Gus Coral, a photographer who had a penniless band on a trip to the moon, took hundreds of candid photos six decades ago. The band are now world-renowned, and previously unreleased photos are available for viewing in a new exhibition.
More than 60 years ago, photographer Gus Coral discovered a treasure trove of previously unreleased images of The Rolling Stones.
100 candid photos will go on display in London from Friday, June 6th, in a new exhibition, Rolling Stones Unseen ’63, which will undoubtedly appeal to rockers fans.
The Stones’ first ever UK tour, which was captured by photographer Gus Coral in 1963, is depicted in the 1963 photos.
When Gus, a now-87-year-old man from Camden, North London, first met the then-poverniless blues loving band, who played as Little Richard’s band’s support act, Bo Diddley and The Everly Brothers, he was just 26.
Gus tells The Mirror: “I have almost 200 hundred images of The Stones in total which I took after I was invited to photograph them on their first British tour.
The majority of these photos have never been seen before because they have been hidden under my bed for so long, aside from a few that I have shown to some friends over the years.
One of my children once said, “Shouldn’t you be doing something with those? “, she said. “It was only thanks to that.” that this exhibit was created.
“So we are,” the statement read. 100 photos will be on display at the opening of the exhibition, and I’m looking forward to seeing them in public.
Some people have questioned why I’ve been holding onto them for so long, but my philosophy is that I wanted to take pictures that would be significant in the future and that would have a historical significance.
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts’ first UK tour, which included stops in Cardiff, Watford, Southend-on-Sea, Hanley, Wolverhampton, and Cheltenham, were captured in Gus’ black and white images.
The Stones played two 10-minute sets at each venue, and Sharon Osbourne’s late father, music legend Don Arden, organized and promoted the tour, which gained them exposure and helped them become household names.
According to Gus, “I met The Stones through my friend, filmmaker Dick Fontaine, who worked for ABC Television at the time.” We had seen The Stones perform at the band’s home venue at The Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, west London.
Dick wanted to try to persuade ABC to produce a television series with them because he thought they were really talented. He already had a strong track record, having already filmed The Beatles.
The closest we could have caught them was in Cardiff. I believe Cardiff was the location of their second national tour. We left then off.
However, access to them was simple at the time. No press, “access all areas” passes required, and everything else, we just entered the theater.
“We went to meet them there after the guy on the Capitol Theatre’s stage door told us they were in the cafe around the corne. And then there was the show, where I had full access to the backstage camera; no other photographers were present.
The band’s debut single, a cover of Chuck Berry’s Come On, reached number 21 on the UK chart at the conclusion of their 30-date tour, indicating Gus that The Stones were on the verge of greatness.
“I was 26 when I took those photos,” I said. Possibly ten years older than them, perhaps. However, these photos show a very young The Stones. Gus chuckles, “So did I then,”
In these images, Mick Jagger appears to have a baby face, but it was all there. Like the seeds of who he was, you know. They were a blues band at the time. I was a real fan, and it wasn’t rock n roll. I kind of felt the blues’ energy strike me.
They contacted me after I took their photos in Cardiff to visit their studio in Holborn, central London, to record with them.
Just two two years later, in 1965, the The Stones took the music world by storm with (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, penned by Jagger and Richards, gave the band their first number one in the UK and the US.
The Stones are still rocking despite having sold 250 million albums worldwide and amassing $2.9 billion in ticket sales for the duration of their 63-year career.
And Mick, 81, Keith Richards, 81, and Ronnie Wood, 78, are back in London recording the follow-up to their 2023 studio album, Hackney Diamonds.
Nobody could have predicted how big they would have become, Gus says. “I knew they would make it.” Mick Jagger had great energy when The Stones had no money when I photographed the band in 1963.
“They are amazing that they are still going, as it is difficult to tour.” But I suppose Mick is the only one to blame. He has always been a fantastic figure. Without him, things wouldn’t have gone as planned.
Gus continues, “These photographs have been a closely guarded secret for over 60 years, seen only by a few people, and] I’m excited about transferring my exhibition to New York.”
Raw and ambitious, they “capture The Rolling Stones in a way unlike any other.” I’m thrilled to finally let everyone know about them.
• From Friday (June 6) through September 10th, the Rolling Stones Unseen ’63 exhibition will be on display at Dockside Vaults in London’s St. Katharine Docks.
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Source: Mirror
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