PLEASED TO MEET YOU, HOPE YOU GUESS MY NAME……

Hey there jammers.

So, here I am still in the UK enjoyin’ listenin’ to yet another great British band…… The Rolling Stones.

Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were always mates as they were at school together and loved the same kind of music especially the likes of Muddy Waters. I suppose it only seemed natural really that they’d form a band  and so they did, with Brian Jones, Ian Stewart, Bill Wyman an’ Charlie Watts in ’62.

One day they were asked what they were called, I looked down at a Muddy Waters album that had the track ‘Rollin’ Stone’ on it an’ said to Brian ” That’s a good name!” an ‘ the rest is history !

In ’62 they had their first gig at ‘ The Marquee Club’ an’ in ’64 came their first album ‘The Rolling Stones’

When Jagger was filmin’ ‘Ned Kelly’ in ’69, he wrote ‘Brown Sugar’ an’ I remember his mock baronial hall called ‘Stargroves’ where the band used to record some of their stuff. He even let ‘The Who’ an’  ‘Led Zep’ record there some time later. But, it was their mobile studio I remember the most ‘cos I used to park it outside thier houses an’ do tunes. They actually cut ‘It’s Only Rock And Roll’ ( But I Like It’) in Ronnie Woods’ house with David Bowie! ( It was recut later, but they kept the rythm)

In ’69 while ridin’ me Hog, some daft twit pulled out on me  an’ I went flyin’ apeways ! Jagger said ” Bloody Hell, you alright Munkeyman ?” ” Your knee is really cut up!”

I replied ” Let it bleed, hows me chuffin’ bike ???”

He was so impressed with me hardness that he wrote ‘ Monkey Man’ on the album ‘Let It Bleed’ It,s a special song that not many people know about !

Later in ’81 after Keith had been livin it up in Jamaica ( climbin’ coconut trees or somethin’!), he was pretty tight with ‘ The Wailers’ an’ wanted a reggae sound for ‘Start Me Up’. ‘cos after 15 years of playin’ Rock an’ Roll he was interested to get into the mechanics of how you did reggae.

I think that Mick ‘n’ Keith have pretty strong egos an’ considerin’ what volatile personalities they have, the band get along very well!

Anyway, goin’ back to ’69,  ‘The Stones’ organized an’ headlined a free festival at ‘The Altamont Speedway’ in San Fransisco. I was with ‘The Hells Angels’ at the time an’ we were asked to do security for 500 dollars worth of beer ! Now, I know a bit of trouble started an’ a fan got stabbed up an’ beaten ( durin; The Stones singin’ Sympathy For The Devil !) but the guy was packin’ a gun !

There were also 3 accidental deaths, loads injured (includin’ some of the acts !), cars stolen an’ loads of damage but hell, what a festival !

ME ON ME HOG

JUST CRUISIN’ BROTHER .

I know that ‘The Angels’ don’t come with a good reputation, but the things that we do in our youth doesn’t always determine the rest of our lives.

We may have the fun, we may have the time of our lives, but, at the end of the day we are still our own souls, there to create our own destiny.

One of the great British Angels I remember was me best mate, now the late ‘ Black Frank’,( BF to his mates). He was like a father to me.

Now, he got this name when we both worked down the pit/coal mine. It’s a dirty job but hey, someone has to do it !

SNAP TIME DOWN T’PIT.

Me’n’ BF had some pretty amazin’ times cruisin’ on our Hogs, imagine, 30 dirty bikers all ridin’ down to ‘Santa Pod’ ! Wow, the comeraderie between us all was amazin’. We’d then all sit an’ listen to ‘Deep Purple’, ‘ Rainbow’, ‘Bad Company’, an’ ‘Steppenwolf’.

One of my best, most treasured possesions has to be BF’s ‘Hells Angels’ colours/patches.

I will treasure these an’ all the memories forever !

RIP ‘ Black Frank ‘ You’ll never be forgotten.

Catch yer later jammers.