When Peter Cook got high – literally – with the Rolling Stones

Comic found himself on stage by accident

comedy Peter Cook once got stuck on a 150ft stage tower after smoking dope at a Rolling Stones gig.

He had been hanging out with Mick Jagger backstage when the rocker decided he wanted a bit of peace – so ordered filmmaker Julien Temple, who was documenting the tour, to show the comic around the stage.

‘We went up the tower and he had already rolled a joint,’ Temple recalled. ‘There were thousands of people below.

‘Suddenly we realised the show had started and there was this big clunking sound of a lift descending. We were stuck up there high as kites.’

Jagger used the platform high above the stage to sing Sympathy For The Devil, and Temple recalled: ‘Finally the dreaded moment arrived when the lift got back into action and Mick came up… When he arrived he could not believe we were up there – and the look on his face!’

The director was speaking at an event to mark the re-release of that concert film, Rolling Stones At The Max, in Imax cinemas, with his comments reported by The Sun.

He added: ‘What was crazy was that Peter was making up hilarious words to Sympathy For The Devil and singing along and goosing Mick’s bum as he was gyrating in front of the crowd.

‘It was the most surreal experience. Mick was really nice about it. He could have been really angry.’

Originally released in 1991, At The Max was the first feature-length Imax concert film. It was filmed during the Stones’ Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour, the previous year.

Temple filmed Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and Bill Wyman across five concerts in three European cities.

The film has not been in cinemas since 2007, and will be showing from December 10.