Showing posts with label The Rolling Stones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Rolling Stones. Show all posts

KISS, Queen, Bowie and Van Halen Memorabilia Headline The Rock and Pop 2019 Auction Event




This years Rock and Pop 2019 Auction is an event unlike any other auction we have done in the past. With over 1,200 auction lots this is a true celebration of music memorabilia in every imaginable way. Every decade from the 1960s on-wards is represented with mementos from all the genres; Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Punk, Grunge, Pop, Rap, Jazz, Blues, Country and R & B.


This auction is a parade of highlights and historic collections of David Bowie, KISS, Van Halen, Queen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sex Pistols and The Rolling Stones that will resonate with fans and collectors for years to come. It covers main festivals from Woodstock 1969 through Monsters of Rock, the California Punk scene from the 1980s and the early days of Rap with artists such as Run-DMC, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys.

 

KISS 1976 Destroyer Stage Model
You will have a chance to own Queen’s first ever American demo reel or the actual stage models built for David Bowie and KISS. But there are plenty of historical memorabilia to choose from.

Featured Items


  • Original Queen American Demo Recording
  • Alice Cooper 1974 Recording Reel
  • LL Cool J 1987 Tour Worn Suit
  • Elton John 1976 Tour Worn Helmet
  • Paul Stanley 1978 Guitar
  • Gene Simmons 1981 Bass Guitar
  • Jackson 5 Tour Jackets
Eddie Van Halen's 1993 Custom Converse Sneakers

Special Collections

  • Van Halen Memorabilia spanning 12 years,
  • Collection of 1980s West Coast Punk Memorabilia
  • 1969 Woodstock Memorabilia
  • KISS Original RIAA Record Awards from the 70s
  • Original Stage Models from the 70s & 80s featuring KISS and David Bowie Tours
  • British 80s & 90s Tour Memorabilia
  • David Bowie Collection of Tour Memorabilia
  • Vintage Stevie Ray Vaughan Crew Memorabilia

With a dazzling depth of collectibles ranging from the AC/DC through ZZ Top, you will find gem after gem. Loads of autographed memorabilia, rare concert jackets and shirts, beautiful record awards, hard-to-find posters, impressive film and photo lots, unique picks and passes, it's all here!


Original Queen American Demo Tape

And as always, the provenance is rock solid with the majority of memorabilia coming from the private collections of musicians, managers, photographers, record company executives and crew members.

Fans and collectors worldwide can participate in the auction online, the bidding will run from October 19, 2019 through October 27, 2019. 


For more information and to register for your VIP All Access Pass for The Rock and Pop 2019 Auction visit:  www.backstageauctions.com 






The Headliners and Legends Auction 2018

The Headliners and Legends Auction
February 1, 2018

Backstage Auctions is proud to present an amazing collection of rock and pop memorabilia, including a highly impressive selection of artist signed guitars, RIAA-certified record awards, a large collection of autographed memorabilia, original Peter Max paintings, and a dazzling array of tour and promotional collectibles.

With over 50 signed guitars from - among others - Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, Eagles, Pearl Jam and U2, as well as a host of other great autographed memorabilia such as a Beach Boys surfboard, a Miles Davis print, Elton John Record Award and Queen posters, this auction truly is all about "Headliners and Legends".


This impressive collection of memorabilia comes from the estate of a well-known music industry executive who spent decades working for music retailers, record labels, and festivals. In the course of his nearly 50-year-long career, he worked with just about every artist and band from the 1970s on. He was involved with the Grammy organization, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as various music-related charities. His broad collection reflects not only his true passion for music, but deep friendships forged over the years. A portion of the proceeds of the auction will be donated to the favorite charities of this well-loved industry icon.

The Headliners and Legends Auction will go LIVE with a preview of the entire catalog on February 9th, 2018 and bidding will begin on February 16th and close on February 25th, 2018.

For more about the auction, carve out some time to listen to Goldmine Magazine's interview with our very own Jacques van Gool. Pat Prince, Goldmine editor and Jacques talk about the auction highlights. Click here: Podcast Link


Sign up today for your All Access Auction Pass: Register Here



Short Cuts: Clutch, Black Stone Cherry, The Rolling Stones

CD Review: Clutch – Psychic Warfare
Weathermaker Music
All Access Rating: A

Clutch - Psychic Warfare 2105
Psychic Warfare is real. Neil Fallon says so on a fantastically frenetic "X-Ray Visions," and the battle is joined, Clutch working itself into a swarming, groove-powered lather. Fallon's skirmishes of the mind are soundtracked with momentum-gathering riffing and hooks as tight as balled-up fists in a song that goes from a rolling boil to a tension-packed simmer as Fallon makes band introductions based on astrological signs before Clutch again blows the lid off the place. It's as if an invading army is overrunning an enemy territory, setting off another equally delirious, earth-scorching conflagration called "Firebirds." Clutch is just beginning to show its hand, and it's an unbeatable one, as Fallon's oddly compelling tales of the weird ("Decapitation Blues" tackling the subject of reanimation and all) are couched in unstoppable, hard-rock fury ("Sucker For The Witch"), cinematic Western noir ("Our Lady Of Electric Light"), nasty, cat-scratched funk ("Your Love Is Incarceration") and sizzling blues ("A Quick Death In Texas"). After hitting an all-time high in delivering an agile and sinewy Earth Rocker LP in 2013 with hooks that killed, Clutch simply refuses to rest on its laurels, the hardscrabble, haunted blues of "Son of Virginia" rising into a thunderous closing epic as Clutch declares war on mediocrity.

CD/DVD Review: Black Stone Cherry – Thank You: Livin' Live, Birmingham, UK October 30, 2014
Eagle Vision
All Access Rating: B-

Black Stone Cherry - Thank You:
Livin' Live, Birmingham, UK
October 30, 2014
A simple "Thank You" from Black Stone Cherry will suffice, as these post-grunge sons of the South rise again in a country that has embraced with open arms. Their third album, 2011's Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, hauled ass all the way up to No. 1 that year in Great Britain, and Black Stone Cherry hasn't forgotten that. With a raucous, high-energy performance at Birmingham's LG Arena – now available on DVD, Blu-ray or as a CD/DVD combo entitled "Thank You: Livin' Large, Birmingham, UK October 30, 2014" – just over a year ago, they showered the audience with appreciation and stomping, sleazy riffs dug out of Nickelback's homogenous compost heap and recycled under a different brand. Though shot professionally in high-definition, the sparkling clean camera work isn't very imaginative. Neither is Black Stone Cherry's generic music, which has always been willing to rinse itself free of grit and earthiness for a glossy shine. Still, the photography does manage to heighten and add fuel to Black Stone Cherry's fiery passion, plainly evident in swaggering, arena-sized rockers "Rain Wizard," "Me and Mary Jane" and "White Trash Millionaire." And the crowd is clearly with them, singing in unison with every word to almost every number. Youthful exuberance and full volume only go so far, however, as Black Stone Cherry suffers from occasional bouts of off-key singing, bland guitar work and loose drumming – the hot messes that are "Bad Luck and Hard Love" and "Holding On ... To Letting Go" being the most egregious crimes. On the other hand, more poignant material such as the soaring "In My Blood" and "Things My Father Said" forms a strong bond between crowd and the performers, making the concert feel like a family reunion. And for fans of Black Stone Cherry, this is a nicely arranged package, as live material and interview footage from a performance at Download Festival are nice additions, even if the lack of liner notes is glaring.

2 CD/DVD Review: The Rolling Stones – From The Vault: Live In Leeds 1982
Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Rating: B+
The Rolling Stones - From the Vault:
Live In Leeds 1982

The Rolling Stones had miles to go before they slept. Their 1982 European Tour in support of their 1981 release Tattoo You would be their last for a stretch of seven years, but before unexpectedly going dark for such an extended break, the Stones had to attend to one more piece of business: a daytime show on July 25, 1982 at Roundhay Park in Leeds, England, now available in digital formats or as a 2-CD/DVD package that also comes in Blu-ray. For all its clarity and glossy definition, the cinematography is rather odd, employing an overabundance of fairly extreme facial closeups – the most awkward of which focus on Bill Wyman's vacant expression – in some weird shuffle. At the same time, it highlights the Stones' outlandishly gaudy fashion sense and intently studies the instrumental flair of Ronnie Wood, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards, while drinking in Mick Jagger's excitable onstage charm. Another in an ever-expanding "From The Vault" series of classic, previously unreleased concert material, this set is an uneven affair. As tired and disinterested as they appear early on during "When The Whip Comes Down," "Going To a Go Go" and "Shattered," the Stones are revived by the bluesy "Black Limousine," a rough-and-tumble cover of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" and a rip-roaring, ramshackle version of "Little T&A." Perfect on a summer day, with a massive crowd in attendance, their breezy, blissful version of "Just My Imagination" is sunny and soulful, and on "Tumbling Dice," "Miss You," "Beast of Burden" and "Brown Sugar" they seem to savor every delicious note. Well-written liner notes give necessary context to this historic performance, the last for piano player Ian Stewart with the Stones, in a nicely designed booklet that rounds out what is, for the most part, a solid live release. Just please leave poor old Bill alone.
– Peter Lindblad

Massive 60s and 70s Rock Photo Archive Hits The Auction Block

The Who 1965
September 2015 -  Backstage Auctions is proud to present one of the most historic rock photo archive auctions featuring thousands of vintage images of the British music scene from the 1960s and 1970s.

The collection consists of well over 20,000 historic negatives, slides and transparencies featuring some of the most iconic musicians and bands of all time. Almost exclusively comprised of film from the 1960s and 1970s, this material comes direct from John Halsall and was once part of the core archive of a London based photo agency. After having been professionally stored for the past 35 years, the world can now witness the unearthing of a visually magnificent and historically significant archive that has no equal.

This collection is divided in just under 500 individual lots and will be offered with a full transfer of rights, which makes this material not only collectible but also commercially appealing and exceptionally valuable.

The Grateful Dead 1970
As with any high quality collection, this archive is well-represented by the various decades and genres that ultimately transformed and created the history of rock, pop and punk music.

From the 1950s the collection offers attractive lots by several of the Jazz, Pop and Country greats such as Duke Ellington, Fats Domino, Charlie Mingus, Sidney Bechet, The Andrew Sisters, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash, Bill Haley & The Comets and Gene Vincent.

Otis Redding 1966
The roaring 60s consume a large part of the auction. From teen heart-throbs such as the Bee Gees, Beach Boys, Dave Clark 5, Sonny & Cher and The Walker Brothers, to R&B giants such as James Brown, The Crystals, Martha & The Vendellas, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and The Supremes.

It is however the Rock & Roll portion that truly elevates this collection to peerless heights. In particular the thousands of never-before-seen photos of The Rolling Stones and The Who is what makes this archive one for the ages. 

Equally significant are lots by The Animals, The Band, Jeff Beck, The Byrds, Blind Faith, Cream, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks, The Mamas & The Papas, The Move, Them and Pink Floyd.  

Mick Jagger 1964
Robert Plant 1979
The 1970s is the next decade that consumes the other large part of the auction, fueled by incredible collections from many of the A-List of Rock such as Led Zeppelin, Queen, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Mountain, New York Dolls, Sweet, Thin Lizzy, T. Rex and Frank Zappa

Complementing the diverse 70s are fantastic lots from the Punk era (Sex Pistols, The Clash, Blondie, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Jam, The Stranglers), Pop giants (ABBA, The Carpenters, Neil Diamond, The Police, Dire Straits) to the early days of Heavy-Metal (AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard).

The collection comes to a conclusion in the early 1980s with exceptional lots from some of the legendary New-Wave (The Tourists, Pretenders, Ian Dury), Ska (Madness) and Reggae (Peter Tosh) performers.

Sex Pistols March 21, 1977 with Sid Vicious at Notre Dame Hall - London
Rounding out the archive are several impressive festival collections (Isle of Wight, Knebworth, Reading, Bickershaw, Glad Rag Balls and others) to over 30 lots from various “Top of the Pops” and “Ready, Set, Go!”  television episodes aired between the mid-60s to 1982.

Collection Highlights

Highlighted below are what we consider to be the Top Five collections to be featured in the auction. Of course it was hard to pick just five, but read on and you will get a sense of why these collections are high on our list.

Rolling Stones 1965
The Rolling Stones - simply because of the sheer volume (almost 5,000 negatives) and the fact that 75% of it is dated between 1963 and 1969. It provides the a most comprehensive visual documentation of their TV appearances, live shows, formal and candid photo sessions and their years of touring.

The Who 1965
The Who - very much for the same reason as with The Stones.  With almost 3,000 negatives, of with more than half from the 60s, this collection presents an insight into their high profile and public lives. 


Cream 1969
Eric Clapton – and in particular the collection of photos of Cream and Blind Faith, which include highly illusive images of club shows, rehearsals and candid photo sessions. The many addition lots of Eric Clapton with Delaney & Bonnie, as well as his early years a solo artist makes this overall a most comprehensive collection of the vintage Clapton era.

Jimi Hendrix ca. 1966 UK
Professional Photo Shoot
Jimi Hendrix - just when one would think that every Hendrix photo that was ever made has already been discovered and seen by ‘the world’, this archive offers 175 jaw-dropping new images, from photo sessions and candid moments, to TV appearances, rehearsals and live shows.

The 5th artist is a true toss-up between Pink Floyd (for the Syd Barrett content), Otis Redding (for the amazing live and backstage photos of several of his U.K. shows) and Black Sabbath (because it documents the first few years of their career through a series of stunning photo sessions and live shows).


Collections worthy of more than a quick glance

The Jeff Beck Group 1967 with Rod Steward and Ron Wood
The Jeff Beck Group 1967 with Rod
Stewart and Ron Wood
What comes to mind initially is a collection of almost 800 Rolling Stones negatives (!) taken from their first tour of Ireland, which lasted exactly 3 days (January 6-8, 1965). To take that many photos means that you have documented nearly every plane, train and bus ride, hotel stay, breakfast, lunch and dinner, rehearsal and concert, dressing room and backstage moment from that tour…and this collection in fact has done just that.

The second is more an ‘angle’ than a specific artist. Perhaps the most unique element of this archive is that it captures so many ‘big name’ artists at a time when they were so young. And with that comes the other aspect…so many of the photos are deeply personal as they show these artists at home, in their backyard, on the road, in a dressing room, even in the hospital. What stands out – and we could do a great photo collage – is;

•         Keith Moon at home with wife & kids
•         Bill Wyman at home with wife & kids
•         Pete Townshend visiting his manager’s office
•         The Bee Gees at home with wives / girlfriends
•         Jimi Hendrix in rehearsal
•         Cream on the couch of their management office
•         Mick Jagger looking at a "peeking" fan 
•         Otis Redding getting ready for a show in London
•         Marc Bolan and his girlfriend with newborn son 
•         David Bowie on the floor in his apartment
•         Jeff Beck with his buddies (Stewart and Wood) 
•         Johnny Cash with wife & son
•         Roy Orbison with wife & son
•         Ozzy Osbourne dropping his pants  
•         Sonny & Cher in the worlds most "dizziest" outfits  
•         Diana Ross & The Supremes first UK visit
•         Mama Cass Elliot in her London hotel room
•         George Martin (The Beatles producer) at home

David Bowie ca. 1969
About John Halsall

John Halsall started London Features and was formed in 1969 and initially began as a tool for the syndication of John's

John Halsall - London Features Press Pass 1974
personal freelance articles and the photographs taken by his photographer/ co-director. By the 1970s it because apparent that, as far as rock music was concerned, London had become the Capital of the World and many of the foreign publications that had used Halsall as their foreign correspondent were either opening their own offices in London or financing a London based staff.

