i don't think i've ever read anything about how Stu (love & light!) got into music in general,
and into the London R&B scene in particular. has anyone got any books or articles or personal knowledge
about when/where Stu learned to play, how he got into the jungle music we love his love for,
who he'd played with before responding to Brian's advert, things like that?
i don't even know when he moved to London, actually - i know he was born in Scotland.

Good questions, I don't know but I look forward to the answers

Marv Peck

Y'all remember that rubber legged boy

great questions.

Gazza?
Rockman?

Yes these are very good questions.

WIth Sssoul ?

its about time someone wrote a biography of Stu.
(affordable that the man in the street can buy)

His story needs to be told

Erik_Snow?
stonesrule?

i know Stu was emphatically anti-celebrity-trip and almost never did interviews, but the above sort of thing
seems normal to know about any professional musician, whether they're into being celebrities or not.
Bill does have a little bit about Stu's childhood, so i do know when he moved to the London area after all,
but there's nothing at all about how he got into this kind of music.

i think no one here wants to admit to owning that stupendously expensive book about Stu,
but i wonder if there's anything in there about this aspect of his life.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-01-31 17:13 by with sssoul.

Here is some information on his early childhood -

Stewart was born in Pittenweem in the East Neuk, on a farm owned by his Uncle Jack. His father John, an architect, and mother Annie, were Scots who were required – because of John's work for the Army - to live in Surrey, but were so determined that Stewart should be able to call himself 100% Scottish that Annie travelled north for the birth.
(taken from the book 'Stu')

Surrey is a county on the edge of London to the South West.

Another quote from the early days....

Soho, London, 1962, man walks into a pub. He's carrying a guitar case and wearing a look of blissful ignorance about the fact he's en route to an encounter which will change his life and the course of rock music. The man's name is Keith Richards and, really, we should let him tell the story…

“I come in and there's an upright piano facing the window overlooking the street. Stu's got his back to me, he doesn't know I'm in the room. What amazes me is that while he's sitting down, playing all the shit, looking out the window, I come up behind him and there's this stripper walking by outside. But his eyes aren't following her, as mine are, they're fixed on his bike chained to a parking meter. Mind you later on, he did go: ‘Phew, look at that!'”

thanks MOWAT
you have 'that' book?

thanks very much MoWaT! that's sweet that Stu was born in Scotland on purpose. :E
the anecdote from Keith is familiar from other books, but is there anything at all about Stu's musical education?
or that say-hallelujah moment when the jungle music pounced on & captured the young Stu's heart?
or who he played with, or where, before replying to Brian's advert in the may 2nd 1962 Jazz News?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-01-31 14:55 by with sssoul.

Do you know this video?
Stu-on-piano-and-charlie-on-drums - among others.
from the North Sea Jazz Festival, don't know which year.
[www.stage6.com]

thanks open-g - i can't get that to play at all, though.
what year does it look like, at least approximately?

Gave up my Stu-googelin'..
But here is his astro chart, for what its worth.. [www.astrotheme.fr]

Interesting thread, sssoul. I never realized for someone that we all took for granted as being there for the stones all those years has had so little attention paid to him historically. And it is a great suggestion for any writers out there?

Quote
with sssoul
thanks open-g - i can't get that to play at all, though.
what year does it look like, at least approximately?

Lets see

- North Sea jazz Festival started out in 1976
- Alexis Korner plays with them, he died 1st January 1984...
- Charlie has pretty short hair...

so, somewhere in between there.

why can't you get stage6 to play?
well you need a divX plug-in, but what else?

Sadly, I do not have the book - I am sure it would be fascinating. Here is some more info on the early Stu....

As a 23-year-old clerk in ICI’s shipping department, he used the office phone to summon Jagger and Richards to auditions in Soho in 1961 and persuaded Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman to give up better paid engagements to join the outfit. It was, Richards says, “Stu’s band”.

Long before Andrew Loog Oldham took over their management, Stewart understood that the sexual magnetism of Jagger, Richards and Brian Jones needed to be stabilised by a rhythm team made up of older and more experienced men who could hit a groove and not let it go.

His knowledge of blues and jazz were at the core of the group’s early repertoire as he taught the callow youngsters about the work of such giants as Meade Lux Lewis, Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell. “When those names came out of Stu’s mouth,” Richards says, “it was poetry.” He could put his passion to good use, too. “When he was playing,” Jagger notes, “the band always swung a lot harder.”

For Stewart, and for others in the Thames delta of the early 1960s, the music was a passion and a calling, imposing its own rules and restraints. Jeff Beck, a younger member of the circle, called him “Mr Blues” and says: “He actually made you feel guilty about thinking about liking any other kind of music.”

Furthermore, as the late 50's pic shows he had his sharp side. “He should have been lead singer of the Stones,” posits Jack Bruce, “and playing the banjo, I mean what could have been hipper than that?”
The highest accolade comes from Keith Richards foreword. “The Rolling Stones are Ian Stewart's band. He was the first one there at the beginning,” states Keith. “As far as I am concerned Stu's still here.”

Another, later picture, of Stu with MJ -

And here's an earlier picture, showing the strong jawline even then -

>> And it is a great suggestion for any writers out there <<

well it's a great suggestion for sure if there's any information to be had!
it's very striking that Bill didn't include any such details about Stu in his books,
since he's got that kind of information about all the other original Stones.

thank you so much for all these quotes, MoWaT - can you let me know what source you're getting them from?
i do know that site about the book that the photos are from - is that where you found all these quotes as well?

>> to summon Jagger and Richards to auditions in Soho in 1961 <,

er ... 1962, that should say - unless someone's got some seriously myth-exploding new information

Quote
with sssoul
i don't even know when he moved to London, actually - i know he was born in Scotland.

I didn't know that either...

Another question is about those leather shorts: All the stories about Stu looking out of the window to see that his pushbike was safe mention that he was wearing leather shorts.

Stu was always dressed very unobtrusively in all the photos I've ever seen. So what's with the shorts? Was this an early wardrobe rebellion, soon to be quelled? Or were leather shorts standard wear for young men in Soho in 1962?

Could it be that Stu never actually wanted to give that much away about his personal life? Maybe not even Bill was given access to the person behind the boogie.

Quote
marcovandereijk
Could it be that Stu never actually wanted to give that much away about his personal life? Maybe not even Bill was given access to the person behind the boogie.

You're probably right about that. Back then not everybody wanted to be a star and tell the whole wide world. These days they write their auto-biographies at age 22. I mean - what can a 22 year old possibly have to tell the world?

Ahh, well...I drift. Stu is probably the enigma he is to us because he was a very private man - and wanted it to be that way.

>> Could it be that Stu never actually wanted to give that much away <<

yes, that's what i mean - although questions about when/where he learned to play and who he played with
don't seem particularly personal. maybe Bill just never asked him.

the question about those leather shorts is of course ragingly invasive, but i'm not the one who asked.

The leather shorts - possibly a 1960s version of the keen cyclist's "Lycra Lout" costume? No Lycra in those days.

Sorry I posted something that was already mentioned above. But I don't know how to delete a post.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-02-01 11:07 by marcovandereijk.

Hi with sssoul - check out this site : [www.out-take.co.uk]
Hit the links on the right side for further articles/photos some of which become somewhat repetitive and perhaps not even accurate as you pointed out with the 1961/1962 error!

Hi I know this book 'stu' is expensive but i can recomend it , it is up their with the genesis publications books.