A few days ago I was reading a recent photo book titled The RS - The Magic Years by Bent Rej (by the way, I warmly recommend it, is great) and I found a recurrent opinion about Andrew Loog Oldham role: "... ALO invented a management and marketing style that was often imitated but not improved; ..... The style that Andrew created is the same the Stones mantained during the years from then (the sixties) until nowadays."

I think a photographer judgment such as the above quoted is more relevant to the look-image-fashion sphere and not really to the whole Stones lifestyle, but the interpretation could be a good point for discussion ....

"AOL invented a mangement and marketing style that was often imitated but not improved..."

Don't agree. What Andrew came up with in the Sixties in the Stones worked well in terms of promotional image. Not so well in terms of management crisis- handling and money for the band.

Don't agree that the "style Andrew created" is the same until now.

"Style" has to be based on who a band really is, particularly their sound. Fake images don't usually work out so well in the long run. While Andrew had some fascinating ideas, the Stones were not exactly bland individuals without minds of her own. Think it is more accurate to call it "collaborative" with Andrew carrying and implementing early publicity.

Leslie Perrin, the Stones' longtime London quality public relations man, now deceased, was a huge help to the band, a rock that several individual members leaned on.