Like the title character in Woody Allen’s film Zelig, Chip Monck seems have been at every important musical event of the 60s and 70s. In the early 60s he shared his typewriter with Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village giving the young songwriter a space to write some of his most iconic songs. Monck was at the ‘65 Newport Folk Festival when Dylan went electric; he handled lighting and staging at the Monterey Pop Festival in ’67, Woodstock in ’69 and most of the Rolling Stones tours of the ‘70s. He’s best known for his stage announcements during Woodstock.
With the release of the DVD version of Ladies And Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones, the feature-length film of the band’s 1972 tour, Chip Monck has been doing a bit of press to help DVD sales. I spoke to him late last year from his home in Australia.
He’s not one to answer a question directly and he tends to go off on some unexpected tangents. But he is a character and worth a listen:
Big Daddy Wilson
Kaiser Chiefs
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls
