Rare original art produced for a billboard promoting The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed found.

The Rolling Stones are certainly not strangers when it comes to the art of self promotion.

They rule. Plain and simple.

There has been no other band in the history of rock n’ roll that knows how to stir up controversy and buzz over what they are doing or about to do, better than Mick and company.

And Sunset Blvd in LA is where we saw a lot of their ideas come to life.

Shown here are several examples of billboard advertising, an all but dying medium these days, where the Stones strutted their stuff.

Usually the Stones used billboard advertising to promote a new album.

The LA scene is where you can find about every artist during the 70′s and 80′s using this larger than life opportunity to deliver their message.

And as we know the Stones didn’t shy away from imagery that would infuriate and disturb anyone who looked at it. The infamous “Black and Blue” board whose image of a bound and beaten woman eventually had to be pulled down.

Even in announcing their upcoming “50 And Counting” tour, the Stones took to the streets to create anticipation and buzz around the announcement.

The above original art was recently found looks to be created to promote the Stones new London album “Let It Bleed.” It is unknown if in fact the art was ever used or made it’s way to a billboard. This is first major introduction of Mick Taylor as well.

As you can see from the recognizable clothing, Mick is his iconic omega shirt and scarf, this is clearly from the 1969 Ya Ya’s period.

I’m thrilled to now own this incredible never before seen rarity, coming from my good friend Jeff Gold of Recordmecca.

Thanks Jeff.

This one is a keeper.

Happy Hunting.

Gary Rocks

Finally….after many years I’ve added some Who to what I’ve been collecting..

The photos here are from a recent purchase that came from Ken White. He was given the above items from Alan Smith who received them from Mick Bratby, member of the Who’s crew during the 1976 tour of US and Canada.

The Who Tour 1976 was The Who‘s second concert tour for their The Who By Numbers album.

After spending most of the last three months of 1975 supporting The Who By Numbers, the group again embarked on a series of tours in 1976, with two stints in North America and several shows in the United Kingdom and Europe. The group added “Slip Kid” to the act in February-March, playing to a backing tape recording much like with “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again“, but it was dropped from the act after eight shows; otherwise “Squeeze Box“, and “Dreaming from the Waist” were the only songs the band played from the new album, while they continued to do a lengthy Tommy selection as in 1975.

“The Who By Numbers” tour poster for the 1976 tour.

1976 was also drummer Keith Moon’s final year touring with the band, as the London performances on 15 December, 1977 at Kilburn and 25 May, 1978 at Shepperton Studios weren’t actually part of any tours, but rather were special shows filmed specifically for inclusion in The Kids Are Alright film.

The first show of the group’s first North American tour of the year in Boston began disastrously, (figures, my home town) with Moon collapsing on stage after only two numbers, forcing a makeup performance three weeks later. Lead singer Roger Daltrey explained that Moon was very ill, adding “Why do our tours always start like this,” obviously referring to the incident at the Cow Palace during the first show of their 1973 North American tour, when Moon also collapsed.

I had friends that went to this show and are still pissed off.

The band’s second North American trip featured Moon’s final U.S. concert at the Seattle Center Coliseum in Seattle, Washington on 14 October, as well as his final concert before a paying crowd at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on 21 October. The group would not perform at all between the Toronto and Kilburn shows, the only band activity during that time being early sessions for Who Are You.

A crew jacket bearing the Indian logo for the tour.

So…Slash comes to Boston, what does he wear? An Aerosmith t-shirt of course.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 Slash and Velvet Revolver roll into town to play at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, MA for their Libertad Tour. They had entered Aerosmith country. And Slash knew it. So he paid homage to his “Guitar Hero” Joe Perry by wearing an Aerosmith Bootleg Live t-shirt.

And now I’m happy to say, I own it.

Another gem from Slash’s Julien’s Auction in 2011. This was sold in a lot of three shirts. Two Aerosmith shirts and one Megadeth. Funny story about the Aerosmith shirt. The guy I bought the shirt from was at a meet and greet at that show and a fan was actually wearing the shirt. Slash liked it so much that he asked him if he would give him the shirt for a VR shirt. The guy said the only way he would do the deal is if he wore the shirt that night onstage. Of course, he did. So Slash right?

I was able to find some incredible photos from this show. Check these out…

Please note…I will NOT be wearing this, as tempting as it may be.

1966 The Rolling Stones Tour of Britain. And another great signed program.

The Rolling Stones‘ 1966 British Tour was a concert tour by the band. The tour commenced on September 23 and concluded on October 9, 1966.

I’ve been fortunate to have been able to pick up my second signed program from the 1966 tour, the first being the American tour seen below.

The newest is from the 1966 British tour with a beautiful clean set of signatures on the “A Biography By Charlie Watts” page inside the program. Artwork by of course, Charlie Watts.

I usually end up buying another program to frame up with the one I have signed. I was attracted to this set and example because of the page they decided to sign on. The signatures are large and super clean.

It’s hard to find items from the early days signed on white background, lighter paper or album. Most of the Stones early album covers were all pretty much dark and black making it difficult for them to sign in pen on the covers. It was also hard to sign over the dark photos.

So most of the early signed Stones albums you see are usually signed on the back.

Depending on much text was on the reverse of the album, usually a lot, will often effects how appealing the signatures are and how clean they appear to be. This can also be a huge factor in determining value. It’s why signed albums are the most rare of all signed items. Really great ones are just super hard to find.

