Who would've thought on July 12, 1962, a bunch of wannabe white blues aficionados, low on actual musical experience, played their first gig at London's Marquee Club. While it wasn't revered then, it is now, because Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were in that group, what was to become the Rolling Stones. And, on August 12 this year, their half century together was celebrated with the release of 50, an official documentation of their long and rocky (excuse the pun) road.
By early 1963, Jagger and Richards had been joined by bassist Bill Wyman, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones and drummer Charlie Watts, joined also by their common interest in the blues, Chicago style, and the rock'n'roll pioneer Chuck Berry. Their initial recordings were all covers, their first real hit given to them by arch rivals the Beatles. Fittingly, on their first tour of the United States, they recorded a swag of songs at the famed Chess studios in Chicago, meeting their idols, such as Muddy Waters. One of those songs, a cover of Bobby Womack's It's All Over Now became their first No1.
But their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, didn't fancy paying other people royalties and he cajoled Mick and Keith into writing songs, and so a very productive partnership began, with Keith becoming the renowned riff creator. The rest, as they say, is history. Fast forward 50 years, yes 50 years, and the Rolling Stones are still here. In spite of their best efforts to do otherwise, they've survived, not just on a personal level, but as a band which has no rivals. This publication, 50 is an incredible chronicle of those years, and some of the images are simply outstanding, the rest of them just excellent.
We experience the changes in personnel. Brian Jones fired in 1969 for his erratic, drug-fuelled, behaviour, replaced by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers' guitarist Mick Taylor. Taylor lasted until just 1974 when he left, disillusioned and with a habit.
The auditions to replace Taylor included Peter Frampton, Rory Gallagher and Jeff Beck, but it was former Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood who won the day and, nearly 40 years on, he is almost a foundation member of the Rolling Stones.