaking out and we got the hell out of there. The ride back was a real eye opener. We got there the night before and slept in my VW bus. When we left the freeway going to the concert was completely blocked. Cars were just abandoned, and people were walking in the roadway. They had no idea it would be another 5-8 miles to get to the site. When we got to her house her folks were watching the news account and were very surprised and happy to see us. It was a nightmare that we viewed from afar. It wasn't cool at all! As far as I'm concerned, then as well as now, the Stones have blood on their hands. Screw them!!!
Jagger especially was on some sort of satanic trip at the time, and Altamont showed him who is really in charge when chaos ensues. Silly man was out of his depth and he turned his back on the darkside after that.
I was going to say "whenever I see 'Concert' in the title, I know I'm in for a dark time". Then I realised it's more that "whenever I see '* | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror' I'm in for a dark time." That said, as always, I appreciate your respectfulness and lack of sensationalism.
"Then I realized it's more that whenever I go on UA-cam I'm in for a dark time".
Soon as I saw concert auto click
On 1/1/70 Stevie Miller's band and 2 or 3 good local bands played at a free concert in the Crater in Honolulu. The US Army provided security. About 75,000 people attended. No one was hurt, AFAIK everybody had a great time. That just doesn't make a good story for Fascinating Horror, lol.
Hippies, Hell's Angels, poor planning, drugs and everyone's favorite word: FREE, all mixed together, what could go wrong? I am surprised the death toll was so low.
Poor planning and the angels....drugs and hippies..and free were givens
Don't forget the alcohol...
I mean, just Hell's Angels and lack of proper infrastructure/equipment alone caused the majority of the deaths and injuries.
The Hippie culture eschewed violence, but you couldn't tell by looking who was truly Hippie and who wasn't, and all the young people got lumped wrongfully into that category back them. The Angels didn't do too badly considering what they could have done and that on today's money that would be around $5K worth of beer. The whole thing was a cluster-F and it's really the organizers who are to blame for almost all the problems.
@@P_RO_ - Woodstock had ALL the same elements working against it, but it went off fine. Having speed freaks like the Hell's Angels was literally the lynch pin.
man, someone fell hard for Nixon's propaganda. Let me guess, you also believe in Jewish space lasers?
I’ve known about this story since I was a kid but for some reason hearing it as an adult leaves me even more astounded. I just can’t believe adults would plan something like this. Perhaps the most shocking thing is that only four people died amidst all of that chaos.
I agree! I imagined many more injuries and death. I do believe ALL that a concert involves, those organisers were beyond incompetent!
Did you see the film?
Never underestimate the stupidity of large crowds
Indeed. I've been in many large crowds, and the ONLY one I've ever seen behave completely is the 2023 Freedom Convoy in Ottawa.
Shit...even 2,000 people gathered on 4/20 yields a fight here and there!
In my opinion, the deaths at Altamont had almost nothing to do with the presence of the Angels. Herd mentality is always the real killer...
Large crowds of stupidity? In 'murica we call that 'Congress'.
@@Le_Comte_de_Monte_Felin Good on you for having a sense of humor about it! 👍
My sister, who was all about the Summer of Love, attended the show with her friends driving cross-country to see it. When she returned she was visibly shaken. She said she had never been so frightened in all her life.
so scary poor thing ! I’m glad she made it out mostly okay
They probably needed the NATIONAL GUARD watching the concert..not THUGS
Maybe she should attend a Rap concert like the one last weekend in Sacramento that left 6 dead and 12 in the hospital... Or did you not know? The media has been leaving the Rap Concert out of the story when reporting on the mass shooting like it had nothing to do with it.
@@phillipkalaveras1725 What rap concert? At least be specific
@@phillipkalaveras1725 whatchu talking about everyone jumped on Astroworld
The last sentence "An example of how, simply through poor planning, the attempt to create something unique and amazing ends up in a desaster" describes every project I'm working on.
Sorry to hear that. Stay safe at home and chill!
That line pretty much sums up most peoples lives in general including my own XD
Sorry about your problems. What do you work on?
@@bluecollie55_movies25 It's anything creative really. Such as music or video projects. At the end I do something spontaneous and it ends up in desaster, because there is no plan or structure. But at least there aren't any casualties, except for my wasted time.
@@Hypagon I have about the same problem. Only in my case I want to do cartoons and maybe some 2D animation (mostly in the form of flipbooks so far.) I'm doing them as hobbies. But so far things range from OK to half finished to not fully developed yet.
It may have been planned for seven months, but Woodstock wasn't the rainbows and flowers most think it was.
My dad went to this concert. Said it was pretty crazy. I was a kid when he told me about this. I didn't know about biker clubs then. So when I heard the hells angels, I thought somebody conjured up demons and the demons ran around stabbing folks and beating people up. Lol
That would be an interesting premise for a movie 🤨
They are demons in a way, and they were conjured up, with the promise of free beer as a sacrifice.
lol
Yeah it is quite an ironic name for a gang like that. Like a big fat guy nicknamed "tiny."
@@nthgth I want to say Sunny Barger just past away last year. I heard he was a piece of work. If he didn't give his life to Christ he's really with the hells angels now.
"With the concert only days away, work began on the construction of the infrastructure"
Oh, boy, that is not a good sentence, and yet it got so much worse.
There's another great documentary that covers this concert. It's called Gimme Shelter (after the Stones song). It was meant to be an account of that US tour, which ended up including Altamont. They caught Mr. Hunter's stabbing on film and didn't even realize it until they viewed the footage back later.
