MAY 29, 1964: A weekly '1964 Stone Age' series concludes in the NME with a spotlight on Brian Jones, 'The Deep One!'. Richard Green speaks to the 19 year old 'former lorry driver and architect's assistant' about his formative years in his native Cheltenham. After leaving Grammar School, he had originally planned to attend university, but swiftly embraced more earthy delights: "I started drifting and got interested in drinks, girls and things, so I jacked it all in and did exactly as I pleased. What has proved to be the ruination of other people has been the making of me."
NOVEMBER 27, 1964: 'Lifelines Of The Rolling Stones' reveals yet more essential information about the sickly Stone. His hobby is women, his favourite colour black. He likes whisky and having a shower, but hates public transport and brass bands.
MARCH 26, 1965 Sue Mautner visits 'Brian Jones' New Pad', a Mews cottage set in the heart of Chelsea, and finds the newly domesticated and houseproud Stone "casually clad in white polo necked sweater and grey slacks, with a cigar in one hand and a tall glass of Scotch and coke in the other." Somewhat surprisingly, this urbane householder seems more than enthusiastic to discuss the subject of cookery: "I often eat out, but when I don't, I knock up something personally with the aid of a little delicatessen around the corner where I get the food. It's great, I really get a kick out of doing my own shopping, and I'm getting to be quite a cook."
MARCH 25, 1966 Keith Altham meets a bleary Brian Jones as he returns, four days later than the others, from the Stones' tour of Australia and the Americas "with innumerable albums by Ravi Shankar...and a full length kangaroo coat." He explains that his late arrival was due to the fact that "clubs in New York open 24 hours a day and he had been in one for four days with an insane Welsh harpist called Hari Hari waiting for it to close." "There's one interesting development in the States which does not exist for us here anymore," says Brian. "We've built up a kind of intellectual following among the 'hippies'. The Greenwich Village crowd all dig us- there was a terrible scene out there just before I left. The Police were stopping and searching everyone in sight- looking for drugs; it was frightening. Worse than a police state." As Altham finally takes his leave of the excessively 'relaxed' guitarist, Jones politely enquires of his inquisitor: "Tell me, what day is it?"
SEPTEMBER 2, 1966 The NME news pages report that: "Rolling Stones' lead guitarist Brian Jones has broken his left hand and will be unable to play for at least two months. This dramatic news was cabled to manager Andrew Oldham on Wednesday by Jones, who is on holiday in Tangier.'
OCTOBER 14, 1966: 'Brian Jones Forecasts New Pop Generation's Revolution Is At Hand' cries the headline as the increasingly bohemian guitarist is pictured with an enormous sitar. Keith Altham has just shared a magical evening with Brian and Keith Richards in Flanagan's Bar in Kensington High Street and reports on Brian's assertation that: "The revolution is at hand!". "A whole new generation came to see us on tour with Ike and Tina Turner," proclaimed Brian. "Youngsters who had never seen us before, from the age of about 12, were turningup at the concerts. It was like it was three years ago when the excitement was all new." Keith Richards was equally enthusiastic. "The tour has been an enormous success...We were in danger of becoming respectable! But now the new wave has arrived, rushing the stage just like the old times." Brian Jones expressed the opinion that the new generation would be responsible for a cultural breakthrough in the arts, theatre, films and music. "Censorship is still with us in a number of forms," he declared. "But the days when men like comedian Lenny Bruce and artist Jim Dine are persecuted is coming to an end. Young people are measuring opinion with new yardsticks and it must mean greater individual freedom of expression. Pop music will have its part to play in all this. When certain American folk artists with important messages to tell are no longer suppressed, maybe we will arrive nearer the truth."
FEBRUARY 4, 1967 NME hook up once more with public pariahs Keith and Brian in yet another Kensington hostelry and watch agog as Brian sups a pint of Guiness, flicks fag ash into untouched Oxtail soup and casually dismisses any criticism of his chosen lifestyle: "Why should we have to compromise our image? You don't simply give up all you have ever believed in because you've reached a certain age. Our generation is growing up with us and they believe in the same things we do- when our fans get older I hope they won't require a show like the Palladium...The recent pictures of me taken in a Nazi uniform were a put-down. Really, I mean with all that long hair in a Nazi uniform, couldn't people see that it was a satirical thing? How can anyone be offended when I'm on their side? I'm not a Nazi sympathiser."
JULY 8, 1967: As Jagger and Richards languish at Her Majesty's pleasure for minor narcotic mesdemeanours, Brian travels to the Monterey Festival to introduce the Jimi Hendrix Experience, inhale exotic herbs and smile crookedly: "A lot of people came up to me and told me they liked my clothes, or that I looked groovy."
NOVEMBER 4, 1967: Brian finds himself back in the headlines but this time for all the wrong reasons: "Rolling Stone Brian Jones was resting at a friend's house this week after being released on bail on Tuesday afternoon, pending appeal against sentece of nine months' imprisonment for drug offences. He was released "in the light of further medical evidence, and on Jones' undertaking to have medical treatment meanwhile." A month later, the Appeal Court set aside the jail sentence, and instead fine Jones £1,000 and place him on probation for three years.
JUNE 14, 1969: In an exclusive interview with NME, Mick Jagger explains the reason for Brian Jones' shock departure from the Rolling Stones' ranks: "We'd known for a few months thay Brian wasn't keen; he wasn't enjoying himself and it got to the stage where we had to sit down and talk about it. So we did and we decided the best thing was for Brian to leave." Jones, meanwhile, who revealed the news of his departure from his Hartfield, Sussex home on June 9, confirmed that he and the Stones would remain the best of friends and stated simply: "I want to play my kind of music, which is no longer the Stones' music."
