Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have cemented the 60th anniversary of their first encounter at Dartford railway station.
The Rolling Stones bandmates first spoke at the Kent railway station in South East England, six decades ago on October 17, 1961 and to mark the occasion and their friendship, the official Stones Twitter account wrote: “60 years on the same train.”
In 2015, Dartford council placed a blue plaque at the station, which read: “Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met on platform 2 on 17 October 1961 and went on to form The Rolling Stones – one of the most successful rock bands of all time.”
In an interesting twist, however, the Stones former bassist, Bill Wyman, now 84, “took umbrage” with the sign and insisted it wasn’t factually correct to wit Richards, now 77, responded: “I actually don’t know exactly what it said, but Mick just the other day came up to me and says, ‘do you believe this s***, man? Bill Wyman is complaining about the plaque at Dartford station.”
“I said, ‘A plaque? I thought we had a statue. I know he took umbrage with [what the plaque said], but I can’t understand why. Bill wasn’t there when the band was formed. Ian Stewart formed the band — we gravitated around him. Bill was a quirky, funny old f*****, but why he should make some kind of public ‘do’ about it. I think Mick sent a note saying – because Bill comes from a town called Penge – ‘Bill, if a plaque went up in Penge station that said you were the founding member of the Rolling Stones, do you think we’d complain?’ “But Bill – oh, we love him dearly, and he was a hell of a bass player. We didn’t tell him to leave.”
Wyman replaced Dick Taylor as their bass player in December 1962, but quit the band in 1993. And following the August passing of drummer Charlie Watts at the age of 80, Mick and Keith are now a three-piece completed by guitarist Ronnie Wood.
Keep up with the latest trending music news by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Author: Al Denté
Photo: Raph_PH