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The
Rolling Stones History
Formed in 1962, The Rolling Stones have become one of the
world's most recognized and enduring bands. Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards first crossed paths at Dartford Maypole County
Primary School. A decade later the two had become avid fans
of blues and American R&B, and shared a mutual friend
in musician Dick Taylor. Jagger and Taylor were jamming together
in Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. Richards would soon
join the group and become expelled from Dartford Technical
College for truancy.
Meanwhile in another part of town. . . .Cheltenham's Brian
Jones had begun a career in truancy to practice the sax. By
the time Jones had reached sixteen, the future Stone had fathered
two illegitimate children and skipped town to Scandinavia,
where he began to pick up guitar. Jones eventually drifted
to London where he spent some time with Alexis Korner's Blues,
Inc., then made the move to start up his own band. While working
at the Ealing Blues Club with a loose version of Blues, Inc.
and drummer Charlie Watts, Jones began jamming with Jagger
and Richards on the side. Jagger would front the new band.
Jones,
Jagger and Richards, along with drummer Tony Chapman, cut
a demo tape that was rejected by EMI. Chapman left the band
shortly after to attend Art College. By this time Blues, Inc.
had changed their name to the Rolling Stones, after a Muddy
Waters song.
The
Rolling Stones' first show occurred on July 12, 1962 at the
Marquee. In January of 1963, after a series of personnel changes,
Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts rounded out the Stones' line-up.
A
local entrepreneur, Giorgio Gomelsky, booked the group for
an eight month stint at his Crawdaddy Club. The highly successful
run at the Crawdaddy attracted the attention of manager Andrew
Loog Oldham, who signed them as clients. With the Beatles
quickly becoming a sensation, Oldham decided to market the
Stones as their wicked opposites.
In
June of 1963, the Stones released their first single, a Chuck
Berry tune, "Come On." The group performed on the
British TV show "Thank Your Lucky Stars," where
the producer told Oldham to get rid of "that vile-looking
singer with the tire-tread lips." The single reached
#21 on the British charts.
After
proving themselves with a series of chart topping hits, Jagger
and Richards began writing their own songs using the pseudonym
"Nanker Phelge." "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)"
became the band's first U.S. Top Forty hit. January of 1965
was the year the Stones broke another # 1 in the U.K. with
"The Last Time" and broke the top ten in the U.S.
with the same tune. The band's next single, "(I Can't
Get No) Satisfaction," held the # 1 spot for four weeks
and went on to become probably their most famous.
The
Stones released their first album of all-original material
in 1966 with "Aftermath." The impact of the release
was dulled, due in part, to the simultaneous release of the
Beatles' "Revolver" and Bob Dylan's "Blonde
on Blonde" - a good year for rock and roll. The following
year, the Stones were back in the limelight when the group
performed "Let's Spend The Night Together" on the
"Ed Sullivan Show." Amid threats of censorship,
Jagger mumbled the title lines of the song. Some claim Jagger
sang "Let's Spend Some Time Together."
With
the release of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper," it seemed
every band began to gauge themselves against the landmark
recording - including the Stones. In December of '67, the
Stones released "Their Satanic Majesties Request"
- panned as an "ambitious mess."
The
following year the Stones went back to their roots with the
release of "Jumping Jack Flash." The song landed
them a # 3 hit. "Beggar's Banquet" was hailed as
the band's finest achievement.
On
June 9, 1969, Brian Jones announced he was leaving the group
saying: "I no longer see eye to eye with the others over
the discs we are cutting." Within a week, Jones was replaced
by Mick Taylor (ex-John Mayall guitarist). Plans Jones had
made to start his own band were cut short when on July 3,
1969, he was found dead in his swimming pool. After the death,
at a concert in London's Hyde Park, Jagger read an excerpt
from a poem by Shelley and released thousands of butterflies
over the park.
More
tragedy was about to strike the group when the Stones gave
a free "thank-you America" concert at California's
Altmont Speedway. A young black fan, Merideth Hunter, was
stabbed to death by members of the Hell's Angels motor cycle
gang. The Stones had hired the gang - on the advice of the
Grateful Dead - as security for the event. The murder was
captured on film by the Maysles brothers in their documentary
"Gimmie Shelter." As a result of public outcry,
"Sympathy for the Devil" was dropped from the set-list
for the next six years. The band had actually been playing
"Under My Thumb" when the murder occurred.