As time passed, the need for Halsall’s interviewing and writing obligations diminished but the need for on the ground photographers was growing, so LFI (London Features International) added photographers, opened additional dark rooms and a proper studio, and soon came into its own as an established agency.

Halsall interviewing Carl Wilson
of the Beach Boys in 1973
LFI became the largest agency in its field and the competition conceded; most sold their collections to LFI complete with rights as did many independent photographers. Halsall, being a businessman first, recognized the value and opportunity in the images and began to personally purchase the collections and assimilate them into the LFI library. 

Decades later, LFI became the victim of the “digital revolution” and the rise of such well funded giants as Getty and Shutterstock.  LFI was sold in 2005 and Halsall retired along with his amazing library of images. The collection being presented at auction is the personal collection and historical archive of John Halsall.


Auction Information

The Photo Archive Auction will have a special VIP Preview beginning on September 19th, 2015. The bidding will begin on September 26th and run through October 4th, 2015.

To register for your All Access VIP Auction Pass click here:  VIP REGISTRATION








CD/DVD Review: The Rolling Stones – From the Vault: The Marquee Club – Live In 1971

CD/DVD Review: The Rolling Stones – From the Vault: The Marquee – Live In 1971
Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Rating: A

The Rolling Stones - From
The Vault: The Marquee Club -
Live In 1971
Still a month away from the hotly anticipated release of Sticky Fingers, the Rolling Stones – fresh off their "1971 Farewell Tour of the UK" – set up at London's famed Marquee Club for a rare intimate performance filmed for American television.

Eric Clapton was there to see it, and so was Jimmy Page, among others of similar stature. And the Stones showed them all how it was done, their swagger born of an innate knowledge that nobody, but nobody, could touch them on a good night, let alone a great one.

And to think, highly sought-after footage of that gig sat in an attic for two decades, just gathering dust. What better time than the present for its new unveiling, now that the Stones have reissued, in grand fashion, Sticky Fingers in all its gritty, cocksure glory.

Restored with loving care by Bob Clearmountain, its impressive 5.1 surround sound on the DVD and SD Blu-ray versions and rich, luxuriously colorful imagery capturing the essence of a band at the absolute peak of its powers, "From the Vault: The Marquee Club – Live In 1971" finds the Stones brimming with confidence and unafraid to mess around with songs considered sacred by many. They're almost cavalier in how they approach a rather ramshackle, easy-going version of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" that seems gleefully out of step with the urgency and the barely contained sexual frustration of the original. And after romping through "Midnight Rambler" with feverish energy, the Stones sounding as tight and industrious as ever, and Mick Jagger huffing and puffing away on harmonica, a wide, natural smile spreads across Keith Richards' face and it says, "That was pretty good, wasn't it?" Yes it was, Keith. Yes it was.

Strutting and preening, as is his wont, the playful Jagger is a magnet for smartly directed cameras and close-ups, as he savors every line dripping from a slowly cooked "I Got The Blues," throws himself into a raucous cover of Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock" and, as Ian Stewart's high-stepping piano gets to work, infuses machismo, arrogance and sass into the ripping opener "Live With Me." Charlie Watt's drumming is clever, propulsive and rigorous, while Bill Wyman calmly and unobtrusively steers the ship with gripping bass lines, Bobby Keys and Jim Price assertively blow their horns with soulful conviction on command and Richards and Mick Taylor negotiate whatever issues they had with an uneasy mixture of toughness and licks that can be nasty or tasteful.

Packaged as a CD/DVD combo, and also available as a DVD/LP or Blu-ray/CD offering, "From The Vault: The Marquee Club – Live In 1971" is a true treasure, since much of material has gone completely unseen. Filmed professionally with a thirst for action and seemingly covered in a lush, early '70s patina that's almost glossy, it has great historical value. This is where the forbidden fruits of "Brown Sugar," "Bitch" and a crisply played "Dead Flowers" were first tasted, and they must have left the ragged company that witnessed it flush with excitement. Eagle Rock Entertainment ups the ante on this concise, yet explosive set, with alternate takes of "I Got The Blues" and "Bitch," plus a bit of the Stones doing "Brown Sugar" on "Top Of The Pops" in 1971 adding value. All these years later, the Stones are still delivering the goods in concert, but they were hitting on all cylinders in 1971, and this is the kind of show that made them legends.
– Peter Lindblad

DVD Review: The Rolling Stones – From The Vault – L.A. Forum – Live in '75

DVD Review: The Rolling Stones – From the Vault – L.A. Forum – Live in '75
Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Rating: B

The Rolling Stones - From
The Vault - L.A. Forum -
Live In '75
The relationship had been on the rocks for some time. Tired of the rampant substance abuse, a dysfunctional working environment and a sense that his ideas were falling on deaf ears, Mick Taylor broke it off in late 1974.

Into this chaos walked his replacement, Ronnie Wood, the versatile former Faces guitarist a perfect fit from the very start. At least Keith Richards seemed to think so, as Wood's ability to play both lead and rhythm equally well expanded the possibilities for The Rolling Stones, a group needing an infusion of new blood. 

"I've never found it tricky to play with Ronnie" asserts Richards in a quote included in the informative and contextual liner notes to "From the Vault  L.A. Forum  Live In '75," one of two new concert films recently mined from the The Rolling Stones' archives to kick off the band's new "From The Vault" series.

Wood debuted with the Stones on '75's "The Tour of the Americas," a long jaunt that included five nights at the L.A. Forum and a touring band that boasts Billy Preston on keyboards, with his spirited piano fills and propulsive organ, and session percussionist Ollie Brown fleshing out Charlie Watts' drumming with poly-rhythmic groove. "L.A. Forum – Live In '75" documents the fourth show from that brief residency, and although this romp through a deep 25-song set list is as uneven, if also as gloriously shambolic and messy as it is fiery, it's fascinating watching Richards and Wood play off each other, the liberties they take on a medley of "If You Can't Rock Me/Get Off Of My Cloud" performed here indicative of just how in sync and instinctual they've always been as a guitar duo.

Two-and-a-half hours of the Stones at their rip-roaring best and their self-indulgent worst, "L.A. Forum – Live In '75" is marred by maddening inconsistency, as rollicking, feverish versions of "Brown Sugar," "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" and "Star Star" burn red hot, while Mick Jagger – mostly an energetic, whirling dervish on this night – appears so disinterested with a sluggish "Fingerprint File" that he lies down ostage for a nap before the song fades out.

Although the imagery is rather dark, the film was shot professionally, with multiple cameras adroitly chasing the action but not always framing it perfectly, this footage finds the Stones opening with raucous versions "Honky Tonk Women" and "All Down the Line," emerging onto a lotus-shaped stage that seems straight out of "Spinal Tap." But, they can't hold together ramshackle, breakneck takes on "Happy" and "Rip This Joint" that don't just veer close to going off the rails, they fly from them, break apart and end without satisfaction. And when they arrive at "You Can't Always Get What You Want," the Stones sleepily meander through it, that is until an extended jam workout where Richards and Wood heat up and produce furious, sweaty guitar interplay seems to send volts of electricity through the whole building.

