A Surprise From The Rolling Stones, 1981

On September 14, 1981, The Rolling Stones played a surprise gig at Sir Morgan’s Cove in Worcester, Massachusetts. At the time, the Cove had a reputation as a dive bar, but the venue became legendary after the Stones’ appearance. Holed up in their practice space at Long View Farm Studios in North Brookfield rehearsing for an upcoming world tour, the band was dying to play live and the dark and dank Sir Morgan’s fit the bill.

Worcester-based WAAF distributed a handful of free tickets and the management at rival rock station WBCN, “The Rock of Boston,” was so pissed off that a Worcester radio station and Worcester venue landed the “World’s Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band” that they did everything in their power to screw up the show, like broadcasting all the facts of the upcoming performance and telling everyone to show was at a place that officially held only 235 people. Despite ‘BCN’s efforts to lower attendance, an estimated 4,000 people lined Green Street outside Sir Morgan’s on the night of the gig.

The owner of Sir Morgan’s Cove’s parents went to high school with my parents in Newark, New Jersey, and club emperor Neal Newman and I used to laugh about that in the ‘80s when my business partner Mickey O’Halloran was running the Cove. Once, on a weekday, Mickey had an emergency when the scheduled band cancelled their show at the blue-collar bar because of a nasty nor’easter and, on about an hour’s notice, Grammy winner Tom Hambridge and I put together a three-piece band and played to about a dozen regulars who weren’t about to let bad weather interfere with their buzz.

T.H. has long been the producer and drummer for blues great Buddy Guy and has been honored with many top music-industry awards. During our own appearance together at the Cove, we laughed that “if the Stones could play a surprise gig, then Blind Lemon Pledge and some seeing eye dogs could, too.” To this day, I ask T.H. if our Cove gig is at the top of his impressive resume or not.

(by A.J. Wachtel)