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The Rolling Stones in the press: “Stones – Our obsession”
*By Norman Jopling. From the Record Mirror, England, November 21 1964
The success of a pop star is not always measured in terms of hit records — when a star, or a group reaches a certain stage, there are other points of success. International tours, films, and books.
And Corgi books have just issued what is bound to be one of the biggest selling paperbacks this year. It’s called Our Own Story—by the Rolling Stones And it’ll sell well, because not only does it give a complete account of the lives and career of the five lads, but also contains a wealth of unpublished and exclusive material about them—and some insights into their personal lives and feelings which have not been revealed until now.
Mick talked about his early school days: “Even at the age of six I found myself taking an interest in things which attracted me. Try to cram some rubbishy knowledge down my throat and I’d just pack it in. Just as if it were a concrete road block. But Mick couldn’t take that. He wore any sort of uniform—it was a dreadful that peaked cap stuff—but if I could find a way to lose my school cap—I did.”
TEDDY BOY
Keith’s friends remember him as being rather a snappy dresser. He went through the Teddy Boy period, wearing skin-tight trousers, orange socks, and all the trimmings. Then he moved into the smart school wear, with denim drainpipe trousers, Jean jacket and mauve-striped shirts.
After the group was initially formed, they were asked what their ambitions were. Brian said: “I am sure that between the three of us, with a Muddy Waters LP, providing the background music. We thought that our parents, after the efforts they’d made in giving us a good home-life and good education, we wondered if we were doing the right thing by not getting into something solid, and forgetting all about this mad music bit.”
Mick really had no misgivings. He’d say we were here to go for what we believed in. We had faith in what the Blues stood for. Keith added: “Blues accords with life’s problems, because you can relate Blues to everybody. One of us would have been down the sewer and another on the bins, or in the street, but just the same it would have been Blues.”
In their flat, the food-cupboard was nearly always bare. Keith’s mum turned up trumps more than once, sending food to keep her parents going. A day-to-day survival kind of existence, with parcels of food sometimes left on the doorstep, and food vouchers from Mick. And if a week’s rent cash it would probably be spent on cigarettes, glasses of beer, or guitar strings.
After the Stones had joined the National Jazz Federation they met with their stiffest opposition—from jazzmen, embittered at the crumbling trad scene. One jazz man watching the fans leaving for the last buses and trains, after a Stones date said: “By the time we’ve finished with that little lot, they won’t be able to get a job anywhere.”
STAGE SUITS
After their success Brian explained one reason for the team’s non-conformity in clothes: “At first, stage suits. But we just couldn’t see ourselves in a dinner jacket. You see, we were all anti-convention. And going out of that groove into a carbon copy of old orthodoxy…”
“For some reason there are the odd characters about who think they can treat us like a curse of dogs. We don’t have goes at people yet they manage to come out with insults hurled straight at us. You hear people yell out that we don’t wash. Well, who ARE those people? They only yell when there’s a crowd around them. If they had any courage they’d not write anonymous letters to us. They’d sign their names and addresses so we could reply. And the Rabbis with A Cause go on and on telling of incident trivial and important. And they told them to PETE GOODMAN, in “Our Own Story—by the Rolling Stones” with 32 original photographs, and published by Coronet books at 5/.
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