It's Ian Stewart's birthday today, and here's a nice compilation of Stu pictures. Thanks to viejorlinga (Stonesforum).
http://stonespleasedontstop.blogspot.com.ar/2012/07/ian-andrew-robert-stewart-feliz-stones_17.html
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Mahoney's Last Stand
In May 1972 Faces members Ronnie Lane and Ronnie Wood started recordings for the soundtrack to the film 'Mahoney's Last Stand' at Olympic Sound Studios, London. The album represented Wood and Lane's only joint venture outside of the Faces, although they were joined on several tracks by fellow band members Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones. Lyrically 'Mahoney's Last Stand' is very much a Ronnie Lane influenced recording, despite the trademark guitar and harmonica contributions from Ronnie Wood.
'Mahoney's Last Stand' was originally intended to be released in North America as a promotional vehicle for the film of the same name, but contractual wrangles meant the film was delayed for almost two years and the soundtrack for three years. The album is the first clear indication of the direction Ronnie Lane would eventually pursue when he quit Faces following this recording, midway through their 1973 USA tour.
In addition to Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan, Ron and Ron were joined by Pete Townshend, Rick Grech, Ian Stewart, Bobby Keys, Jim Price, Micky Waller, Bruce Rowland and Benny Gallagher (who later went on to form with Lane the band Slim Chance). The soundtrack was recorded by Glyn Johns. Ian 'Stu' Stewart plays piano on one track, the instrumental 'Woody's Thing', with Ron Wood on guitars and Bruce Rowland on drums.
Adapted from the following source: Terry Rawlings, Mahoney's Last Stand, liner notes to the soundtrack album.
'Mahoney's Last Stand' was originally intended to be released in North America as a promotional vehicle for the film of the same name, but contractual wrangles meant the film was delayed for almost two years and the soundtrack for three years. The album is the first clear indication of the direction Ronnie Lane would eventually pursue when he quit Faces following this recording, midway through their 1973 USA tour.
In addition to Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan, Ron and Ron were joined by Pete Townshend, Rick Grech, Ian Stewart, Bobby Keys, Jim Price, Micky Waller, Bruce Rowland and Benny Gallagher (who later went on to form with Lane the band Slim Chance). The soundtrack was recorded by Glyn Johns. Ian 'Stu' Stewart plays piano on one track, the instrumental 'Woody's Thing', with Ron Wood on guitars and Bruce Rowland on drums.
Adapted from the following source: Terry Rawlings, Mahoney's Last Stand, liner notes to the soundtrack album.
Fact sheet: Exile On Main St.
Exile On Main St., recorded mainly in 1971 and released in May 1972, is considered to be the greatest album The Rolling Stones ever made. Author James Hector puts the record in some fine perspective: "What Exile captured was a band wholly conversant with their own limitations. By defining their own terms, and by not falling foul of contemporary fads and fashions, the Stones touched base with what inspired them in the first place.
The act of collective music-making, in the leisured ambience of a kitchen/basement, enabled them to fulfil what they weren't able to achieve back in 1962. And now able to draw on all the sources they'd accessed during their ten-year career, their vast musical education enabled them to fully control those influences, rather than let themselves simply become the sum of them. There's nothing ostentatious, or even immediately gripping about the results. But rarely has a group reacquainted itself with both the original, and a contemporary vision of itself, and emerged with a hybrid that seemed quintessential, and yet wonderfully out-of-sorts with both".
Ian Stewart played piano on three tracks, 'Sweet Virginia', 'Stop Breaking Down', and 'Shake Your Hips'. Other members of the keyboard department on this record were Nicky Hopkins (piano on 12 tracks) and Billy Preston (piano and organ on 'Shine A Light'). May 2010 saw the re-release of 'Exile', including a second disc with ten previously unreleased alternates and leftovers, originally recorded in 1970-1971. Nicky Hopkins played on all but one of these tracks, while Stu contributed a piano line to 'Dancing In The Light' (with new vocals by Mick Jagger).
Adapted from the following source: James Hector, The Complete Guide To The Music Of The Rolling Stones, Omnibus Press, 1995.
Suggested further reading:
Bill Janovitz, The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main St., Continuum, 2007.
John Robinson, Exile On Main St., The Ultimate Music Guide (from the makers of Uncut)
Charles Shaar Murray, Party On (album review), Mojo Special Edition, 2003.
The act of collective music-making, in the leisured ambience of a kitchen/basement, enabled them to fulfil what they weren't able to achieve back in 1962. And now able to draw on all the sources they'd accessed during their ten-year career, their vast musical education enabled them to fully control those influences, rather than let themselves simply become the sum of them. There's nothing ostentatious, or even immediately gripping about the results. But rarely has a group reacquainted itself with both the original, and a contemporary vision of itself, and emerged with a hybrid that seemed quintessential, and yet wonderfully out-of-sorts with both".
