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tom kid

tom kid

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Already in February, Ronnie yelled that the Stones are on the verge of touring , but we all know, everyone is waiting for Mick and Keith, the Glimmer Twins. And both were on stage again just days before: Mick at the White House, Keith at Humming for Hubert and at the honorary award for Chuck Berry. And Keith was heard to say "Damn, it's good to be back!" to the crowd after playing Little Red Rooster with James Cotton and then launching into Spoonfull accompanied by Eric Clapton. (see below)

We heard some more rumors about stage gear (see below, Feb. 21) being booked and checked - but that's not official, i.e reliable news.

What comes close to an official announcement comes from our beloved Sir Mick Jagger himself. He told the Associated Press:

"I hope we certainly do something ... It would be very appropriate, I think, and I look forward to doing something. But nothing is yet booked."

Almost the same was issued by the Detroid Free Press:

Any special plans for the Stones' 50th anniversary this year?

We have lots of special things planned, but I'm not telling you what they are!

Not even one thing?

Well, I don't know what's been announced and what hasn't been announced, but everyone asks me about the shows. We haven't announced any shows yet, but I do hope that something happens, even though nothing's booked.

Taken from www.stonesnews.com

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Ross62

Ross62

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On Thursday July 12, 1962 six young lads took to the stage of the Marquee Club and a legend was born.

They have rocked the world for 50 years and the Mirror’s photographers have captured all the ups and downs.

So when the Rolling Stones decided to release a book to mark the milestone, they knew where to come to find the best images.

The Rolling Stones: 50 is crammed with amazing snaps hand-picked by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood, many from our extensive archive.

“This is our story of 50 fantastic years,” the rock ’n’ rollers said of the official book yesterday.

“We started out as a blues band playing the clubs and more recently we’ve filled the largest stadiums in the world with the kind of show that none of us could have imagined all those years ago.

“Curated by us, it features the very best photographs and ephemera from and beyond our archives.”

Pics-here

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SteveAJones

SteveAJones

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The Rolling Stones documentary coming this fall has the potential to become the biggest selling music dvd release of all time. How's that for hyperbole? Anyway, I've definitely cleared my schedule from June to August 2013.

How about this guy for an opening act in Chicago?

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tom kid

tom kid

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If they don't come to New Zealand on this tour next year I will be booking tickets to Australia and I don't care how much debt it gets me in. The Stones have been the soundtrack to so many good nights with me and my best friends.There is no way I'd miss the 2013 tour. I'm being positive that it will go ahead, but Keith and the boys are only getting older. It says in the various articles I've read that his health has delayed plans for a tour but then the aforementioned articles mention no specifics in regards to Keiths health. Anyway, as I said I before I'm just staying positive. I saw them in 2006 at Western Springs Stadium but I wasn't nearly as a big fan as I am now. My old man bought me a ticket so I went along with him.

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Walter

Walter

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If they do a stadium tour, then I would see them a third time (provided the tickets are reasonable). I think that band is made for a stadium production with their blow-up girls on top of the amps, etc. - they weren't nearly as fun to see when I caught them on an arena tour.

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kenog

kenog

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Chuck jamming as their special guest would probably be better. I'm getting emotional thinking about the tour, realizing it's...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F271Qblz1nI&feature=related

SteveAJones-san,

Here is an up to date article from the UK Daily Mail re Chuck and Keef.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2119381/-And-time-Chuck-Berry-punched-Keith-Richards-Ronnie-Wood-spills-beans-radio-show.html

'And then there was the time Chuck Berry punched Keith Richards...': Ronnie Wood spills the beans during radio interview

By Amy Oliver

PUBLISHED: 17:21, 23 March 2012 | UPDATED: 18:28, 23 March 2012

It's fair to say the Rolling Stones have had a colourful life.

And now guitarist Ronnie Wood has revealed how Keith Richards once had his eye 'painted black' by Chuck Berry - because he believed the rocker was stealing his guitar case full of cash.

Wood, 64, spilled the beans during The Ronnie Wood Show on Absolute Radio, due to be broadcast tonight.

He said: 'I have many a story about Chuck, especially when I lived in New York.

'I used to play with him quite a lot, and he’d always have to have the money up front in his guitar case and he’d leap straight from the stage with the guitar case full of money, throw it offstage and into the cab.

'Once Keith was there in the audience and Chuck came off stage and Keith ran up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder, at which Chuck turned round and went whack and smashed Keith in the eye, gave him a big black eye.

