Gary James' Interview With The Voice Of Woodstock 1969
Chip Monck



To say that Chip Monck has been around in the world of Rock music would be an understatement. His credits are unmatched. He was the Lighting Director at the Monterey Pop Festival, the Production Designer, Tour Co-ordinator, Lighting Designer and Director for The Rolling Stones for five years, Production Designer, Lighting Designer and Director for Bette Midler for three years, Production Designer, Lighting Designer and Director and Tour And Travel Director for Neil Young for two European tours and one Japanese tour, Lighting Designer And Director and Tour And Travel Director for George Benson's Japanese tour, Lighting Designer And Director, Production and Tour Director for Crosby, Stills And Nash's European tour. He also worked with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Doors, The Byrds, Michael Jackson, George Michaels, The Beach Boys, David Bowie, Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald, Neil Diamond, John Cougar Mellencamp, Frank Sinatra, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Charlie Daniels, Linda Ronstadt, The Fifth Dimension, Paul Anka, Tanya Tucker, Eddie Rabbitt, and the list goes on and one.
Chip has worked with over three hundred artists! And of course he served as the Master Of Ceremonies at the original Woodstock 1969. Chip Monck spoke with us about lighting and all things in-between.

Q - Chip, for a guy from Wellesley, Massachusetts, you're a long way from home. Why live in Australia? Is there more work for you there?

A - No, no. I just married one of 'em. (an Australian) (laughs)

Q - That would explain it.

A - On tour with Bette Midler in 1978. We just finished the opening at the State Theatre. We did fifteen days there. I went up to the pool at the Seville Townhouse and we're all about ready to have a drink and I saw this brilliant piece of flesh lying on the pavement and I went over and tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Hey, I don't know if you saw the show last night. We were all celebrating about how good we were. How about having a Bloody Mary?" She called over with a big smile on her face and said, "Fuck off mate," and a bell went off in my head and we left two weeks later and went back to L.A.

Q - And you've been happy ever since.

A - Yeah, yeah.

Q - That was what year?

A - '78. She worked on the stage for ten year and then came here in '88.

Q - Would I be correct in stating that this whole Lighting Design and Production didn't take off until 1967 in San Francisco with The Grateful Dead and all the Fillmore West bands?

A - Yes. That's all Bill Graham.

Q - You were doing the lighting for the Monterey Pop Festival. Did you have to consult with Janis Joplin and her people, or Jimi Hendrix and his people, on how they wanted the lights to be?

A - No, not at all. I had a Gold Card and all I had to do was to show up. Al Kooper and I were stage managing the event as well. So we did all the set up and everything. It was very easy for us to just create a little cocoon for them. This is basically where you are and I'll be able to cover you from here to there and everything else you're free to do. So, it was very simple. There was no basic, "Well hi. I'm going to try a new..." It was a light show with headlights I think it was. They made an effort. I overhung the thing and it was wonderful. (laughs) It was really superb. I never really knew how it turned out because none of the photographs from Henry Diltz and the others, they were all friends, but nothing in performance. I finally got the disc and I could relax. (laughs) It looks like I wanted it to be. So, I was delighted.

Q - Was it easier or harder to do the lighting for a group like The Rolling Stones?

A - After we finished Woodstock we did a show with CSN (Crosby, Stills And Nash), and Joni Mitchell opened, at the Greek Theatre in L.A. Lo and behold, in the audience was Jo Bergman with a couple of her friends, and she was P.A. (Personal Assistant) to Mick (Jagger). After the show she evidently called him, Mount Airey, which was where he was filming Ned Kelly, toting along with Marianne (Faithful) and said, "I found your light man," and that was it. It was that easy.

Q - You actually started working with The Stones in November, 1969?

A - Yes.

Q - You spent five years with them as Production Designer, Tour Coordinator, Lighting Designer and Director. That's a lot of positions, Chip!

A - The easiest thing to do if you want to make more money than you can, the best thing to do is to just absorb all the rest of the positions and bring your right arm with you and then it's a great deal.

Q - You worked with The Doors in 1966. What did you think of Jim Morrison as a performer?

A - Excellent. A grand thinker and composer. He was a terrific talent.

Q - Does that mean you spent some time with him? Were you able to sit down and talk to him?

A - I never do that with the acts. I was always on call and they know how to reach us. Hanging out with them just because becomes a hindrance. They needn't know everything about you. You're there to do the work and stick in that envelope. It's hazardous to do that because if you get a little too pissed or something in telling the truth about what you really think about the act to others, you can dissolve your career.

Q - How unfortunate that you didn't have some kind of contact with Morrison.

A - The closest contact I had with him was in Tucson (Arizona) when I had an idea that since he was fumbling with his belt, that there maybe a problem coming up. So, I just went out onstage and I excused myself, put my arm around him and walked him off and said, "I want you to meet some of the Tucson police who are waiting to catch you doing what you were about to do."

Q - He must have straightened up then.

