slide electric guitar,”
Richards said in Stone Alone:
The Story of a Rock ’n’ Roll
Band, by bassist Bill Wyman.
“Mick and I both thought he
was incredible. He mentioned
he was forming a band. He
could have easily joined
another group, but he wanted
to form his own. The Rolling
Stones was Brian’s baby.”
When Alexis Korner skipped
one of his regular Marquee
gigs to appear on a BBC
radio show, Jagger, Jones and
Richards seized the
opportunity to debut their
new group. And so it came to
pass that the earliest version
of the Rolling Stones – which
also included bassist Dick
Taylor (later a founding
member and guitarist for the
Pretty Things), drummer
Mick Avory (a future
member of the Kinks) and
keyboardist Ian Stewart (the
Stones’ lifelong road
manager and adjunct
member) – made their first
public appearance on July 12,
1962.
The Rolling Stones landed an
eight-month residency at the
Crawdaddy Club, where they
attracted a following of fans
and fellow musicians. By that
time, the group’s final lineup
had been set, with founding
members Jagger, Richards
and Jones augmented by
drummer Charlie Watts (a
Blues Incorporated alumnus)
and bassist Bill Wyman.
They also took on a young
manager-producer, Andrew
Loog Oldham, who saw in
the Stones a chance to exploit
“the opposite to what the
Beatles are doing.” Indeed,
the Stones would come to
epitomize the darker, bluesier
and more boldly sexual side
of rock and roll in a kind of
ongoing counterpoint with
the Beatles’ sunnier, more
pop-oriented vistas.
In May 1963 the Rolling
Stones signed to Decca