'He said "What you do that for? I was only trying to say hello, Chuck"'.

It could have been the start of a nasty fight between the pair, but instead, Wood said, Richards, 68, was 'proud' of the black eye.

Loose-lipped Wood also revealed Frank Sinatra once dismissed the man who wrote My Way and pushed him out of his dressing room – because he was too busy watching the Miss World competition.

He also said Van Morrison was like a 'caged animal' and recalled the time U2 front man Bono called the Moondance singer the 'strangest looking little person'.

'I remember talking to Bono once,' Wood said. 'And he said "What was the Lord thinking when he handed out voices? He must have looked from the heaven and said “I think I’ll give the greatest voice in the world to the strangest looking little person wearing a hat down there in the north of Ireland""'.

It was announced last week that the much-vaunted Rolling Stones anniversary tour has been delayed amidst concern over Richards' health.

It had been believed the band would launch a money-spinning world tour to mark their 50th anniversary this year.

That has now been put back to next year amidst concerns that Richards – who suffered a brain haemorrhage after falling out of a tree in 2006 - can no longer undertake such gruelling travelling involved in a globe-trotting jaunt.

Chuck Berry is still performing live at the grand age of 85.

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SteveAJones

SteveAJones

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That has now been put back to next year amidst concerns that Richards – who suffered a brain haemorrhage after falling out of a tree in 2006 - can no longer undertake such gruelling travelling involved in a globe-trotting jaunt.

It's gruelling to perform for two hours every other night, let alone endure the travel involved, but it's a safe bet that Keith can still cut it.

keith04.gif

keith01.gif

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kenog

kenog

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The Rolling Stones: Pop Weirdies Set Out To Play It Grim

Chris Welch, The Bexleyheath & Welling Observer, January 1964

OF ALL the sensational groups to hit British pop music since the advent of the Mersey Sound and the rhythm 'n' blues revival, the weirdest, oddest, the most uncompromising seem to be the Rolling Stones.

We are specially interested in their progress because, instead of hailing from Liverpool, Blackpool or West Hartlepool, they are Southerners, two from Dartford – no less – and one from Beckenham.

There is more than originality about the style and approach of the Rolling Stones. They do not seem to fit at all into the pattern of the new wave of beat groups. They are a small, but noisy wavelet of their own.

As many people are attracted as are appalled by their weirdness. Weirdness does not mean, of course, they conduct human sacrifice while playing enamelled saucepans with rubber hammers.

Today , "weird" means "different." The Stones' great quality is their ability to scowl nicely at the audience instead of smiling. Instead of beaming the regulation doses of goodwill and affection from the' stage, they glower from beneath fighting mops of hair.

Instead of indulging in dainty footwork of the Tiller Girl variety, beloved of the' rock groups of old, they gesticulate in such a way that no-one can accuse them of dancing.

No attempt at a uniform is made, but somehow they all manage to look alike.

MUSIC FIRST

This would seem to point to one important and welcome sign – to the Rolling Stones the music comes first and the audience second.

If this is the case, the Stones are more than a "pop" group, for ever desperately trying to make a hit, but enthusiasts for their own style of r'n'b.

When they played at Greenwich Town Hall recently, somebody shouted during a brilliant display of originality: "Git yer 'air cut." Replied Mick Jagger (harmonica, vocals): "What? And look like you?"

Even on record, they sound furious. Listen to 'Come On' and the way they rant about "some stupid guy trying to get another number." A coupe more microphones and we could hear them gritting their teeth.

Their publicity handout says they met a year ago at the Marquee Club, London. When the chance came for them to deputise for a group at the club, they took it and formed the Rolling Stones, the same name as a Chuck Berry composition.

RISE TO FAME

They first won fame at the Station Hotel, Richmond, and were a big success at last year's Richmond Jazz Festival.

Mick Jagger is the lead vocalist and plays the harmonica. Aged 19, he was born in Dartford and is a student at the London School of Economics.

Brian Jones sings and plays the guitar and harmonica. He is 19 and was born at Cheltenham. Keith Richard (19) plays the guitar and he, too, was also born at Dartford. Bill Wyman, aged 21, from Beckenham, plays the bass guitar and sings. The drummer is 21-year old Charlie Watts from London.

© Chris Welch, 1964

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kenog

kenog

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The Rolling Stones: Stones Hit Back

Keith Altham, NME, 29 October 1965

TEATIME with the Rolling Stones in the Ready, Steady, Go! canteen proved most entertaining. David Jacobs was the conversational target to start with. Keith Richard had a few words to say about David's criticism on Juke Box Jury that you couldn't hear the lyrics of their new hit, 'Get Off Of My Cloud'.

