The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus

This record, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, captures a one-off event the Rolling Stones staged on 11 December 1968. Two concerts were filmed on a circus stage, with The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull and Jethro Tull performing, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono playing in a supergroup called The Dirty Mac that included Eric Clapton. The circus conceit is not only décor but an image of how the British rock scene of the moment saw itself. The film went unseen for nearly thirty years. The band's official explanation was that they had taken the stage in the early hours and judged their own performance inadequate; the widely held view is that The Who, fresh off a tour, upstaged the Stones on their own production. Lindsay-Hogg attempted an edit in 1992 but stopped because footage was missing, and the recording was not released commercially until 1996. Who it's for: viewers interested in the 1960s British rock scene and live performance records of the period. Who it's not for: anyone wanting documentary narration and context, or bothered by the era's limits in sound and image quality.