I had a chance to catch up with the author of the Rough Guide to the Rolling Stones, Sean Egan who was willing to spill the beans on Rolling Stones trivia…
How did Mick and Keith meet?
SE: They met when they were toddlers and they lived a street away from each other in Dartford, South East of London. Their paths separated then they were about eleven (they were both born in 1943, with Mick being the older by six months) but they reconnected on a train coming out of Dartford in October 1961. Mick was going to the London School of Economics and Keith to Sidcup Art College. Keith was amazed to see that Mick had some blues albums under his arm, as the blues was a minority taste back then. Their mutual love of the music got them talking.
How many times and where did the Rolling Stones play Wales at their peak?
SE: Their gig at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on August 29 will be their first visit to Wales since 1990 (Arms Park, Cardiff). Their previous visit before that was 1966. The latter was their seventh gig in Wales since 1963, the bulk of which had been at the Capitol Theatre in Cardiff. Aberystwyth and Prestatyn are the other towns in Wales the Stones have played.
What is the story behind the Metamorphosis album and was Brian Jones involved?
SE: Metamorphosis was an album of outtakes (i.e., rejects) that the band were required to give their former manager Allen Klein the rights to release following negotiations during their acrimonious break-up with him in the early 1970s. Brian Jones was long dead by then so wasn’t involved except perhaps as an instrumentalist on some of the tracks. The album is sub-standard - the band didn’t think the tracks were good enough to release in the first place, and some of them don’t even feature anything like the full Stones line-up. However, it is historically interesting, certainly more so than the average bootleg.
What is the weirdest musical fact you discovered about the Rolling Stones?
SE: The way Keith Richards is able to display incredible patience in achieving the results he wants. The distortion on the guitars on ‘Gimme Shelter’, for instance, was the result of deliberately over-heating some sub-standard amplifiers the group had acquired, a process which could take hours and which one had to start all over again if the desired results weren’t captured the first time.
Did you talk to Andrew Loog Oldham when you were creating the Rough Guide?
SE: Not for the Rough Guide but I have interviewed him before. I found him unexpectedly non-bitter about his split from the band in 1967 - he said he was a miracle for them and they for him. I was also surprised that one of his favourite Stones albums was Between The Buttons, which is considered to be a bit fey by most Stones fans.
How long did it take for you to compile the Rough Guide?
SE: I only had three months to write it but I cannibalised bits of an abandoned Stones book I had started writing several years before for it. I was also immersed in Stones research material anyway as I had just finished a book on the making of their Let It Bleed album (Unanimous Books.)
What was the most rock n roll moment you discovered about the Rolling Stones whilst they were on tour?
SE: Well it has to be the rumour that in 1973 Keith Richards had his heroin-contaminated blood swapped in a Swiss clinic with fresh blood, so as to be ‘clean’ when crossing borders. Keith has denied it and a drug expert I spoke to for the book was highly sceptical about the story, yet the way the tale is recounted by Richards’ ex-employee Tony Sanchez in his book Up And Down With The Rolling Stones is very convincing. Either way, it’s stories like this that made the Stones a legend.
Do you think the Rolling Stones will ever retire?
SE: I can’t see it happening now that they’re past sixty. Mick Jagger was talking about how embarrassing it would be to continue for much longer way back in 1969, but that was before rock stars and the public realised it could be a long-term career. There’s nothing wrong with being a rocker into your old age but I do wish the band worked harder on their new albums, instead of seeming to treat them as a secondary issue, with touring their main priority.
What is your favourite Rolling Stones song?
SE: It’s very difficult because I think everything they recorded in the Sixties and Seventies is worth listening to. (Their supposed immediate decline after 1971 is a myth.) However, if I have to pick one, it must be ‘Gimme Shelter’ (1969), which is a stunning, apocalyptical, epic number. I’m also very partial to ‘Angie’ (1973), a record that proved they could create ballads as beautiful as any artist, and ‘Miss You’ (1978), a disco-rock hybrid which made them seem vital and fresh to a new generation.
How many times have you seen the Rolling Stones perform?
SE: You know what? I’m so embarrassed about how few times I’ve seen such a great live act that I’d rather not answer that! My excuse is that I was ten when Mick Taylor left them in 1975, by which time they were past their true peak. Naturally, I would love to have seen them when Brian Jones was in the band but I was three when he played his last gig with them.