I think this is the original interview:
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‘Boats are very private places. Fake names in recording sessions – keep it simple… you know’ – ‘Mr Gibson 3.3’, aka Mick Jagger
'If you want to keep things private you can. Fake names in recording sessions,' said Jagger
Under the blinding glare of the Los Angeles sun, on the same dusty Paramount New York street lot where The Godfather was filmed, a jumbled crew of cameramen, anxious assistants, exhausted runners and jaded punk extras all stare as a great boom of sound blares from a hastily constructed, battered voodoo shop frontage – pitched completely at odds against the iconic Forties brownstones.
There’s a momentary, familiar high-pitched wail. Then the battered doors crash open and Mick Jagger, in a tight neon-pink suit and Panama hat, struts into the sunlight, his feet in cerise Nikes kicking up dirt as he leaps through a series of perfectly co-ordinated vocal and physical twists, effortlessly spinning a pair of female dancers as he sings the opening lines of Miracle Worker.
Nobody moves, spellbound by what they’re watching. Even the jaw on the most scary-looking punk has dropped open. Joss Stone, sitting just feet away on a pavement, is completely fixated. Then Jagger stops, walks over to a monitor, frowning as he scrutinises the reel with ex-Eurythmics musician Dave Stewart.
Eventually, Jagger nods to Stewart and says in his ultra-liquid London drawl, ‘OK guys, let’s go again.’
This is an extraordinary event. Live magazine is the only UK publication invited to witness the filming of Jagger’s latest venture. SuperHeavy is a collaboration between Jagger, Stewart, Stone, Damian Marley (son of reggae legend Bob Marley) and Indian-born Oscar-winning soundtrack writer AR Rahman.
Over a period of four days we were given unprecedented access to the performers as the final touches were put to a project that has taken two years, crossed four continents, involved one of the world’s largest superyachts, the personal assistance of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the input of America’s answer to Banksy, Shepard Fairey, not to mention levels of secrecy MI5 would be proud of (more of this later), to achieve. The outcome is a wholly unexpected return of the musicians’ collective ideal of the Sixties and Seventies – the supergroup.
'In a room full of musicians it doesn't take long to work out the dynamics,' said Jagger
As Dave Stewart says, ‘It was all totally secret and we kept it that way for a hell of a long time, which is amazing given the people concerned. This was a journey that could only really develop if it was given space without the rest of the world putting their expectations on it.
'It was essential we kept it secret. We had a codename for recording studios – DD Jam – and when a few people got to hear about Joss and Mick being in a session together it was put out that it was a Nokia campaign.
‘We recorded all over the place: LA, Jamaica, Turkey, Italy, Greece, India, Miami. We had people coming in at different times, different places. Paul Allen lent us his boat (a 414ft megayacht called Octopus with two helicopters, two submarines and a jet-ski dock). Mick would check in under names like Mr Gibson 3.3 – all very Ocean’s Eleven.’
‘Boats are very private places. Fake names in recording sessions – keep it simple… you know’ – ‘Mr Gibson 3.3’, aka Mick Jagger
Hours later, in a suite at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, Mr Gibson 3.3 – Mick Jagger – is chilling before being driven off to a dance lesson where he will perfect his moves for tomorrow’s filming.
He is dressed in a peacock-blue cotton shirt and steel-grey trousers cut in the skinny, tapered style of a Sixties beatnik. His brown hair remains anti-establishment shoulder length and his face is a Francis Bacon portrait – fantastically riven by a life as extreme as you could get, untouched by surgery and defiantly his own.
Talking to Jagger is like trying to grasp mercury. He smiles and laughs, jokes and parries his way around questions. As it turns out, maintaining absolute secrecy was the least of his concerns.
‘I never found it that hard,’ he says. ‘I was worried about Dave because he often blabs when he’s talking and then my brother (Chris) said something. But if you want to keep things private you can. Dave blagged Paul Allen’s boat and we recorded vocals sailing round Greece and Turkey; boats are very private places. Fake names in recording sessions, keep it simple… you know.’
'It's good, I'm really happy with it. You sit back, you let others do their thing. You have your go, then you let the others go. It's a good process. I'm interested to see what happens next, move on,' said Jagger
Ask him what it was like playing with a completely new band and he grins.
'Well, it was really great but really pressured. Great because it’s good to challenge, to do something different; pressure because day one, we got into a room, no one had written anything, none of us had worked together as a group. I knew Damian’s dad but not really him or AR (Rahman). Then, me and Dave are sitting there with guitars and everyone is sort of looking at the guys with the guitars…’
Were the others looking to him specifically because he was the legend in the room?
‘Well, I dunno about that. Definitely the oldest, the senior. But in a room full of musicians it doesn’t take long to work out the dynamics. I’ve known Dave and worked with him for the past 25 years on projects like Alfie and Ruthless People and just doing our own stuff together.
