The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus

Julian and John watching the circus act from the audience.

During the week of December 9th, John had Julian visiting (I don't know how long exactly) during John's final weeks living at Weybridge that was now on the market. Anyway, The Rolling Stones invited John and Yoko to their special Rock and Roll Circus, with music and circus acts for the BBC, written and directed by Michael Lindsey-Hogg (who later directed The Beatles Let It Be). It was being recorded at Intertel Studio in  Wembley - where Ready, Steady, Go! was filmed - on December 11, 1968. John and Yoko took Julian along. Performances started at 2 PM, and taping continued until 5 AM the following day. I think Mick, Michael, etc. underestimated the time it takes to set up music equipment from each performance set, circus acts, and reloading cameras with film. Yet Mick was enthusiastic and carried on despite people being tired. 

The music acts were The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, The Dirty Mac, Yoko Ono, Sir Robert Fossett's Circus, and The Nurses. The Dirty Mac featured John, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Mitch Mitchell with Yoko and Ivry Gitlis; it was the first time John performed without The Beatles. They played Yer Blues (The Beatles) and Whole Lotta Yoko. I'm not sure who exactly looked after Julian but I suppose it was a group effort, maybe Marianne (as there's photos of them together). Another thing to note was this was the last time Brian Jones played in the Rolling Stones. Tensions were high and Brian was the odd man out due to his aggressive drug addiction (he would later die some months later the following year, drowned in his pool. Only Charlie Watts from the band attended his funeral.) Not surprisingly, drugs were around, most particular marijuana. I don't think many children were around the set other than Julian, come to think of it.

“In fact, recently I got given a tape from someone who filmed me. It’s me with Dad, Jagger and Yoko. I had a look at it the other day — and it was so bizarre, seeing me sitting there chatting away. I shouldn’t bring this up, but I was sitting in the middle of everybody, smoking a joint. At five years old; four or five years old! I don’t know, but it looked like I was passing it on. It did. I guess I decided to discover what it was, at five. I went, ‘What is this?,’ and then said: ‘Who wants this?'” 

Julian, 2015

Julian and Marianne Faithfull 

Julian, John, and Keith Richards

BBC was to air the special, but, legend says, Mick was unhappy with it as The Who seemed to upstaged the star act: Rolling Stones. It didn't see the light of day until 1996 - I remember it being aired on VH1.