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Keith Richards

Keith Richards is the only child of Bertrand Richards and Doris Richards (née Dupree). He was born at Livingston Hospital in Dartford, Kent. His father was a factory worker who was injured in World War II during the Normandy invasion.

Richards' paternal grandparents were Socialists and civic leaders whose family originated from Wales. His maternal grandfather, Augustus Theodore Dupree, who toured Britain with a jazz big band, "Gus Dupree and his Boys", fostered Richards' interest in guitar.

Richards' mother bought him his first guitar and he played at home, listening to recordings by Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and others. His father, on the other hand, disparaged his son's musical enthusiasm. One of Richards's first guitar heroes was Scotty Moore.[10]

Richards attended Wentworth Primary School with Mick Jagger and was his neighbour until 1954, when the family moved. From 1955 to 1959 he attended Dartford Technical High School for Boys. Recruited by Dartford Tech's choirmaster, R. W. "Jake" Clare, Richards sang in a trio of boy sopranos at, among other occasions, Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth II.[13]

In 1959 Richards was expelled from Dartford Tech for truancy, and transferred to Sidcup Art College. At Sidcup he was diverted from his studies proper and devoted more time to playing guitar with other students in the boys' room. At this point Richards had learned most of Chuck Berry's solos.[15]

Richards met Jagger on a train as Jagger was headed to classes at the London School of Economics. The mail-order rhythm & blues albums from Chess Records by Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters that Jagger was carrying revealed a mutual interest and led to a renewal of their friendship. Along with mutual friend, Dick Taylor, Jagger was singing in an amateur band: "Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys", which Richards soon joined. The Blues Boys folded when Brian Jones, after sharing thoughts on their joint interest in the blues music, invited Mick and Keith to the Bricklayers Arms pub, where they then met Ian Stewart. [17][18]

In mid-1962 Richards had left Sidcup Art College to devote himself to music and moved into a London flat with Jagger and Jones. His parents divorced about the same time, resulting in his staying close to his mother and remaining estranged from his father until 1982 [Richards, Keith (2010). Life].[citation needed]

After the Rolling Stones signed to Decca Records in 1963 their band manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, dropped the s from his surname believing "Keith Richard" in his words "looked more pop". In the early 1970s Richards re-established the s in his surname.

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2
Album Review

Rolling Stones: Hackney Diamonds (2CD)

Read "Hackney Diamonds (2CD)" reviewed by Doug Collette


The Rolling Stones have taken some risks of greater and lesser proportion over the course of their sixty-plus- year career, but perhaps no gamble is so great as the decision by the surviving members of the band to continue on after the passing of drummer Charlie Watts. With the blessing of their co-founder in place for the presence of musician/producer Steve Jordan at the kit, the self-appointed 'greatest rock and roll band in the world' carried on with ...

4
Album Review

The Rolling Stones: El Mocambo 1977

Read "El Mocambo 1977" reviewed by Doug Collette


The die-cut design of the double-CD cover for the Rolling Stones' El Mocambo 1977 mitigates at least to some degree the borderline amateurish cover art. But reversing the pink and blue covers of the twenty-page booklet inside the dual-fold package achieves a greater end than simply altering the simplistic cosmetics; its extraction also reveals a Paul Sexton essay with information more than a little pertinent to the music as well as photos of the Toronto appearance that might better have ...

23
Book Review

Keith Richards on Keith Richards

Read "Keith Richards on Keith Richards" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


Keith Richards on Keith Richards Interviews and Encounters Edited by Sean Egan 288 pages ISBN: 9781613747889 Chicago Review Press 2013 There is an enduring appeal when it comes to the lives of Keith Richards and the other Rolling Stones that has spawned a myriad of biography books throughout the years. But no matter how many biographies and testimonies are published, a whole new avalanche of books are written each new year that again ...

872
Book Review

Life

Read "Life" reviewed by Phillip Woolever


Life Keith Richards with James FoxHardback, 564 pages ISBN: 978 0 316 03438 8 Little, Brown2010 Life is a last laugh lullaby. In guitarist Keith Richards' well-received and heavily hyped reflection, the defiant rock icon, humble blues ambassador and momma's boy family anchor keeps a laid back focus on the world around him since childhood. The Rolling Stones get cast through glass houses from London to Connecticut, with ...

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Music Industry

That Time Keith Richards Discovered Muddy Waters Painting The Ceiling Of Chess Studios

That Time Keith Richards Discovered Muddy Waters Painting The Ceiling Of Chess Studios

Source: HypeBot

Host to countless legendary artists, Chess Records has become an iconic fixture of reverence in the music industry, so it should come as no surprise that some of music's biggest icons would cross paths in unexpected ways there, as in this peculiar interior decorating incident involving Muddy Waters and The Rolling Stones. Guest post by Dan Reifsnyder of Soundfly's Flypaper To simply call Chess Records “legendary” would be a gross understatement. Founded in Chicago in 1950, it was the label home to ...

Interview

Interview: Keith Richards

Interview: Keith Richards

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

One of Keith Richards' favorite Rollings Stones songs is Street Fighting Man. I learned this two weeks ago after pitching him on an interview for my “Anatomy of a Song" column in The Wall Street Journal. He loved the examples I had sent over and agreed to do it (go here for a free read—or pick up Friday's paper). For Keith, talking about music was welcome relief from the endless interviews he has to do where writers start by asking ...

135

TV / Film

Depp Directing Keith Richards Docu

Depp Directing Keith Richards Docu

Source: All About Jazz

Actor to begin work on the project next week

Johnny Depp will direct a documentary on Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, who served as an inspiration for Depp's Jack Sparrow character in “Pirates of the Caribbean."

A rep for Depp confirmed a recent report in the Serbian magazine Politika, in which he said he would begin work on the project next week. Depp and Richards have been friends for more than a decade. The guitar player also played Depp's ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Hackney Diamonds (2CD)

Rolling Stones Records
2024

buy

El Mocambo 1977

Rolling Stones Records
2022

buy

My True Story

Manila Jazz Festival
2013

buy

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