The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger: vocals
b. Michael Philip Jagger, 26 July 1943, Dartford
Keith Richards: guitar
b. 18 December 1943, Dartford
Brian Jones: harmonica and guitar
b. Lewis Brian Hopkins-Jones, 28 February 1942, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire;
d. 3 July 1969, London
Bill Wyman: bass
b. William Perks, 24 October 1936
Charlie Watts: drums
b. 2 June 1941, Islington
 
The Rolling Stones are probably the most enduring group to emerge from 1960s British pop. They offer a remarkable contrast to their more successful northern contemporaries, the Beatles: two members come from clearly middle-class backgrounds, skiffle played a very small part in their background, and they did not play in Hamburg with Tony Sheridan. However, they did become the object of a marketing strategy specifically designed to contrast them with John, Paul, George, and Ringo. (See Charlesworth 1994.)
 
1949   [MJ 5-6; KR 5-6; BJ 6-7]
Living in the same town, Mike Jagger and Keith Richards initially meet at Dartford Maypole County Primary School, Kent (a SE London suburb). Brian Hopkins-Jones is growing up in the resort town of Cheltenham where father is an aeronautical engineer who plays the organ in church and his mother is a piano teacher.
 
1958   [MJ and KR 14-15; BJ 15-16]
Brian Jones (16) is the first in the band to make national news when a 14-year-old Cheltenham girl becomes pregnant with his child. His school expels him and Jones begins playing in trad bands. He will later move on to rock ‘n' roll bands.
 
1960   [MJ and KR 16-17; BJ 17-18]
Richards and Jagger meet again after many years on a London train when the former notices the blues albums tucked under his arm of the latter. Jagger is attending London School of Economics. Richards is attending Sidcup Art School from whence he will later be expelled (as he will also be from Dartford Technical College). Together with Dick Taylor they begin performing in Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. [Rolling Stones: Notes & Quotes]
 
1961   [MJ and KR 17-18; BJ 18-19]
Brian Jones goes to hear Blues Incorporated in Cheltenham where he is playing sax in local group, the Ramrods.
 
1962   [MJ and KR 18-19; BJ 19-20]
Richards, Jagger, and Taylor read about Korner & Davies' club in Ealing (London). Jagger becomes an occasional singer with Blues Incorporated. Richards & Jagger meet Elmo Lewis (aka Brian Jones, after Elmore James) through Korner and hear him and Paul Pond ("Jones" later of Manfred Mann) performing "Dust My Blues." Pond returns to Oxford to study (and later to play with Manfred Mann), and Jones looks for new partners. Ian Stewart (b.1938; d. 12 December 1985) becomes his pianist, with Jagger, Richards, Taylor and guitarist, Geoff Bradford (who shortly after, leaves). They practice at the Bricklayer's Arms in Soho.
12 July: The "Rolling Stones" debut at the Marquee with Mick Jagger (vocals), Keith Richards (guitar), Elmo Lewis (guitar), Dick Taylor (bass), Ian Stewart (piano), and Mick Avory (drums). Jagger: "I hope they don't think we're a rock and roll outfit." Harold Pendleton (owner) and Cyril Davies apparently think they are "a rock and roll outfit" and evict them from the Marquee.
December: Taylor quits and the band replaces him with Bill Wyman who had played with the Cliftons and had accompanied Dickie Pride for Larry Parnes. The Stones are impressed by his amps. Avory leaves and they replace him with Tony Chapman (also of the Cliftons), but he does not stay long with the starving group. The Stones ask several drummers to join them, including Carlo Little from Cyril Davies' Rhythm and Blues All Stars (and Screaming Lord Sutch).
 
1963   [MJ and KR 19-20; BJ 20-21]

9 January. Charlie Watts joins as their drummer. The Stones play dates at the Flamingo, the Marquee, and other clubs in and around London. At end of the month, they make their first attempts at recording music (with Glyn Johns as the engineer).
24 February. The Rolling Stones begin a regular stint at Georgio Gomelsky's Crawdaddy Club at the Station Hotel, Kew Road, Richmond on Sunday nights (7:00 to 10:30), replacing the Dave Hunt Group (with Ray Davies).
14 April. Gomelsky invites the Beatles to the Crawdaddy to see the Stones. The "four-headed monster" arrives, observes, and gets on well with the Stones. The Beatles give them tickets to their first big London Concert at the Royal Albert Hall and the Stones help Mal Evans and Neil Aspinal load the Beatles equipment after the gig. Gomelsky gradually gets Stones press attention.

Left: Bill Wyman (bass), Brian Jones (guitar), Charlie Watts (drums), Mick Jagger (vocals), Ian Stewart (maracas), and Keith Richards (guitar) at the Crawdaddy Club, Richmond.
28 April: Aspiring music mogul, Andrew Loog Oldham [born 29 January 1944], hears about the Stones from Peter Jones at Record Mirror. Oldham had held a number of jobs in London, including working for designer Mary Quant. When he decided that popular music was an area where he could earn enough money to support his lifestyle, he found employment in publicity with Don Arden and, briefly with Brian Epstein. (Arden fired him after he showed journalists the razor-slashed and urine-stained seats of a theatre after a performance.)

