Thursday, October 29, 2015

Exclusive: Collector wants to sell unreleased Rolling Stones tape...

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Bill reveals his favourite photo – Daily Express interview ...

“This photo of me with Howlin’ Wolf was taken at his home in Chicago in July 1975.
I gave him tickets for a Stones concert and, as I’d heard in the media that he didn’t have any money, I arranged a limo to collect him and his wife Lillie. He came backstage then when he went into the auditorium, they all stood and applauded him.
His wife said it was one of the most wonderful moments of his life and the next night he invited the whole band to his house. Can you believe that nobody wanted to go except me? 
Howlin’ Wolf was like a giant bear. Everyone thought he was frightening and to look at him he was, but he was a real sweetheart when you got to know him
Bill Wyman
So I ended up going along with my son Stephen, who was 13 at the time, and we had the most wonderful night – eating soul food and talking about music.
I asked him to put one of his records on and he said, ‘I haven’t got any because I end up giving them away to people when they come round.’
Stephen took the photo. He travelled with me and the Stones during school holidays, throughout Europe and also America whenever possible so he was used to meeting celebrities, but he was always in awe of them and he always asked for their autographs.
Howlin’ Wolf was like a giant bear. Everyone thought he was frightening and to look at him he was, but he was a real sweetheart when you got to know him.
I first met him in May 1965 when The Rolling Stones did the Shindig! show, which was a bit like Top Of The Pops, and it was the first airing in America of Satisfaction.
We insisted that if they didn’t put Howlin’ Wolf on the show, we wouldn’t do it either, and when he performed he caused a sensation.
Five years later myself, Charlie Watts and Eric Clapton played on The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions album and being in the studio with him was fantastic. That was a bit special to say the least – he was one of my idols.
Charlie and myself were the married ones in the Stones. I was already married with an eight-month-old son when I joined the band in 1962 and Charlie got married a couple of years later then had a daughter.
We were the steady, reliable rhythm section. In those early days, the family only came along on rare occasions because there wasn’t the money to pay for them, plus the schedule was so packed.
I’m not sure bands today would understand what it was like back then. In 1963 alone, we played more than 340 shows, and 320 the year after, and that was before we did Europe, Scandinavia and Australia.
You’d do so much on any given day: you’d meet up in the morning to do interviews and have photos taken, then you’d grab a quick lunch, you’d cut three tracks in the recording studio, jump in the van and you were off to Southend or Sheffield to do two shows a night.
After that you’d drive to Landudno or somewhere and that was before there were motorways so you could be in a van all night.
It’s a different business now, but I do enjoy the freedom I have to make music on my own – to be able to produce it and arrange it myself. That’s what I did on my new album. You use very few musicians and do most of it yourself, and that’s where the buck stops – you can’t blame anybody else for how it turns out.”

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Video - Guitar Moves with Keith Richards: "The Acoustic Guitar Is the Most Important"


Keith Richards in Memphis and New York City for gala events...

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Keith Richards Honors Merry Clayton After Car Crash...

The session singer Merry Clayton, best known for her fire-starting vocal runs on the Rolling Stones’ song “Gimme Shelter,” was still reaching new highs when she was involved in a serious car accident last year.
Just a few months before the June 2014 crash, the film “20 Feet From Stardom,” which put backup singers including Ms. Clayton front and center, won an Academy Award for best documentary, after its Grammy victory for best music film.
“Oh my God, I was at the pinnacle — I was at the top of my game,” she said recently in her first interview since the accident. “I was overwhelmed at what had transpired with the film and then to just go out for a moment and in that moment your life is changed.”
More than a year later, Ms. Clayton, 66, is returning gradually to public view, having lost both her legs as a result of the accident. On Thursday, she will receive the Clark & Gwen Terry Award for Courage at the Jazz Foundation of America’s “A Great Night in Harlem” gala at the Apollo, where Sonny Rollins will also receive a lifetime achievement honor. Ms. Clayton will accept her award in a taped segment from her home in Los Angeles, while Keith Richards will note the occasion with a live performance of “Gimme Shelter,” the first track from the Stones’ 1969 album, “Let It Bleed.”
After five months in the hospital, Ms. Clayton has been undergoing what she called “intense therapy” in Los Angeles. “It’s been a lot of learning and a lot of adjusting,” she said by phone. “It was a rough one, but I’m
from some strong, strong stock and from strong, strong believers.”
Raised as a gospel singer, she credited her faith — along with the support of her family; her manager, Alan Abrahams; and friends, like the record executive Lou Adler — with helping her recover. The Jazz Foundation and MusiCares, a charity affiliated with the Grammys for ailing musicians, also “came to the rescue immediately,” Ms. Clayton said, for instance, helping to add a stair lift to her house.
“It’s not an easy task, but I am just so determined,” Ms. Clayton said of her rehabilitation. “If I was determined enough to make it out of that hospital alive and better, I can certainly forge straight ahead.”
She said the gravity of her accident became clear to her only recently, when she saw something about prosthetics on television. “It finally hit me after maybe a year and a half,” Ms. Clayton said. “I stopped and I looked at this and said, ‘Oh my God, that’s me.’ ”
“One of my goals is to get back on my feet again,” she added. “My mind is good, my heart is good and hope is a wonderful thing.”
Ms. Clayton, who also sang backup for Ray Charles, Carole King and Neil Young, said Mr. Richards had called her recently to “dish the tea” about his performance at the Jazz Foundation event, proceeds from which will benefit the organization’s Musicians Emergency Fund. “He said, ‘Hello, darling, it’s Keith,’ ” she recalled. “Who else would be saying, ‘Hello, darling’ ”?
Beyond the tribute, new music is in the works, with a comeback project planned for next year, Ms. Clayton said. “I’ve always wanted to bless people with my voice because it’s my gift from God,” she said. “I’m still gorgeous, and guess what, I still have my voice. As long as I have my chops and I’m still looking wonderful, why should I go back?”

