1987
And the rain fell down
1987
And the rain fell down
January-March 1987: Ron Wood continues to record an never-released solo
album at his home in Wimbledon,
England.
January 6, 1987: Mick Jagger leaves Mustique for Barbados.
January 7-mid-February 1987: Mick Jagger continues recording sessions for
his second solo album at Blue
Wave Studios in Barbados.
January 21, 1987: Keith Richards inducts Aretha Franklin at the 2nd annual
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Awards at the
Waldorf Astoria in New York City. He takes part in a jam with Bruce Springsteen,
Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Sting,
Roy Orbison and Daryl Hall among others. In Barbados, Jerry Hall is arrested
at the airport for apparently
attempting to smuggle marijuana and is released on bail.
January 22, 1987: Ron Wood's father, Arthur Wood, passes away.
February 1987: Keith Richards mixes live recordings from the October 1986
Chuck Berry concerts for the soundtrack
album Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll!.
February 3, 1987: Ron Wood attends his father's funeral in England.
February 13-20, 1987: Mick Jagger attends Jerry Hall's trial in Barbados.
She is found not guilty, the "drug
smuggling" having been a set-up.
| Mick Jagger
(1987): Flashback
(W)hen Jerry got busted it was like some awful flashback. I couldn't believe it. I was stepping back in time and thinking this is ridiculous. It was just like my first bust all over again with an awful sense of déjà vu. They're very vindictive, the police, and I remembered my first arrest because that was when it all became a bit, Oh dear, this isn't just a big laugh after all. It was the end of the innocence, the end of the fun. |
February 20, 1987: Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall return to New York City.
February 23, 1987: Jerry Hall announces on television a wedding with Mick
Jagger is imminent.
| Jerry Hall
(February 1987): The wedding
He's asked me so many times. I always asked, When? and he would say, After the next album. Now it's different. We've definitely set a date and it will be soon. |
Late February-March 7, 1987: Keith Richards, with Steve Jordan, starts
preproduction for his first solo album at
Studio 900 in New York City. Mick Taylor drops in.
Late February-March 27, 1987: Mick Jagger continues recording his album
Primitive Cool in New York City at Right
Track Studios.
| Mick Jagger
(1987): Liking to create and produce work
This is something I like to do. Every year I like to produce something. And only if it's really shity would I not put it out. Because I believe you never know how good or bad something is until later. It reflects what you were going through at the time, what you were doing musically, more or less. So unless you think it's really sub-standardish you put it out. Some people wait around forever. I was disappointed with this last Stevie Wonder album, In Square Circle. I think he's a great musician. But we waited five years, and when this album finally came out I felt, He could do that every year, couldn't he? It wasn't so groundbreaking, so what was he doing spending five years on it? |
March 1987: Mick Jagger announces he will tour solo following the release
of his next album.
| Mick Jagger
(March 1987): Back on the road
(The next album) will be a really, really good one... I have had five years away from being on the road... There's a catalogue of 300 (Stones) songs there, so I'll probably sing Stones songs that I haven't done recently live or maybe songs which I have never done live. |
March 2-3, 1987: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have it out in the English
press.
| War of
the Twins: Mick Jagger & Keith Richards (March 1987)
Mick: The trouble is, Keith wants to run the band singlehandledly... I love Keith, I admire him... but I don't feel we can really work together anymore. Keith: (Mick) should stop trying to be like Peter Pan and grow up... He wanted to be young, but I don't see the point of pretending to be 25 when you're not. |
March 8-14, 1987: Keith Richards mixes the movie soundtrack for Hail! Hail!
Rock and Roll! in Los Angeles.
March 15, 1987: Keith Richards flies back to New York City.
March 17, 1987: Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck and other musicians hold a party
in New York City to celebrate the end of
recording sessions for Primitive Cool.
| Bill Wyman
(March 18, 1987): Have the Rolling Stones broken up?
It looks that way. It's a pity we didn't go out with a bang, but instead with a bit of a whimper... (Mick)'s the guilty one, really. He's decided he wanted to do his own thing... be famous in his own right. |
March 24, 1987: Keith Richards attends a comedy show by Billy Connolly
at The Bottom Line in New York City. The
Chieftains' Paddy Maloney overdubs bagpipes for Mick Jagger's solo album
at Right Track Studios.