'And Joss has opened for the Stones. I knew what singing with Joss was actually like and I hung out with her. I know she talks all the time and she is always up and laughing spontaneously. She is not like some broody, moody kind of girl who sits in the corner and you don’t know what she’s thinking. She’s telling you what she is thinking all the time, which is quite good really. And she sings all the time. She sings all her thoughts. I say, “Joss, can I get five minutes off the singing? Joss, shut up. Joss!”’ Jagger laughs.
‘It’s good, I’m really happy with it. You sit back, you let others do their thing. You have your go, then you let the others go. It’s a good process. I’m interested to see what happens next, move on.’
Jagger likes to keep moving; his motto is ‘Don’t look back.’
Jagger, Stewart, Marley and Stone in rehearsal
He nods. ‘I live in the now. But I don’t ever think, “This is amazing, I can’t believe I’m still doing this.” I am doing it. I’m just doing it. And I don’t think, “It’s all gone so fast”, because for me it’s still happening. When I started it was a different century and it seems like it. You move on. This band, this project, it’s all good.’
But it’s impossible to remove Jagger from his extraordinary past and even though we’re here to talk about SuperHeavy, the ghosts of the Rolling Stones and Keith Richards swirl around those skinny shoulders.
Richards’ autobiography, Life, torpedoed the fragile partnership of the Glimmer Twins, as Richards laid in to Jagger for being unbearable and betraying the ethos of the Stones by accepting a knighthood. Worse, Richards struck at the core of Jagger’s legend as a lover by boasting he slept with Mick’s girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull, and claiming Jagger has a ‘tiny todger’.
As bizarre as it seems, ‘Todgergate’ has led to such a rift between the two that the Stones’ long-awaited 50th anniversary tour – due for next year – is currently off, although rumours have emerged recently that lawyers are desperately trying to broker an agreement between the two men.
I tell Jagger I want to ask him something.
Stone fools around by her trailer
He leans back and smiles, ‘When is the next Rolling Stones mega-tour? I don’t know really. There isn’t one so far. But there might be anything, anything can happen. It is the 50th anniversary next year. Everyone kept asking what was the date of our first ever performance, no one was giving the answer, so I decided I may as well bloody well find out myself.
‘The first ever performance we did was in July at the Marquee Club in London and it was billed as Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. It was just me and Keith, Brian (Jones) and a backing band. No one else – no Charlie (Watts), he wasn’t even there. I remember it exactly. I was 19 years old. Ricky Fenson on bass, Carlo Little on drums and Nicky Hopkins on piano. They all told us to **** off when we tried to hire them but it was a big deal getting a gig at the Marquee because it was the hottest London club. It was a jazz club trying to break into blues.
‘The gig was amazing – the drummer was going mad and Nicky was rocking his electric piano and I remember the crowd going absolutely wild. I was thinking as I was singing, they obviously have to book us again, this is the most rocking gig they’ve had in the Marquee ever. But they didn’t. They didn’t let us back in there for ages because rock was working-class, rubbish music. It didn’t exist on an intellectual level like jazz. They saw the future and they didn’t like it. That was our first gig and the people we wanted to get the point just didn’t get it.
‘Maybe we could go back to the Marquee to accept a plaque for 50 years of service instead (of a tour). That could work – except Keith can’t obviously come. Charlie could come but he wouldn’t get the plaque, obviously.’It is the first time Mick has mentioned Keith. It is clearly not looking good for any kind of reunion. I ask him if he played the SuperHeavy album to the Stones (Never Gonna Change is particularly reminiscent of the Stones sound).
‘Ronnie’s listened to it. He’s sweet, he’s very supportive. He liked it very much, he liked it all, particularly some of the first tracks we started with. And Charlie liked it. He’s all about the grooves, he’s got a great ear. Charlie and Ronnie both have their own things but they see the bigger picture. Not everyone sees the big picture.’
Stone and Stewart at the mixing desk
And Keith?
‘I don’t know if Keith really listens to that much. I don’t know what Keith listens to.’
I tell him Keith is usually quoted as saying he listens to Chuck Berry.
Jagger shrugs: ‘Yeah, that is what he says. I wonder if it is actually true.’
Why, given the forensic detail in Richards’ book, did Jagger take it upon himself to research details of the Stones’ first gig?
‘It isn’t necessarily correct,’ he says. ‘Everyone’s recollections of these things are all dim and distanced. It’s a very long time ago. A lot of things have been taken in the intervening period and your memory of it is different from one day to the next. Everyone has a different memory of what actually happened.
‘But if someone said to me, you are completely wrong Mick, Charlie played at the Marquee gig, here’s a picture – well maybe I was wrong. I don’t remember it like that but maybe he was there. But you see, then, that picture might have come from the October gig in the Marquee and who’s to know? And so the point is that somewhere around there, there was a band called the Rolling Stones but the actual first gig in July was not with Charlie or Bill (Wyman).’
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