"Perhaps he's a bit deaf," suggested Keith. "The first impression you get of our records is an exciting sound. We've never brought any vocal out much more than on 'Cloud'. It's a case of hunt the words! But you can hear them if you concentrate. Jacobs should stick to records like Tears'."

Bill Wyman was even more vehement. "I think he hates our guts," he said. "He hasn't forgotten that Juke Box Jury we did. Obviously he didn't like the record. But he didn't have the courage to say so. To suggest, as he did, that you couldn't hear the lyric because the recording company was at fault is nonsense.

"We do all our own recording. This was recorded in Los Angeles, and was the best of several takes. I don't know all the words myself, but it makes no difference to the overall sound."

The Tannoy system broadcast a message: "Telephone call for Mr. Wyman." But Bill remained stoically in his chair. "I know who that is," he said and sat on.

To the credit of composers Jagger and Richard is the fact that 'Satisfaction' has now been recorded by Quincey Jones and Otis Redding in America. And there are no less than three versions in Japanese.

"We've also just written a number which Cliff Richard is going to record called 'Blue Turns To Grey'," revealed Keith.

Animals' recording manager Mickie Most came over to join us and was immediately greeted by Stones' co-manager Andrew Oldham, who has a new short hair cut and opulent President of Immediate Records image. "Look everyone, it's Joe Meek," Andrew told everyone. Then followed an exchange of scarcasm about respective tailors.

Tea boy

Mick Jagger returned from the tea counter with a tray of filled, steaming cups. He was a way-out "tea boy" in a blue cardigan, knotted around his neck, a white tee shirt and green corduroys.

"It's On The Waterfront Jagger," observed Andrew, rising to the occasion and adding for Keith's benefit, "I see blue and green are in."

For no apparent reason the conversation began to turn around clubs and Keith mentioned that he was down at one well-known niterie where Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon arrived. The Beatles were also there and according to Keith, John Lennon approached the Royal couple's table and said something that set them both laughing.

It may not be true, but it certainly sounds like something John would do.

At this point Andrew rejoined the conversation. "I'll tell you why the Walker Brothers are so popular," he volunteered. "It's because they look like Brian, Mick and Bill."

The Stones will be in America from now until Christmas.

"It's a drag, Christmas," declared Mick, but confirmed he would be home for it. Charlie will also be back to see a children's book published for which he has drawn the sketches.

Brian intends to spend Christmas in Mexico, but knowing Brian I've a feeling he will find that he can't keep away from the new Rolls-Royce he's just bought!

"There are no plans for us to be on the last RSG, but I expect we will be there anyway," said Mick.

Over the tannoy system came a call, "Mr. Andrew Oldham, please." Andrew Oldham continued sipping "I can remember when you admired people who could afford to do things like that," said Charlie and treated Andrew to one of his all-purpose grins.

Peter Whitehead, who produced the Rolling Stones' film, shown last Thursday on Top Of The Pops, was also present.

"I filmed their entire Irish tour. The result runs for over an hour and that extract was a cutting," said Peter. Just in case you were puzzled why the Stones suddenly raced across some railway lines between platforms for no apparent reason in the film, the answer was that they were dodging a crowd of fans.

Good thing there was no train coming. It would have been a expensive "crash."

© Keith Altham, 1965

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kenog

kenog

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The Rolling Stones: The Girls Waited 8 Hours, Finally Met the Stones!

Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 3 December 1965

NOBODY'S GOING to get Valerie Stewart, 14, or Patricia Curtis, 13, off their clouds. The guys who put them up on cloud 9 are the same ones who've been singing 'Get Off Of My Cloud' – the Rolling Stones.

Pat and Val won the Free Press "Meet the Stones" contest and talked to the group last Friday before their Cobo Arena appearance.

But they almost didn't. And it took the girls from 1:15 p.m. until 9:15 p.m. until they did.

The meeting first was scheduled for Robin Seymour's Swinging' Time on the CKLW-TV show. But the Stones didn't show. Everyone waited, waited, waited. And still no Stones.

Valerie, a ninth-grader at Marshall Jr. High, was all smiles and Pat, an eighth grader in Romulus Jr. High, whispered: "I'm nervous."

But Robin didn't fail them, he put the girls on the show without any Stones. The singing group explained later it was a mixup with their promoters that kept them away. Pat and Valerie, though, still had their chance to meet the Stones. CKLW arranged for the winners to go backstage at Cobo Arena.