Finishing strong with an inspired triple play of "Street Fighting Man," "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Sympathy for the Devil," it seems as if the Stones were revived by earlier tackling Preston's "That's Life" and "Outta Space," the dynamic Preston and Jagger playfully dancing together during "Outta Space" without a care in the world. In a celebratory mood, as opposed to those times where they play with vicious, cutting intensity and raw anger, this isn't the Stones out for blood. Still, there are moments when they build up a good head of steam, and when they do, they are untouchable. Eagle Rock Entertainment.
– Peter Lindblad

Ian Wright is ready for his close-up

Rare photos of The Beatles, Stones, Hendrix to be auctioned
By Peter Lindblad

Mick Jagger and a soda bottle, photographed before
a performance in which he was struck above the eye
by a filed-down coin. The image appeared on
page 1 of The Northern Echo with the
headline "Blood from a Stone."
He was only a teenager, riding his bike from assignment to assignment in northeast England in all kinds of weather. Lugging his heavy camera equipment to and fro, young Ian Wright found himself in the middle of a cultural and social sea change.

Working as a dark room boy at a newspaper in the early '60s, Wright eventually was entrusted with the task of photographing a pop music scene that was suddenly exploding, his candid, expressive photos of stars like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, the Dave Clark Five, The Animals and The Kinks appearing in a supplement to The Northern Echo newspaper called "The Teenage Special."

And then there were the American acts, such as Johnny Cash, Gene Pitney, Roy Orbison, that brought their exciting brand of music over to Britain. Wright's lens captured them all, including a then-unknown Jimi Hendrix. When England was swept up in the Swinging '60s, Wright got as close to the action as anyone, and he would later rejoin the famed editor of The Northern Echo, Sir Harold Evans, at The Sunday Times in London, working all over the world, including the U.S.

Wright's book "On the Brink of Fame" includes a treasure trove of images from those thrilling days of yore, along with the fascinating stories behind each and every one of them. His work also appears at The National Portrait Gallery collection in London, with some included in the present exhibition "Beatles to Bowie," and will also be exhibited at The Morrison Hotel Gallery later this year in New York.

Soon, you'll have a chance to own your own piece of the Swinging '60s, as Wright is preparing to auction off some of his most beloved photos of The Beatles, The Rollings Stones, Hendrix and other greats through Backstage Auctions. In this interview, Wright talks about the sale and shares tales from a time when revolution was in the air.

Why did you decide to auction these photos off now?
Ian Wright: I do books now myself, and I’m going through this procedure, and I thought at 70 I might as well start a new life. And I’ve played around with this stamp collection for long enough, and I’ve got as much out of it as I possibly can. So that is the reason behind putting these things in with Jacques, to see what we could do, to see if we could get anything from them, because in the publishing industry, the same is happening as far as anybody now wanting to buy your material at a reasonable price to reproduce. And secondly, there isn’t enough coming in enough numbers to be represented by a gallery, and so I thought it’s time for me to move on. I’ve had them for 50 years. It’s about time I got something for them, get rid of them, get some cash in and then invest that into the publishing side. So that’s the reason behind it, no other reason for it. It’s just we thought we might take the money and do something with it in the autumn of our years. 

What do you hope the people who buy them get out of them?
IW: The one vehicle that should be marketed for some of this material is that if they have that material, then they own it. They have the rights to it. It gives them a hands-on something, particularly with the collectors. Secondly, of course, with that material, the other people that are going to be interested are going to be things like the Hendrix estate, and also the possibility that news agencies like Getty Images and people like that are always on the lookout to hoover up material.

Take me back to when you began. What got you into photography?
IW: It started in 1959. And the draw line is the Duke of Edinburgh brought in an awards scheme for youngsters to give them sort of a head start in various areas, such as keep fit and having a hobby, but they didn’t want you to have a hobby, because you got marks for each area that you were involved in. You had to do first aid, keep fit and hobbies of another kind, which I can't remember what that was … but you couldn’t have a hobby which was just like stamp collecting. It had to be a bit more than just model airplanes. And so, once again, what happened was, they led young people through the age of 14 into the three stages of this to go for two or three years was a bronze, silver and gold. So bronze obviously was for the youngest, and I was in for that. And consequently, they put all of these things through school. 

Now in those days in England, the Duke of Edinburgh Award was something that was a very prestigious thing to be involved in, and as well in those days, school teachers who had an interest in whatever it was always would put their name in a hat to say how they could help people who were looking to take on a hobby that needed some form of training. So we had a teacher in my school in the northeast of England ... and Arthur Soakell put in his name and said, “Well, I’d be prepared to teach photography.” And I thought, “Well, that sounds good. That sounds good. My dad’s got a camera.” Well, he did. It was a Box Brownie. And he said I could use it. So I stick my hand up and say, “Well, what do you want?” So for months and months, I was under the tutelage of my old school teacher, and twice a week I’d go around to his house, and his wife was there and his daughter was there, and he would get them to shift all the casserole dishes off the kitchen table, and then he’d put developing dishes dishes up on there, and then he’d teach the junior how to load a spool and put the film in with his eyes closed – things like that. And he taught me all the basics, the fundamentals of it all, and that’s basically my first interest in photography. 

Going on from there, I started building portfolios of pictures which he would look at and then critique them. But what I didn’t know was that his next door neighbor was a chap called Teddy Page. And Teddy Page was the chief photographer of the local paper The Northern Echo. And he showed these photographs to Teddy Page. Teddy Page said, “Well, the Duke is coming in June.” And he said, “I’m going to get your lad – because he’s the only one, your lad – I’m going to get him to go with the rank of press photographers and get him accreditation so that he can carry on doing his part for his medal, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, so that he can go and learn from the professionals." And so, like Keith Richards, whose first gig was singing in the choir at Westminster Abby at the Queen’s coronation, my first gig was by royal appointment because I had to go and photograph the Duke of Edinburgh when he came to the town to find out how his awards scheme was progressing. And then what happened was, we developed all these pictures – on the sofa, in his darkroom, in the kitchen, in the toilet, whatever, you know, putting towels under the bottom of the door so everything was light tight – and then they saw my photographs the next day. They took them to the editor of the paper, and the editor says, “Well, we’re expanding. We’re getting a new editor next year, and your lad leaves next year. Get him to apply for the job as the darkroom boy.” So I did, and I went the same day as Sir Harold Evans went to his editorship. We went for interviews on the same day. After our respective interviews, he became the editor and I became the darkroom boy that washed the floors, made the tea and do what they do as doormen.

Who was the first pop celebrity you ever photographed?
IW: Ella Fitzgerald. That was the first one, because what happened – I assume you know who Sir Harold Evans is … so Harry, in his week or month there, he found that I was upstairs in the darkroom. He wanted to begin his first-ever supplement. He eventually was the founder of Conde Nast travel magazine when he was the president and publisher of Random House. But the first supplement he did ... because he was a visionary, a modernist and he was only 33 and I was 15, and he was into The Beatles. He was into the Stones. He was into all this by ’62. He knew. He called it “The Revolution of the Last Century.” He wrote it, he chronicled it, and I photographed it and sent it across the world. And he made this little supplement. 