Remember, there were no sharpies in the 60′s.

Peace and happy hunting.

Gary Rocks

Guns N’ Roses and The American Music Awards. Not f***ing made for prime time.

Guns N’ Roses and The America Music Awards, a Dick Clark Production never really hit it off. GNR were never quite ready for prime time.

Heavily nominated throughout the years the band, Slash and Duff in particular, had their “moments” on stage. Their acceptance speeches in 199o has been awarded one of the “5 Most Memorable Moments” in AMA history.

Guns N’ Roses’ Acceptance Speech (1990): In true rock and roll fashion, the members of Guns N’ Roses brought out their alcohol and cigarettes on stage while accepting their award at the 1990 AMAs. Looking a little worse for wear, guitarist Slash even dropped the f-bomb during the family-friendly award show, immediately cuing the “exit stage left” music to kick in.

The American Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony created by Dick Clark in 1973. Guns N’ Roses have received four awards from eight nominations.

Year	Nominated work	Award	Result
1989	“Sweet Child o’ Mine“	Favorite Pop/Rock Single	Won
	Guns N’ Roses	Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist	Nominated
	Appetite for Destruction	Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Album	Nominated
1990	Guns N’ Roses	Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist	Won
	Appetite for Destruction	Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Album	Won
1992	Guns N’ Roses	Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist	Won
		Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group	Nominated
	Use Your Illusion I	Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Album	Nominated

Above you see their award for Favorite Heavy Metal Artist in 1991. I am thrilled to own this rare gem as part of my GNR collection. And equally thrilled it has a bit of history behind it. As only GNR could give it.

RN’FR!

“Senator Javits, I’d like to introduce Mick Jagger and Bianca Jagger.” “Oh yeah, and they have a check for you for $350,000.”

A rare and fascinating as well as historical lot of Mick Jagger items from the early 70′s. Mick Jagger and his new bride Bianca traveled to New York to present Senator Jacob Javits of New York, a sizable check for $350,000 to aid the Nicaraguan Earthquake victims, of which Bianca’s family were some.

Here is an autograph signed by both Mick and Bianca on a US Senate notepad, as well as original news clippings from the meeting of the two.

In 1973, The Stones gave a benefit concert in LA to help to raise money. the ticket stub shown is from that show.The watch pictured was later donated by Jagger to LA radio station KMET-FM, who ran a week long auction to raise  additional money for the victims.

The watch was a gift from Atlantic Records President Ahmet Ertegun, to Jagger right about the time the Stones signed the deal with Atlantic.

What happens when you wait overnight for tickets to see The Rolling Stones.

An amazing collection of items from the early sixties, including a handwritten letter to a fan from Keith Richard.
The grouping is detailed below.
An example of how provenance can add incredible value of your collection.

All photographs come from http://www.tracks.co.uk/

Keith Richard Handwritten Letter.
A piece of white lined paper on which Keith Richard has handwritten a letter to a Rolling Stones fan. The letter reads
‘Dear Angela, Thanks for your letter, I hope you enjoyed the 2nd show as well. Anyone who queues for 2 days deserves to come backstage, and it was a pleasure meeting you.
Anyway must go – Keith Richard’.

The letter was written backstage at the Odeon Theatre, Leeds, England on October 9th 1965.

*Note…English slang for queues..or queuing.
A waiting list or other means of organizing people or objects into a first-come-first-served order.

An original black and white photograph of Angela and her friends queuing for tickets outside the Odeon Theatre, Leeds, England.

The photograph was taken on September 16th 1965 shortly before tickets went on sale for the show which was going to take place on October 9th 1965.

Tickets for the Rolling Stones show which took place at the Odeon Theatre, Leeds, England on October 9th 1965. Consists of a stub for the 1st performance and a complete unused ticket for the 2nd performance.

Newspaper article. An original newspaper article taken from the Yorkshire Post which details the girls two day wait for tickets to the show.

An original black and white photograph of Angela and her friends backstage with the Rolling Stones at the Odeon Theatre, Leeds, England.
The photograph was taken on October 9th 1965.

The Rolling Stones are off to jail, again. Collecting rare early press photos.

Sometimes you can’t be there.
But you can usually count on the press to be.
I got interested in buying press and wire photos a few years ago.

They sell online, ebay of course, through people who have cleaned out the file cabinets and drawers of photo, press and newspaper services.

Just imagine literally thousands and thousands of photos that have appeared in magazines and newspapers over the years being selling anywhere from $5 up to sometimes $40-50 a piece.

Of course it depends on the situation, who’s in the photo, and what particular event it happens to be capturing.

In the case of The Rolling Stones, I became obsessed with their various drug charges and photos of them being ushered in and out of the courtrooms of London.

Go figure.
A weird area to focus on, but I found there were plenty of photos to be bought thanks to the Stones and their party drug crazed lifestyle in the 60′s.

Usually these photos are written on the reverse in hand, detailing the story and event, as well as stamped by the photo or press service.

In the case of the above photo, a very detailed type written story of Mick and Keith being brought up on drug charges stemming from the infamous Redlands raid on Keith’s home.

How to still look cool while getting busted for possession of pep pills.

Mick and Marianne after posting bail for possession of cannabis, 1969.