Rare photographs of The Rolling Stones in their early days have gone on sale.
Some of the black-and-white images, which were taken by iconic 1960s photographer Philip Townsend, were used to secure the band’s first-ever recording contract on the Decca label.
The limited edition collection went on sale at Castle Galleries, Bluewater, on Friday.
Stones frontmen Mick Jagger and Keith Richards went to school together in Dartford, and Richards later attended an art college in Sidcup, Bexley.
Mr Townsend, 68, who also took pictures of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and others during his decade-long career, put his early association with the Stones down to pure chance.
He told Kent on Sunday: “I was just very lucky and was in the right place at the right time. All my life I’ve said ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’, and thankfully I was able to capitalise on that without messing it up.
“I was working as a freelance photographer in Monte Carlo when I met [former Stones manager] Andrew Loog Oldham, who was working in an English café at the time.
“He told me music was his thing and that he was going home to find a rock ‘n’ roll band and make them the greatest of all time – and that’s what he did.”
Oldham remained in touch with Mr Townsend following their first encounter and enlisted his services to provide Decca with publicity shots.
Although he was asked to make the Stones appear “mean and nasty” in the photographs, Mr Townsend said that at the time the band’s members were anything but.
He said: “It was the first time they had been photographed, and they had never even made a demo tape. They were beginners and were not in a position to be difficult, but I suppose they are now.
“After that I didn’t get to do much work with them because I fell out with Andrew for about three years and missed out on the tours of America. It was because I flogged a picture of one of Keith’s girlfriends to a paper when she went into rehab and he was quite upset about it. But Andrew and I are the best of friends again now.”
For years Mr Townsend’s collection of photographs lay consigned to a cupboard at his home in Woolwich, south-east London, but he has now decided to sell prints of them for the first time.
He said: “I’ve been exhibiting these photos for about the last seven years, but before that nobody wanted to buy that sort of thing. Now there seems to have been a revival of interest.”
POSTED: 29/11/2008 10:00:00
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