March 24-27, 1987: Ron Wood and Jerry Lee Lewis join The Jordanaires onstage
in a club in Memphis, while in town
for a Life Magazine photo shoot for the 10th anniversary of Elvis
Presley's death.
Late March-April 8, 1987: Keith Richards, with the X-Pensive Winos, hold
demos sessions for Talk Is Cheap at Studio
900 in New York City.
| Keith Richards
(2003): Going solo
(T)he last thing I ever wanted to do was to break this band up and equally the last thing I had ever wanted to do was to go and think about doing my own solo stuff, but Mick did me a favour without knowing it, because it meant that I got together with a new bunch of musicians, and that was an enlightenment to me. That was simply because I had to do something. I got forced into it because I couldn't sit around and wait for Mick to finish his album. And although I had no intention of going out to create a new band, various things fell into place, and during that period I got to work with some other great musicians, an incredible ensemble of musicians who just arrived. I began to write with Steve Jordan and the likes of Charlie Drayton, Ivan Neville and Waddy Wachtel, which became the X-Pensive Winos, with Steve and Charlie Drayton sharing bass and drum duties, Ivan on keyboards and Waddy playing guitar, and which was probably one of the best rock & roll bands in the world - a great band, very much like the early Stones. |
March 26-April 6, 1987: Mick Jagger spends time in England, visiting his
parents and brother.
April 4, 1987: Keith Richards records in the studio in New York City with
the group Organized Kryme.
April 10, 1987: Back in New York City, Mick Jagger hangs out at the nightclub
Nell's, along with David Lee Roth.
Mid-April-late May 1987: Mick Jagger finishes mixing for Primitive Cool
at Right Track Studios in New York City.
April 12, 1987: Keith Richards flies down to Jamaica for a holiday.
April 13, 1987: Bill Wyman holds a press conference in London, England,
announcing AIMS, a project to record
new, unknown British bands across the country, using the Rolling Stones'
Mobile Recording Studio.
April 18, 1987: Mick Jagger and David Bowie spend time in a club in New
York City, in preparation for a planned
film.
April 24-25, 1987: Mick Jagger checks out shows by ex-Clash Mick Jones'
B.A.D. at Irving Plaza in New York City,
along with Dave Stewart and David Bowie.
May 1987: Mick Jagger produces and records with the band Living Colour
at Right Track Studios in New York.
May 2, 1987: Mick Jagger joins the Staple Singers onstage at the club 20/20
in New York City.
May 19, 1987: Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall attend a birthday party for Grace
Jones in New York City.
May 26-June 11, 1987: Ron Wood travels through Italy to interview rock
stars (including U2, Genesis, Prince and
Simply Red) for an Italian TV network, Bill Wyman joining in for many of
the interviews.
May 27, 1987: Keith Richards leaves Jamaica and heads to Los Angeles for
more work on the Hail! Hail! Rock and
Roll film soundtrack. Mick Jagger sees Living Colour perform at the Lone
Star Café in New York City.
June 1-5, 1987: Mick Jagger holds listening parties for CBS Records executives
for Primitive Cool in New York City.
June 3, 1987: Mick Jagger sees the Mark Sewart Band perform, including
bassist Doug Wimbish, at the Cat Club in
New York.
June 4, 1987: Keith Richards returns to New York City.
June 5, 1987: Keith Richards hangs out with Michael J. Fox on the set of
Bright
Lights, Big City in Greenwich
Village.
June 6-12, 1987: Mick Jagger spends time in France.
June 8-18, 1987: Keith Richard does final mixing at Electric Lady Studios
in New York City for the Hail! Hail! Rock
and Roll album soundtrack. Chuck Berry drops by on June 10.
June 11, 1987: Mick Taylor visits Keith Richards.
June 13, 1987: Mick Jagger arrives in England and attends the wedding of
the Marquis of Worcester in London.
June 13-23, 1987: The Charlie Watts Orchestra performs a six-concert tour
of the United States, performing in Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington DC and New York
City.
June 18-20, 1987: Mick Jagger attends concerts by Tina Turner and David
Bowie at Wembley in London.
