NEW! The Rolling Stones in London Walking Tour launches on Thursday 5th May 2016!
Curated & guided by the team that brought you the Rock'n'Roll London Walk, we'll be prowling in the blueswailing, drug-busting, establishment-baiting footsteps of the savage young Stones in their 60's pomp – from the studios where they created to the shebeens where they, er, socialised – this walk provides the ideal "bonus tracks" to Exhibitionism, the blockbusting Stones retrospective at the Saatchi Gallery.
Meet at Tottenham Court Road station Thursdays at 2:30p.m. STARTS THURSDAY 5TH MAY 2016.
Daily Constitutional Editor & Rock'n'Roll London guide Adam Scott-Goulding writes…As a countdown to the Rolling Stones in London Walk I've picked 45 moments – tracks, busts, incidents, quotes – from the greatest story in Rock'n'Roll. These are the moments that made the legend… 28/45. The ‘67 Drug Bust at Redlands
The first big rock’n’roll drugs bust. Keith’s country manor, Mick, Keith, gallery owner Robert Fraser, 24 heroin ‘jacks’, a lump of hash, some uppers and Marianne Faithfull wrapped in a fur rug. The tabloids had an orgasm. Legend has it that the cops waited for George Harrison of those nice Beatles to leave the premises before the bust went ahead.
William Rees Mogg looked to Alexander Pope in his reaction to the (brief) incarceration of Jagger and Richards by writing his famous editorial in The Times under the headline Who Breaks A Butterfly On A Wheel?
The tale of gallery owner Robert Fraser, the "third man" in the bust, is something less celebrated than that of the errant Stones. Fraser, an Old Etonian and ex-officer in the King's African Rifles, was one of the most influential figures of swinging London. He put the work of Rene Magritte before Paul McCartney, inspiring the design of the Apple logo and also suggested Peter Blake as designer of the Sgt Pepper sleeve. For his part in the drugs bust he was sentenced to six months.His story is told in Harriet Vyner's excellent book Groovy Bob.
A London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.