It was a broadsheet page, four pages, fold-over, every Monday, and by the beginning of ’63, on every Monday, it put 30,000 extra copies on the circulation. It was that good. It was that good. And it was called “The Teenage Special.” Because all the other photographers had all come through the war and had come through the ‘50s, they had no idea who these up-and-coming artists were. They knew who Ella Fitzgerald was, naturally, but these were the people coming over from Vegas, playing the nightclubs in the northeast. I didn’t really know who Ella Fitzgerald was, and Billy Epstein and people like that, but they came over from Vegas and played there. But the emerging Beat groups started or were formed about January or February of 1962, when The Beatles came back from Hamburg. And I was the one in the office that was the youngest of them all, and I was the only one that knew who these up-and-coming people were. And so, Harry asked me if I could do the photographs. The chief photographer agreed, with certain restrictions that I wouldn’t get time off, I wouldn’t get any overtime and I wouldn’t get any expenses, so I rode my bicycle to all of these events, all of these things that were just starting to happen. And that’s when I photographed The Beatles. They were on the bottom of the bill of “The Helen Shapiro Variety Show” in February 1963.

How many times did you photograph The Beatles?
IW: I photographed all four tours in 1963. First of all, Harry’s wife, his first wife – of course he’s married to Tina Brown now – his first wife, Enid, who’s passed away, she went out and bought a record player and bought all The Beatles records, and Harry used to jive around to them in the office. He even took me to see what he called “The Revolution.” He actually went and took me to one of these “Beatlemania” concerts, with 50,000 people in Hyde Street. And then I’d gotten to know them, of course, because I’d done them a favor with the picture of mine in the lift, "On the Way Up." That’s what set it all off really ... and Harry really got into this; he got into the groove. I got him backstage, and he met The Beatles, and he was jiving around. He was just a bit nervous, you know, because he had his university scarf on ... and I took him backstage and I introduced him to the boys. And then George Harrison came up and said, “Hey, that scarf is a little bit grotty.” And Evans had no idea what he was meaning, because “grotty” was a Liverpool expression for the word “grotesque.” So when Harry was given this, it was like being touched by the hand of God. Everything in the office was grotty – “I don’t like that headline. It’s grotty.” “I don’t like that intro. It’s grotty.” “I don’t like those shoes. They’re grotty.” And he just drove every bugger mad for about six months, but he captured what was in front of him, what he could see the other side of. He could see the political side of the change, he could see the social change and the music was what was driving all these changes.

Are there any unusual or funny little stories you can tell from your days of hanging out with The Beatles?
IW: Well, basically when I started, I was only 15 and I was on my bike, and I had a big plate camera. In those days, naturally, I would just leave my bicycle in the stage door. And the doorman would say, “I’ll look after your bike. Off you go. You know where everybody is.” And I had free range backstage, because in those days, there were no backstage passes. They didn’t exist … So that was the first thing. I had carte blanche to go backstage and photograph whoever I wanted. Nobody was there to stop me. And usually, I was the only one, because no other newspaper at the beginning had a magazine like that. 

When we started, it was the end of October or November in 1962, and we started covering what was called the U.K.-U.S. beat tour, and they would send over American stars. It could be Buddy Holly. It could be Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent. And then they promoted the bill with a lot of up-and-coming beat groups, which The Beatles were one of. And then you had The Shadows and the Telstars and Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, and all these people – 10 acts on each bill, with an American headliner. So I photographed all that lot. And then, of course, I got to know The Beatles, and I did this one photograph of them, because I heard this sound coming from the stage and I was completely awed by it. And it was at this variety show on a blizzard of a night on Feb. 9, 1963, and I can still hear it today. I just heard this mouth organ and “a one, two, a one, two, three, four.” And I was just riveted. I mean I’d never anything like it before in my life. And I went out front, and I think I was using the plate, I only had 12 plates. I took one of them live on stage … What was that first song they had? “Love Me Do” was No. 47 on the charts. And that was it. 

You could tell just by watching them perform on stage how they got the audience going, clapping their hands over their heads. You could hear the first screams from the young girls from the front row. And McCartney, who was never one to be shy about taking the limelight, he was cupping his hands around his ear and bending down and would wave at them to get them to scream more. And Ringo’s in the back. He’s like a Rolls Royce engine was Ringo. I mean this guy was born to drum. I mean he was the guy who was driving them on. He literally was like a wrecking ball was Ringo, but he was the sweetheart of the group. I would be backstage between the shows, two shows every night, and when they started to get popular only a few weeks after, because “Please Please Me” came out by the end of March of that year, and then it started, all of the stuff – the screaming started, all this mayhem, 50,000 people in a town that only had 30,000 inhabitants. You know, 30,000 people … More than the people who lived in the town were out in the streets.

And they would throw all this stuff on the stage, and the charladies, between the concerts, while one crowd was going out and the next audience was coming in, would sweep up all of the presents when they were gone. Usually, they were things like autograph books, but occasionally, people would throw a shoe, things like that. But the majority of things were teddy bears, toys, dolls. And when the charladies had collected it all up, they were all in bins … you know, dust bins. And they would bring them all up into the dressing room, and they’d all pile in and sign the autograph books, ‘cause the next day the doorman would get their books and then he’d charge them a couple of shillings to get their books back all signed by The Beatles and all the other people on the show. But Ringo would just sit there very quietly and he’d just pick out all the little dolls and all the cuddly little bears and this, that and the other, and he’d put them all in a lovely pile in a chair and he’d go to George Skelton, one of the managers of the (The Globe Theatre, Stockton-on-Tees), and say to George, “Just make sure you send them all around for the children’s hospitals in the morning, would you?” You had to be there. You just can’t make these things up. You had to be there to see it.

What was your favorite photo you ever took of The Beatles?


Taken in 1964 at the Futurist
Theatre in Scarborough, England,
on the eve of The Beatles'
"Eye of the Hurricane" U.S. tour.
IW: I think the early ones, of course, are very, very scarce, because there weren’t many photographers taking them. There’s great value in the first two that I’ve just explained. But my favorite portrait of them was the one of them in the window ... there’s one of them in a window of a theatre, and in the background, you can see the crowd and you can see the Futurist Theatre background, and I kind of got to know them. They nicknamed me “Wrighty,” that’s where I got my nickname from. John Lennon nicknamed me “Wrighty” after I took the picture in the lift. And about 18 months later, they were there in the theatre, and John said, “Hey Wrighty,” he said, “Have you got a passport?” And I said, “No, I don’t.” And he said, “Oh, you’re out of luck. We’re going to America next week. You could have come with us.” And then he said to the rest of the lads, “Hey, let’s just go next door and do a picture for Wrighty,” before the Futurist Theatre. And they walked into this other room where those windows are. None of the other photographers were allowed in, and I got that one picture, and that was so encouraging to a young lad that had seen them on the bike about 18 months before. Now there’s 50,000 people on the street looking up at the theatre. There’s 150 photographers, journalists – radio, television – and suddenly the kid on his bike wasn’t a kid anymore. So I think that has to go down as one of the nicest portraits I’ve ever seen or ever done, and then they left a few days later for the “Eye of the Hurricane” tour, which they just celebrated here yesterday – 50 years yesterday, that The Beatles performed in Las Vegas on that tour that they invited me to go on. And I think that picture is definitely in that auction, too. There’s a lot of anecdotes I’ve written as captions to with them. 