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Mick Jagger, Julien Temple and Carlos Acosta working on BBC film series in Cuba...

The BBC’s Creative Director Alan Yentob is working with Mick Jagger, the film director Julien Temple and ballet dancer Carlos Acosta on a series of films about the new Cuba.
Only weeks after the Caribbean nation re-opened relations with the United States, Yentob told The Independent that Temple was currently with Jagger in the Cuban capital Havana working on a “long-term project” to create the latest in a series of city-based films for the flagship BBC1 arts show Imagine. Previous films have featured London and Rio de Janeiro.
The Imagine host said he hoped to capture the story of a potential Rolling Stones concert in Havana, which could provide the finale for the band’s South American tour next spring. “We have started filming and this is going to be a project which will have a theatrical life (cinema release),” he said. Yentob, who is old friends with Jagger, also worked with Temple on Requiem for Detroit, a remarkable BBC2 film exploring the cultural and economic story of one of America’s greatest industrial cities.
The BBC Creative Director is making a separate film with Acosta as the dancer realises a long-held ambition of putting together a new ballet company drawn primarily from his native Cuba. “This is his last season at the Royal Opera House and he’s setting up his own company. It’s also his story about his life in Cuba and his family,” Yentob promised.
A new series of Imagine begins later this month with a film set in Venice, where Yentob and the author and Independent columnist Howard Jacobson examine the impact of one of Shakespeare’s most contentious characters, Shylock, the Jewish money-lender from The Merchant of Venice. The pair visit the city’s ancient Jewish quarter, Il Ghetto Nuovo, and discuss with Shakespearean academics the influence of Shylock on anti-Semitism. Jacobson’s re-imagining of the character is the subject of his forthcoming book, Shylock is My Name.
Temple and Yentob have combined again in the new Imagine series to make The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson, tracing the former Dr Feelgood guitarist’s battle with cancer and recent improvement in health. Temple previously made the acclaimed Dr Feelgood documentary Oil City Confidential and the new Imagine film was to be the story of the charismatic Wilko’s final days. Yentob said: “We started when he was going to die and then he got this redemption and discovered he was not going to die. It’s an amazing film.”
In a further adventure in music documentary, to be shown next month, Yentob has shot Who is David Gilmour? in which the Pink Floyd singer and guitarist explains the process of making his last album, Rattle That Lock, with his wife Polly Samson, the novelist and lyricist. “He does these scat verses and she put earphones on and walks across the beach and writes the words,” he said.
The new series includes a documentary on David Chipperfield – “he’s Angela Merkel’s favourite architect” – and the sculptor Sir Antony Gormley as he prepares for his momentous exhibition at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence.

 http://www.independent.co.uk

Rolling Stones' rider satisfaction...

