The Rolling Stones at Pembroke Castle: The Legendary Concert That Almost Happened

In the Summer of 1973, Pembrokeshire people went about their business very much in the way they always had. The ‘Pembrokeshire Promise’ was as near as one could get to certainty and ‘change’ was something one needed to fuel the cigarette machine. According to Deke Leonard, rock music author and member of the Man band, “Pembrokeshire was the land that time forgot.”

But the times they were a-changin’, the generation gap was becoming as wide and seemingly unbridgeable as the Cleddau itself, and an announcement that the Rolling Stones were to perform in Pembroke Castle exploded in the community like a powder keg strong enough to have blown the Cleddau King clean out of those calm waters.

Pembroke became a community divided between those who couldn’t even contemplate those decadent advocates of ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll’ performing in their beloved castle and those who believed the show would bring excitement and an indiscrete notion of cool into their lives.

Today it is hard to imagine the strength of feeling and passion displayed by both sides, a time when rock and pop music has lost its power to shock, a time when if Sir Mick Jagger was to visit Pembroke he would probably be feted by the bechained and awarded the keys to the castle.

Nevertheless, the show looked like going ahead, promoted by a Welsh consortium that included actor Stanley Baker and music entrepreneur John Long (of the Milford Haven furniture emporium). Tickets were printed. Adverts taken out in the music press. Support acts announced – which included Deke Leonard’s Man and the London Welsh Male Voice Choir. And posters printed – which featured the Rolling Stones’ provocative and lascivious tongue logo protruding from a dragon roaring beneath a fairy tale castle.

However, all this was rather premature, the Rolling Stones and their agents had not taken into account the wrath of the mighty Pembroke Borough Council which, like some omnipotent Roman emperor, had to give the show the thumbs up or the thumbs down. Debate was fierce. It took place in the press, on the streets, and in the council chamber.

Rumour had it that Mick Jagger himself visited the town to check out the venue. Then the great man spoke.

Yes, Alderman Ernie Morgan was reported in the press as commenting that “to have 10,000 people in there, the castle will not have seen anything like it since Oliver Cromwell forced its surrender. Talk about the Rolling Stones, there would be stones flying everywhere”. Alderman JR Williams chipped in to add “Henry VII would be turning in his grave”

Thus was born the legend that a load of old fogeys, “none of whom were under 40” wrote journalist Vernon Scott, were responsible for banning the event because of their fear of this new fangled ‘rock n’ roll’.

As Vernon Scott also wrote at the time of the special council meeting called to approve or disprove the event, “…many youngsters waited outside the town hall for the decision. When it came there were cries of disbelief and one young man shook his fist and shouted 'You bloody old fools' before the waiting crowd burst into their own rather naughty rendition of ‘We Can't Get No Satisfaction’”.

The truth was rather more prosaic and is hinted at in the comment of Ernie Morgan. 10,000 people would never have fitted into Pembroke Castle safely where the only access and egress is through an 8’ 10” wide gateway. That’s the principal reason why permission was refused. Ironic that the so-called backward burghers of Pembroke appear to have been at the cutting edge of the Health & Safety revolution that can be said to blight many aspects of 21st century life.

Indeed, Pembroke Castle had previously hosted music events – Julie Felix and Hot Chocolate had both appeared there earlier in the decade. Maybe because one of the two scheduled days on which the Stones were due to appear was a Sunday might have had something to do with it. The Western Telegraph’s Teen Topics column suggested a more sober view could have been taken and fewer patrons catered for before concluding “the dice was heavily loaded against the Stones right from the start.”

Copyright: BB Skone (from @Pembrokeshire Music Past page).