What do you remember about your first encounter with The Rolling Stones?
IW: Well, the first one, I met them was the first time they ever played outside of London in one of these middle annexed towns, because Mick Jagger had an agreement with the group that to if he was going to stay with them, he had to honor a grant that was being given to him by the Conservative government, that was issued by the Prime Minister and Home Secretary, that he had been awarded a grant for extra education. I mean, the guy was brilliant in whatever he did. If he’d become the CEO of British Telecom or whatever, he’d still be there. He was that good. The guy was bilingual in French, Latin, Greek … it was just unbelievable. But what this grant afforded him was the fact that he had a place in the London School of Economics, and he was so determined that he wasn’t going to let his parents down or the government that was giving him this grant, that he told the Stones that he had to go through those doors at 9 o’clock every weekday. They agreed to do that. He went to the London School of Economics. 

Of course, that played out very well later on in life, because when they had Allen Klein, after he bankrupted The Beatles, Allen Klein just about bankrupted the Stones. And then all of a sudden, Jagger stepped in with Count Loewenstein, or whatever his name is … he just died, this guy from Lichtenstein. And the two of them got their heads together and they became the financial wizards behind Rolling Stones, Inc., and when they got Warhol to do the red tongue, the Rolling Stones’ logo. And it was because of that intervention and Jagger’s expertise in learning at the London School of Economics, that’s what got them financially set forever more on end. And that’s how I got to meet with them the first time, as they came out of their cocoon of London, they came up to the northeast of England. And the one I got to know probably the best of all the people I know that are in my book is Mick Jagger. And that’s because we were both hooked and completely besotted by the English game of cricket. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we first met, we talked about cricket. When we met on previous occasions, we talked about cricket. I bumped into him once at [an airport], where we were getting on the same flight from Paris back to London, and we sat back and started talking about cricket on the plane. And that’s how it all came about. And then when I was living in France, I wasn’t living very far away from where what he calls his main world residence, in the Loire Valley in Saumur. He’s got one of those chateaus on the river Loire. And we had a cricket team in France, all ex-pats. And when he moved there, he became president of the Saumur Cricket Club, and I saw him in France playing cricket. 

So, all the way through, there’s been this connection, and I haven’t seen him for a while, but a few years ago, we were both members of a cricket charity called the Lords Taverners. And a few years ago, they were doing an auction of prints of mine to raise money for a charity, and it’s a patronage with members of the Royal Family, etc. It’s a very well-respected club, a lot of celebrities, authors … people like that who indulge in it. Anyway, Jagger had agreed to open it for me, but neither of us gt there. It was the time when the volcano erupted in Iceland, and he was in his home in Guadalupe in the West Indies, and I was here. And neither of us got there. It was a bit of a shame ... So it was just one of those … but that was something [different], because none of The Beatles were interested in any kind of sport or anything like that. But in the years that have gone past there’s been one or two of us that have come out into the cricketing … Tim Rice is a big cricket supporter. Eric Clapton is, as well. Bill Wyman was a lunatic on cricket. So often, that’s a very good connection going from this kid on a bike still pertains today, that relationship … yeah.

What would you say is something interesting about the Stones or individual members of the Stones that the public doesn’t know about, maybe about them as people or a story?
IW: Well, gosh, I thought I’d given you about 10, hadn’t I? (laughs) I mean, people don’t realize that Keith Richards sang at the Queen’s coronation in 1953. So there’s one. And then I met Jagger when I was 17, and in ’64. That’s when I took that picture of him holding the Coke bottle (taken at the Globe Theatre at Stockton on Tees, England), and he was telling me that he had promised his father that if they hadn’t made it and weren’t earning money in any way, shape or form earning money, then he said he, after six months, was going to give up. And I said, “What you were going to do?” And he said, “I know what I was going to be. I was going to go into your game.” I said, “Be a photographer?” He said, “No, be a journalist.” I said, “Really? What were you going to do?” Oh, he said, “I had it all worked out. I was going to be a bilingual economist/journalist working for the Financial Times, working at the stock exchance, etc., in England, and at the bourse in Paris.” And I said, “Oh, yeah? Really? Good.” That’s just how he was. He was so intelligent, it was beyond belief. Nobody . He passed every exam going in every category ... he would go with his brothers, his mother and father, because they lived in Kent, where you could get across the channel pretty quickly on the ferry to France, and they would go on camping holidays. And he was 12, was Jagger, and he acted as the family interpreter.

What do you remember about watching them as performers compared to The Beatles?
IW: Well, they didn’t have that … because their music was rhythm and blues, as opposed to The Beatles, which used quite a number of things. But their songs were really all up-tempo, even though a lot of them they covered from people like Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly and made them their own. And they were much more dynamic ... I think both of them had the same professionalism, and they certainly enjoyed what they were doing every time they walked on stage. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. You never got anything but their level best. But as for the Stones, they had to try and find a way to present themselves, whereas The Beatles had … the Stones didn’t have someone with the charisma, the style or the vision of Brian Epstein to put his guys in suits. The Stones were all sort of a motley “rag-tag and bobtails group,” which then led to the long hair and they got a bad press reputation really, basically because they didn’t have anyone do what Epstein had been with The Beatles.

What is your favorite shot of The Rolling Stones or Mick Jagger even?
IW: Well, there’s only one that stands out for me, and that’s the one taken after the portrait of Jagger holding the bottle. It was the night that some people were throwing filed-down coins. That was just the lunacy of the Teddy boys. And they had filed down these coins and they were just throwing them at the stage in the hopes of cutting someone up and taking their eye out. And I was down in the orchestra pit. I was watching this before this happened, and a banner? flew over my head and crashed into Charlie Watts’ part of the stage where his drums were. Jagger was adept at ducking flying stiletto heels, but he didn’t duck because he couldn’t see the coin coming and the coin came and split him, it split him above his right eye. And blood just came cascading down in a second all over his face – all down on his shirt, on his trousers and dripping on the floor, and I got a picture of him being taken in with a white hanker chief out and he held it up to his eye to stem the flow of the blood. And I got the shot and went straight back to the office with it. And Harry said, “That’s page 1.” And I left it. I left the picture with him, and then I come for it – I think he had to go for a swift pint before he went home – and I went over and I got the paper the next morning. There was Jagger standing … there he was on page 1 of the paper, the Northern Echo, and all it said was, “Blood from a Stone.” So not only is that a rare photograph. It’s also the best headline anybody ever wrote for one of my photographs.

Another big star you met and photographed was Jimi Hendrix. How did you come to shoot him and what was he like?
IW: He was very nice. He was very shy, a tall chap, very skinny, buck teeth, very sure of himself, as all the Americans were, whether it was Tommy Roe, Bobby Vee, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash – all the Americans had all this charisma about them and the way they conducted themselves. Jimi was
Famed photographer Ian Wright was
on assignment in Darlington, England, when
he met Jimi Hendrix. This photo is
regarded as the very first posed,
non-concert photo of Hendrix in the U.K.
immaculate in everything that he did, and I got a call from Chas Chandler, who I’d known from The Animals, because he came from the same part of the world as me, and of course Chas had been the bass player for Eric Burdon and The Animals. And he remembered me on my bike, and, as you might be aware, he found Jimi at Café Wha? in the Village, in Greenwich Village … and they had recorded “Hey Joe,” and they started the tour in my part of the world. 

And Chas called me up and invited me ‘round to a rhythm and blues club in a pub, and he said, “I’ve just come back from America with this chap.” He said, “Nobody’s heard of him. His name is Jimi Hendrix.” I even wrote the name down incorrectly. I’d written it as “icks,” not “ix.” So that’s how famous he was. And Chas says, “Can you come around and take a couple of pictures?” He said, “He’s going to be big. He’s going to be big.” I said, “Oh, I know how this goes.” But I went around and took two photographs. They’re in the sale. They’re the first professional portraits, as far as we know. They pre-date the Gered Mankowitz studio pictures, because “Hey Joe” wasn’t in the charts, but the recollection I have was Chas was making the rounds at sound check, and he introduced me. He was very polite and Chas asked me what I thought, and I said, “I thought he was a very nice fellow.” He had Noel Redding on bass guitar and Mitch Mitchell on the drums, and you can tell it’s very early because Mitch Mitchell hasn’t got an afro yet. 