Even with a letter of introduction and permission, getting through the stage door was harder than getting into LBJ's office. Finally inside, Val and Pat waited in a dressing room while the rest of the performers wandered in and out. But, the Rockin' Ramrods and the Vibrations just weren't the Stones.

Then after almost a two-hour wait, THEY arrived – 15 minutes before they were to go on stage. Mick Jagger greeted the two girls who looked ready to faint. Mick signed their autograph books, posed for pictures with them, and then took the girls around to meet the other Stones.

Brian Jones in brilliant red corduroy trousers looked up at Valerie from the guitar he was tuning. "What's your name, luv?" he asked. "Val," she barely got out.

What Are Those Cuts?

I asked Mick about the cuts under his eyes. They were from things thrown on stage by enthusiastic fans. Why do they do it? "I suppose they want to touch us and can't," said Mick.

Did he like Detroit? "We wouldn't come here if we didn't like it."

I had read that the Stones usually were nasty to the press. I wanted to know why they were being so nice to us. Mick smiled. "I suppose those rumors are from people who don't know us."

How did the girls feel when it was all over? Said Val, "Great, I never thought I'd be in there." Pat exclaimed, "Wonderful, I can't get over it."

Who did Val dig the most? "Before. I never liked Mick. I liked Brian the best. Now I like Mick the best."

Would Pat's friends envy her? "I'm going to envy myself."

© Loraine Alterman, 1965

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kenog

kenog

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The Rolling Stones: This Is A Stone Age!!

Keith Altham, NME Summer Special, 1966

THE ROLLING STONES are a five-man revolution in the pop world. When they first appeared on the disc scene in 1962 they proceeded to defy every accepted form of 'star-behaviour' practised in the record business.

The pre-Stones pop star combed his hair, put on a gold lame jacket before stepping on to the stage, smiled for photographers and was humble for the Press. Stones shook their unruly manes into wild tangles, wore their everyday clothes on stage, scowled for photographers and said whatever they felt like to the Press.

Even the Beatles gradually became accepted by the adult world as unconventional, but nevertheless bearable, products of the teenage phenomenon, but the Stones refused to be accepted by anyone other than the 'defiant ones' - those like themselves who opposed authority, rebelled against the boss, the clock and the conformity imposed on the young by the older generation.

Their young manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, was the man behind this unprecedented move to allow an artist to express exactly how they felt 'and to hell with those too old to understand'.

Dylan's plea

'Come mothers and fathers throughout the land and don't criticise what you don't understand', were the warning words from Bob Dylan in his song 'The Times They Are A'Changing', but parents did not understand and did criticise most forcefully and because of these condemnations the Stones go from strength to strength. The more persecuted the Stones are by the older generation, the stronger becomes the identification of their young followers, who, like all young people, seek to do what they like.

The Stones are the symbols of the 'Do What I Like Set'.

"We realised right from the beginning that we were making our appeal to young people and by making a concentrated effort towards freedom on their behalf we would upset those we neglected," says Andrew Oldham.

"We chose the young instead of the old, that's all. The old resented it. The Stones are still the social outcasts, the rebels. We worked on the principle that if you are going to kick conformity in the teeth, you may as well use both feet!"

But what powers have placed Mick Jagger in the position of being something he would himself hate to be called, 'a pinup boy?' The 10" X 8" glossies, before Mick appeared on the scene, were all in the pretty-boy bracket, but not even his most ardent fan would call Mick 'pretty'. His large, fleshy mouth and heavy insolent features have virtually become as representative of the face of youth in '66 as did Tony Curtis in the '50s.

Looks help

"I think it's the very fact that I don't have perfect features which has put me in this position," Mick once said to me. "Most people can't identify themselves with someone who has classical good looks because they are in the minority."

The Stones know themselves that they will be finished as a top pop power as soon as the mums and dads accept them. Yet the attacks do worry, and sometimes annoy, them. This was especially true of those great unwashed stories, written by the knockers.

"Simply because we chose to do something different and wear our hair long they had to make up these ridiculous stories about our hygiene," says Brian Jones. "Any girl will tell you that once you grow your hair long it's necessary to keep it washed far more regularly because it gets dirtier quicker!"

Haircuts

"It's just as true for us, plus the fact that to keep our hair in shape it has to be cut regularly - not short but regularly.

