The Altamont Hotel Having stayed at fancy (and not so fancy) hotels all over the world, I was walking through the red-light district of Sydney Australia when the name of an Hotel caught my eye. It was called the Hotel Altamont ! For the uninitiated amongst us, Altamont was the site of a disastrous concert held on the West Coast of America on December 6th 1969. The concert featured, Santana, The Grateful Dead, The Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills and Nash, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and last but not least, The Rolling Stones. Yes, THAT one, the one where four people were killed hundreds went to hospital and needed medical attention, and where several thousand people experienced bad acid trips. THAT one! Well who would name a hotel after something so dreadful? I simply HAD to investigate. I entered the lobby of what is called a “boutique hotel” and very nice it looked too. A pleasant man was seated at a trendy table which served as the reception area and I explained my business. I was, I explained, formerly the Tour Manager of the Rolling Stones and had been present on that terrible day long ago in California when the band had played at Altamont. I had been blamed in large part for the dreadful events of that concert - albeit unfairly. Now I was in Australia and here was a hotel with the same name, how on earth did that come about? Alan, sitting behind the table, told me an interesting story. Long before the hotel had been named the Hotel Altamont (apparently) there had been a club in the basement of the building called “The Cauldron”. The Rolling Stones on an Australian tour had used the club for a “meet and greet” with the local press and promotions people. They had even stayed in one of the rooms and used it as a refuge to hang out in whilst waiting to go downstairs to the club and meet everyone. Alan asked if I’d like to see the room in which they stayed and I was shown room three. A pleasant enough room with  high windows that looked out over a leafy street. I took a photo of it with my mobile phone. When the current owners of the hotel had first purchased the place they wanted a name for it, and because of the Rolling Stones association with the building they’d hit upon the idea of calling the place The Hotel Altamont. I was bemused by their decision (to say the least!) and gave the man a copy of my book so that he might be able to read what a terrible time was had by one and all ! I even explained that the concert was THE most famous “rock and roll bummer” of all time, but this didn’t seem to faze him. Hotel Altamont it was and that was that! I walked out to the street and marveled at the ways of the world. A band plays a concert in California that was an unmitigated disaster, and people in Australia (who love the band) decide to name the hotel after that particular concert! The man who writes a book about the concert and its aftermath sees the strangely named hotel and goes in to ask how it got named! He gives one of the owners a copy of his book describing the concert. The fortieth anniversary of the concert is fast approaching - maybe I should organise a reception on the hotel’s lovely roof-top terrace ? The ‘circularity’ of it all ! How bizarre ! And then I remembered that there were plenty of pubs in the world named Sweeny Todd’s after the barber who had cut his clients throats and turned them into pies which he then sold to people. I mean, would you eat a pie in a pub called Sweeny Todd’s - I certainly would not. Life is (sometimes) stranger than fiction. If one had written the above as part of a novel who would have believed it possible that a hotel be named after a disaster ? I mean, who names their boat “The Titanic” ? But then (of course) famous as the Rolling Stones undoubtedly ARE, how many people actual know or remember the name of their most infamous show ? Very few I’d venture to guess ! And so the hotel lives on and the name of a grungy car race-track in Northern California where several people died is immortalised in Sydney Australia. In a few months time the press all over the world will be full of stories about “the end of the sixties” and how “the Rolling Stones concert was the end of the peace and love era”. Meanwhile, here’s a hotel named after that awful event ! It truly is a funny old world. You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried ! © Sam Cutler 2009

The Altamont Hotel

Having stayed at fancy (and not so fancy) hotels all over the world, I was walking through the red-light district of Sydney Australia when the name of an Hotel caught my eye. It was called the Hotel Altamont ! For the uninitiated amongst us, Altamont was the site of a disastrous concert held on the West Coast of America on December 6th 1969. The concert featured, Santana, The Grateful Dead, The Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills and Nash, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and last but not least, The Rolling Stones. Yes, THAT one, the one where four people were killed hundreds went to hospital and needed medical attention, and where several thousand people experienced bad acid trips. THAT one! Well who would name a hotel after something so dreadful? I simply HAD to investigate.

I entered the lobby of what is called a “boutique hotel” and very nice it looked too. A pleasant man was seated at a trendy table which served as the reception area and I explained my business. I was, I explained, formerly the Tour Manager of the Rolling Stones and had been present on that terrible day long ago in California when the band had played at Altamont. I had been blamed in large part for the dreadful events
of that concert - albeit unfairly. Now I was in Australia and here was a hotel with the same name, how on earth did that come about? Alan, sitting behind the table, told me an interesting story.

Long before the hotel had been named the Hotel Altamont (apparently) there had been a club in the basement of the building called “The Cauldron”. The Rolling Stones on an Australian tour had used the club for a “meet and greet” with the local press and promotions people. They had even stayed in one of the rooms and used it as a refuge to hang out in whilst waiting to go downstairs to the club and meet everyone.
Alan asked if I’d like to see the room in which they stayed and I was shown room three. A pleasant enough room with  high windows that looked out over a leafy street. I took a photo of it with my mobile phone.

When the current owners of the hotel had first purchased the place they wanted a name for it, and because of the Rolling Stones association with the building they’d hit upon the idea of calling the place The Hotel Altamont. I was bemused by their decision (to say the least!) and gave the man a copy of my book so that he might be able to read what a terrible time was had by one and all ! I even explained that the concert was THE most famous “rock and roll bummer” of all time, but this didn’t seem to faze him. Hotel Altamont it was and that was that!

I walked out to the street and marveled at the ways of the world. A band plays a concert in California that was an unmitigated disaster, and people in Australia (who love the band) decide to name the hotel after that particular concert! The man who writes a book about the concert and its aftermath sees the strangely named hotel and goes in to ask how it got named! He gives one of the owners a copy of his book describing the concert. The fortieth anniversary of the concert is fast approaching - maybe I should organise a reception on the hotel’s lovely roof-top terrace ? The ‘circularity’ of it all ! How bizarre ! And then I remembered that there were plenty of pubs in the world named Sweeny Todd’s after the barber who had cut his clients throats and turned them into pies which he then sold to people. I mean, would you eat a pie in a pub called Sweeny Todd’s - I certainly would not.

Life is (sometimes) stranger than fiction. If one had written the above as part of a novel who would have believed it possible that a hotel be named after a disaster ? I mean, who names their boat “The Titanic” ? But then (of course) famous as the Rolling Stones undoubtedly ARE, how many people actual know or remember the name of their most infamous show ? Very few I’d venture to guess ! And so the hotel lives on and the name of a grungy car race-track in Northern California where several people died is immortalised in Sydney Australia. In a few months time the press all over the world will be full of stories about “the end of the sixties” and how “the Rolling Stones concert was the end of the peace and love era”.
Meanwhile, here’s a hotel named after that awful event ! It truly is a funny old world. You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried !

© Sam Cutler 2009

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