June 23, 1987: Keith Richards and Mick Taylor attend the Charlie Watts
Orchestra's concert at Avery Hall in New
York City.
Early July 1987: Keith Richards does more mixing for Hail! Hail! Rock and
Roll in New York City.
July 4, 1987: The Charlie Watts Orchestra performs in Pistoia, Italy.
July 12, 1987: The 25th anniversary of the Rolling Stones' first ever public
performance.
July 13, 1987: Keith Richards signs a solo recording contract with Virgin
Records and celebrates in CEO Richard
Branson's hotel room in New York City.
| Keith Richards
(July 1987): Finally doing it
The whole idea is, I gotta work. I can't sit on my ass - I go crazy, you know? And so it went from, like, Well, what do I want to do? to I'll never know until I start. |
| Keith Richards
(July 1987): Stones on break
I think after 25 years, we all needed a bit of a break. I mean, it was getting a little bit sticky. The fun was going out of it, because Mick and I were hassling about everything, for whatever reasons. He probably doesn't know the full reason, nor do I. So the best thing is to let it go for a bit. |
July 14, 1987: Keith Richards attends Joe Ely's concert, starring Bobby
Keys, at the Lone Star Café in New York.
July 20-23, 1987: Back in New York City, Mick Jagger shoots a videoclip
for the song Let's Work, then leaves for
England.
July 26, 1987: Charlie Watts,
Ron Wood & Bill Wyman attend Mick Jagger's 44th birthday party in
London, England.
July 27, 1987: Ron Wood joins Terence Trent D'Arby onstage at The Marquee
in London, England.
July 27-28, 1987: Mick Jagger shoots a videoclip for Say You Will
in London, England.
August 1987: Mick Jagger starts promotion for the release of Primitive
Cool and a solo tour of Europe.
| Mick Jagger
(August 1987): A solo tour
I hear Keith's working on his album in Canada. I won't even go to Canada! (laughs). My tour's not going to be anything like a Stones tour, so I don't think anyone should feel threatened. |
| Mick Jagger
(August 1987): Would the Rolling Stones breaking up be a tragedy?
No. Not at ALL! (laughs). It's very funny because while you're around and in no danger of extinction everyone's ready to kick you and say, Well, why don't you just break up? Your band is really pointless, just doing the same thing over and over and over so why don't you just fuck off and die? And then when you ARE in danger of extinction they all go, What's the matter, man? You should reform, man. I mean, it's the Rolling STONES, maaan. They don't give a shit about what you feel and what you have to go through to preserve this monstrous image intact. It's ridiculous. No one should care if the Rolling Stones have broken up, should they? I mean, when the Beatles broke up I couldn't give a shit. Thought it was a very good idea. And I don't believe that the Smiths' guitarist has left is of any import to anyone whatsoever. I don't think anyone should give a shit. But with me people seem to demand that I keep their youthful memories intact in a glass case specifically preserved for them and damn the sacrifices I have to make. Oh, the Stones, it's part of my youth, man, they say, because they saw you in Hyde Park 18 years ago and they have their fucking conservative little mental picture of you and they don't want you to change - not that they've bought a record of yours in 15 years. Why should I live in the past just for THEIR petty... satisfaction? The Rolling Stones does not tend to be associated with happy moments. It was kicking people in the teeth and just being happy that we survived. |
| Mick Jagger
& Keith Richards (August 1987): The Rolling Stones in the present and
future
Mick: I mean, we've had a lot of ups and downs in the Rolling Stones, and this is one of them. I, for one, hope we will regroup. Having said that, I think that one ought to be allowed to have one's artistic side apart from just being in the Rolling Stones. I LOVE the Rolling Stones - I think it's wonderful, I think it's done a lot of wonderful things for music. But, you know, it cannot be, at my age and after spending all these years, the only thing in my life. If I want to record different kinds of songs or albums - whatever I want to do - I feel I have the right to be able to do that. And though I think the Rolling Stones is a wonderful band, it has its own style, its own history, both of which are very bounding factors. The history, style and the personnel - they're not really that changeable. Amenable to certain change, but after this time, perhaps not to a lot of change... I think after twenty-three, twenty-four or however many years, I certainly have earned the right to express myself in another way. I think the Stones should go on the road, and so on. I don't believe in forcing things when they're not right though. It's a mistake, 'cause they tend to really fall apart. I saw the last