The Rolling Stones Tour Of The Americas '75

So, this past Christmas, I decided that my favourite gift would be the gift I bought for myself: the Genesis Publications book by Christopher Simon Sykes (£395 - which is US $650 - plus shipping/handling) entitled The Rolling Stones Tour Of The Americas '75. 600 photographs, many never before seen, were compiled for this 2005 masterpiece, one of only 2150 ever published.  This was my second Genesis Publications buy (the other being Michael Cooper's Stones/Beatles/rock n' roll book called Blinds & Shutters), and I was again pleased.  I knew that at least two photos of Anita Pallenberg (a rare siting after 1973) were in the book, as my good friend Jayme, who runs and created the greatest ever Anita Pallenberg photo website (http://anitapallenberg.multiply.com) only has two 1975 Anita pics from the book on said site, and she pretty much has every Anita photo available. I was hoping, however, that there may have been another Anita pic - hidden somewhere, perhaps, and never considered big enough to scan - but alas, I was semi-crestfallen and indeed only two pictures of her exist in this book, and the third my own find from Rock Scene magazine. I have only scanned a fraction of the photographs from TOTA '75, so expect other installments. The Stones' 1975 tour of America (and despite the book and tour's title, there really WAS only one America toured - their plans to perform in South America never materialized) was epic indeed, and Sykes not only capitured it all, but saved invaluable diary entries, notes, and other memorabilia. Enjoy!

All photos scanned by me.

The Rolling Stones Tour Of The Americas - 1975

The press conference:

Keith and that ubiquitous scarf:

Bianca makes the white house. With Jack Ford:

Mick celebrates his 32nd birthday:

Patti Boyd:

Anita and Keith:

Giant phalluses and elephant security. The Rolling Stones' 1975 tour, called "Tour Of The Americas" (TOTA) was the most epic tour of its kind to date.  It started off with a bang - a "press conference" where the boys played "Brown Sugar" on a flatbed truck rolling through 5th avenue, shocking journalists and the public.  The tour began on June 3 in Texas and culminated on August 8 in Buffalo (despite its name, North America - US and Canada - were the only countries the Stones' played because of security concerns in South America).  Christopher Simmon Sykes and Annie Leibovitz took many photos of the tour, featured in the great book "The Rolling Stones On Tour" (hard to find, but I got a beat-up copy on Amazon last year) and Genesis Publications' epic "Tour Of The Americas '75", which like all of their books, is outrageously expensive (well, maybe not outrageous, but I certainly haven't saved the £350 needed to purchase it).  This tour was the first with Ronnie Wood on guitar for Mick Taylor, who had quit the band, and the camraderie between the Stones (especially Woodie and Keith) was tangible due to his presence.  Bianca and Anita were surprisingly along for (some of) the ride, as well as German stunner Uschi Obermaier (most likely not when Miss B and Angie were around), who was seeing Keith and Mick at the time. Sadly I don't have any scans of Uschi, although I'm sure most of you have seen the pics. 

All photos = my scans.