Phil Spector, Gene Pitney, Brian Jones, Andrew Oldham, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, and Mick Jagger at Regent Sound Studios in 1963.		 Brian Epstein hired Oldham at NEMS Enterprises as a publicist for Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas and Gerry and the Pacemakers. Epstein specifically asked him to think up stunts to get the Beatles and the others into press releases. When the Beatles first made the rounds of London musical newspapers Melody Maker and New Musical Express, Oldham was their guide. With Tony Calder, he worked on advertising for the Hollies and Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders. However, he knew he did not want to work for someone else. He left Epstein to find his own band to manage; but he had decided he we do so differently. He wanted to be like the members of the band.
As Oldham learned about the business, he saw in Phil Spector a model for his own life. The message was "control the recording process, the performers, and the rights to the recordings." From then on, Oldham wore the sun glasses and adopted the demeanor of his American idol. Hearing about the Stones, he goes to Richmond to see them play.
3 May. While Gomelsky is attending his father's funeral, Oldham becomes the Stones' manager. He then goes to Brian Epstein and offers him a share of the Stones for financial assistance, but the Epstein was uninterested and preoccupied with the performers already with his agency. Oldham convinces agent Eric Easton to help him and makes him co-manager.
With this attention and the success of numerous bands, Jagger decides to take a leave of absence from the London School of Economics.
10 May. Stones record "Come On," "I Want to Be Loved," "Love Potion No. 9," and "Pretty Thing" at Olympic Studios (Roger Savage, engineer).
That night in Liverpool, both George Harrison and Dick Rowe (the Decca producer who had rejected the Beatles in January 1962) were judges at the "Lancashire and Cheshire Beat Group Contest" in Philharmonic Hall. During a break, Harrison told Rowe about the Stones. Rowe left before the program had ended and returned immediately to London and drove out to Richmond to see the Stones at the Crawdaddy.
7 June. Decca releases "Come On" / "I Wanna Be Loved" (F 11675; UK #21)
13 June. The Stones appear on Thank Your Lucky Stars, promoting "Come On," and the disc climbs to #21 through sales to London fans. The Stones wear matching outfits of leather vests with hound's tooth pants for their first television appearance.
Andrew Loog-Oldham begins to shape a new public persona for the Stones. First, he makes Ian Stewart a road manager/roadie (they used his van) and session musician. Then, he drops the "s" from Keith Richards' name (like Cliff Richard).
10 September. Loog-Oldham had caught a ride with Lennon and McCartney after an awards ceremony. Taking them to a room above Ken Colyer's club where the Stones were rehearsing. Lennon and McCartney had finish off a song they had probably already been developing and teach it to the suitably impressed Stones. The Stones record "I Wanna Be Your Man" in Kingsway Studios, Holborn.
29 September to 3 November. First tour with Bo Diddley and the Everly Brothers. (Wyman, Jones and Watts accompany Diddley on radio appearance.)
1 November. "I Wanna Be Your Man" / "Stoned" [Decca F 11764, UK #9]
Richards: " . . . you can tell by the way the gigs are going there's something enormous coming. You can feel this energy building up as you go around the country. You find it winding tighter and tighter, until one day you get out there halfway through the first number and the whole place is full of chicks screaming. We'd walk into some of these places and it was like they had the Battle of Crimea goin' on—people gasping, tits hanging out, chicks choking, nurses running around." (Mark Greenfield. Keith Richards: The Rolling Stone Interview. 1971.)
 
1964   [MJ and KR 20-21; BJ 21-22]
17 January. The Rolling Stones [EP, UK #15]
21 February. "Not Fade Away" / "Little By Little" [Decca F 11845, UK #3]
16 April. The Rolling Stones [LP UK #1, US #11 released in June]
5-20 June. First US tour: San Bernadino, San Antonio, Excelsior, Omaha, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and New York City.
6 June. "Tell Me" / "I Just Want to Make Love to You" [US release]
26 June. "It's All Over Now" / "Good Times, Bad Times" released [Decca F 11934, UK #1]
25 September. "Time Is on My Side" / "Congratulations" [US release, US #6]
30 October to 15 November. Second US tour: Sacramento, Long Beach, San Diego, Cleveland, Providence, Milwaukee, Fort Wayne, Dayton, Louisville, and Chicago.
Jagger (to Ed Rudy, October 1964): "We find that the American songs are better for ourselves. The songs that Keith and I write . . . we give to other people. They're mostly ballads." (Mark Paytress, The Rolling Stones: Off the Record. London: Omnibus Press, 2009.)
3 November. The Mayor of Cleveland denounces the Stones as immoral and, after a 17-year-old woman falls from a balcony, he bans future pop concerts. Oldham begins to foster a bad-boy image, the opposite of the Beatles.
13 November. "Little Red Rooster" / "Off the Hook" released [Decca F 12014, UK #1]
27 November. Mick Jagger fined for traffic violations.
November. 12 x 5 [US LP, US #3]
December. "Heart of Stone" / "What a Shame" [US release]
 
1965   [MJ and KR 21-22; BJ 22-23]
15 January. The Rolling Stones No. 2 [LP UK #1]
26 February. "The Last Time" / "Play with Fire" released [Decca F 12104, UK #1]
23 April to 29 May. Third American tour: Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, London, Albany, Worcester, New York City, Philadelphia, Statesboro, Clearwater, Birmingham, Jacksonville, Chicago, San Francisco, San Bernadino, Long Beach, San Diego, San Jose, Fresno, Sacramento, New York City.
5 June. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" / "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" [London release, US #1]
20 August. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" / "The Spider and the Fly" release [Decca F 12220, UK #1]
22 July. Jagger, Jones, and Wyman fined for urinating against the wall of a service station after being denied access to the washroom.
September. Out of Our Heads [LP UK #2, US #1]
September. "Get Off of My Cloud" / "I'm Free" [US #1]
October. "Get Off of My Cloud"/ "The Singer Not the Song" [Decca F 12263, UK #1]
November. December's Children (and Everybody's) [US #4]
December. "As Tears Go By" / "Gotta Get Away" [US #6]
 
Stones 1965
British Blues Schedule The Yardbirds
  08-Oct-2017