Stateside Stories

On the 9th December 1969, a concert was held in the Altamont race track in California. It was a free concert, an idea conjured up by the Rolling Stones who received complaints about the high ticket prices of their latest tour. Many of the biggest 1960’s bands were set to perform there, including the likes of Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Santana. However, what was supposed to be a day of happiness and celebration quickly turned into a day of disaster. A series of bad decisions and lapses of judgment would lead to 4 deaths and the end of the 1960’s as people knew it.

Altamont was not the first choice of location for this concert. The concert was originally supposed to take place in the Golden Gate Park of San Fransisco. When that fell through, it was then meant to be held Sears raceway, but that also didn’t work out. Finally, Altamont was chosen. By that time, there were only a few days left to prepare. As concertgoers began to fill the raceway, there were still not adequate toilet facilities, and the lighting rigs were not properly installed. The worst decision that was made concerned security. Rather than paying for proper security who would keep everyone safe, the organisers decided to opt for the Hell’s Angels instead. All they needed was beer and a good concert to watch. This decision would come back to bite everyone involved.

The atmosphere was tense throughout the concert. Many of the concertgoers were taking drugs, and this made them very agitated. The medical tents were full of people who were suffering from bad trips and drug-induced psychosis. Overcrowding was also a massive problem, as people were fighting to try and get the best view of the bands performing. The Hell’s Angels’ solution to the fighting in the audience was to beat people with pool cues. When Jefferson Airplane singer Marty Balin tried to intervene with the brawls in the crowd, he was knocked unconscious by a member of the Hell’s Angels. It was during these scuffles that a member of the audience was killed. 18-year-old Meredith Hunter had attended the concert with his girlfriend. He was a huge fan of the Rolling Stones, and climbed on the poorly fitted sound system to get a better view of the band performing. He was quickly dragged down by the Hell’s Angels who proceeded to beat him. Hunter then pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket, which caused a 21-year-old Hell’s Angel called Alan Passaro to stab Hunter multiple times. Hunter was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Rolling Stones were unaware that somebody had died during their set. They had to deal with a lot of frustration from the crowd. The Grateful Dead, who were supposed to perform before them, dropped out at the last second. This meant that there were 2 hours when nobody was performing. This meant that anger had reached breaking point. Mick Jagger frequently asked the crowd to calm down and stopped singing on several occasions, which only made the crowd angrier. An audience member even punched him in the face and told him he hated him. The Rolling Stones were the final group to perform that night, and they left very quickly afterwards. The concert was being filmed, and Mick Jagger was later shown the footage of Meredith Hunter’s death, which horrified him.

Hunter was not the only person to lose his life that night. One audience member drowned in an irrigation ditch after taking LSD, and two people were killed in a hit and run in the car park. Many cars were abandoned, and the mess left behind from the concert took ages to clean up. The Altamont raceway was banned from hosting any more concerts, the lack of organisation being seen as the main factor for the disaster. Alan Passaro was charged with first-degree murder. He bought to trial in 1971, but was acquitted by the jury as it was ruled that he had acted in self-defence. The Altamont Free Concern was seen as the final nail in the coffin for the peace and love of the 1960’s. The nation was already on edge following the Manson murders, and this concert only confirmed fears that America was in a dark place. Altamont would not be the last concert in America to end in disaster, but it is one of the most notorious.