How the Rolling Stones' 1981 'Tattoo You' Tour Broke Attendance Records and the 'No Security' Mantra

The most interesting thing about the Stones’ 1981 ‘Tattoo You’ tour isn’t just the 90,000-plus crowd at the LA Coliseum — it’s that they plastered “No Security” on everything. That phrase was a middle finger to the post-Altamont era, where venues had started demanding massive security deposits and fencing after the band’s 1969 disaster. The Stones were basically saying: we don’t trust your security, we’ll handle it ourselves. It worked. The tour became the highest-grossing rock tour of its time, pulling in over $50 million.

The LA Coliseum show on September 26, 1981, was the crown jewel. Official attendance was 90,000, though some estimates put it closer to 100,000 — then the largest single-concert audience for a U.S. band. The stage was set up on the field, and the sound system was a custom Clair Brothers rig that had to be trucked in from New Jersey. Fans camped out for days. The setlist leaned heavily on ‘Tattoo You’ tracks like "