Who tour in Philadelphia, and that was a classic example. They did the tour for money, and they weren't getting on... It taught me a lesson. I didn't want to be in that situation of not getting on with people but being forced into this intensive situation of working and living together. If we had done our tour and someone had said, Is this the last time? we probably would have said, Yeah!. You've got to be in harmony when making music, you really must. It's bad enough to work in an office with someone you don't get along with. You can have a bit of an edge, and obviously there are disagreements. But if someone in the band wants to go on the road, everyone has to agree. It's not just the money. As a prime member of the band, I felt that if I wasn't totally happy, my opinon should be respected because I had valid reasons. Even if they weren't, I still have an opinion. Fifteen years ago, I could have just sat around and lived in the country and waited for a year, hoping it would blow over. Now I don't feel like that. Now I think, Well, okay, I'll get on with my life. There are a lot of things going down, and it's not only between Keith and myself. Things don't always go well. Five people trying to get on, you know, there's always going to be a bit of friction. A certain amount of friction works well for you. But more than a certain amount - for me, I can't handle it. I think everyone in the Stones is going to benefit from the fact that we're all doing different things for a while. And it won't be quite so insidiously incestuous. Because, you know... this is where I get into dangerous ground, because I don't want to start inviting a whole bunch of crap. But the thing that was just a little bit off... there just wasn't quite the spark that there should've been, whatever the reasons or whoever was to blame. Obviously, there were faults on a lot of differrent sides. It's just inevitable, I think. It's unhuman to expect otherwise. Keith: Everybody likes things cut and dried, and with the Stones, it never will be. Whether it's all over or not is really up to how everybody in the band feels. This particular period is basically, I think, a reaction to 25 years of being forced to work together whether we liked it or not. Luckily, we liked it. But, I mean, eventually, it's gotta get to a point where you say, Hey, it's always been fun to work together, but now it's getting a little bitter here and there, and lines are being drawn. And you don't really know how to get out of it, or who's drawing the lines, and there's a lot of interference from people who think they've gotta put themselves in one camp or another. So, better off, let's just give it a breather, and then we'll see how ridiculous it all is and work it out. I mean, I love working with those boys, and I don't see us not pullin' it back together. Just give us ab reak, and we'll come back for part two, you know? We'll be right with you after these messages. (Laughs) More to come, you know? |
August 3, 1987: Ron Wood performs a concert at the club Astoria in London,
England, with Bill Wyman in
attendance.
August 13-31, 1987: Ron Wood and family holiday in Spain.
August 15-early September 1987: Keith Richards starts recording sessions
for his solo album at Le Studio in
Montreal, Canada.
August 20, 1987: While on holiday in Spain, Ron Wood performs at a club
in Ibiza.
Late August 1987: Mick Jagger's planned European tour for the fall is cancelled
when Jeff Beck backs out.
Early September 1987: Keith Richards and family drive back down to New
York from Montreal.
September 6-7, 1987: Mick Jagger writes new songs at Dave Stewart's home
in London, England.
September 9, 1987: Mick Jagger performs for UK TV's Top of the Pops.
September 10, 1987: Mick Jagger flies to New York City and meets with radio
executives.
September 11, 1987: Mick Jagger's second solo album, Primitive
Cool, is released.
| Keith Richards
(1988): Peter Tosh's murder (September 11, 1987)
I was shocked that it didn't happen a lot sooner. He threatened to do the same thing to me. I let him use my house years and years ago and suddenly, apparently, he thought it was his. I got in touch with him and said, I'm coming down to the house, I need it for myself, and he said, If you come anywhere near here I'll shoot you. So I said you'd better make sure you know how to use that gun and make sure you get the fucking magazine the right away round 'cause I'm gonna be there in half an hour. And he left. He was always gonna shoot people. In a way I liked him very much, I found him very interesting, but that part overtook him and he was executed. |
September 11-12, 1987: Mick Jagger meets with radio executives in Atlanta
and Chicago.
September 13, 1987: Mick Jagger returns to England.
September 15, 1987: Keith Richards attends U2's concert at Giants Stadium
in New Jersey.