I watched that a few years ago... it's a hell of a film. :(
My dad was there as a club member. I've actually got private 8mm footage from that concert that one of my dad's "brothers" filmed. It's footage only about 30 people have seen and is probably something that belongs in a collection somewhere but I will NEVER get rid of it. It's only been seen by some club members (from 50 years ago), my mother and myself. NOBODY ELSE has seen it!! I'm sure someone here will try to piss on my opportunity to share my story. That's expected but I will respond to everyone respectfully if I'm addressed respectfully.
@@kenkaniff8428 no need to give away the film, but perhaps you could take a video of the film and post it online.
Parts of the film were used as evidence in the court case. May have been used in civil cases too, but I’m not sure about that part.
@@kenkaniff8428 Wow Ken, what an honor! I have a secret film of JFK getting shot cuz my dad shot some secret 8mm film from the grassy knoll that only 5 people have seen. I guess we're both special...
I’m glad for these videos. They teach us what not to do in future and remind us that improvements are (emphasis) being made.
Interesting fact about the Altamont concert: it inspired the lyrics to part of Verse 5 of "American Pie" by Don Maclean.
"And as I watched him on the stage/my hands were clenched in fists of rage/No angel born in Hell/could break that Satan's spell/And as the flames climbed high into the night /to light the sacrificial rite/I saw Satan laughing in delight /the day the music died. "
Great catch. Hans Utter discusses how this was actually human sacrifice with the first snuff film documentary succeeding. George Lucas shares the credit for that. The ritual symbolism on the stage was edited out of the film & the playing "Sympathy for the Devil" was swapped out with a different song.
@@dixierebelchic6423 it was a poorly planned accident, not a conspiracy.
@@captivecat5858 Hahaha! Ok the Hell's Angel Security Guard accidentally drew his knife while accidentally thrusting it forward into a man merely dancing in the crowd. I'm sure the crossroads is just a fantasy drawn up by fiction folklore in your perceptions as well.
@@dixierebelchic6423 Hunter was brandishing a gun and fighting not 'dancing in the crowd' don't be obtuse
@@rossdawgsbrokenspirit9038 ua-cam.com/video/Z_y_zeql7pc/v-deo.html this is a really good documentary off topic but about the music industry. I will be sending you another video in the future about this concert when I have the time to find it. It really opened my eyes.
My mom (who was 7 at the time) had a friend whose brother (i think she said he was 19) went with a few other people. One of his friends ended up with some lsd in his drink and was having a really bad trip, so they left shortly after the first concert started. They went to a hospital and called the tripping friend’s parents and then called his parents. They all swore they were only drinking alcohol and that their friend had to have been spiked. Makes you wonder how many people weren’t intentionally tripping and had instead been slipped something.
Uh uh of course he was spiked….
@@mattwilkinson5858 I'm just saying what my mom told me. it is entirely possible he was spiked, but it's also possible he took it intentionally and ended up with a bad trip. I tend to lean towards him genuinely being spiked since they did go to the hospital and told their parents what had happened.
Knowing the Grateful Dead were playing I'm not surprised people were spiking drinks with LSD...
@@wilkaii lol
beware the evil hippy, they are nefarious
I like that the Grateful Dead showed up, did a vibe check, and then left when it came up as "atrocious"
Even crazier that The GD were the MAIN reason that H.A. got the security gig!! They were quite friendly with the H.A in those days and recommended them.
@@kenkaniff8428 much of the GD family did not like the Angels but Garcia was for them. I know John Perry Barlow did not like the bad energy they brought backstage. It was a different time and place. The Angels were not the murderous criminal gang they eventually got known as back then. Many hippies enjoyed their company. Even Ken Kesey and Hunter Thompson hung out with them in La Honda. They all did LSD together with nary a problem
Edit***
I had bad info. I see that they were there.
Thnx guys
no they didn't. that story is complete nonsense. they weren't even there yet.
Their arrival is shown in the documentary "Gimme Shelter," they arrived via helicopter, got reports of what had been happening and saw some of the crowd, and then got right back on the helicopter and left. Clip: ua-cam.com/video/-QEo6UnI64M/v-deo.html
@@tonyfourpaws4511 my father was there doing security with H. A. (his hadle was Bucksot aka Bucky) and he never actually saw them but from what has been told they were there. I have some old 8mm footage filmed at the event from one of ny dads "brothers" which is very cool. I had it digitized several years ago to keep it safe but yes that topic has been debated for decades and as i said my father never actually saw them and he had access to everything behind the scenes. My father did say they were there tho if i remember correctly
Thank you for covering this! I always check out stuff on that particular event.
Some of the discussions in the comment section were extremely interesting!!!
Thank you !!!! I had heard snippet news bytes about this event…. it’s awesome to now learn of what took place.
There are quite a few things left out of this analysis, though in other ways it's quite good. One is that the Altamont concert was more about ego than generosity. The Stones wanted to mastermind a competitor festival to Woodstock, and release their film of it before the Woodstock film. Another important detail was that December in the Bay Area can really be quite cold, and the audience was simply freezing as the night came on and the temperature dropped. Finally, the Stones had become notorious on tour for making the audience wait for hours past the scheduled time, because the longer they waited, the bigger the reaction when they finally took the stage. But in this case, that simply made the audience angrier and the Hells Angels more desperate and violent. The whole thing was just a huge ego trip from beginning to end. The dumbest thing was hiring the Angels as security and paying them in beer. Absolutely idiotic.
The Angels were also gonna be paid with a "good show", don't forget that! 😆
But yeah, I get a feeling that trying to be better than Woodstock attracts bad luck to concerts/festivals in general.