Ian Stewart played piano on three tracks, 'Sweet Virginia', 'Stop Breaking Down', and 'Shake Your Hips'. Other members of the keyboard department on this record were Nicky Hopkins (piano on 12 tracks) and Billy Preston (piano and organ on 'Shine A Light'). May 2010 saw the re-release of 'Exile', including a second disc with ten previously unreleased alternates and leftovers, originally recorded in 1970-1971. Nicky Hopkins played on all but one of these tracks, while Stu contributed a piano line to 'Dancing In The Light' (with new vocals by Mick Jagger).
Adapted from the following source: James Hector, The Complete Guide To The Music Of The Rolling Stones, Omnibus Press, 1995.
Suggested further reading:
Bill Janovitz, The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main St., Continuum, 2007.
John Robinson, Exile On Main St., The Ultimate Music Guide (from the makers of Uncut)
Charles Shaar Murray, Party On (album review), Mojo Special Edition, 2003.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Exile summer
By the spring of 1971 the Rolling Stones owed more in taxes than they could pay and the band left the UK before the government could seize their assets. Mick Jagger settled in Paris, and Keith Richards rented a villa, Nellcôte, in Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice. The other members of the band also setttled in the south of France. Eventually Keith's basement at Nellcôte became a makeshift studio to record, using the band's mobile recording truck.
In his autobiography, Life, Keith Richards recalls what happened: "We looked at studios in Cannes and elsewhere, reckoned up how much money the French were going to suck out of us. Nellcôte had a large basement and we had our own mobile studio. The Mighty Mobile, as we called it, was a truck with eight-track recording machines that Stu had helped to put together. We'd thought of it quite separately from any plan to move to France.
It was the only mobile recording unit around. We didn't realize when we put it together how rare it was - soon we were renting it out to the BBC and ITV because they had only one apiece. It was another one of those beautiful, graceful, fortuitous things that happened to the Stones. So one day in June it trundled through the gates and we parked it outside the front door and plugged in. I've never done any different since. When you've got the equipment and the right guys, you don't need anything else in terms of studios".
And so Nellcôte and the Mighty Mobile became the center of the Stones' 1971 Exile recordings. A lot has been written (and filmed) about this long hot summer in the south of France, but very little is known about Stu's whereabouts. For sure he, as managing director of the mobile unit, must have been around, but where did he live? And did he take part in any recording sessions, or was Nicky Hopkins the only piano player the band relied on at the time? Someone?
Adapted from the following source: Keith Richards, Life, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010.
Suggested further reading and viewing:
Bill Janovitz, The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main St., Continuum, 2007.
Dominique Tarlé, Exile, Genesis Publications, 2001.
Stones In Exile, Eagle Rock Entertainment Ltd., 2010 (DVD).
In his autobiography, Life, Keith Richards recalls what happened: "We looked at studios in Cannes and elsewhere, reckoned up how much money the French were going to suck out of us. Nellcôte had a large basement and we had our own mobile studio. The Mighty Mobile, as we called it, was a truck with eight-track recording machines that Stu had helped to put together. We'd thought of it quite separately from any plan to move to France.
It was the only mobile recording unit around. We didn't realize when we put it together how rare it was - soon we were renting it out to the BBC and ITV because they had only one apiece. It was another one of those beautiful, graceful, fortuitous things that happened to the Stones. So one day in June it trundled through the gates and we parked it outside the front door and plugged in. I've never done any different since. When you've got the equipment and the right guys, you don't need anything else in terms of studios".
And so Nellcôte and the Mighty Mobile became the center of the Stones' 1971 Exile recordings. A lot has been written (and filmed) about this long hot summer in the south of France, but very little is known about Stu's whereabouts. For sure he, as managing director of the mobile unit, must have been around, but where did he live? And did he take part in any recording sessions, or was Nicky Hopkins the only piano player the band relied on at the time? Someone?
Adapted from the following source: Keith Richards, Life, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010.
Suggested further reading and viewing:
Bill Janovitz, The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main St., Continuum, 2007.
Dominique Tarlé, Exile, Genesis Publications, 2001.
Stones In Exile, Eagle Rock Entertainment Ltd., 2010 (DVD).
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Fact sheet: Sticky Fingers
April 1971 the Rolling Stones finally released their new studio album "Sticky Fingers" on their new record label Rolling Stones Records. Author Graeme Thomson puts the record in some fine perspective: "Sticky Fingers is the bridge that carried the Stones out of the '60s and into the '70s, pieced together over two years in the gaps between two major, somewhat mythical tours; various legal shenanigans; the integration of Mick Taylor as a fully fledged Stone; and their departure from Decca to form their own record label.
