Posts Tagged ‘Mick Jagger’

Mick Jagger has said he was not surprised by the recent unrest which broke out in London and spread to various other English cities, as he believes rioting is a feature of British life which has been around for centuries.

In an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper, Jagger revealed he was present in London during the riots, but was not shocked by what he witnessed.

SuperHeavy’s debut single ‘Miracle Worker’

Keith Richards has re-affirmed his desire to get The Rolling Stones back out on the road next year to celebrate their 50th anniversary, but has once again hinted frontman Mick Jagger is proving to be a stumbling block.

Indie Bands Struggle to get a Piece of the Pie

- In November 1965, a young up-starting group from West London, calling themselves ‘The Who’, would release their third single, “My Generation” – one of the first songs to define 60’s youth culture and a spark a new revolt against authority. It was tracks like these and bands like this once-raucous four-piece that played a significant part in the youth uprising of the 1960’s, with the song’s most quoted line , “I hope I die before I get old” an adopted maxim for pre-adult rebellion.

The Sunday Times will be printing this year’s Music Rich List in this weekend’s edition. Here is a preview of who made the list and who’s on top :

The list get’s topped by Warner Music Group‘s Edgar Bronfman – the man at the helm since 2004. Bronfman’s recently moved to London from his home in New York and entered the list straight at number 1.

Former Rolling Stone member Mick Taylor has threatened to sue the band over what he claims are unpaid royalties.

Taylor, who was a member of the band from 1969 to 1974, says he has not been recognised for his contributions to songs which ‘would not have existed without him’. Taylor has not received royalties from the supergroup since they switched labels in 1982. “I should have got a lawyer,” Taylor told the Mail on Sunday. “Instead I called them rude words. (They) had new contracts and were advised they didn’t need to pay me any more. They all know it’s not right. In fact it is outrageous. They get all the money and I get the plaudits and praise, even from Mick, I’ve tried to talk to Mick a couple of times, but I realise that hiring a lawyer is probably the only way they’ll take me seriously. But they figure I’m not going to do anything about it.”

Sir Mick Jagger was born in Dartford, Kent.

Jagger was born into a comfortable middle class environment. His father, Basil, was a teacher and his mother was a hairdresser. Jagger was the eldest of three sons and showed a passion for singing from an early age. “I was always a singer. I always sang as a child. I was one of those kids who just liked to sing,” Jagger is quoted as saying, in the book ‘According To The Rolling Stones’. “Some kids sing in choirs, others like to show off in front of the mirror. I was in the church choir and I also loved listening to singers on the radio – the BBC or Radio Luxembourg – or watching them on TV and in the movies.”

In 1960, while on the train to the London School of Economics, where he was studying, Jagger had a chance meeting with an old school friend, Keith Richards, who was attending Sidcup Art School. The pair soon discovered they had a mutual love of the American R n B artists of the time, and before long they had moved into a flat together in Chelsea, London.

Jagger and Richards began playing with their flatmate, Brian Jones, in various jazz clubs around London, and reportedly performed for the first time under the name ‘The Rollin’ Stones’ in The Marquee Club, on the 12th of July 1962. Eventually joined on drums by Charlie Watts and bass by Bill Wyman, the group began playing regularly around London, including an eighth month residency in the Crawdaddy Club, which was owned by the band’s first manager Giorgio Gomelsky.

After primarily releasing and performing covers from the early rock n roll pioneers such as Little Richard and Buddy Holly, Jagger and Richards began to write their own music together. In ‘According To The Rolling Stones’, Jagger recalls how the partnership began: “Keith likes to tell the story about the kitchen, God bless him. I think Andrew (Stones manager Andrew Oldham) may have said something at some point along the lines of ‘I should lock you in a room until you’ve written a song’ and in that way he did mentally lock us in a room, but he didn’t literally lock us in. One of the first songs we came out with was that tune for George Bean, the very memorable ‘It Should Be You’.”

It wasn’t long before the two songwriters began writing what would become classic tunes. The first Stones UK number one penned by the pair was ‘The Last Time’, released in February 1965. It was the precursor for a long and successful collaboration which would see the The Rolling Stones become one of the biggest and most successful rock bands of all time. The pair’s second UK no.1, ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, was the band’s first international hit, and classic albums such as ‘Sticky Fingers’, ‘Let It Bleed’ and ‘Exile On Main St.’ were almost exclusively made up of Jagger/Richards compositions.

In 1971, Jagger married for the first time, to Bianca Macias, who he met at a party in September 1970, they divorced in 1979. In 1990, he married model Jerry Hall, whom he had been seeing since the late seventies. The marriage was annulled in 1999.

Jagger was knighted at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in December 2003. His decision to accept the knighthood raised eyebrows amongst some fans, and it seems, band mates. Keith Richards called it a ‘fucking paltry honour’ and stated he did not want to share a stage with someone wearing ‘the old ermine’. However, Jagger shrugged off any criticism, and said of Richards: “I think he would probably like to get the same honour himself. It’s like being given an ice cream, one gets one and they all want one. It’s nothing new. Keith likes to make a fuss.”

As well as his huge success with The Rolling Stones, Jagger has dabbled in the acting world, appearing in a dozen or so movies including ‘Performance’ and ‘Ned Kelly’. He founded Jagged Films in 1995, which produced it’s first film in 2001 – the World War II drama ‘Enigma’.

Jagger continues to tour with The Rolling Stones, with record breaking results. Their 2005 ‘Bigger Bang’ tour broke all box office records, and he has amassed a personal fortune worth over £220m.

Brian Jones, guitarist and founder member of The Rolling Stones, was found dead at his home in Cotchford Farm, East Sussex.

Born in Cheltenham on 28th February 1942, Jones expressed an interest in music from a young age, becoming an accomplished piano, organ and clarinet player by the age of 14, he was given his first guitar as a present for his 17th birthday. After moving to London in his late teens, he emersed himself in the fledging blues and R n B scene in the city and soon had formed his own band, who Jones named The Rolling Stones. By 1963, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts were all in place with Jones and the band embarked on their first major tour in the autumn of that year.

After releasing a string of covers in their early years, original compositions by Jagger and Richards became the driving force for the band. The two former school friends began producing classic hits such as ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Paint It, Black’ and, despite Jones’ distinctive guitar playing and elaborate fashion sense becoming synoymous with The Rolling Stones, he found his control and influence over the band gradually shifting to the two songwriters.

The music track for these backstage shots is Brian Jones with Jimmy Hendrix.

By 1968, Jones was becoming more and more isolated from the rest of the band, contributing very little in the studio and was being consumed by drug problems. Growing tensions within the band came to a head when Jones was unable to join them on a planned tour of the US in November 1969 due to prior drug convictions. Ahead of the tour, in June 1969, Jones was informed by the other members that the band would embark on the tour without him and on June 9th 1969, Jones released a statement announcing his departure. He was replaced by Mick Taylor.

Less than a month later, Jones’ body was discovered at the bottom of the swimming pool of his country residence shortly after midnight, by his girlfriend Anna Wohlin. He was 27 years old.