Free beer
@@waynecameron4579 lsdddddddddd
Another aspect: the bands mentioned had previously worked with the San Francisco branch of Hell's Angels, who had less of a violent reputation and, when paid cash, had staffed multiple Grateful Dead concerts without incident. The Stones, lacking time, context, and brains, impulsively hired the notoriously violent Oakland branch instead.
This is what Billy McFarland Fyre Fest aimed to be and fell short even of that.
There was also a local group that performed-in between some of these major acts. The female lead singer was hit in the head by a full beer bottle that someone in the audience had thrown at her. It fractured her skull. Additionally, she was six months pregnant. Luckily, both mother and baby survived.
@Cassandra It happened to the Stray Cats as well back in the early 80s. Someone once threw a grenade to Aerosmith before that…
ACE OF CUPS SINGER
Hilarious.
@@rydz656 injuring a pregnant lady is not funny
Complete opposite of Woodstock!
My friend Ignacio Gutierrez lost his life there. He wasn’t a US citizen and was in the states alone so no one knew him. We met that day in the long line of cars to get in. We saw him walking alone wearing blue jean shorts, flip flops, no shirt, and a red bandana. He had a disheveled beard and was smoking Winston 100s. We asked him if he wanted to ride with us and he said yes. He ended up overdosing on a mixture of LSD, PCP, alcohol and cocaine. He brought them up with him from Mexico. Word had it that the hells angels buried his body on the grounds that next morning, other rumors say that his body was transported back to Mexico. No one really knows. I only knew him for a short time but “Iggy” was a young, fun loving soul. RIP friend.
I've never heard of this free concert. What an utter shambles! Firstly no toilets or medical centres, no professional security, terrible stage setup and the venue had only been chosen 2 days before. I mean what could go wrong? Everything!! Whoever planned this awful event should be ashamed
With how this was organized, I'm surprised there was only 4 deaths.
Were*
The concert was actually opened by the Archie’s and the Cowsill’s.
The Rolling Stone documentary on this, Gimme Shelter, is a hell of an experience. It totally transports you back in time, right in the middle of all the chaos. And it really was insane. Talk about a bummer trip...people in the crowd look shell shocked, its a warzone. So many people were having bad trips, the place was flooded with crude, home-made LSD, Speed, STP and all sorts of other "bad drugs". This one guy somehow makes it onstage, directly next to Mick Jagger, and he's so f-d up, he's rubbing himself all over while clenching/mashing his teeth. He's up there for like 2 minutes before a Hells Angel throws him in the crowd.
By the time the stones hit the stage, the place was a hot, sweaty, angry mess. The entire crowd was undulating and moving like a single organism, just thrashing around. Mick sounds panicked, he's pleading (rather urgently) "everyone just COOL OUT!". Then he tries to dance around to the music, but every time the band gets into a song they would have to stop due to a fight, or the crowd pushing. The whole thing was a sh#t show and its surprising only 4 people died.
My dad was a club member and he was at the concert. One of his "brothers" filmed some 8mm footage of the event and I still have it in my possession to this day. It's only been seen by about 30 people, my mother and myself!! It probably belongs in a collection somewhere but I will NEVER get rid of it. NEVER!!!! It's RAW AND UNFILTERED!!! ITS TRULY AMAZING FOTAGE!!! My dad can actually be seen in that footage that you are talking about in the documentary also on one occasion (if you look really really closely lol) This concert is part of my personal family history!!
It's funny you called it a "shit show" cuz in my comment I left in the thread I mention thst y father told me "it was COMPLETE bedlam and a TOTAL SHIT SHOW"!! His exact words!
"Home made LSD" is like saying "a home made Toyota" -it ain't happening.
Just setting up the lab itself is a massive financial investment that takes tons of technical experience. Not even mentioning sourcing precursors, and actual synth
Surprised this doesn't have more likes
@@fritzfxx no it’s not lol. LSD is extremely easy to synthesise. This is a known fact. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
And there’s a reason people were having bad trips. It’s because it wasn’t done properly. Because it was homemade.
Fucking obviously.
Been listening to a lot of Stones recently, and I just saw the Gimme Shelter documentary before this. It’s a solid document, even if it’s padded with a generic Stones concert for half the movie (apparently it was to fill the gap caused by Santana and CSN&Y not allowing the doc to use their footage).
The gloomiest part is when Mick Jagger makes eye contact with the audience and everybody looks so damn miserable. He’s singing “Under My Thumb”, but the situation is anything but that and they know it.
It’s easy to blame the Angels (apparently Meredith was easily disarmed before being stabbed, and then kicked when he was down) but the technical problems show this was bound. Even without his death it was a terrible show. The doc shows people comforting his gf saying he’s not dead just as they zip the bag with his body. Mick’s reaction in the end is haunting too. Along with the deaths of Tate and Hendrix, this is the end of the 60s.
Jimi Hendrix died the next year 1970
You should do a video on the 1972 Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival rock concert otherwise known as Bull Island. A crowd of nearly 300,000 converged on a farm in the Wabash River bottoms known as Bull Island to hear the likes of Amboy Dukes, Santana, the Eagles and so on. While the area was actually in Illinois due to the Wabash River changing course, the only access in was from Indiana. From all accounts, it was a true disaster as two concertgoers died across the three day event and when many of the big-name acts bailed (for their own safety) the crowd burned the stage and torched catering trucks. I lived about 20 miles from the concert site and was nine at the time.
At the last free concert I went to in New Zealand the security was provided by the Maori Wardens, middle aged Maori women. There was just one disturbance, which resulted in a dressing down and a spanking with a flip flop. No-one argues with the Wardens.
😂 As an ex-pat Kiwi, I love this!
With good reason!