The legendary rock band's rider has been leaked by TMZ and suggests the ageing members, who include Sir Mick Jagger, 72, and Keith Richards, 71, struggle with modern technology as they need written notes to be able to get standard items such as the TV and kettle to work.
They also demand alcohol is always available at the bar 24 hours a day wherever they are and a full supply of their favourite brands of cigarettes, Marlboro Reds and Marlboro Lights, according to the website.
The band - which also includes Charlie Watts, 74, and Ronnie Wood, 68 - also ask that each of their rooms have blacked out windows so they can party into the early hours in privacy.
The 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' rockers also request that extra staff are on hand for their room service requests and insist on being able to get their dry cleaning done whatever the time is so they don't have to wait till the next morning to get rid of any stains on their clothing.
The Rolling Stones completed their 15-date 'Zip Code Tour' of North America in July.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Keith Richards: 'I Think I Cracked A Rib During Summer Rolling Stones Gig'...


The rocker took a nasty fall onstage at the 4 July (15) gig and knew instinctively he'd suffered some internal damage, but he feared that if he went public with his pain, tour bosses would scrap the gig and postpone the next few tour dates.
Richards tells Rolling Stone magazine, "Somebody tossed a red straw boater hat (onstage). It landed right in front of my feet. I kicked it aside... and it f**king bounced back in front of me, and I hit the floor.
"Suddenly I'm on my hands and knees in front of 60,000 people. My bracelet came off from the shock. It was, 'OK, get out of this one, pal!'"
"I might've cracked a rib," he adds, "There's nothing doctors can do about it. I thought, 'S**t, if I let them know how much I'm hurting, the doctors and the insurance companies will be like, 'Cancel the next gigs'. F**k it. I'll live with it. After 50 years on the stage, you're going to fall over occasionally and take a knock."

Charlie Watts hates tattoos...

Charlie Watts ''hates'' tattoos.
The Rolling Stones rocker was unimpressed when his granddaughter Charlotte Watts had the band's famous lips logo inked onto her arm when she was just 14 years old.
Charlotte said: ''It was the only one that my Mama was ever going to let me get because it's the only one that neither of us could ever regret. Although, she wasn't happy when I chose such an obvious place!
''Pa said one thing, 'What do you want that for?!' He hates tattoos and piercings.''
The 18-year-old model is very ''proud'' of her down-to-earth grandfather and is grateful he leads a more low-key life than bandmate Sir Mick Jagger.
She told HELLO! Fashion Monthly magazine: ''We're really proud of Pa. He's just so humble about it [fame]. He's not all over the place, he's just so damn cool.
''It would probably be a different story if we were being chased all the time. I can't imagine what it must be like for Mick.''
Last month, Charlotte was left devastated when a £32,000 taxidermy wolf -a gift from her grandfather after she underwent surgery on her back - was stolen from her West London home by a group of partygoers, and she is now feeling relieved after her beloved animal, who she has named Frostbite, was handed in to police.
She said: ''I'm just very relieved he's safe and sound. I thought they'd thrown him out the window and went outside expecting to see a crushed wolf. Then I realised they'd taken him. I was so upset.
''It is not something I'd normally receive for Christmas - it was the fact I'd survived something really horrible. And I really love wolves and knew I could never have a pet one, so I got Frostbite.''
The new issue of HELLO! Fashion Monthly is on sale tomorrow (06.10.15)

Photos: Ronnie Wood - Cheltenham Literature Festival - Day 2 at Cheltenham - Cheltenham, United Kingdom - Saturday 3rd October 2015








Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Rod Stewart wants The Faces to perform at Glastonbury ...





Rod Stewart is desperate for The Faces to be invited to play at Glastonbury festival.
The 70-year-old singer has called on the festival's founder Michael Eavis to get in touch with the band - which recently reformed with remaining members Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones - because it's the one gig they never got to do.
Rod pleaded: ''I just wish someone would phone us up from Glastonbury and ask us to do that. They have never done it. We would be up for it. There are only three of us standing now.''
The 'Stay With Me' hitmakers tried to reform for a string of dates in 2010 and 2011 but chose to go with Simply Red's Mick Hucknall on lead vocals instead of Rod.
And Ronnie previously blamed Rod's management for the delay in making the full reunion happen.
The 'Ooh La La' crooners - whose bassist Ronnie Lane passed away in 1997 - were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 where they were set to reunite but Rod pulled out of the performance due to illness.
The rockers finally reunited last month, but Rod admitted it went by in a flash.
He told BBC Radio London: ''It is like sex sometimes. It goes by too fast.''

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Oct. 5, 2015, Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger was seen in Havana, fueling speculation that there will be a Stones concert in Cuba...