So they get everything plugged in, they start and I thought this is like the orchestra’s always out of tune when they’re tuning up before a recital. Well, they started playing all this stuff out of tune and out of key, and I thought, “Well, they’re just tuning up.” Apparently, that was the bloody music – just terrible. Anyway, within a few seconds of this, they’re blowing the fuses in the amps. That was the first thing that went wrong. You could see smoke coming out the back. Anyway, this sort of club president, he said they knew that was going to happen and they just kept going, and then all the bloody fuses blew in the whole place, in the pub. It was done. Everything was in total darkness, so I was off. I never saw him again.

That was the only time you saw him?
IW: Yeah, I think I was only there 20 minutes. Why would I do anymore? I didn’t know he was going to be famous. This was 1966. We had no idea. In the back of my book, there are pages of photographs … who are they? We don’t know. You can’t identify them, because they weren’t on the bill. A lot of them died too young. A lot of them fell by the wayside. And so consequently, by the time this happened, I’d gotten pretty wise to all this by then. I’d become a bit of an old salt by then, I knew the deal. But I wasn’t going to let Chas down. They’d been good to me, the Animals. Every time they came up, I’d always had to photograph them before “House of the Rising Sun” became a hit.   
   
Were you aware of the other ones by Gerard Mankowitz that were said to be the first?
IW: Well, I don’t think anybody could say they were the first because the clothes that Jimi’s wearing in the photographs I took were all dated, and they were exactly … he had on exactly the same Carnaby Street uniform as he’s got in Gerard Mankowitz’s studio, which was probably about a month later. So it was just fortuitous that I knew Chas and he had the sense to call me up. In fact when the photograph was published, there was a reporter there and there was a critique in there – she didn’t see the show either, because it was over almost before they went on. She wrote two paragraphs in “The Teenage Special” and my photograph went in of Jimi Hendrix and it was the size of a thumbnail.

When did you realize that Jimi was a huge star?
IW: Well, it wasn’t long after that. I think either Spencer Davis or Denny Laine of the Moody Blues had been telling me something about being on a recording for the British television “Top of the Pops” show. And he’d been on there, and they were raving about him. They were raving about him. They’d never heard anything like it, and apparently, I didn’t know Eric Clapton at all, but he said a big influence was Jimi Hendrix. He just thought the sun shown out of every part of his orifices.

Out of everyone you’ve shot, who was your favorite out of these three or any other stars you photographed?

IW: Well, I don’t know, but for facial expressions, Jagger’s face is pretty, pretty unique. I mean, that aura that we were talking about earlier, I think it comes through in portraits I’ve taken of him … but for me, photographing people, I never had problems with any of them. Never did I have any problems at all. But for me, the nicest and one of the greatest solo singers of all-time, a guy who would bend over backwards when you were with him … that was Roy Orbison. And on the ladies side, the nicest person, with the best voice ever in the whole of the ‘60s, was definitely one of the nicest persons on the female side ... one of the nicest people of any genre which sticks out in my mind is No. 1 Roy Orbison and then Dusty Springfield. But from what we’ve got (in the sale), the biggest character, of course, was Lennon, and he was the charismatic leader of The Beatles. When I did my picture of them in the lift, if I had to talk to them, it was him that thought about it. It was him that told them, “Get in the lift.” And then it was Lennon who then placed himself front and center square under the counter in the middle of the picture. He was totally in charge of The Beatles in early ’63, but as far as my favorite portrait goes, I think it was the picture of Jagger. He had a marvelous face, wonderful features.


The 2014 Rock and Pop Auction goes live on September 27th. 

For additional details and to sign up for your All Access VIP Auction Pass click here: Auction Information


DVD Review: The Rolling Stones – Crossfire Hurricane

DVD Review: The Rolling Stones – Crossfire Hurricane
Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Rating: B+

The Rolling Stones - Crossfire Hurricane 2013
Wherever Keith Richards goes musically, Charlie Watts is sure to follow. As bassist Bill Wyman explains in the documentary film “Crossfire Hurricane,” Watts has always played slightly behind Richards and Wyman would go out ahead of both of them, a style which gave the Rollings Stones’ gloriously ragged brand of rock ‘n’ roll a bit of a “wobble,” as he calls it. 

To Wyman, it’s this magical interplay that makes it seem as if the Stones, at their most shambolic, are constantly on the edge of falling completely apart.

That’s what made the Stones dangerous. It wasn’t necessarily the drugs, the villainous excess, their uninhibited sexuality or their supposed affinity for Satan, although that’s what the world outside the band’s inner sanctum thought. Internally, at least to Wyman, they teetered on the brink of utter chaos musically; that was what made them exciting and wild. A whole generation picked up on this barely controlled vibe, and they wanted to riot. The Rolling Stones lit the fuse.

If nothing else, “Crossfire Hurricane,” the newest career-spanning documentary (on DVD and Blu-ray from Eagle Rock Entertainment) on these pop-culture icons and rock ‘n’ roll revolutionaries, rather artfully captures the explosive zeitgeist of the Rolling Stones’ formative years and their Marquee Club meltdowns, when the band, for all intents and purposes, expected to be attacked nightly onstage by fans – causing concerts to end abruptly. And it segues seamlessly into the late ‘60s, establishing a somewhat tenuous, but undeniable, link between the Stones and the social upheaval of the time, with raw footage from “The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus” thick with a heavy voodoo-like atmosphere while the band runs through “Sympathy for the Devil” – this island of feverish, hypnotically tribal rumblings surrounded by scenes of unrest, violence and fan worship.

And so goes “Crossfire Hurricane,” wandering through the last days of Brian Jones and his fading relevance into the Hyde Park triumph – that “baptism of fire” for Mick Taylor, as Richards puts it. From there, it moves on to Altamont and then to the Stones fleeing England for France for tax reasons and Richards’ heroin problem, before vaulting into the Stones’ metamorphosis from sinister miscreants to stadium-rocking party machine and it does so in a lithe, but ultimately superficial, manner, as if afraid to get bogged down in one subject or another. There appears to be a schedule to keep, and there’s no time to dilly-dally or study any particular period in Stones’ history with any sort of depth. Director Brett Morgen is running behind.

Current interviews with the Stones provide an oral history that speaks over the top of a mesmerizing, wonderfully arranged collage of vintage candid images and film footage of live performances, TV interviews, and behind-the-scenes peeks of the hedonistic Stones at play and at rest that seem positively voyeuristic. Some of it is familiar, like the “Dick Cavatt Show” intro, and some of it is has never been seen before, and the way it is all pieced together, “Crossfire Hurricane” puts the viewer right in the center of the Stones’ maelstrom, whether it’s taking place onstage, backstage or in the streets. And you get swept up in the current of it. There’s no sense trying to swim your way out of it. You’ll just drown in the fast-paced carousel of visual stimuli that spins away on screen.

Like the Stones themselves, “Crossfire Hurricane” is often on the verge of crumbling into mayhem, and that’s what makes it magnetic, the charisma and ennui of the Stones spilling out over each frame. Still, it does, as other reviewers have said, leave one wanting. To the filmmakers, the only Stones’ history worth exploring is everything that happened from Tattoo You backward, and maybe they’re right, but it the film does trail off without a real definite conclusion. And while everything up to and including Altamont is covered fairly extensively, that which happens afterward gets short shrift.