There is nothing like a jandal for keeping order
There are people who'd pay for that treatment 😂
LOL! I don’t know how much of this is real.
Biker gang handling security, no toilets, no medical tent, no traffic control, improper stage location, 100,00 drunk/high patrons….what can go wrong?
I was there and got there early so I was right up front. It turned into a nightmare. The Hell’s Angels were animals. The Stones and other bands were in fear of them and couldn’t control anything.
Interesting that the picture of the Jefferson Airplane has Signe Toly Anderson in it, yet she was only in the band from 1965-66. Signe was only on their first album, Jefferson Airplane Taking Off. In 1966 Grace Slick joined the group after the departure of Anderson and brought the two songs White Rabbit, and Somebody to Love, which put them on the charts. So in 1969 Grace should have been in the picture.
Yeah.
From the second I started watching, there was a sense of dread about this event. How could the organisers put together such a huge event, cut so many corners and not expect anything less than a tragedy? Especially when the concert goers were described as an "Invading army?" The saddest thing is, no one seems to have been held accountable.
For real. It was bad from the beginning but as soon as I heard they didn't have enough toilets or a medical tent i was like "oh no"
If there's one thing I've learned from this channel, it's that the bad guys are _never_ held accountable.
@@CieraMychele - It worked at Woodstock. The real problem here was to have speed freaks like the Hell's Angels as security.
Travis Scott Concert killed more people.
I believe more folks died at Woodstock! I'm very surprised that the death toll wasn't a lot higher at this concert!
Rolling Stone Magazine: "Altamont was the product of diabolical egotism, hype, ineptitude, money manipulation, and, at base, a fundamental lack of concern for humanity."
Sums it up nicely.
How would you describe today's Rap concerts?
We had 18 people shot and 6 dead at ours last weekend...
Choose your words carefully, if you use any of the adjectives you used to describe Altamont you will be branded a bigot and a racist.
Interesting how the attitude of the Hells Angles at this concert seems to have been adopted as standard operating procedure for most US law enforcement.
Wow. As a rock fan (the Stones are among my favorites), I'm surprised at myself for knowing so little about this incident. Thanks for this.
Me too i'm also a rock fan and i like the rolling stones
Someone actually said, “Lets’s hire the Hells Angels for security. What could possibly go wrong?”
Wild.
i read a book about the Angels and it said Angels had been hired in england and were very nice .. But there was a difference of the States Angels.
@@dancingtrout6719 Were the angels entitled for this gig?
@@arricammarques1955 in south africas kruger park animal reservation there are Lions, and i refer too the as Krugers Angels..lol how cool is that .. (LIONS) (ANGELS)
@dirtbag daryal chuckle...
I go to a yearly festival that’s completely organised and policed by a biker gang (not the angels but similar) and even back when it had huge names playing there’s never been an issue. I’d say the issue was the combination of hiring people you couldn’t really hold accountable or have authority over and then plying them with alcohol at an already dodgy and poorly planned event. I find the comment about the English and US angels being different interesting though, since I’m in England - there could just be a difference in the way they’re run and the culture of bikers in the countries
A free concert? Superb, it's not like everyone in the world will show up. And we'll get Hell's Angels to do the security, because it sounds cool. What could possibly go wrong!?
I mean its not as if the Hells Angels have ever been involved in violence, drug trafficking, kidnap, murder, rapes, theft and shootings... oh... hang on wait a minute....
People, no other reason. It's people that make everything go wrong.
Not because it sounds cool; because they were cheap, had done other smaller-scale security jobs fairly successfully, and moving the event venue 3x zaps all your scant resources anyway. There was 0$ in revenue for this show, you understand? It's not the clout of a Mx gang doing security on the flyer, like Phoebe Bridges
Hells Angel's weren't the problem. People who couldn't understand that clashing with them could lead to spontaneous bleeding and death were the problem.
@@chadcuckproducer1037 That's not concert security; that's a prison gang, Mr. Cuck. The HAMC were trash humans.
Great video. Very interesting and informative. Great job❤
As a 6 year old boy I remember hearing about this event vividly.
Both my hippie parents were talking to my older siblings about the event (we were living in Santa Barbara California)
What a completely avoidable disaster.
I always knew the Hell's Angels were a punchline for bad security, but i never knew the story behind it
My dad was a patched member of the H.A (called him "Buckshot") and he was at the concert. One of his "brothers" filmed some 8mm footage of the event and I still have it in my possession to this day. It's only been seen by about 50 patched members, my mother and myself!! It probably belongs in a museum collection somewhere but I will NEVER get rid of it. NEVER!!!! It's RAW AND UNFILTERED!!! ITS TRULY AMAZING FOTAGE!!! My dad can actually be seen in that footage that you are talking about in the documentary also. This concert is part of my personal family history!!
@@kenkaniff8428 At least get it copied so everyone else can see it.
@@kenkaniff8428 you need to get this footage out there man, it's absolutely unique! This can't get lost to history
@@kenkaniff8428 if you don’t distribute the footage (which I think you should, cause it sounds cool af- and I’m all for the preservation of old media) make sure to take care of the film- film is super fragile and prone to deterioration if it’s not kept in the right environment. 💜
Also, this event happened in the window of time where a lot of unreleased news footage of national and international events were destroyed in the “National Archives Film Vault Fire of 1978”, so I’m sure any footage of this event is welcomed with open arms haha.
@@Donde_Lieta its a copy paste. This persons replying it to multiple threads. The odds of them actually possessing ghe described 8mm film is so low
I'm so glad you decided to stick with Glass Pond as your theme. It's so haunting and perfect for horrifying stories, it sets me on edge before the story even starts.
Agreed!
