In the fashion of an auction house dating back almost three centuries to the time of James Christie himself, the catalogue for the sale describes the collection as being the property of “Charlie Watts | Gentleman · Collector”, adding, for the avoidance of any doubt, “Rolling Stone”. while both Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood suggested the Rolling Stones simply couldn’t continue without him, a theory that’s presumably now going to be tested: “Charlie’s the engine,” said Wood in 2003. Pausing at a display of plates and dishes of the Huguenot silversmith Paul de Lamerie – valued at some 3. A meeting with Jagger and Richards prompted the formation of the Rolling Stones, although it was a few months before the cautious Watts could be induced to leave Korner’s band to join them, which he eventually did in January 1963.

Charlie’s Good Tonight by Paul Sexton review - The Guardian

They have a really fantastic team and the same people [each time], and I don’t think people know quite how involved he was.It is particularly striking how the collection comprises mostly books and jazz artefacts from the 1920s to the 1950s – spanning the period from immediately before Watts was born, through to his teenage years. offered Mick Jagger, after a performance of Chuck Berry’s Little Queenie on the 1970 live album Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! Any conversation with Watts was likely to rove amiably across topics such as Savile Row suits, cricket – he often attended Test matches at Lord’s or the Oval – and the Arabian horses he reared with his wife, Shirley, at their Halsdon Arabians farm in Devon.

Sympathy for the Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters Sympathy for the Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters

Charlie Watts, the unassuming son of a truck driver who gained global fame as the drummer for the Rolling Stones, has died. He collected the finest possible condition, the rarest editions, the most interesting presentation copies. His copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles contains one of those surprises that Mark Wiltshire so often encountered. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. Though Watts could play along, affecting a gormless, slack-jawed idiocy for TV cameras, he remained wedded to jazz’s cool school, and to his beloved wife Shirley (nee Shepherd), an ex-art student whom he wed when pop-star marriage was considered commercial suicide.

Partial arrangements for 31 compositions, approximately 88 pages in total; discovered in a storage locker in Chicago.

Christies - First editions owned by Charlie Watts

One famous story from the early 70s involved the band being invited to party at the Playboy Mansion: Watts slipped away and sequestered himself in the games room for the entire night. Listen to his playing on 1968’s Jigsaw Puzzle, which simultaneously drives the song along and punctuates it with a series of apparently effortless drum rolls.The Jagger-Richards songwriting team created its first bona fide classic, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” in 1965. Always a reluctant rock and roll star – his true love was jazz – Watts was born in 1941, when Hitler’s bombs were still falling over London. This is when the modern-day touring industry was born – when architecture and music came together to create these rock spectaculars. Presentation copy of the first edition, inscribed by the author on the title page: ‘I perambulated Dartmoor before I wrote this book, A Conan Doyle’. In the 80s and 90s, as the Rolling Stones’ tours became ever-more extravagant son-et-lumière displays involving pyrotechnics, huge inflatables and cantilevered bridges, the vast screens at the side of the stage would occasionally focus on Watts.