On Oct. 5, 2015, Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger was seen in Havana, fueling speculation that there will be a Stones concert in Cuba. According to the official Communist Party newspaper Granma, Jagger's visit to Havana (Cuba's capital) was private "but it could be related to a concert that the Rolling Stones wants to give in Cuba."
Granma also reported that during the weekend of Oct. 3, 2015, Jagger attended a timba concert given by the group Bamboleo. He was also seen at multiple nightclubs in Havana. There is speculation that the Rolling Stones are eyeing a concert at Latin American Stadium in Havana. With a possible Stones concert in Cuba, will other Latin American countries in North America also be on the itinerary for a future Rolling Stones tour? Mexico would certainly be on that list.
As previously reported, the Rolling Stones will record a new studio album and tour South America in 2016. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards confirmed the news on Sept. 15, 2015, during a iHeartRadio "Icons" event broadcast during an interview with host Jim Kerr. According to press release from iHeartRadio: "Richards told Kerr that he was in London last week and got together with Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood. The group will tour South America in the first months of next year, and have 'definite plans to record' after that." The album's release date and the band's South American tour dates have not yet been announced.

Monday, October 5, 2015

Back To Basics – RARE limited edition red vinyl launched ...


bill_vinyl
Bill has launched a rare, limited edition run of his Back To Basics album on red vinyl – with just 250 editions available to the UK, and just 1,000 available worldwide.

The limited edition run is a rare treat: 180 gram of pure audiophile vinyl, along with an insert and the first pressing of 1,000 – individually numbered copies – available on red vinyl. It’s a collector’s gem, and an exclusive run that is likely to sell out quickly.
Buy the rare Back To Basics Limited Edition Red Vinyl Edition.
Back To Basics does exactly what it says on the sleeve. It is unashamedly stripped back. The snappy lyrics are refreshingly audible and the instrumentation is clean, subtle and accomplished.
Bill Wyman’s first solo album in 33 years wears its influences on its sleeve – Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, JJ Cale – and there’s more than a passing nod to Bill’s own English background. It is that rare thing, a melt of styles and genres that actually work together – uplifting in a jaunty, dancey way and pensive in a bluesy, narrative way.
Bill Wyman’s last solo UK album, Bill Wyman, was released in 1982. Back To Basics comprises only his fourth UK solo release. But Bill has not been idle of course. 31 years as a recording artist, author of seven learned books, globally exhibited photographer, metal detecting expert with his own brand of metal detector, producer, composer for film and TV and founder of the very successful Rhythm Kings who release albums and tour regularly – he has had a pretty full calendar. It was only when archiving old demos last year he realised he had around 60 songs he’d never released. He chose three songs that needed reworking and did just that. He put them together with brand new songs and went into his studio to record them. The album comprises 12 tracks in total, eight of which are new songs. Musicians joining Bill in the studio include long-time collaborator/guitarist Terry Taylor, Guy Fletcher (Mark Knopfler), Graham Broad and Robbie McIntosh while co-production credit goes to Andy Wright (Jeff Beck, Eurythmics, Simply Red). On Bill Wyman’s ‘Back To Basics’ you get music that’s the real deal!
SIDE A
1. What & How & If & When & Why
2. I Lost My Ring
3. Love, Love, Love
4. Stuff (Can’t Get Enough)
5. Running Back To You
6. She’s Wonderful
SIDE B
1. Seventeen
2. I’ll Pull You Through
3. November
4. Just A Friend Of Mine
5. It’s A Lovely Day
6. I Got T

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Rolling Stones' next 'Vault' series to feature 1990 Tokyo show...



This 1990 concert will be released by Eagle Rock Entertainment.

(Video + info, photo) - Ronnie Wood Joins James Bay For Faces Cover...





Ronnie Wood Stunned Music Fans At
Folk-rocker James Bay's Gig In London On Wednesday Night (30sep15), When
He Joined The Singer/songwriter Onstage At The Brixton Academy For A
Cover Of His Old Band The Faces' (You Know) I'm Losing You.
The Rolling Stones star, who recently performed with Faces bandmates
Rod Stewart and Kenney Jones at a charity gig in Surrey, England, jumped
at the chance to be part of the show after revealing he's a big fan of
Bay's music.

The singer tells Rolling Stone magazine, "It's been
a mad few weeks. Back at the beginning of September, Ronnie presented
me with an award... so I was lucky enough to meet and get to hang with
him... that night.

"Later on, Ronnie and I got talking, and he'd
asked what I was up to, etc. I'd been telling everyone how excited I
was about my three nights coming up at Brixton Academy. Next thing I
know, all caught up in the moment, the question just jumped out, 'Would
you be up for joining me onstage?' He said he'd totally be up for it.
And that was that."

Wood's Stones bandmate Keith Richards is
also a fan - he recently told The Quietus, "Ed Sheeran is really
interesting to me ... And James Bay."