How Bob Clearmountain Stitched Together The Rolling Stones' 'Flashpoint' from Dozens of Steel Wheels Tapes

The 1991 live album Flashpoint didn’t come from one single show — it was assembled from about 60 multitrack tapes recorded across the entire Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour. Engineer Bob Clearmountain had the unenviable task of sifting through performances from different venues, different nights, and even different countries to find the best takes for each song. His approach was less “capture the moment” and more “build the perfect setlist from raw material.”

Clearmountain worked with 24-track analog tapes, flying in parts from one night to another to tighten transitions and fix flubs. He famously used early digital editing tools — like the Synclavier and tape-based samplers — to seamlessly stitch together verses from one show and choruses from another. The result is a live album that sounds like one flawless concert, even though Keith Richards might’ve been playing in Tokyo while Mick Jagger sang from London. It’s a hybrid that purists sometimes scoff at, but Clearmountain defended it as the only way to capture the tour’s true energy without the “record one show and pray” gamble.