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|Charlie Watts| |Mick Jagger| |Keith Richards| |Ronnie Wood|

The Story of The Rolling Stones

An otherwise ordinary day in 1960, a teenaged Mick Jagger made his way through a railway station in Dartford, England, with a few blues albums tucked under his arm. It's impossible to say what was going through his head that day but his timing was perfect. He walked at just the right pace, took just the right turns, made just the right decisions, and ran right into an old childhood acquaintance, Keith Richards, with whom he would quickly rekindle a friendship. A short four years later, the two stood at the center of the most controversial and some would say greatest rock-and-roll band in the world, the Rolling Stones.

In the meantime, Jagger and Richards would step off their London-bound train and head to separate colleges Mick to the London School of Economics, Keith to Sidcup Art College but they traveled the music scene together. For a time, they played in a band called Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. Later, at an Alexis Korner Blues Incorporated show, they met Brian Jones, a talented blond blues guitarist. Jones didn't have a lot in common with the college boys: he had fathered two illegitimate children by the time he was sixteen, and he favored the more traditional blues of slide guitarist Elmore James. (In fact, Jones had begun performing solo under the moniker of Elmo Lewis because he thought it sounded more authentic.) But Jagger and Richards soon began jamming with Blues Inc. which later acquired a drummer named Charlie Watts and eventually Jagger became a featured singer with the outfit.

Because of their mutual love of American blues, Jagger, Richards, and Jones began practicing on their own. After the trio moved into a tiny, dilapidated apartment in Edith Grove, Chelsea, they decided to form their own group, and they invited Dick Taylor, drummer Tony Chapman, and a boogie-woogie piano player named Ian Stewart to join. Brian Jones suggested the band call themselves the Rolling Stones, after the Muddy Waters tune "Rollin' Stone Blues," and the others, unable to come up with anything better, agreed. The newly formed band quickly cut a demo tape, which was rejected by EMI.

By 1962, the band was begging for gigs around London while practicing covers of the songs of their blues heroes such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Chapman was soon replaced by a reluctant Watts, who needed months of persuasion before he agreed to join the band. Taylor was replaced not long after by bassist Bill Wyman, who was accepted into the band because he had his own amp. The Stones soon began a very successful eight-month run at the Crawdaddy Club, where they hooked up with Andrew Loog Oldham, a nineteen-year-old manager and publicist. Oldham saw the band as the antithesis of the Beatles, who had just burst onto the scene, and he began a now-infamous press campaign that asked the question, "Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?" Oldham also decided to relegate mild-mannered Stewart to a behind-the-scenes role, where he remained as a session player and tour pianist.

Early in 1963 they deputise for Alexis Corner at the Marquee Club. Following this they have semi regular gigs at the Marquee, Eal Pie Island, and the Ealing Club. On the 14th January 1963 the Rolling Stones, Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ian Stewart, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, first played together as a group at the Flamingo Club, Soho. They record at the I.B.C. Studios. In February the Rolling Stones begin an 8 month residency at the Crawdaddy Club, (named after a Bo Diddley song, 'Doing The Crawdaddy') Station Road, Richmond. Giorgio Gomelsky calls Peter Jones of Record Mirror, who tells Andrew Oldham about The Rolling Stones.

Oldham quickly got the Stones signed to Decca Records, and in June of 1963, they released their first single, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On," backed with Willie Dixon's "I Want To Be Loved." The single was a hit, and the band's star rose quickly after that (although the producer of one British television show on which the Stones performed urged Oldham to get rid of "that vile-looking singer with the tire-tread lips"). Oldham ignored the producer's advice and booked the group for the first annual National Jazz and Blues Festival. The band's next two singles, the Beatles' "I Wanna Be Your Man," and Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" both hit the top of the British charts; shortly afterward, they made another pair of chart-toppers, Bobby Womack's "It's All Over Now" which the band recorded at the legendary Chess studios in Chicago on their first trip to the States and the blues classic "Little Red Rooster."

By 1993, Wyman announced he wanted out, and Richards admitted that he did "everything but hold him at gunpoint" to get him to stay. By the summer of 1994, the Stones had another album and world tour ready to roll, and despite criticism that the album was just an excuse to hit the road, the Voodoo Lounge tour was another huge success. In many ways, the timing was perfect: the early nineties had seen a number of successful stadium tours by artists like Paul McCartney and U2. A resurgent Rolling Stones fit perfectly into concertgoers' plans.

In the last few years, the Stones have kept a lower profile. Jagger continues to pursue a film career, now as a producer; Richards is working on another solo album; and Charlie Watts, who has aged the most gracefully of all of the Stones, released an album with his jazz quintet featuring covers of songs by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, and other legendary composers. The Stones have had a phenomenal run, and it seems as though they are destined to end up like the blues legends they've admired for so long continuing to perform right into their twilight years.

Over Christmas 1962, there is a newspaper strike in New York, the Russians test nuclear devices in the Arctic, and the Queens message is broadcast by Telstar. On the 26th December, The Rolling Stones (as yet unnamed) have a disastrous booking in the Piccadilly Club.

1963