"I happen to be particularly fastidious when it comes to washing and wearing clean clothes, so the kind of rubbish which reporters wrote about our not washing is both untrue and unnecessary. Just because King Charles I had long hair, do they assume he never washed?"

Those sniping attacks have now stopped and the Stones manage to laugh off the irresponsible remarks of clergymen and magistrates, who label them 'long-haired morons and animals', because of their financial independence these days.

"When people make these kind of irresponsible remarks it just draws the fans more firmly to our side," explains Keith Richard. "They are as aware as we are of the mentality which supposes anyone in a black leather jacket and riding a motorbike is a hooligan."

Won America

This has been the year in which the Stones cracked America wide open. Now they are second only to the Beatles in the States. The powers behind them, like American financial tycoon Allen Klein, have masterminded giant record deals and induced the recording companies to finance five million dollar film plans.

"I give the Stones at least another four years at the top in America," says Andrew Oldham. "And now we are beginning to break the European scene open with appearances in Germany, France, Belgium, Holland and Sweden. What we've done here we can do anywhere. Young people are the same the world over."

Their American business manager, Allen Klein, is as reflective of the Stones' unconventional approach as the boys themselves. When I went to see him at London's Hilton hotel he was wearing a sweat shirt and basketball boots. And he had rented a whole floor!

"This is going to be the year which separates the entertainers from the pop stars," he told me. "There are only about three groups in Britain, including the Rolling Stones, who provide the audience with anything to watch. You'll need an act on stage more than ever before this year, and the Stones have it."

The fact that the managerial strength of the Stones is so strong is one of the determining factors in their success, but of course their greatest asset lies in their own ability to generate excitement and enthusiasms with their music. Jagger and Richard have both emerged this year as composers comparable with Lennon and McCartney.

'Satisfaction', 'Get Off Of My Cloud', and '19th Nervous Breakdown' have all been Jagger-Richard No.1s in the chart this year and Keith has arranged his own album of pop compositions with the Arranbee Pop Orchestra on Andrew Oldham's own Immediate label.

"They were done in a classical composition style - something I've always wanted to do," says Keith. "I just took numbers like 'I Got You Babe' and 'There's A Place', and gave them a classical treatment."

Aided Cliff

And the Jagger-Richard combine has put Cliff Richard high in the charts with 'Blue Turns To Grey'.

This was just another of the Stones multi-talents being exercised and while Bill Wyman has been working on record production for his own group 'The End', Brian Jones has been busy setting up in the boutique business. Meanwhile Charlie has produced his second book, Zoo Of Flag, with his own sketches, for children.

Brian has also managed to master two more stringed instruments - the dulcimer and sitar - and is working on an idea for an art film which he intends to enter in one of this year's film festivals.

A talented bunch for what some misguided people seem to think are a load of 'long-haired morons'!

© Keith Altham, 1966

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kenog

kenog

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The Rolling Stones: World-wide Stones

Keith Altham, NME Annual, 1966

FOR THE Rolling Stones this was the year this was! This was the year that established them as international artists. This was the year that manager Andrew Oldham announced: "The Stones have another four years at the top in America and during the next three years I expect over a million pounds to go into their bank accounts."

The thing which keeps the Stones rolling would appear to be "moss," or money if you prefer, and with discs like 'This Could Be The Last Time', 'Little Red Rooster', 'Satisfaction' and 'Cloud' soaring up the American charts the moss has been growing thick and fast.

'Satisfaction' sold over 1,500,000 copies and was worth about £5,000 to each Stone – on top of which Keith Richard and Mick Jagger were raking in the royalties for a number which reached number one both in Great Britain and the U.S.

"We are not going to do a Lennon-McCartney and record only our own compositions," said Jagger. "If there is better material around we will cut that."

So far they have been their own best friends and with the second Richard-Jagger composition 'Get Off Of My Cloud' emulating the success of the first (number one on both sides of the Atlantic) they have justifiably stuck by their own material.

One of the biggest assets rolling into the Stones company this year was in the shape of American business tycoon Alan Klein who took over from Eric Easton as business manager.

Million

In October this year in an exclusive interview with the Stones, Alan Klein revealed plans for the remainder of the year which involved "a tour of the U.S. that would gross the Stones more than any other British group but the Beatles" and "A million pound deal with Decca Records to finance five films in the next three years."

The Stones are impressed with Klein. He is a stocky, well-built man in his early thirties with eyes that light up like dollar signs and he talks in computer fashion of deals only in the million dollar bracket. Mick Jagger talked excitedly to me after the meeting albout those future film plans.

