99.1 PLR celebrates 50 years! This week we are celebrating another great year in our history: 1989!
That year we saw the biggest rock band in the world play a surprise warm-up show at Toad’s Place. It was eight years since the Rolling Stones last played a live show in the United States, so before they embarked on their massive Steel Wheels World Tour, they shook off the rust and performed an 11-song set at New Haven’s legendary night club.
This show was a secret. Even the co-owners of Toad’s, Brian Phelps and the late Mike Spoerndle, didn’t even know about the Stones coming until the day before. Originally billed as the “Saturday Night Dance Party,” it was also promoted as a party for Jimmy Koplik’s birthday.
Only a few hundred people were inside Toad’s Place when the Stones hit the tiny stage at Toad’s, but the way people talk about the show today, you’d think a few thousand were there! Once word started to leak that the Stones were at Toad’s, the club’s bouncers locked the doors and duct tape the pay phones. Among the lucky ones in the crowd were PLR’s Mike Lapitino, The Wigmaster, Marcia Simon and the late, great Sam T. Mike got to hang out backstage after the show and he watched in awe as the band left the stage and headed back to their dressing room.
Today we look back at the night The Stones played Toad’s….
The Rolling Stones
Tour: Steel Wheels
Also featuring: Sons of Bob
Saturday August 12, 1989
Toad’s Place – New Haven, Connecticut
Ticket Price: $3
Band Lineup: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts
Setlist*
- Start Me Up
- Bitch (first live performance since 1973)
- Tumbling Dice
- Sad Sad Sad (live debut)
- Miss You
- Little Red Rooster (Willie Dixon cover)
- Honky Tonk Women
- Mixed Emotions (live debut)
- It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (but I Like It) (first live performance since 1977)
- Brown Sugar
- Jumpin’ Jack Flash
*source: setlist.fm
Check out these audio clips of The Rolling Stones at Toad’s