Written by Phineas Upham
The Rolling Stones are one of the world’s most recognized bands. It all started at Dartford Maypole County Primary School, when Keith Richards first met Mick Jagger. Both men were avid followers of blues and American R&B music, and they also shared a mutual friend. Jagger and his friend Dick Taylor would jam together in a band they called “Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys,” and they soon invited Richards to come play with them.
Richards dropped out of college for the same reason that Brian Jones would eventually also be expelled. Truancy. For both men, the problem was the draw of music. Soon, they picked up their drummer Tony Chapman and cut a record. The demo was rejected by EMI. Chapman left the band and the boys changed their name to “Rolling Stones” after a song by Muddy Waters.
They played their first show at the Marquee in July of 1962. The band was then booked for eight months at a club called the Crawdaddy Club, where they had a highly successful run that attracted their future manager Andrew Oldham.
The Beatles ruled the airwaves at the time, but Oldham had a plan. He tried spinning the Stones as the wicked alternative to the Beatles. And it worked.
The Rolling Stones have had several record releases, and have toured for the past 37 years. They are one of America’s oldest bands, and still one of the biggest box office draws in music history.