"We don't want to do a Beatles for a start," affirmed Mick.

"We are not the comedy kind. Playing five clowns is definitely not our scene. I don't see that our long hair should type us as playing only the Rolling Stones either – we could easily do a period piece about characters who wore their hair that length in those days, anyway. Can't you see our Charlie as a cavalier. Not the laughing variety, of course!

"Andrew will decide the script ultimately, of course, but we will have a say in the matter. I want people to come out of the theatre feeling that they have seen something worth while. We want the film to say a few truths – not the usual odd pop star turns to film acting piece."

What has been happening to all this fantastic money that the Stones have earned this year? The answer is that expenses are astronomical, of course. The total cost of the equipment they use on stage is £4,000 to begin with and each guitarist owns at least six instruments.

Hotel bills run into as much as £1,000 a week and salaries for secretarial, accountants, solicitors, etc., can be as much as £300 a week.

The van carrying their equipment (the Stones now travel in an Austin Princess) has to be renewed every year and costs yet another £1,000. I asked lead guitarist Brian Jones whether he considers himself a rich man now? He had just bought a Rolls-Royce.

Boutique

"Not yet," smiled Brian, "but I'm working on it. With a show business partner I've just opened a couple of boutiques selling Swedish clothes and I expect that to bring me in the kind of extra loot that Keith and Mick have been coming from their composing. They are both on their way to being dollar millionaires – I'm chasing hard."

A milestone in the Stones sensational year was their performance on the hallowed stage of the foremost variety theatre of the world – the London Palladium.

Scenes inside that theatre at the actual performance will be remembered by some security officers with fear, for hundreds of girls tried to crash through the lines of police officers and storm the stage.

"It was the one thing about the performance that spoilt the occasion," said Mick. "We hate to see our fans manhandled."

Dead pan

I took that king of the dead pan expression and master of the epigram – Charlie Watts – to one side after he had completed his first house performance and asked how it felt to step on to a stage where artists like Danny Kaye, Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland had trod.

"Just another stage, isn't it," sniffed Charlie and invited me back to the dressing room to watch a gangster movie on TV.

A year ago the Stones might only have received £500 for a show but how they are paid £1,000 for a short 25- or 30-minute appearance. If you have a contract in your pocket for a live performance by the Stones in America it's worth a gold mine.

For some followers of classical music the desecration of the year was when the Stones flew into the country of Beethoven and Bach. Germany got well and truly Stoned!

When the group flew into Dusseldorf there were thousands of teenagers awaiting their arrival. They pushed down fences surrounding the public enclosure and police had to drench them with high pressure jets.

Driven back into the airport building the fans went wild, smashed windows and wrenched telephones out of the wall. None of the leading German hotels would accept the Rolling Stones for fear of the damage the fans might cause.

Charged!

At the concert that night, 12,000 youngsters paid 14s. and 21s. to get into two performances. Outside the venue, the massive Gruga Hall, over 2,000 yelling girls were charged by police on horses, when they tried to gate-crash the hall.

Bill Wyman told me on his return: "One policeman we spoke to said that there had been nothing like it since the old Nazi rallies.

"The kids were standing on their seats and yelling 'Heil Stones' which is funny if you think about it."

As usual the Stones received their usual quota of unfair attacks in the national press during the year. Mick Jagger was practically prosecuted for propelling a young person's posterior along the pavement.

She had apparently picked a fight with Mick's girl Chrissie Shrimpton and duly provoked Mick. Following that was the infamous garage incident where they were accused of ungentlemanly behaviour and taken to court.

Bill Wyman summed up the reactions of the group to the whole business when he said: "Thank heavens we've got some bad publicity – I was beginning to get worried that the parents might begin to accept us."

What so many people fail to grasp is that Stones and their management have quite deliberately built up a reputation for the group surrounding their refusal to conform in behaviour and manner.

Andrew Oldham is a great deal shrewder than some realise and he and the Stones know that "respectability" breeds contempt amongst young people. The more the mums and dads slate them – the more the fans love them.

One magistrate even went so far as to call them "animals and morons" this year. The Stones were delighted – they don't want to be accepted by the older generation and when an M.P. defended them against this slanderous attack in the House of Commons, Keith Richard practically fell apart.

"We expect to get knocks," said Keith. "People expect us to do unusual things and we do – we are the original symbols for rebellion."

And so the Rolling Stones roll on from success to success – THE OUTLAWS OF POP AND NOTHING WILL STOP THEM – except maybe old age!

© Keith Altham, 1966

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