More than that, the commentary from members of the Stones that drives the narrative rarely offers much in the way of fresh perspective or revelation. They’re sorry for how things unraveled with Jones, but what were they to do? Drugs had left him a shell of his former self. Taxes in England were killing their bottom line, so they exiled themselves. Mick Taylor departed, taking the rest of the band aback. But, here comes Ronnie Wood, who was a better fit socially at least. That’s the level of discourse here, at least for the second half of the film, where “Crossfire Hurricane” runs out of steam and fails to latch onto anything of vital interest.

It’s worth watching – just for the scintillating live stuff alone, as a variety of spirited archival concert performances from the mid-‘60s are tacked on as bonus features and packaged with entertaining liner notes. Don’t expect, however, many new answers to nagging questions observers have always had about the Stones. 
– Peter Lindblad

DVD Review: The Rolling Stones - Some Girls: Live in Texas '78

DVD Review: The Rolling Stones - Some Girls: Live in Texas '78
Eagle Vision
All Access Review: A-


The punks were sneering at them from afar, and to the blow-snorting, booty-shaking hedonists living it up at Studio 54 and other less glamorous discos, the Rolling Stones might as well have been dead for all they cared. As big as they still were in the mid-to-late 1970s, the Stones were in danger of becoming irrelevant, of fading into the background. The black magic of 1972’s Exile on Main Street had long since worn off, and the Stones, with stardom further inflating Mick Jagger’s grandiose ego and drug addiction robbing Keith Richards of his bohemian talent and ambition, foundered. Satisfaction was becoming ever more elusive for the self-proclaimed world’s greatest rock and roll band.
Each succeeding album sunk them ever deeper into a quagmire of mediocrity – at least according to their lofty standards. The crass excess of 1973’s Goats Head Soup obfuscated the nasty sparkle of its brightest diamonds. It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, released a year later, lacked cohesion and consistency, even if it did, more often than not, make the blood run red hot. And while training Ronnie Wood in the ways of the Stones, Mick and Keith messed around with extended, funky grooves and stylistic experimentation on 1976’s Black and Blue and got lost (I know that’s The Eagles’ line and I’m mixing my classic-rock metaphors, but I don’t care).
With their desire to indulge in regrettably long jams and the suspect mixing of incompatible genres out of their system, the Stones, perhaps stung a bit by the criticism leveled at them, sought inspiration from a contemporary music scene dominated by polar opposites. On the one hand, there was the seething fury and cynical anger of punk doling out its own brand of street justice on bloated, fatuous rock stars who had lost touch with what once made them great. And then there was disco, glitzy and lacking anything resembling substance, while also guilty of delivering the kind of hypnotic beats and head-spinning action that compelled its coked-up consumers to lose their inhibitions and get freaky on the dance floor and in the bedroom.
The Stones, up to this point, hadn’t had much to do with any of it. That was about to change with 1978’s Some Girls, an album that lashed out at those ready to write them off as has-beens. Of its time and yet something that couldn’t ever possibly be considered dated, Some Girls was as nasty and mean as the Stones wanted it to be, with sharp, tightly wound tracks like “When The Whip Comes Down,” “Shattered” and “Respectable” all spoiling for a knife fight and not caring a whit for anybody who gets cut. Even the relatively laid-back country charms of “Far Away Eyes” break out into a menacing sneer that has bad intentions behind it, and the nod to disco, “Miss You,” sounds dangerously seductive . The Stones were not going to be pushed around – not by the Sex Pistols and certainly not by Bee Gees.
And so, with Some Girls still brandishing its razor-sharp songwriting and explosive recorded performances at a suddenly reinvigorated fan base, the Stones toured, adopting a lean, stripped-down approach that showed they meant business. On July 18, 1978, they rolled into Fort Worth, Texas, eager to show everybody who came to the Will Rogers Auditorium that night that they’d regained their swagger – something that was apparent to anybody who’d seen them on previous stops, the 1978 tour being one of the Stones’ finest hours. Tickets went fast, even though the band shrouded itself in the mysterious pseudonym “The London Green Shoed Cowboys” that nobody fell for. Onstage, the Stones caught fire, and that rip-roaring performance was filmed for posterity by the Texas outfit Showco. Colorfully packaged and riotously filmed, “The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live in Texas ’78,” released in late 2011 by Eagle Vision in three formats – DVD, Blu-Ray, and special edition DVD + CD and Blu-Ray + CD packages – is stunning visual and sonic proof that the Stones could throw down with anybody.
Backed by faithful Ian Stewart on piano and Ian “Mac” McLagan on organ and piano, plus Doug Kershaw on violin, the Stones tear into 17 tracks with fire in their eyes and raw, edgy energy to burn. Following a savory version of “Let It Rock,” a celebratory spin around “All Down the Line” and a predatory “Honky Tonk Women,” Mick and the boys burn and pillage their way through the notorious “Star Star,” otherwise known as “Starf**ker.” Ready again to rumble, after a brief respite, they flex their sinewy rhythmic muscles on “When the Whip Comes Down,” with Mick joining the fray on guitar – he has one in his hands through much of the show – sporting a t-shirt that says “DESTROY,” a yellow coat, a red hat and black leather pants. Feeling their oats, the Stones generate plenty of throbbing, sexual heat in a stretched-out “Miss You,” before turning a bit more innocent and sincere in their fantastic reworking of The Temptations’ “(Just My) Imagination,” one of the true highlights of Some Girls.
Always the showman, Jagger is in rare form, full of bravado while shucking and jiving his way through “Miss You” before grabbing the crowd by the throat with tough, commanding vocals in “Shattered” – the vicious guitars of Keith and Woodie exuding attitude and filled high-wire tension – and spearheading a vigorous run through a snotty “Respectable” that sweats bullets. While clearly sticking it to anybody who would dare question their live prowess or their passion, there’s also a playfulness and unabashed exuberance that shines off the Stones’ gleaming performance and is readily apparent in the almost gleeful, child-like interaction – however naughty these man-children are – between all parties. And make no mistake, this is a party.
Transitioning out of the deliciously boozy, countrified drawl of “Far Away Eyes” and “Love in Vain,” the Stones let it all hang out on “Tumbling Dice” and “Happy” before kicking Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little 16” square in the ass. By the time “Brown Sugar” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” draw to a close, you are satiated, worn completely out like after the greatest sex of your life but not quite ready to see it end. And if the live portion of “The Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live in Texas,” so gloriously restored by Bob Clearmountain from the original multi-track tapes and shot from a variety of visually exciting angles, were all that one had to go on, it alone would be worth the $200 you were going to spend on hookers and drugs to make it through the night, but it doesn’t cost anywhere near that. Throw in a booklet full of memorabilia and detailed, well-written liner notes by James Karnbach and you have an essential piece of musical history.
What weakens the overall package are some of the extras: a throwaway interview with Jagger comprised of nothing but softball questions and bland, pat answers; a dull, poorly written Saturday Night Live skit with Dan Akroyd’s painfully unfunny turn as Tom Snyder doing the “Tomorrow” show with Jagger and the Stones’ subsequent flat SNL performance; and a segment of ABC News “20/20” interviews with the Stones from that era that hold some interest, but ultimately, don’t add much in the way of information or historical perspective. Don’t let that deter you from picking up “Some Girls Live in Texas ’78,” a landmark live DVD that makes for a great drinking buddy for Some Girls the album.

- Peter Lindblad

Official Trailer from Eagle Rock: