The even numbered years seemed to have been more successful for the Rolling Stones than the odd. The band formed in 1962, had their first number one album and number one single in ‘64, made their breakthrough album in ‘66, released Beggar’s Banquet, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Street Fighting Man” in ‘68, released Exile on Main St. in ‘72, Black and Blue in ‘76 and Some Girls in ‘78. While the odd numbers came at a price—in 1965 Richards was nearly electrocuted onstage, then came the drugs bust, chaos and disintegration of Their Satanic Majesties Request in ‘67, Brian Jones’ death and the murder of Meredith Hunter at Altamont in ‘69, the fires at Richards’ homes in ‘71 and ‘73, or his arrest for heroin in Canada in 1977—it’s all enough conspiracy to make a numerologist’s head spin.
1966 was a good year for the Stones—they released their fourth studio album Aftermath, which was their first album to be compiled of songs written solely by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards; they had successfully toured Australia, Europe and America before returning to England for a tour of the UK and were well out of the shadow of their rivals The Beatles.
The band was also in negotiations to make a movie, Only Lovers Left Alive, adapted from the novel by Dave Wallis, and to be directed by Nicholas Ray of Rebel Without a Cause fame.
According to the Stones, they had “waited a long time and spent a lot of time trying to find the right story for [their] first film,” and seemed to have hit on the right subject with Wallis’s sci-fi tale of tribal youth gangs terrorizing London. It was topical, apt, and tapped into both the hopes and fears of what the swinging sixties’ youth revolt may bring. Alas, the deal fell through and no movie was made until Jean-Luc Godard’s One plus One (aka Sympathy for the Devil) or The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus both 1968.
The Stones’s ‘66 tour had incredible support from the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, The Yardbirds (with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page) and Long John Baldry, whose band around this time had included Elton John on keyboards. It was a lineup worthy of a mini-festival. A copy of the tour program can fetch $125 a copy, but why pay that when you scan through the pages here?
A MESSAGE FROM MICK BRIAN KEITH CHARLIE BILL
Hi,
Here we are, on the road again. We are all very excited about this tour, it’s been nearly a year since our last tour of England and we have really missed it.
Lots of you have been asking us why we spend so much time in America. The reason for this is that we now do all our recordings there, the studios are so much better that we can get a much better sound to give you better records.
All your letters to us ask about our film which we start at the end of the tour. It is the Dave Wallis novel “Only Lovers Left Alive”. We waited a long time and spent a lot of time trying to find the right story for our first film: we think we’ve found it and hope you do when it comes out, which will be in the Spring of next year.
We’ve tried to get together a great bill for this tour, and we know you’ll enjoy the fantastic Ike and Tina Turner Revue, which we saw some time ago in the States. It’s also great to have two other “Craw-Daddy Richmond” veterans—The Yardbirds and Long John Baldry.
We thank you for coming to see us tonight and hope you enjoy yourselves, ‘cos that’s the general idea.
A biography by Charlie Watts: It’s the same old story (if not the song).
Mick, Brian, Charlie, Keith, Bill—Brian Jones sharing top position with Mick.
Ike and Tina Turner are the husband and wife duo who have been steadily building up fans over the last few years with records such as “Fool in Love” and “It’s going to work out fine”, but it wasn’t until their happy meeting with Phil Spector that they really crashed into the British charts. The record that did it, of course, was “River Deep, Mountain High” which combined the productive genius of Spector with the fantastic soul of Ike and Tina. But it has not been an overnight success by any means.
The Yardbirds really need no introduction for since their early days at the Craw-Daddy Club in Richmond they have blazed their way right to the top with a string of chart topping records.
Individually they are:
JEFF BECK—the lead guitarist who joined the Yardbirds after Eric Clapton left…
CHRIS DREJA—the rhythm guitarist…
JIM McCARTY—the only northerner in the group is responsible for laying down the solid beat on his drums…
KEITH RELF—the blond lead singer…
JIMMY PAGE—the new boy of the group who has taken over the bass since the departure of Paul Samwell-Smith.These then are the Yardbirds. The group that have done so much to liven up the somewhat jaded sounds of British groups.
Plus support from: Long John Baldry and Peter Jay & The New Jay Walkers.
Cover for the US Rolling Stones 1966 tour program-in full color, no less.