A - No. He didn't have to. He was still clothed. He hadn't done anything wrong.

Q - Maybe you gave him second thoughts about what he was going to do?

A - No, not really. I interrupted what he was going to do and that was unfortunate, but I just thought the best thing to do was to show him who were waiting for him to do that and perhaps he would think that's the best thing not to do.

Q - Ray Manzarek and John Densmore swear that Jim Morrison never exposed himself at that concert in Miami. Yet I recall reading a column in the newspaper where a guy attended that concert with his girlfriend and said Morrison did expose himself. What are we to make of that?

A - People love to steal chevrons from your uniform. What they do is make up all these stories that puts them in some part of a limelight. It's unfortunate. Same thing is happening with the death of Michael Lang (Promoter/Organizer of 1969 Woodstock Festival). People are telling all these wonderful stories about Michael and each of them, most of them, are just crap. It's just something they made up, and they are handing it to the Press.

Q - And because whoever in the Press is reporting the story, has to accept what's told to them because they weren't there.

A - Well, yes. Or they're delighted to find somebody who's going to tell them a good story.

Q - Some agent or agents at William Morris were helping you get lighting work. The name that comes up was Hector Morales.

A - Hector gave me Michael Lang. He said, "This guy is buying everything. I think you ought to get in touch with him." He (Hector) was a Junior Agent at William Morris and he was just an informational font. You'd go there every two weeks or so and find out what's going on. Actually, it was Leber - Krebs who were also involved in some way with William Morris that were the most helpful in pointing out what to do and with whom and how to scale it and how to present yourself. So and so feels this about that, so you best approach it from this side. And that was very helpful.

Q - William Morris didn't have an agent or a department who would've taken you on as a client back then?

A - Yeah. Why pay inordinate pieces of your salary or your fee or a retainer to an agency that would just be happy to have you on the books and not necessarily give you anything that you couldn't have gotten by just being really fair and up front?

Q - Had Leber - Krebs agreed to manage you, they probably would have taken more than agent, probably 15% to 20%.

A - Yup.

Q - You wanted to work with The Beatles, and Brian Epstein agreed, but you didn't have the money at the time to get to London?

A - Yeah, well I was in Copenhagen with Miriam Makeba. The problem was the lighting was all done on IBM cards, literal pieces of paper that you'd put into this item and you'd close the gate on it and that was the way the cues were exercised or realized. And I really couldn't leave the show because I was on a five year contract with (Harry) Belafonte, taking care of Miriam from the early days. It was a good friendship and a great working relationship. She was teaching me a great deal. And then you don't drop one to get another unless there is a reasonable way of you explaining it.

Q - You saw Hendrix at Woodstock. How many were left to see him? 15,000? 20,000?

A - The count would be very difficult. We did a pin prick count on a huge photographic map that was about the size of anyone's living room, and ended up at 465,000, but you couldn't pin prick the ones that were under these trees. (laughs) So, we missed them. The crowd had thinned out significantly. Maybe 50,000 to 60,000. Who knows? But his performance was just superb. He was a great, great guitarist.

Q - You were onstage for his performance, weren't you?

A - I was onstage all the time, and during the day when I wasn't having to light something I was underneath the stage which we draped off with all the drapery that was going to be hung for Woodstock, and teaching fellow spot operators how to change carbons in a Super Trouper. The operators didn't like working from dusk until dawn. So, I lost all my Fillmore operators 'cause they were all too special. The cry was, "Anyone who knows anything about a follow spot and would like to give me a hand, please report to so and so over there on stage left or camera right as you see it."

Q - Why is there such a continued fascination with Woodstock '69? Was it in part because of the entertainment line-up?

A - That and it was the spirit of the time.

Q - No one had any idea that hundreds of thousands of people would show up, did they?

A - No. They were thinking maybe they'd get 50,000. That's what they thought. It was time for everybody to speak out. The difficulty and sorrow about it all was there was nobody left there to continue the movement or the way most of those people had in mind for or against the war (Vietnam War). Hooray for the moon landing, or the way they wanted to live their lives. There was no leadership other than the occasional voices that were there to help them continue with those refreshing thoughts.

Q - It was almost impossible to recreate something like that.

A - As you can see. Michael (Lang), I'm afraid it was a cash grab for him. By booking acts that, should we say had political or revolutionary tendencies or hate or mistrust, that seemed to accede through the later productions or festivals. He should have been perhaps more careful in the acts that he booked to try and keep a more homogeneous or realistic spirit rather than how disappointed I am with my life and I'm going to get back at somebody for it. (laughs) They may have felt the same way at Woodstock, but they went a different way. It may have been the stars. Who knows? I don't relate to that often. I'm not sure.

Q - At the original Woodstock there was Richie Havens and he might have been considered political. Creedence was doing some politically charged material. The Who, not so much. And then there was Sha Na Na.

A - Yeah. That was fun. (laughs) There's nothing better to get you out of a jam than comic relief.

Q - And so he did try to have a mix there and appeal to everybody.