Meh. His original theme was more terrifying.
@@Krystalmyth what was it
@@Krystalmyth I agree! I miss that one. Sometimes I watch his old videos just to listen to it again.
The best documentary I’ve seen on Altamont. Thanks!
I've been thinking about this for a while, I think you should make a video documenting what happened at Woodstock '99 as well 👍
This story reminded me of the tragic Loveparade incident in Germany in 2010, where 21 people were killed and over 600 people were injured. Lots of footage available. Would be great if you covered it in one of your episodes. Love what you do.
I just thought about this one too. The planning really wasn’t properly thought through. So many mistakes. I was at a birthday party, camping in my best friends garden. We spent most of the evening watching the news on TV. So horrible. Her cousin had actually planned on going there with a friend. But the friend got sick so the cousin stayed home. So my best friends family was super emotional, thinking about all the what ifs, if the cousin had gone.
I just looked this up - it looks nuts. I'd love for FH to explain what the heck happened.
@@JustHereForTheTea it comes down to: never have only one emergency exit, especially if it’s a tunnel where you can’t control the masses and people can be crushed to death. But there was also miscommunication between organisers, security and police which made it even worse. The video would really good and I think it will be interesting for many people because it’s probably only Germans who know about this event
@@chgr4674 believe it or not, but since we live in the _social media age_ this is a well known event - not only for germans and it already had its effect to other festivals around the world.
@@Z0RDR4CK oh, thank you. I don’t really know much about festivals, since I don’t like camping and big masses (not only but also because of possible mass panics). I prefer to go see musicals or the opera 😊
I love the reasoning of the people attending this concert. "Tickets are too expensive, but the cost of traveling across the country is fine."
They hitchhiked.
And gasoline was about 28 cents a gallon.
Yah, plus they had nothing better to do
@@thebruckners you can’t honestly be saying that hundreds of thousands of people were able to get there from all over the country simply by hitchhiking
@@RubyBlueUwU They shared rides
For anyone curious, "New Speedway Boogie" by the Grateful Dead is a song about what happened during this concert
"One way or another,
This darkness got to give"
Can't believe I never heard of this til now, great video 👍
As a lifelong musician i appreciate you picking this event. It basically ended the festival era in the states until the 80's.
You did the most thorough job (as usual) i've seen.
Never heard of "Day on the Green" The Day on the Green gigs were legendary. They took place in Oakland Coliseum across from San Francisco and were put on by Bill Graham from 1973 - to 1992. You must have been hiding under a rock
Day On The Green # 1 & 2: Peter Frampton, Fleetwood Mac, Gary Wright, Status Quo (4/25 only), UFO (5/1 only) (April 25, 1976 / May 1, 1976)
Day On The Green #3: Boz Scaggs, Tower of Power, Santana, Jeff Beck, Journey, Nils Lofgren (June 5, 1976)
Day On The Green #4: The J. Geils Band, Jeff Beck, Blue Öyster Cult, Mahogany Rush, Sammy Hagar (June 6, 1976)
Day On The Green #5: The Beach Boys, America, Elvin Bishop, John Sebastian. (July 2, 1976)
Day On The Green #6: Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Loggins and Messina, Renaissance (August 3, 1976)
Day on the Green #7 & 8 (proper): The Who, Grateful Dead (October 9 & 10, 1976)
Day On The Green #1: The Beach Boys, Linda Ronstadt, Elvin Bishop, Dolly Parton, Norton Buffalo (May 28, 1978)
Day On The Green #2: Steve Miller, Bob Seger, Outlaws, Ronnie Montrose, Toby Beau Band (June 17, 1978)
Day On The Green #3: Aerosmith, Foreigner, Pat Travers, Van Halen, AC/DC (July 23, 1978)
Day On The Green #4: The Rolling Stones, Santana, Eddie Money, Peter Tosh, Toots and the Maytals (July 26, 1978)
Day On The Green #5: Ted Nugent, Blue Öyster Cult, Journey, AC/DC, Cheap Trick (September 2, 1978)
@@phillipkalaveras1725 - Yea... this was Bill Graham putting on the same show, on the same site, for 1 day other than one occasion. Name all the other massive multi day festivals taking place in the U.S. during the 70's. Nothing happened until the US Festival in 1983.
And NO.....i had never heard of "Day On The Green" before, and i guarantee you not many people in the Midwest have.
I was 19 in 1969, and IMO Woodstock was the worst thing to happen to the music scene. Before Woodstock, rock music was played in small intimate venues. Fillmore West was the size of a HS Gym. Winterland was a small arena. Fillmore West in NYC was like a theater. Most of the venues before Woodstock were small enough so that you felt as an audience member that you were somehow a part of what was happening on stage. The promoters had no idea that so many people would show up at Woodstock, and when they did it apparently showed the promoters what saps they were to lose money on small venues. Here in the SF Bay area, Bill Graham's "Day On The Green" productions at the outdoor Oakland Coliseum were a big turn off for me. I went to a couple and the party scene was great but you could hardly see the band and the sound was lousy. Overall, ALL the pop music concerts in the SF Bay area after Woodstock were at much larger venues, and the intimacy was gone. Those early small venues really spoiled me because afterwards there was was NO Way that I was going to go to a concert where I needed to look at a giant TV screen to see what was happening on stage. Rather than going to such HUGE Concert Venues, I thought that I was better off just spending my money on the band's CD's and listen to them at home.
@@christopherweise438 Those "Day On The Green" concerts he's talking about were AKA "The World Series of Rock!" in Cleveland,OH. Held at Cleveland Stadium in the 70's sponsored by Belkin Productions & WMMS 101-FM. In the Midwest they also had the same type of concert series you may know as "The Monsters Of Rock." Still, you're correct those were just 1 day rock concerts, not 3 or 4 day festivals, however those shows were kickazz! Good times ++++++Peace & Rock n' Roll 4 Your Soul++++++
@@216Numbskull - Interesting. I was born in '68.....so my concert going days weren't until the 80's. However, as a musician and rock history nerd i appreciate the info you gave me.
Rock on man.
The moment he said "hired the hell's angels" I was like ohhhhh it's this one, I remember seeing a documentary about this once. Completely insane, hiring a motorcycle gang to keep the peace
Was that documentary 1970's "Gimme Shelter", by chance (which actually had a few shots by a young George Lucas)?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimme_Shelter_(1970_film)
I regularly go to a festival run completely by a biker gang and it’s extremely well run and put together, but they’re not hired near last minute by people who don’t know what they’re doing and given alcohol as payment to control a ridiculously huge crowd lmao.
Especially a violent outlaw biker gang, I would be terrified too!
They had used Hell's Angels as security at their free concert in Hyde Park, but British Hell's Angels were very different from the American ones 😉
maybe the hells angels were not the best choice, BUT the guy who was killed had brought a pistol, so it wasn't all daffodils and lilacs without them...
Livermore is my home town. I was in 8th grade then, and remember this event well! The 580 freeway was a parking lot where people just left their cars! The Altamont speedway had closed for some years, but reopened in the ‘90’s IIRC. I drove by it every day going to work for 30 years on Patterson Pass Road.
Very interesting that. Thank you.
Even if things went as planned I don’t think I’d want to be in a crowd that big. RIP to those who died.
I've been to some political rallies that felt a bit overwhelming due to the sheer size. The ones I've been to have been generally orderly; not much you can do at a rally except talk to each other or listen to speeches. I can't imagine going to a music fest or concert with this many people, along with drugs, booze, angry fans, and so on.
Yea, everyone that dies just "rest in peace". 🙄
When you pay someone in alcohol to make decisions about a crowd you can't expect anything less than chaos.
Especially if it's a violent motorcycle gang.
They have been used before many times for similar situations without issues. It was mainly the poor planning and bad venue setup.
My parents were older (30ish) rock fans and I was almost 6 when this happened. My mom swore she “knew something bad was going to happen” when they had to suddenly change venues. This also happened a few miles from where I was born…
Wow there's so many things wrong with this whole thing you unpacked it very well thanks
You’d think that events like this, so long ago, would teach people to plan big events months or years in advance.
Yet it seems like every couple of years has a terrible failed convention.
And still, not as poorly planned and executed as the Fyre festival (though to be fair, that really was more of a scam than anything)
Money talks, unfortunately. Or in this case, the desire to save money wherever possible and regardless of the cost in safety or quality of event experience.
@@JCBro-yg8vd There is a convention held near me in Atlanta. It’s called Dragon Con. They used to see crowds of 30-50k people. A great size for a multiple hotel and venue convention. Great walking distances and just enough people to feel like a city of nerds. A great time.
However closer to 2018 and pre-pandemic there were upwards of 80-100k people. The convention board I supposed thought “more people more money!” But failed to raise security, failed to raise event capacity, failed to provide bigger events….
So there would be impossibly long lines, sold out events, no food, no resting areas… no hand sanitizing, no proper forms of mass communication… no ANYTHING to help with the DOUBLING of crowds.
So I completely understand what you’re getting at. Companies want to sell more tickets. At the cost of your individual experience and safety.
Just for that comment you get an extra hour in the ball pit
@@caitchri2426 I live in Atlanta and yeah DragonCon is a lot of fun but man did it really get too big for its britches
The saying: "You get what you pay for" more than applies here in every single way possible. And guys, when your woman says "I got a bad feeling about this; let's just get out of here..." Don't argue or drag your feet, pack your stuff and go!
That said, I hope Meredith Hunter rests in peace.
Vegas has free concerts all the time on Fremont. In this case I think it's more "you get what other's planned for". Free or paid, case in point this whole channel, anything is only as safe as the people planning it make it.
him climbing onto the speaker box after being asked to leave by gf wasnt smart either
@@DebTheDevastator pretty much true, but, the reason why this is true is because the average person is an idiot and cannot be trusted to not do something stupid.
Not to mention waving a gun and threatening people. Read about the criminal case. This documentary sugar coats his actions. There's a reason why a Hells Angel was acquitted. Keep in mind that, other than some foolish hippie groups like Grateful Dead, living in their own LSD fantasies, virtually no one of any age believed this violent biker gang would be a good pick for "security". And the jury at the criminal trial would have been more predisposed to condemning a Hells Angel than to acquit. Yet they did acquit.
One other factor that may have played into thus choice was that the branch of Angels in UK had a less violent reputation and were friends with the Stones. They may not have realized the huge differences with the US biker gang.
@@stephenjones101 Thank you for sparking my memory that he was brandishing a gun. I forgot about that i was told long time ago.
Really great vid.
I wasn’t around at this time, but every time I drive by Altamont I think about this.
I’ve not heard of this event until now. I love this channel for exposing me to events and stories I’ve not heard before. I love the amount of work you put into making these videos, keep up the great work!
you can see Mick pleading with the crowd on UA-cam....
You should really check out some footage of it on YT. It's CRAZY!!
@@davidburke2697 - "Cool out. Everybody just COOL OUT!!!"
It was front page of Rolling Stone magazine (which was actually a good read in 1969.) I think it was the next issue when that infamous stony-eyed picture of Charles Manson appears.
