Prickly Mick: No Stones! By DON KAPLAN

17/4/12

These creaky Stones won’t roll.

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is still seething that Keith Richards dared to insult his manhood, claiming in Keith’s 2011 tell-all autobiography, “Life,” that his longtime lady-loving bandmate has a “tiny todger.”

The barb, dubbed “Willygate” by the British press, has apparently torpedoed what was left of the aging rock duo’s already icy relationship and sank any chance for a Stones 50th anniversary reunion tour this year.

“Mick feels that Keith violated their friendship completely, damaged his reputation and that of the Rolling Stones,” a Stones source tells London’s Daily Mail.

Richards claims he discovered the tidbit about his old friend’s bits and pieces during a tryst he had in 1960 with Marianne Faithfull, then Jagger’s girlfriend.

Making matters worse, he added how it had been his good fortune to bury his head in Faithfull’s “beautiful jugs” during an afternoon sex romp.

Last week, Richards, 68, apologized — in an effort to patch things up with Jagger, also a spry 68.

“As far as the book goes, it was my story and it was very raw, as I meant it to be,” Richards said. “But I know that some parts of it, and some of the publicity, really offended Mick, and I regret that.”

'Rolling Stones: Celebrating 50 Years in Photography' exhibit opens in NYC

Among the many things that are being done to celebrate the Rolling Stones' 50th anniverary in 2012 is the photo exhibit "Rolling Stones: Celebrating 50 Years in Photography." The exhibit will be open to the public from May 4 to May 31, 2012, at the Morrison Hotel Gallery at 124 Prince Street in New York City.

The exhibit is sponsored by GrandLife Hotels.

The photographers whose work is featured in the exhibit include Michael Cooper, Henry Diltz, Barry Feinstein, Lynn Goldsmith, Bob Gruen, Michael Joseph, Gered Mankowitz, Andee Nathanson, Terry O'Neill, Neal Preston, Ken Regan, Ethan Russell, Dave Stewart, Barrie Wentzell and Ian Wright.

There are several 50th anniversary-themed Rolling Stones photo books that go on sale in 2012, and many of these photographers' Rolling Stones pictures are featured in these books. ("The Rolling Stones: 50" is the only 50th anniversary book about the Rolling Stones that is authorized by the band. The book goes on sale in July 2012.)

Several of the exhibit's photographers released statements about their favorite Rolling Stones experiences and what the band means to them.

Here are their statements:

Henry Diltz

"My main connection to the Rolling Stones was the three-week tour I photographed in '79 of Ron Wood's solo group the New Barbarians. The group featured Keith Richards on guitar, Stanley Clarke on bass, and Ian McLagan on keyboards. We barn-stormed the country in a private luxury jet and stayed in luxurious hotels in major cities.Keith and Ronnie were like two little kids, laughing and enjoying everything that happened. It was like The Rolling Stones without the boss (Mick Jagger) being there, so everyone felt a sense of freedom and everything was allowed. I enjoyed three weeks of amazing music and a window on an amazing lifestyle."

Lynn Goldsmith

"It was 1978 and I was on tour with the Rolling Stones. I am not sure where we were, but it was procedure that after the last number you ran really quickly to the limo to get to the private plane to go to the next stop on the tour. The band didn't stay in a hotel. They got off the stage, into a car, on a plane and were out of that city. At this one particular venue there was this local security guard working the show. He was a big, big guy and as I ran to leave he literally swept me off my feet into his arms and would not let me down. I see Mick running past me, the band's entourage running to catch the limo. I am kicking my legs and yelling at this guy 'Look! Here are my passes! Put me down!' He wouldn't let me go. The next thing I know, Keith runs by and says 'Put her down!' And the guy brushed him off and still wouldn't put me down. So, Keith hit him. And this big guy finally put me down. If I hadn't made it to that limo to make the plane then the next thing I shot of the band, which ended up being the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine in 1978, never would have happened. Keith Richards is my hero."

Gered Mankowitz

"I was 18 years old and although I had been 'in the business' for a couple of years already, the Stones were by far the most important band to grace my studio which was in the heart of Swinging London at 9 Mason's Yard. I had met them all a few months previously in anticipation of this session and they were charming, fun and encouraging. I think they all felt very positive about how things were going for them at that moment, and with '(I Can't Get No) "Satisfaction' still to be released some months in the future, they were on the verge of exploding on both sides of the Atlantic. The session couldn't have gone any better and with an album sleeve ('December's Children'), several singles bags, press images and the US tour book cover coming out of it. It couldn't have been more successful for me and confirmed my position with the band which was to continue for nearly three years into 1967."

Terry O'Neill

"I'd just photographed a young up and coming band called the Beatles in 1963 and the pictures had sold out the newspaper they appeared in. I'd seen the Stones play in a few London clubs and decided to make them my next project. Brian was the leader, Mick was the front man who couldn't play an instrument, but the girls were mesmerized by him. Keith was the coolest. I thought they had something special and decided to make them my next project. They were so different. The record companies and the television shows wanted clean cut young men in suits. These guys were the first rebels. I remember sitting in a club with the Stones when John Lennon and Paul McCartney walked in. We all knew each other and chatted about the future. We were just lads, were all having a ball. The 60s hadn't really happened yet and we talked about how long it would last before we all had to get proper jobs in banks and things. The Stones were struggling to find a hit and Paul and John rapped out on the table a song they were writing and told them they could have it: 'I Wanna Be Your Man.' In the end, both bands recorded it but it was the Stones who had the hit. It was their launch pad. They're still pals to this day. We were all living in the moment then — our first taste of freedom, girls, and money — a big crowd of young kids doing their own thing, milking it. London was one big party but we all felt the clock ticking towards midnight. Funny how it's 50 years and it's still ticking."

Ken Regan

"In 1972 I was assigned to photograph one of my all-time favorite bands, the Rolling Stones, for Time Magazine. Little did I know that this would lead to a 30-year working relationship with the band. The more time that I spent with the Stones the more impressed I became with how loyal they were to their people, especially Allan Dunn and Jane Rose. It was a blessing to be in this sort of company. Over the years, Mick and Keith have been gracious enough to include me as part of not only the monumental moments of their career, but also their lives."

Ethan Russell

"Peter Townshend would not infrequently say to me in frustration: 'Tell us what to do!' The Rolling Stones never did. It was not my nature to tell the artists I photographed what to do — God they were too big, are you kidding? As a result, of all the photographs I have of the Rolling Stones, only a relatively few are of "The Group" and of those fewer still are of the group posing. For me, working with them was in large measure to be left alone. Today I call most of the photography I see of musical artists 'product photography' — it seems designed to be that way. In fairness, this was not a brand new phenomenon in the music biz. It was equally true of a lot of the photography from the fifties. Once someone would break the mold — a la Elvis — the companies would recreate it. The Rolling Stones were outside of this. They grew up outside the system (Although not all of them, not entirely. Dig up early photos of Bill Wyman). Since the photographs weren't mediated, art directed or manipulated, the viewer gets to really be there.... like I was. There's a lot in this, both happenstance and perhaps on purpose. And so we have these pictures, and so we have history — a win-win for everyone."

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Rolling Stones tour set for 2013?

A Rolling Stones tour could be held in 2013.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the band and it has been suggested they will play a series of special dates to mark the occasion.

Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine, a concert business source claimed these will be high-profile gigs that give plenty of people the opportunity to buy Rolling Stones tickets and see the legendary band live.

"For example, they'd do ten nights at MSG, ten nights at Staples, ten nights at London's O2 arena," the insider suggested.

He added their performances would be similar to the gigs Prince recently played in New York and Los Angeles.

The group have been quiet in recent years, but the magazine noted they got together in a London studio in December.

Keith Richards described it as a "very back-to-basics sort of session".

If the Rolling Stones do take to the road, this could mean fans are treated to a few new tracks as well as old favourites like Paint It Black, Satisfaction and Sympathy for the Devil.

Ronnie Wood retracts Rolling Stones studio announcement & makes apology to band

Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood has retracted an announcement that he made in several interviews, in which he stated that the Rolling Stones would be getting together in a recording studio at the end of April 2012. He also said he had to make an apology to the band about the comments.

Wood made the comments during the week of April 9, 2012, while he was promoting the New York City opening of his art exhibit "Faces, Time and Places," the U.S. publication of the memoir "Faces 1969-75" and his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction with the Faces. (Wood was the original guitarist for the Faces before he joined the Rolling Stones in the mid-1970s.)

Wood has now admitted that should not have made those comments about the Stones reuniting for a studio session in April 2012: He told Billboard: "I heard from Mick Jagger; he's going, 'What the hell?! We don't know anything yet!' And I said, 'you know what the media are like. I just expressed my personal view; I would love to go into the studio.' Then they took it all wrong. So I have to make a personal apology to the rest of the band. I didn't mean to say things out of line. We do have a 50th anniversary. Whatever is going to be done, we will know in the next few months."

Check out these interviews that Wood did on April 9, 2012, at a press conference and with the Associated Press. He clearly said, "The Stones are going to get together as well toward the end of the month." When the Associated Press asked him to elaborate on what Wood claimed was Stones' get-together at the end of April 2012, Wood replied that it was to “throw some ideas around in the studio, just to get a feel again.” So there's no way that he could have been "misunderstood" or "taken wrong" when those were his exact words.

This isn't the first time that Wood has made statements about the Rolling Stones in which he implied that the band would be reuniting in some kind of performance capacity, but his comments turned out to be about things that never happened.

He told The Sun that the Stones were invited to perform at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London (which is true), and that all of the band members wanted to do the performance (which is apparently not true, because drummer Charlie Watts later said that Rolling Stones would not be doing an Olympics performance, and Watts stated he never wanted to perform at the Olympics).

Wood also said in a Radio Times interview that the Stones were "on the verge" of touring in 2012. That also turned out to be false, since Jagger and Keith Richards later told Rolling Stone magazine that the Stones will not be touring in 2012. Richards said a Rolling Stones tour in 2013 is possbile, but many Rolling Stones fans are skeptical that it will happen, since it has been revealed that Richards' ongoing health problems from a 2006 brain injury were the among the reasons why the Stones are not touring in 2012.

In 2010, Wood and Richards gave several interviews saying that they wanted to tour with the Stones in 2011, and they implied that the tour would happen in 2011. But ultimately, the tour never happened.

Ronnie Wood - Ronnie Wood Sorry For Rolling Stones Reunion Remark

16 April 2012 08:01

Ronnie Wood Sorry For Rolling Stones Reunion Remark

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Ronnie Wood felt the wrath of Sir Mick Jagger after he was quoted as saying he was hitting the recording studio with The Rolling Stones again.

The guitarist caused a stir after recently alluding to a reunion with his bandmates ahead of a possible concert next year (13) to celebrate the group's 50th anniversary.

However, Wood insists his quotes weren't accurately reported and reveals the frontman promptly scolded him for the remark.

He tells Billboard.com, "I heard from (Mick) Jagger; he's going, 'What the hell? We don't know anything yet!' And I said, 'You know what (the media) are like. I just expressed my personal view; I would love to go into the studio.' Then they took it all wrong.

"So I have to make a personal apology to the rest of the band. I didn't mean to say things out of line."

Wood also reassured fans they will be the first to know when the Brown Sugar hitmakers decide how to commemorate their landmark anniversary.

He adds, "We do have a 50th anniversary. Whatever is going to be done, we will know in the next few months."

Letter Describing The Meeting of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger Unearthed

by: Dave Lifton

Keystone Features / Getty Images

The story of how Keith Richards met Mick Jagger at the Dartford train station is one of the most frequently told stories in rock history. Today (April 11), a letter from Richards, then 18, to his Aunt Patty describing the Rolling Stones‘ earliest days was posted on the Letters Of Note website.

“You know I was keen on Chuck Berry and I thought I was the only fan for miles,” Richards wrote after the opening. “But one mornin’ on Dartford Stn…I was holding one of Chuck’s records when a guy I knew at primary school 7-11 yrs y’know came up to me.”

After saying that his new friend has introduced him to a new group of people, all of whom collect American rhythm-and-blues records, Richards mentions his name. “Anyways the guy on the station, he is called Mick Jagger and…is the greatest R&B singer this side of the Atlantic and I don’t mean maybe. ”

There is one slight deviation. The story has always been that Richards was carrying his guitar and that he approached Mick to ask about the records Jagger was holding (‘Rockin’ at the Hops’ by Chuck Berry and ‘The Best of Muddy Waters’), only to realize it was his old school mate. Here, Richards has the records and Jagger came up to him.

Still, it’s cool to read Richards describing the event with all the excitement (and poor punctuation) of a teenager, and without the years of bad blood between them. It’s even more fun if you imagine it being read in Richards’ trademark wheeze.

PICTURES: Ronnie Wood at the 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony...!