September 16-19, 1987: Mick Jagger performs for European television in
Amsterdam and Stockholm.
September 21, 1987: Keith and Patti Richards fly to London, England.
September 24, 1987: Mick Jagger, with Dave Stewart, performs live in French
TV studios for French TV.
September 24-26, 1987: Keith and Patti Richards holiday in Venice, Italy.
September 25, 1987: Bill Wyman flies to Atlanta, Georgia, for the opening
of a club with Ringo Starr.
Late September 1987: Keith Richards and Ron Wood spend a few days together
in London, their first meeting in
over a year.
October 2, 1987: Keith Richards returns to New York.
October 3, 1987: Keith Richards, along with Chuck Berry, attends the premiere
of the film Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll in
New York City.
October 7, 1987: Keith Richards flies to Los Angeles.
October 8, 1987: Keith Richards attends the West Coast premiere of Hail!
Hail! Rock and Roll in Los Angeles. He
then jams with the X-Pensive Winos at his hotel room.
October 9, 1987: Keith Richards returns to New York.
October 15-16, 1987: Keith Richards contributes to recording sessions by
Ziggy Marley and Mick Taylor in New York
City. He also attends a concert by James Brown at The Beacon Theatre.
October 16, 1987: Ron Wood joins Bob Dylan onstage at Wembley Arena in
London, England.
October 18, 1987: Keith Richards attends a Tom Waits show at the Eugene
O'Neill Theatre in New York.
October 20, 1987: Mick Jagger performs a short solo concert at The Country
Club in Los Angeles, while shooting a
videoclip for Throwaway.
Mid-October-December 1987: Keith Richards holds more recording sessions
for his solo album in New York City.
Late October 1987: The soundtrack album Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll, produced
by Keith Richards, is released.
October 29, 1987: Bill Wyman attends the opening night of Ron Wood's first
ever art exhibition in London.
October 31, 1987: Ron Wood flies to Miami, Florida, to oversee the upcoming
opening of his restaurant/nightclub
Woody's On The Beach.
Fall 1987: Mick Jagger and Keith
Richards speak on the telephone.
November 2, 1987: Ron Wood flies to to New York to start tour rehearsals
with Bo Diddley.
November 4-25, 1987: Ron Wood and Bo Diddley tour the United States as
The
Gunslingers, starting in Columbus,
Ohio, and ending at The Ritz in New York City.
| Ron Wood
(2003): Wild days
Working with all these musicians - I... did a club tour with Bo Diddley - gave me a lot of confidence in myself, although a lot of that came through drugs. I didn't know whether I was coming or going, but I certainly had a lot of confidence! Looking back on those days it's a wonder that I'm still alive; I hardly used to sleep. |
November 14, 1987: The scheduled date for a Mick Jagger appearance on U.S.
TV's Saturday Night Live, which is
cancelled.
Mid-November 1987: Ron Wood's autobiography The Works is released.
Keith Richards makes a home in
Connecticut for the first time, renting a house for a holiday.
November 19, 1987: Mick Jagger is back in New York City, appearing on the
live network radio program Rockline.
November 25, 1987: Ron Wood appears, and performs on, U.S. TV'S Late
Night with David Letterman.
November 26, 1987: Ron Wood visits Keith Richards in Connecticut.
November 28, 1987: Ron Wood visits
Mick Jagger in New York City, and they discuss the Rolling Stones.
November 29-December 18, 1987: Ron Wood promotes his book and various art
exhibitions across the United States,
starting in Philadelphia and ending in Seattle.
November 30, 1987: Keith Richards is back in New York City.
December 13, 1987: Ron Wood and Bo Diddley perform in Los Angeles.
December 19-20, 1987: Ron Wood and Bo Diddley perform at Woody's On The
Beach in Miami, Florida.
December 25, 1987: Ron Wood spends Christmas at Keith Richards', who is
back in Connecticut.
December 31, 1987: Ron Wood performs a solo concert, along with Ian McLagan
and Bobby Keys among others, at
Woody's On The Beach in Miami. Keith Richards celebrates at Steve Jordan's
in New York City, along with David
Byrne, John McEnroe, Debbie Harry and others.