My dad was a patched member of the H.A (called him "Buckshot") and he was at the concert. One of his "brothers" filmed some 8mm footage of the event and I still have it in my possession to this day. It's only been seen by about 50 patched members, my mother and myself!! It probably belongs in a museum collection somewhere but I will NEVER get rid of it. NEVER!!!! It's RAW AND UNFILTERED!!! ITS TRULY AMAZING FOTAGE!!! This concert is part of my personal family history!!
Being from this area, this tale is still alive today. Everyone knows the story and the horrific fallout from it. It was indeed, an end of an era
Who the fucked decided to call the hells pussys?
Really? I live here and this is the first I’ve heard of this concert. I was shocked.
yes. it really was the end, figuratively and literally, of the sixties. that was the last time i dropped acid.
This is the music I love and I always say, I was born a decade too late. The bands of the time sure have some crazy stories. I’ve enjoyed reading the comments in this thread from people who were there. 👍🏼
So many festivals over the years have seen terrible results, and I’ve been to a few of them.
This happened on the exact day that my father was born. Two days later, my mother would be born. Such a strange connection to this tragic event.
My mom was pregnant with me in Southern California when Altamont happened…people talked about it my whole life growing up in the San Fernando Valley. What a tragedy. Fantastic film as always!
I’m technically a millennial and it’s hard for me to conceive how they got the word out in such short time with no Internet, social media, etc. I mean it obviously happened it just surprises me.
Most people back then listened to the radio.
Radio!
Radio, TV, flyers, billboards, phone, and not to mention talking to people you met; ask for news and updates, share what you've heard that might be of interest, and such. Owners and clerks of lifestyle businesses were usually the local go-to news hub for that lifestyle.
@@fulalbatross yeah I get that it worked that just sounds so…slow. And with that game of (almost literal) telephone and the shifting details, how did people not get the wrong venue??
@@TheZackofSpades
Fair point, especially since the concerts kept changing venues!
I've watched this like ten times. So entertaining.
I was there. We sat up on the hillside above the big crowd.
This is probably the third time I've heard about an attempt to recreate Woodstock ending in disaster. The Woodstock '99 documentary is something people who like this sort of content might want to watch.
What were..the other two times????
I was always led to believe that it was the stones' idea to hire the hell's angels, because the uk branch was a lot more peaceful when providing security for the stones' hyde park concert on july 5th of that year. of course I may be wrong or misremembering
You're spot-on.
There's a good reason the Angels wanted to take Jagger out
@@brettanthony3127 what’s that?
@@TesterAnimal1 The Angels felt they’d been made scapegoats and blamed for everything that went wrong that day. There was plenty of blame to go around
I’m from the Bay Area (born in San Mateo) and lived most of my life in Fremont, CA. I recall The Altamont Festival quite well as the City of Altamont (really a rural town back then) is just 20 minutes drive from my childhood home. It was looked upon with absolute horror by everybody. Those poor young people who lost their lives…bless their souls. ❤️
(Mick Jagger really did do his utmost to stop the violence)
City of Altamont? Closest town of any kind to Altamont Raceway is Tracy, CA.
@@Gromit801 Yeah, I made a mistake. It ain’t the first one and certainly won’t be the last. I’ll count on you to be up my ass correcting erroneous entries, mistakes, uncrossed t’s and undotted i’s. The world is a much safer place.
Thank you Chip Douglas
There is no denying that what happened there was a tragedy. However, I don't think it's trivializing the events that transpired to note that, at the very least, when taking account of the cartoonishly massive powderkeg of bad circumstances surrounding the whole thing, it's a legitimate miracle that this didn't erupt into a much greater disaster with far more innocent human lives lost.
This is one of the few disasters covered by this channel (except maybe the Tacoma Narrows Bridge or Flight 1549) where I didn't go "Oh jeez, that was just about the *absolute worst possible outcome* that could have happened." (i.e. Beverly Hills Supper Club & Cocoanut Grove fires, Gothenburg Disco Fire, Los Alfaques, Bradford Sweets Poisoning, etc., etc., etc.)
Also: That comment from the Grateful Dead is the most stoner-hippie way of saying "we didn't want to go up on stage and get stabbed with a spoke".
Shut up
They just peaced out. I don't blame them
It's kind of a miracle that things didn't go much worse than they easily could have.
@@troodon1096 Same applies to Woodstock
True It should have been far worse Surging crowds crushing hundreds It was a tribute to the times that it didn't. Impossible to imagine now. Interesting how the heated action was mostly around the stage. So that left like 290,000 actual peaceful concert goers.
A final note on Alan Passaro: He was found drowned in "suspicious circumstances" in 1985 in Anderson Reservoir south of San Jose with $10,000 in his pocket. No arrests were ever made....
Ah makes me happy to know he didn’t live much longer after stabbing a man to death
Damn, I've driven past that reservoir countless times and had never heard of that. Good bit of trivia
That's about par.
Karma's a bitch
Have you seen the video with hin knifing Meredith Hunter? It shows him trying to run while this pos is straddling his back. It is trul y chilling.
Good, concise summary of this total cluster of a concert - Hells Angels for security - what could go wrong?
Can you just imagine a concert like that in California now 2023?
How many deadly disasters all boil down to a breakneck rush to keep to a timetable?
I'm gonna argue it's at least more than half.
...And due to GREED!!
@crassgop ya I understand.... but the promoters got paid, and they'r the ones who didn't wanna pay for a better venue and better security!?
Thanks to your channel I never want to go to a concert anymore. And in a cave. And in a train. And in a plane. And in a shopping mall. And in a rollcoaster.
Actually I should stay home, but I wonder if it is safe enough ???
