The time the Rolling Stones played the El Mocambo

On March 4 and 5, 1977, one of the biggest rock bands of all time played shows for 300 people in Toronto.

ElMocamboTavern — (via Wikimedia Commons)

It’s perhaps the most legendary concert series in Toronto history, partly because few can believe it ever happened.

At the time of the shows in question, the Rolling Stones hadn’t performed live in over six months.

The last time they had — Aug. 21, 1976 — they played England’s Knebworth Park for a reported 150,000 to 200,000 fans. But at Toronto’s El Mocambo on March 4 and 5, 1977, they performed for about 300 each night.

So what happened? And how did these infamous shows happen in the first place?

What brought the Rolling Stones to the El Mo?

As spelled out by Dave Bidini in a 2015 story for the National Post, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and his manager Peter Rudge knew long before the eventual show that they wanted to record part of their upcoming live album at a smaller club. But they didn’t know how to pull it off.

Luckily, they received a business card from CHUM FM’s Duff Roman, who helped them hatch a plan.

To ensure fans in the venue without a frenzy out on the street, a CHUM radio contest was launched asking listeners what they would do for a chance to see the Rolling Stones. The prize? Tickets to see Canadian rockers April Wine and a band called “The Cockroaches” at the El Mocambo.

The El Mocambo marquee advertising a Rolling Stones tribute concert — The El Mocambo marquee promotes a Rolling Stones tribute concert in March 2022. (Craig Battle)

As the Stones had used the “Cockroaches” moniker as far back as 1973, this was an easter egg for superfans who would have already known the band was in town due to Keith Richards’s high-profile drug bust at the Harbour Castle Hilton. Nevertheless, the contest was successful in keeping the show sufficiently under wraps, and both nights went off without a hitch.

Famously, one of the non-radio-contest attendees was Margaret Trudeau, who had been invited by Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. Another was Jerry Stone, a fan and friend of the band who years later opened a Queen St. bar called Stones Place that doubled as a kind of museum. (Sadly, Stones Place closed for good in 2020 after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.)

What happened to the recordings?

Four of the songs from the El Mocambo shows ended up on the Stones’ 1977 album Love You Live, including a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around.” (Two more on the album came from a 1975 show at Maple Leaf Gardens.)

“Around and Around” is the only El Mocambo track on the album to remain untouched by overdubbing.

The rest of the music recorded at those shows had been under wraps for years, but the bulk of it got released as a two-CD, four-LP album in May 2022 — finally giving fans a full window into the storied event.

A place to be since 1948

The El Mocambo had been in business for nearly 30 years by the time the Rolling Stones made their fateful appearance there. The venue opened in 1948, putting on shows of all kinds before hitting a rock-centric groove under new ownership in the 1970s.

When Jagger was asked why they picked the El Mo for the secret Toronto shows, he said, “Well, I just happened to go there one night.”

The night after the Stones’ second show, Elvis Costello recorded a live album of his own there. After that, the venue welcomed a huge number of other major acts, from Blondie and the Ramones to Bon Jovi and U2.

The club shut down briefly in 2001 and then again in 2014, its doors staying closed for years as a new ownership group made major renovations. It was set to fully reopen in March 2020, but then ... you know.

A handful of concerts featuring the likes of Gordon Lightfoot, 54-40, and Big Wreck were put on before the end of 2020, and a grand reopening was finally held in October 2021.

Today, there’s a full concert and events calendar — featuring new bands, tribute acts, and comedy — and just enough empty dates to slide in a surprise or two we could still be talking about in five decades.

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