Rolling Stones. - 2Stoned

In 1963, in a south London hotel, Andrew Loog Oldham discovered an unknown rhythm and blues band called the Rolling Stones and became their manager and producer; by 1967 they had achieved worldwide celebrity, been arrested in a notorious drugs raid and split with the manager that made them. 2Stoned is the remarkable record of these years, when Oldhams radical strategies transformed them into the Greatest Rock n Roll Band That Ever Drew Breath. In his first book Stoned Oldham recorded his early years and the meeting with the Stones that changed all their fates; 2Stoned is the story of what followed.

Andrew Loog Oldham still lives in Bogot, Colombia. He is the author of Stoned.

ALSO BY ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM

Stoned

For the hope, dignity and example

Celia Oldham Ferluga
11 February 192028 January 2002

Ruby Oldham
Sometime in 1989 15 February 2002

ROBERTA GOLDSTEIN, FRIEND and muse: Theres a whole generation out there that doesnt go a day in their life without the Rolling Stones in it. When the Stones came here for that first tour they were poor, they were brilliant. We had a lot of parties we were a party. One of the best took place the night the lights went out in New York. That was in 65. The Stones were in a hotel on the West Side. Brian was there playing his harp when the lights went out.

You could see America through their eyes. The Stones loved the attitude and energy of New York; wed walk it and wed talk it. Andrew loved New York, too. It was a movie come true for him the Brill Building and 1650 Broadway, running around from office to office listening to that Jewish rock n roll coming out of New York. It all had that sweet sound, the Carole King sound, the music of Bob Crewe. It wasnt I see a red door and I want it painted black. It was more up; it was pop.

Al Kooper, musician/writer/producer: I was weaned at 1650 Broadway in NYC from 1958 to 1965. I started in the offices of Leo Rogers, an underhanded personal manager with a great deal of charisma. 1650 was the real Brill Building. 1619 Broadway was the actual Brill Building, but two hundred times more action and success took place in 1650. The actual Brill Building was the last bastion of Tin Pan Alley and was widely regarded as an old mans building. Other than Leiber, Stoller, Bacharach, Barry and Greenwich, everything else took place at 1650 Broadway. The problem was 1650 was just 1650; it had no title to hang any memorabilia on. So the Brill Building gets all the credit, but thats completely false. In the offices of 1650: Paul Simon, Tony Orlando, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Neil Sedaka, Lenny Bruce, Dionne Warwick, the Shirelles, Chuck Jackson, Aldon Music, Roosevelt Music, Allegro Recording Studios, Artie Ripp, Bobby Lewis, the Jive Five, the Cadillacs, the Isley Brothers, Aaron Schroeder, Gene Pitney, Luther Dixon, the Strangeloves, Bob Gaudio, End Records, Gone Records, Bell Records, Amy-Mala Records, Scepter Records, BelTone Records, Dimension Records, and yours truly. The education I received in that building for seven years far outweighs any university matriculation. The adjoining coffee shop, B/G, had the greatest pancakes in the United States. I commuted from Queens. Also from my neighbourhood were the Temptations (the white version, with Artie Ripp) and Paul Simon and Artie Garfunkel. Nearby neighbours were bassist Harvey Brooks and pianist Paul Harris.

Dylan and the Beatles began the destruction of 1650. The new hip area became Greenwich Village in downtown Manhattan. But from 1958 to 1965, all the great music that came out of New York City was primarily conceived at 1650 Broadway.

Roberta Goldstein: It was magic as soon as the Stones opened their mouths. Wed never heard anything like that accent. When they were singing you couldnt really tell what country they were from. When they started giving interviews, they had such incredible style. Mick was very bright, as was Charlie. The rest were very quiet. Keith was very shy; I loved Keith for his shyness.

Theyd saved a lot of money to get over to the States and every day and every minute counted. Then there was Alan Stroh, what a darling. He worked with Bob Crewe, came from a very rich family in the meat business, and lived for show business. Alan was the manager of Mitch Ryder this was during the period when Mitch and Bob were having all those hits. Everybody was broke, running hard, living well and helping each other out. I went out with Alan and Bob every night. Andy Warhol would be drooling in the corner oh, anything to get to our table.

The English were just blowing me away, me and a billion others. Wed first met them all on that first Stones tour of America. Then I went to London. On the first day I arrived, Andrew had just bought this brand new Rolls-Royce. We went to the Scotch of St James and Paul McCartney was there. We all went to Andrews house afterwards. Id brought over Beach Boys records and we sat around listening to the Beach Boys. We were so young and innocent and everybody thought we were wild.

Andrew was like a little giant, but he had so many people pulling on him. When you manage a group its like having five kids one wants vanilla, one wants raspberry, one wants chocolate. This is when the 60s began for me. There was just so much talent and fun around, just so many people doing great things, like Dion, another genius who never got his due. On that first tour I saw the Stones do some TV show in an NY studio, something like Saturday Night Dance Fever or Clay Cole. There were like four hundred screaming little women. Mick would be sitting on the side of the stage looking like he was going to sleep, so relaxed. But as soon as it was time to go to work, that man started to move. He gave himself a hell of a workout; he was working out before people knew what a workout was.

At this point they werent into hard drugs at all. Im talking marijuana here and a few pills there. One time the Stones were on a concert out of town and Keiths girlfriend Linda Keith and I took an acid trip. The group flew back every night to New York, so they were out in North Carolina on that particular day. I dont know where Andrew was. He only liked to go to towns that had Bonwit Teller stores; Macys didnt cut it for him. Anyway, Linda says, I dont want Keith to know that I took a trip. So Keith gets back late to the hotel in Manhattan and hes like pumped from working and flying and he sees us staring at the walls. He goes, What did you girls do tonight? Wow! we said, we smoked this really strong thing. We did have some, actually it was strong pot. We gave it to him, and the poor guy threw up.

They used to play cards on the flight, and Keith would complain that he was always losing. So we gave him a bi-phetamine and the next night Keith went out again on another gig. He got back and said hed won $300, so he was very happy.

The Stones were really fresh and innocent and hoping to make it big. Then everything came at once; it was like a snowball that just became an avalanche, with the clothes and the talking and the movies all at the same time James Bond came out. Everything just mushroomed. It was like Englandmania. The English won that war; even crappy acts became successful.

Bob Crewe lived wonderfully at the Dakota; it was fantasyland. Thats where I met Andrew. Bob threw a beautiful party for the Stones, very posh, catered by one of the finest people in the city and then, of course, Mick sat on a table and broke everything class act. Andrew enjoyed it because he got to meet all the moguls and mogulettes. Ahmet Ertegun was there, and Harry Cohn, whose father started Columbia Pictures. That impressed Andrew. Liza Minnelli was there. That was a damn good party.