Rolling Stones: the first-ever live “Sympathy For The Devil” at the Rock and Roll Circus

In December 1968 the Rolling Stones set out to promote their new album “Beggars Banquet” with an unusual TV special: “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus”, a blend of rock concert and big top complete with acrobats and fire-eaters. Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, it was shot at Intertel Studios in Wembley near London – filming began on 11 December and ran into the following morning. ABKCO’s official video shows the very first live performance of “Sympathy For The Devil”, just six days after the album came out. Mick Jagger dances, writhes and tears off his shirt to reveal painted-on devil tattoos.

On stage were Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts – the last time this original line-up performed together. Jones did not play guitar on this song but maracas, as part of a three-man percussion section. Because the schedule kept slipping, the Stones were the last act on; Lindsay-Hogg recalls it being “five-thirty in the morning”. Keith Richards later called it “an incredible shoot” lasting “36 hours or something”. A detail for sharp-eyed viewers: around the 4:50 mark, John Lennon briefly appears on screen.

Besides the Stones, the Circus featured The Who, Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal and Marianne Faithfull, plus the one-off supergroup The Dirty Mac with John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell. Even so, the film disappeared into the vaults – partly because the Stones were unhappy with their own performance. Brian Jones was dismissed from the band in June 1969 and died on 3 July 1969. The film only premiered at the New York Film Festival in 1996; a 4K restoration followed in 2018, and ABKCO put this clip online for the first time in late October 2020.