According to the NSC 53.6 percent of accidents occur in the home, so I think you are out of luck.
I understand completely! So many places described as 'fireproof', 'unsinkable' etc. proved to be deadly, so I call my home 'deathtrap', it has, so far, proved me wrong 🙃
And me! And I haven't slept at night since subscribing to this channel. Did I turn the gas off? What about that dodgy looking wiring in the loft? Are the foundations of my house slowly sinking? Is my roof going to collapse? Is my next door neighbour a psychotic murderer? Aaaargh.😮🤣
@@2760ade I didn't sleep well anyway, that's how I found this channel 🤪
i thought i knew this story ! wow no idea.narration is excellent thanks.
I was with my mom, brother and sister in our station wagon driving over the Altamont Pass before and after the show that weekend. We could tell something was going on that was different at the track on Friday. On Sunday, the whole place looked really trashed. We ended up overheating the engine on the way back. A CHP motorcycle officer pulled over to check on us and suggested that we take our soda bottles and fill them up with water down at the ditch to replenish the radiator. It worked.
I had surgery (nothing serious) and I literally binged your channel for almost a week straight since I could hardly get up. It helped so much to get me through the recovery. I watched every single video and am now a loyal subscriber. Honestly no idea how you don’t have millions of subs yet. I love how you tell it respectfully, detailed but not confusing, and cover so many interesting events I’ve never heard of without all extras drama. Also your voice is incredibly soothing. The nutty putty one still freaks me out. I heard that not long before the nutty putty accident there was a group of 4 who died when spelunking in a water cave right by near nutty putty. It was called the Y caves or something. Anyways love your channel and can’t wait for more vids 😁
The Nutty Putty one freaked me out too! I have watched almost all of his videos and of course they are saddening/disturbing on some level but that one really gave me nightmares!
That one haunts me to this day.
I’m going in for surgery soon too sweetie and gonna do the same thing...This is my Favorite Channel and his voice makes his videos!!! Hope you feel better soon!♥️💚❤️♥️💚❤️♥️💚❤️🌼🌼🌼🌼🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🙏🙏🙏🙏🌈🌈🌈🌈
I've watched (or listened to) almost all of Fascinating Horror's videos multiple times, but I don't have the guts to re-watch the Nutty Putty one. I think it's one of the most disturbing ones he's covered. I do love his presentation, his respect for the subject matter, the lack of speculation, and so on; his videos are stellar. I always look forward - with some trepidation - to the latest Tuesday offering.
I'm glad you have chosen to subscribe as well. Maybe we can get this guy on the board!
The Nutty Putty Cave one was one of those disasters that had me chilled up scared, too. Along with the Travis the Chimp one. :-(
"The decision to hire the Angels as security is widely regarded as one of the biggest mistakes..." No kidding!😅
And being recommended by hippies like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane,no less! That tripped me out more than anything else. If there's one thing bikers hate, it's hippies
@@henrymanzano2201
Wait, why do bikers hate hippies? Hippies are too soft from the biker's perspective?
I was there. It was nuts. I was away from the stage and didn't experience all that violence although I did see some. Hiring the "Angels" was a massive mistake. It was something I will always remember.
I was there, having been detoured to it on our our way to Sears Point the evening before, we parked our yellow van (visible in the movie immediately to the left of the stage), helped the Dead erect the speaker tower scaffolding for which we were treated with dinner and a silver platter piled with rolled joints which the State Patrolman at the end of the buffet in a tent directly behind the stage. We woke up the next morning to find the stage and our van submerged in a sea of people as far as the eye could see and waded up the ridge to the left of the stage until we found a place to sit to watch the show.
At least part of the blame can in my opinion be laid with the Sears Point owners/managers. If they hadn't tried to put the squeeze on the Rolling Stones almost halfway during the building of the venue, then the move to Altamont Raceway would never have happened and the concert would have been way better organized.
That seems to be left out or downplayed in many comments about this disaster.
Legend has it the managers diabolical laughter can still be heard echoing throughout the halls of Sears Point
It was scummy by Sears Point for sure and they were being incredibly greedy. But at that point as the Rolling Stones you need to cancel or postpone the concert and it was still well within their control to say we aren't ready, rather than romp ahead anyway risks be damned. I wouldn't say the action of Sears' management lead to any deaths, but the recklessness and shortsightedness of the concert committee definitely did. After all they only gave themselves a couple of weeks to prepare to begin with.
So if The Rolling Stones came to your house and offered you five bucks to bring over more than a hundred thousand people into your backyard for a free concert where kids would drink, shoot up and pee all over your yard, you wouldn’t ask for more money in return? Nice to know this is how you value yourself.
I think Sears Point were being very smart. And there's no way highway 37 and the other nearby roads could have handled the traffic.
Weird story: in 1991 I was driving from Napa to Vallejo at night in a horrible rain and wind storm. When I came to a stop at the intersection of highway 37, breathing a sigh of relief, suddenly all the lights went out in a rapid chain from the direction of Sears Point. I believe that's when Bill Graham's helicopter crashed a few miles away.
One thing you failed to mention - Meredith Hunter was high on methamphetamine, "so high he could barely walk" according to his girlfriend.
I attended the Van Halen Monsters of Rock concert in Spokane, WA at Joe Albi Stadium in 1988, and with five bands in one day, there was nothing at all like the uncontrolled melee at this schlock concert event, hehe!! Just a bunch of heavy metal fans enjoying a great concert!
That wasnt Van Halen, it was Van Hagar.👎👎👎
Yeah, nothing happened at Clash of the Titans in 91 either except we almost got arrested on the way up there in my primered 71 Monte Carlo
Nice Job, I never knew this took place.