In
1970, the Stones formed their own record label - Rolling Stones
Records and released "Sticky Fingers," which reached
# 1 in 1971. The album also introduced fans to the Andy Warhol
designed "lips and lolling tongue logo." That same
year Jagger married Nicaraguan fashion model Bianca Perez
Morena de Macias.
After
the release of "Goats Head Soup," Mick Taylor left
the group and was replaced by Faces guitarist Ron Wood . The
Stones had auditioned a number of top session men, many of
whom appeared on the "Black and Blue" LP, after
which the group chose Wood. After settling commitments Wood
still had with Rod Stewart and the Faces, he officially joined
the Stones in 1976.
In
March, 1977, Richards and his common-law wife, Anita Pallenberg
were arrested in Canada for possession of heroin. The arrest
jeopardized the future of the Stones - but Richards was given
a suspended sentence and subsequently kicked his habit in
1978.
One
of the Stones' busiest years came in 1981 with the release
of "Tattoo You." The album cruised at # 1 for nine
weeks and produced such Stones classics as "Start Me
Up" and "Waiting On a Friend." The tour for
the album produced a live album, "Still Life," and
a concert film - Hal Ashby's "Let's Spend the Night Together."
The
eighties began to take their toll on the group after a series
of less than phenomenal releases. Though each of the group's
next two releases, "Undercover" and "Dirty
Work," featured one Top Twenty hit, the group was beginning
to do little more than go through the motions. The relationship
between Jagger and Richards began to drift and the group would
not see a studio for the next three years. During this time,
Jagger released his 1984 solo album, "She's the Boss,"
which earned the singer platinum success. His next effort,
"Primitive Cool" in 1987, didn't even break the
Top 40. It was at this point that Richards, who had long stated
that he would never make the solo leap and resented Jagger
for making albums outside of the Stones, released 1988's "Talk
is Cheap." The feud was on. Jagger and Richards took
shots at each other in the press and in song. Richards' single
"You Don't Move Me," was aimed at his longtime songwriting
partner.
The
antidote came when the songwriters traveled to Barbados to
begin work on a new Rolling Stones album. The result would
be the critically acclaimed "Steel Wheels" in 1989.
The success of the "Steel Wheels" tour spawned the
group's fifth live album, capturing the spirit of the Rolling
Stones which many had believed was gone.
Nearly
three decades after the group was formed, the Stones forged
ahead into the nineties. The early half of the nineties saw
Stones solo albums from Richards and Jagger, but it was apparent
that fans were more interested in the two artists as a team.
In
'94, two years after bassist Bill Wyman's departure, the group
released "Voodoo Lounge." The critically hailed
album was the first under the group's new multi-million dollar
deal with Virgin Records. The deal also gave Virgin the rights
to some of the Stones most well known works including "Exile
on Main Street," "Sticky Fingers," and Some
Girls." The album won the Stones a 1994 Grammy Award
for Best Album.
In
1996, the group released "The Rolling Stones Rock and
Roll Circus." The film brought together bands like the
Who, Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Mitch
Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Marianne Faithful
and of course the Rolling Stones. Recorded over two days in
December, 1968, the film was kept in the archives because
the Stones felt their performance left much to be desired
- especially after the show the Who had put on. Nevertheless,
the Stones "Circus" is an important document as
well as a window to a time when, as the liner notes proclaim,
"for a brief moment it seemed that rock 'n' roll would
inherit the earth" - David Dalton, 1995.
Source:
The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock And Roll
In 1997 The Stones released Bridges To Babylon & embarked
on another extremely successful world tour, which came to
an end in September 1998. In November 1998 we saw the release
of yet another live Stones album, entitled No Security. Then,
in January 1999 the Stones began yet another tour in Oakland,
California, which is set to take them across the US playing
arena sized venues & eventually land them back in Europe
in May 1999. In June 1999 they will finally play the UK (Edinburgh,
Sheffield & London), shows that were cancelled on the
B2B Tour due to Britain's tax laws. So, as you can see, 37
years after the band began they are still going strong &
without a doubt will continue to roll right into the Millenium!
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