A - Yeah.

Q - You were quoted as saying, "Putting on a show at Madison Square Garden is an honor. It's built for sports, not for shows." That being the case, why do all the Rock groups want to perform there?

A - Oh, because it's a big ticket. It's the best facility in New York, or the largest. You have to play it. But, there's a two union problem in M.S.G. (Madison Square Garden) The IBEW (the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) owns, for all intents and purposes, all the lighting, anything other than that which is hung over the stage. Well, in theatre or any presentation, very often lights are hung for us on the stage outboard and not over the deck. So, there are always a great concern about who was in charge of that type of lighting. Basically all you had to say is, "We need five more, man," because that's an issue we can't solve. So bring some guys on and make sure they can handle it for you and that's all they wanted to hear. More people to make more money. It's an inflammatory place, but it works because it's the best in New York.

Q - You had your own talk show back in 1974.

A - That's right.

Q - You were interviewing Rock stars. How long did that show last?

A - Just one season.

Q - Why didn't it last?

A - Oh, I don't know. Maybe it was ahead of its time. It was good music, but we also got down to some serious topics. Maybe it wasn't what SONY or the local stations who advertised in the breaks, maybe it wasn't precisely what they wanted. Maybe it wasn't confrontational enough or embarrassing or to make it enough of a problem to perhaps engage or grab more of the public. You never know about those things. It's difficult . You just do what you can do.

Q - Who were some of your guests?

A - Bonnie Raitt, Steve Miller, Danny O'Keefe, Jackson Browne, Paul Williams, David Mason, Jon Lord, Tom Waits, The Pointer Sisters, Buffy St. Marie, Melissa Manchester, Leon Russell, Clive Davis, Waylon Jennings, Grace Slick, Mike Love, Charles Floyd, John McLaughlin, Al Kooper, Alvin Lee, Peter Gabriel, Chris Blackwell, Michael Bloomfield, Danny Cordell, Frank Zappa, Bill Wyman, Dr. John, James Taylor.

Q - Wow! You did interview a lot of great people. I hope they gave you great interviews.

A - I thought it was great. It wasn't my trade, but I did the best I could. I thought it was fun. Lots of people did like it.

Q - Why not let people see what you did back then?

A - This is not the time to re-release it because there's no interest basically in things that are fifty years old.

Q - Where did you do that show? The U.S.?

A - In the U.S. between L.A. and New York. We went back and forth because it was easier for us to go to the groups than it was for them to travel to us.

Q - As more of these people pass away I would think there would be an interest in what they had to say at the time. This Let It Be documentary has gotten a lot of interest. People just can't seem to get enough of The Beatles.

A - Well, The Beatles have always been on top. I just did a Photographic Exop in Melbourne (Australia) and we rehung it three times because we were always being put into lockdown. So, I had twelve days of sale, then about two months of nothing. Then another half a month or two weeks of sales. Everybody still wants The Beatles.

Q - The whole era of the 1960s is still of great interest to people.

A - Indeed it is, yeah. There were some really exciting things that happened.

Q - I just know with each passing day, the interest grows.

A - Well, I've got another ten years available I suppose. I'm 82 now. I suppose I can wait. (laughs)

Q - You're lighting K-Mart stores in Australia, which are far more upscale than in the U.S. Is that correct?

A - They're far more upscale. They're sort of with the Targets and Best And Less. There were a lot of stores, K-Mart, Kohl's, Tiffany, Armani, Best And Less. It's just bringing the theatrical approach to certain departments in retail, trying to make it more exciting. In other words, if you're lighting everything with fluorescent, then you put dark carpet on the floor because it's easier for you to keep clean, other than white tile. There's no reflection from the floor back up on the ceilings. So, people walk into the Men's and Ladies Clothing and it's dark, and they're all wondering what to do. Well, they don't want to spend the time trying to keep white floors white. Big mistake. It's interesting. Then we found it working on major signboards on the freeways. The trick to putting fluorescent light, if you don't have four inches behind the transparency you're lighting or even the light box you're using to look at slides on your desk, is to take black texture or a Magic Marker and draw a tip down from the top of the florescent light with a tube and you don't get a hot spot because that intensity has to bounce off the back of the box to come through an even rushi. The tricks of how to light signage, whether it's back lit or whether it's front lit. It's deep. It has to be mechanically and photomatically proven to them. Retail doesn't move terribly quickly. They don't jump at new things because they don't want to spend the money.

Q - Too bad K-Mart didn't consult you about their U.S. stores.

A - They're very rough cut in the States. Here they're really quite polished. They're not a fright to walk in to. They know how to run it here. Well, we have a small population and you need to net everyone and grab them in a shopping center.

Q - You've been called "The Grandfather Of Rock 'n' Roll Production." Do you like that title?

A - Well, I guess. I'm growing into the grandfather now. I think it was coined just as a phrase. It's nice. Thank you for the compliment. I don't mind.

Official Website: www.ChipMonck.com

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