A three-day stopover at Muscle Shoals, Alabama in December 1969 delivered 'Wild Horses', 'You Gotta Move' and 'Brown Sugar'. The rest - the sickly 'Sister Morphine' aside - was recorded throughout 1970 at Stargroves, Mick Jagger's country pile, and tidied up at Olympic Sound Studios in London. It was, according to Jagger, a 'heavy time', and you can hear it in the music. Unlike most other Stones albums, however magnificent, "Sticky Fingers" is an emotional as well as a visceral ride".
Ian Stewart played piano on two tracks, 'Brown Sugar' and 'Dead Flowers'. Other members of the keyboard department on this record were Nicky Hopkins, Jim Dickinson, Billy Preston, Jack Nitzsche, Jim Price, and even Bill Wyman (electric piano on 'You Gotta Move'). A busy affair, with Stu being a constant factor, and Billy Preston the coming man.
Adapted from the following source: Graeme Thomson, Sticky Fingers, The Ultimate Music Guide (from the makers of Uncut).
A three-day stopover at Muscle Shoals, Alabama in December 1969 delivered 'Wild Horses', 'You Gotta Move' and 'Brown Sugar'. The rest - the sickly 'Sister Morphine' aside - was recorded throughout 1970 at Stargroves, Mick Jagger's country pile, and tidied up at Olympic Sound Studios in London. It was, according to Jagger, a 'heavy time', and you can hear it in the music. Unlike most other Stones albums, however magnificent, "Sticky Fingers" is an emotional as well as a visceral ride".
Ian Stewart played piano on two tracks, 'Brown Sugar' and 'Dead Flowers'. Other members of the keyboard department on this record were Nicky Hopkins, Jim Dickinson, Billy Preston, Jack Nitzsche, Jim Price, and even Bill Wyman (electric piano on 'You Gotta Move'). A busy affair, with Stu being a constant factor, and Billy Preston the coming man.
Adapted from the following source: Graeme Thomson, Sticky Fingers, The Ultimate Music Guide (from the makers of Uncut).
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Let It Rock
March 4, 1971 the Rolling Stones kicked off their first proper UK tour since autumn 1966, after having announced that they were becoming tax exiles and decamping to the South of France, which they did shortly after finishing the tour. The tour was not lengthy (March 4-14, 1971), but audience numbers were enlarged by playing two shows on almost every night.
Although "Sticky Fingers" was still not released, the band expanded the number of selections from it played compared with the previous European tour. Nicky Hopkins took over from Ian Stewart the role of stage keyboardist. On March 26 the band went to the Marquee Club to film a TV special. For this special occasion Stu took over from Nicky Hopkins again, and played piano on almost all songs, including Chuck Berry's 'Let It Rock'.
Although "Sticky Fingers" was still not released, the band expanded the number of selections from it played compared with the previous European tour. Nicky Hopkins took over from Ian Stewart the role of stage keyboardist. On March 26 the band went to the Marquee Club to film a TV special. For this special occasion Stu took over from Nicky Hopkins again, and played piano on almost all songs, including Chuck Berry's 'Let It Rock'.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Headley Grange Sessions
During their 1971 recording sessions at Headley Grange, East Hampshire, England, British rock band Led Zeppelin were using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio and were accompanied by Ian Stewart, who ended up jamming with the band on piano. Two songs (or rather jams) saw the light of day: 'Rock And Roll', based on a classic twelve-bar blues pattern, appeared on Zep's fourth album (1971), while 'Boogie With Stu' earned its place on 1975's "Physical Graffiti".
According to guitarist Jimmy Page both songs would not have emerged had it not been for the particularly informal 'live-in' environment at Headley Grange: "Some of the things that happened there, like 'Boogie With Stu' where Stu turns up and plays a piano that's totally unplayable, were incredible. That was too good to miss because Stu wouldn't record, he wouldn't do solo stuff. All of these things wouldn't end up on albums as far as other people were concerned, but they did with us".
Adapted from various wikipedia pages.
According to guitarist Jimmy Page both songs would not have emerged had it not been for the particularly informal 'live-in' environment at Headley Grange: "Some of the things that happened there, like 'Boogie With Stu' where Stu turns up and plays a piano that's totally unplayable, were incredible. That was too good to miss because Stu wouldn't record, he wouldn't do solo stuff. All of these things wouldn't end up on albums as far as other people were concerned, but they did with us".
Adapted from various wikipedia pages.
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