Stones at the Max

Rolling Stones: Live at the Max

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Julien Temple
David Douglas
Roman Kroitor
Noel Archambault
Christine Strande:
("2,000 Light Years from Home")
Produced by Michael Cohl
Nicholas J. Gray
Toni Myers
André Picard
Martin Walters
Robbie Williams
Starring The Rolling Stones
Cinematography David Douglas
Andrew Kitzanuk
Edited by Daniel Blevins
Jim Gable
Lisa Grootenboer
Toni Myers
Distributed by IMAX
Release dates
June, 1992
re-released 1996
Running time
89 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Rolling Stones: Live at the Max (also known as Stones at the Max) is a concert film by The Rolling Stones released in 1991. It was specially filmed in IMAX during the Urban Jungle Tour in Europe in 1990. It was one of the first attempts at presenting entertainment in the IMAX format.

Rolling Stones: Live at the Max premiered 25 October 1991 in Los Angeles at the California Museum of Science and Industry. In the UK it was shown at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1992. The tagline was "Larger than life".

Production

Rolling Stones: Live at the Max was the first feature length film ever to be filmed in IMAX format.

Imaging fed to the jumbotrons at concerts came from "bread trucks" switching live feeds from an army of video cameras. Midway through post, the request came to use some of this video that had been recorded on 3/4" tape in the final IMAX film. This began a crazy series of tests to improve and up-res this video to be shot on IMAX neg at the lens facility in Mississauga. Test neg was processed in New York, prints made, returned to Toronto for screening at the IMAX theater at Ontario Place. After many tries, a process was created to improve imaging enough to be used. Final release included approximately 6 minutes of this footage.

Originally shot with 8 IMAX cameras outfitted with the first long load film magazines, for 5 concerts in 3 cities. The magazines were so huge and the ballistics of the loading so unpredictable, there was no guarantee of complete coverage of any song in any single concert. Eventually trying to cut this on a flatbed proved impossible. Recently re-released EditDroids were in Toronto on various projects and one was custom configured with the help of the folks at Lucas in Los Angeles. All 35mm "twist reduction" work print was reassembled in original rolls, transferred to video and recorded on one-off laser videodiscs. The 8-headed Droid could load all data bases and imaging for a single song in all concert locations. The editors could jump to any point in a song, see what was available (or not) then jump to the same spot in all subsequent concerts. The trick was tracing back from the Droid data through LaserDisc data through video data back to 35mm stepdown print edge code and ultimately to the original IMAX neg - frame accurately to produce the neg cut list that needed to sync with the original 64 track digital recordings.

Home video

VHS, DVD and Blu-ray versions were released under the title Rolling Stones: Live at the Max.

See also the live album Flashpoint, released in 1991, from the same tour.

Track listing

All songs by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

  1. Opening Logos
  2. "Continental Drift"
  3. "Start Me Up"
  4. "Sad Sad Sad"
  5. "Tumbling Dice"
  6. "Ruby Tuesday"
  7. "Rock and a Hard Place"
  8. "Honky Tonk Women"
  9. "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
  10. "Happy"
  11. "Paint It Black"
  12. "2000 Light Years from Home"
  13. "Sympathy for the Devil"
  14. "Street Fighting Man"
  15. "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)"
  16. "Brown Sugar"
  17. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
  18. End Credits

Stadium Venues and Dates[1]

Song Title Date Played Venue
01. Opening Logos
02. Continental Drift
03. Start Me Up 1990-08-24 = 24th August 1990 LONDON, England
04. Sad Sad Sad 1990-07-28 = 28th July 1990 TURIN, Italy
05. Tumbling Dice 1990-08-24 = 24th August 1990 LONDON, England
06. Ruby Tuesday 1990-08-25 = 25th August 1990 LONDON, England
07. Rock and a Hard Place 1990-07-28 = 28th July 1990 TURIN, Italy
08. Honky Tonk Women 1990-07-28 = 28th July 1990 TURIN, Italy
09. You Can't Always Get What You Want 1990-08-25 = 25th August 1990 LONDON, England
10. Happy 1990-08-14 = 14th August 1990 EAST BERLIN, German Dem. Rep.
11. Paint It Black 1990-07-28 = 28th July 1990 TURIN, Italy
12. 2000 Light Years from Home 1990-07-28 = 28th July 1990 TURIN, Italy
13. Sympathy for the Devil 1990-08-24 = 24th August 1990 LONDON, England
14. Street Fighting Man 1990-08-25 = 25th August 1990 LONDON, England
15. It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It) 1990-08-14 = 14th August 1990 EAST BERLIN, German Dem. Rep.
16. Brown Sugar 1990-08-25 = 25th August 1990 LONDON, England
17. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 1990-08-13 = 13th August 1990 EAST BERLIN, German Dem. Rep.
18. End Credits

Personnel

The Rolling Stones
Additional personnel

References

External links