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Review / The Rolling Stones: From The Vault Marquee Club 1971

By Paul Sinclair

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We have ‘American TV’ to thank for the fact that the unofficial last date of The Rolling Stones‘ 1971 UK tour was filmed (on Friday 26 March), with this set at The Marquee Club performed in front of an ‘elite’ audience of just 150 people, said to include Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page.

This footage would basically act as a promotional film for Sticky Fingers which was due for release a few weeks later – by which point the band would be heading to the South of France as tax exiles (the reason the ’71 UK tour happened before the release of the new album).

Eagle Rock last week released this film as The Marquee Club Live in 1971 – volume three of their Rolling Stones ‘From The Vault’ series – and it has been made available on a multitude of formats including DVD, Blu-ray, CD+DVD combo, and LP+DVD combo> In the US there is even a CD+Blu-ray version and Japan get another version again with an edition that also bundles a 2CD set .

It has to be said that the picture on the blu-ray may be ‘upscaled’ HD on an ‘SD’ blu-ray but it looks incredible. Someone has done a fantastic job restoring or cleaning up the footage. Mick is gleaming; all sweat and glitter looking every bit the rock god.

The band look confident and relaxed with Jagger and stubble-faced Richards sharing a mic on Dead Flowers and Mick Taylor casually producing some virtuoso guitar licks at will (picked up nicely by the director).

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DVD+LP edition in gatefold packaging

After I Got The Blues (a song the band wouldn’t play live again for 28 years) the horn section of Jim Price and Bobby Keys come in for a lively rendition of Chuck Berry’s Let It Rock with Richards guitar chops in the spotlight this time around. A live version of this track recorded in Leeds was featured on the flipside of Brown Sugar which was issued about three weeks after this gig was filmed.

A nine-minute Midnight Rambler is spine-chillingly good and the inevitable Satisfaction sounds surprisingly laid back and loose. The set closes with two tracks from the as yet unreleased Sticky Fingers – Bitch and Brown Sugar. It’s invigorating to hear the latter when its not an ‘oldie’!

38 minutes and it’s all over, although bonus features include a pink-suited Jagger with the band on Top of the Pops miming to Brown Sugar and a peak behind the scenes of the production process as cameras, band and technicians get set up for alternative versions of Bitch and I Got the Blues.

The brevity only strengthens the conviction that this should really have been included in the Sticky Fingers super deluxe edition box – not to do so just smacks of greed. Disappointing though this decision was, everyone involved is mostly forgiven because this release is so good and great value with it.

The packaging is very attractive, the booklet with great photos and a short essay by Richard Havers informative, and there are more than enough buying options to please everyone. The audio is well recorded (on the same mobile studio they took to France to record Exile On Main Street) so SDE would recommend one of the combo sets – either CD+DVD or LP+DVD – especially at the price. The vinyl and DVD set is less than £12! Speaking of the audio, the 5.1 is very satisfying from the front three speakers although there isn’t a whole lot coming from the rear channels.

From The Vault: The Marquee Club Live in 1971 is out now.

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CD+DVD

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LP+DVD

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Standalone SD Blu-ray

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Standalone DVD

 

Track listing

  • • Live With Me
  • • Dead Flowers
  • • I Got The Blues
  • • Let It Rock
  • • Midnight Rambler
  • • (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
  • • Bitch
  • • Brown Sugar

BONUS TRACKS:

  • • I Got The Blues – Take 1
  • • I Got The Blues – Take 2
  • • Bitch – Take 1
  • • Bitch – take 2
  • • Brown Sugar (Top Of The Pops, 1971)

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17 Comments

17 thoughts on “Review / The Rolling Stones: From The Vault Marquee Club 1971”

  1. Pingback: The Rolling Stones / From the Vault: Live at the Tokyo Dome 1990 | superdeluxeedition

  2. The Japanese release contains the 2CD Brussels Affair. Wonder if that one will be released elsewhere on its own [more gauging by someone?].
    Price tag for the BR/CD [CD excludes TOTP] hits about $25 which is very pricey. At least they tossed in about 40 minutes of extras. But no documentary or anything else at the time excluding what was given.
    Unsure why the Hyde Park release would be 2 DVDs when it easily fits on a single DVD unless they were thinking of combining both Hyde Park shows. That would be a waste.

  4. Paul, curious you are of the position this should’ve been integrated to the Sticky Fingers SDE instead of being offered separately, given how the exact opposite sentiment is so often expressed against overbundling and not making things available separately for the consumer to have the power of choice in these matters. Personally, really thought it was the right move to put The Marquee out on its own in this regard even though there’s a similar alignment of audiences. If these 2 releases hadn’t been timed so closely, would never be having this conversation.

    Agree, that teaser disc in the Sticky Fingers box was dubious. They could have just uploaded/shared a couple clips to achieve the same advance promotional effect without coming off as tacky in the process…

    1. Well the SDE already had three CDs and a DVD. It’s just that the DVD was crap, because it had two tracks (a ‘preview’) from the Marquee show. My suggestion was simply to have ditched the preview idea and included the whole thing. It still could have come out separately. I agree with what you said at the end, better to have not included the DVD AT ALL than to do what they did…

  5. The 1969 Hyde Park show was scheduled for a deluxe 2 x DVD release on an Aussie website early this year. The release date came and went so I contacted the distributors who replied that it had been postponed with no further info forthcoming. I assumed it might have been a territorial/rights issue as there have always been a couple of single disc inferior/un-remastered versions around here. Who knows?

  7. That would be a shame. The Hyde Park 1969 show has historical value, but they’re rusty and out of tune through much of it.

    Vinyl and CDs of the Ladies and Gentlemen soundtrack would correct a major omission.

      1. That deluxe version is over double what the regular version is here. If you want the Hyde Park ’69 it’ll be cheaper to buy the regular DVD of Sweet Summer Sun and then the new Hyde Park ’69 DVD.

  8. The chat on the Steve Hoffman forums is that Hyde Park will be up next. If this is the case, it will be interesting to see if we get any more footage of the gig than is in the Granada TV documentary that’s available just now.

  9. I’ve only listened to the CD so far but it is an improvement over the sound on my old bootleg Marquee DVD. Any clues as to future From the Vaults release?

  11. Correction: Let It Rock was the opener throughout the 1978 Some Girls tour and was also in the setlist for the April 1979 benefit shows that they did as part of Keef’s sentence for his 1977 Toronto drug bust. I’m not aware of them ever playing it on the No Security tour. Maybe you’re confusing it with Route 66, which they typically played on the b-stage on the No Security tour.

  12. Wholeheartedly agree with this review. I couldn’t believe how clean the footage looked. The 5.1 mix is a bonus but those without a system to play it are not missing out on much. I bought the DVD/CD combo, mainly because I want to be able to listen to the album in my car. Not sure why the Blu-ray couldn’t have included the CD. My only disappointment with all of the SF-related product this year is that we didn’t get performances of Wild Horses and Can’t You Hear Me Knocking. Apparently they were played but perhaps not recorded professionally.

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