Friday, July 15, 2011

Edith Grove

In August 1962 Mick Jagger found a flat at 102 Edith Grove, Chelsea, and he and Brian Jones moved in immediately. A short time later, Keith Richards moved into Edith Grove with them. Once, the three of them were chatting to the background of a Muddy Waters album, and inevitably the talk went to their prospects of success. They wondered if they should get 'proper jobs'. They decided to give it a year, in which they would have at least soaked up the music.

In the meantime, Ian Stewart kept his day job as a shipping clerk at ICI, while at night he drove the band's gear around in his big old pre-war Rover, with the drums in the backseat and the amps in the boot. Stu regarded the other Stones' beatnik lifestyle as horrific, but as a good pianist with terrific jazz knowledge, he could hear some potential:

"The great thing was Keith and Brian living in the Edith Grove flat together, with no money and nothing to do but play. They really got off on this two-guitar player thing. And they pulled it off really well. All those old records usually featured two guitar players. So they absorbed a lot. They were young enough to be influenced in the heart rather than in the head. By 1963, having lived together and done nothing else than listen to their records and tapes and play together, Brian and Keith had this guitar thing like you wouldn't believe. There was never any suggestion of a lead and a rhythm guitar player. They were two guitar players that were like somebody's right and left hand".

Adapted from the following sources:
Bill Wyman, Stone Alone, Penguin Books, 1990.
Ian McPherson, timeisonourside.com.

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