a few pages ago RollingStonesRob mentioned some way-early footage of Keith with a blue Stratocaster;
i haven't located the footage he's talking about, but sure enough there it is on stage in photos from what seems to be the july 1964 Ready Steady Go.
does anyone have any photos or footage of Keith or Brian actually playing that guitar?

edit: these shots are from the june 26th 1964 Ready Steady Go -
thanks for identifying the right date, terraplane!


- Ready Steady Go 1964, by Dezo Hoffman (courtesy of Vox12String)


- Ready Steady Go 1964 (courtesy of King Bee)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-02-23 13:40 by with sssoul.

Here's another photo of that blue strat, I always assumed it was just a prop



Here's some pix of that Blonde guitar of Keith's mentioned at the very start of this thread, didn't know it was hand-made. These are of the first Marquee gig in 1962. Would that have been what he used on the Little Boy Blue trax (assuming it was Keith)







All 3 pix are uncredited & are from the book
Rolling Stones
Ed. by David Dalton
Amsco Music Publishing Co. NY. 1972

Odd place to store that blue strat... maybe they were just showing it off. Not too many british players had them at that point.

cc

You're right cc, & even fewer musicians in England would have had a rosewood neck strat with tremolo, this has got to be it. Manchester, Aug 10 1964



From the book
The Rolling Stones
by Robert Palmer
Sphere Books, London, 1984

Alright it is finally posted!

far freakin out! great to see your typeface, Vox12String, and these brilliant photos! thank you very much indeed.
it's sweet to see Keith's early no-name instrument - and that Stratocaster sure is interesting, isn't it?!
if that's indeed the july 64 Ready Steady Go where it appears to be up there as a prop,
that was about a month after the Stones got back from their first US tour - would that be where Keith acquired it?
his first Fender? smile! i wonder what became of it ...

edit: in fact it's the june 26th 1964 Ready Steady Go - the Stones had just gotten back from the US.
thanks for identifying the right date, terraplane!

i love that shot from august 64 - thank you Vox12String! ahh, look at Keith lookin just like forever -
the joint's rockin, could be any time at all! :E



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2007-02-23 13:52 by with sssoul.

excuse me for babbling, please, but:
what the hell is that Strat doing on that Ready Steady Go stage?? or the Vox 12-string, for that matter?
if that is indeed the july 64 RSG, according to nzentgraf all they played was It's All Over Now, so it's not like they *needed* four guitars.
TV appearances - especially the playback scenarios - would of course be a "natural" for fulfilling PR obligations.
i know the early Stones actively wanted Vox amps, and imagine that's one reason there are so many photos of Brian and Bill with Vox instruments.
july/august 64 seems kind of early for a promo deal with Fender, but ... ?

edit: in fact the shots are from the june 26th 1964 Ready Steady Go - thanks for identifying the right date, terraplane!
the numbers they aired were their just-released single: It's All Over Now and Good Times Bad Times
(both playback according to nzentgraf.de); it seems clear from the photos that they also did a third number
that didn't get aired. Not Fade Away?

at the same time, during the 64 - 67 Mania Phase, when their job entailed being assaulted by hordes of crazed fans,
having various missiles hurled at them, etc, it seems like they might not always be inclined
to take their most cherished instruments into that fray. so are the instruments we see them with in concert scenarios
more like their battle axes than their true loves?

then again, it might boil down to the same thing.
one thing Keith's always admired about Fenders is their sturdiness - cf Hampton 81 :E



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007-02-23 13:49 by with sssoul.

The Vox 12 string is the guitar Brian used on 'Its All Over Now'. I remember it well. I was 14, had a cheap guitar & of course dreamed of owning something decent, so I took an interest in what they were playing from the first. I recall noticing this Vox being used at the time for this song only, & also noticing when the 6 string Vox showed up, that tear drop shape was quite different to all the other guitars everybody else had. Years later I bought a Vox Phantom 12-string, the 5-sided job, but I'm essentially an acoustic player so got rid of it before I finally settled in Australia. I notice on the American shows Brian used the 6 tring for IAON, would have been a hassle to tune I suppose.

As for the other guitars & marraccas on that '64 RSG show (is that the bottom part of an acoustic guitar just behind Keith?) maybe they recorded other songs which didn't make it to the final cut. My understanding is that RSG was pre-recorded.

I had a chance to buy the Gretsch. In 1965-67 I lived in Frimley just south of London on the Surrey/Hampshire border. It was close to Camberley which had a music shop & I used to cycle there & buy my picks, sheet music & guitar strings (Cathedral & Black Diamond if I recall). One day a large cardboard poster showed up in the window with the Gretsch beside it. The shop guys had put together the poster advertising the guitar for sale with pix of Brian playing it & pointing out the features proving it was Brians guitar. 2 I recall were a new volume knob & a different tuning peg replacing one that had been damaged. I did come across a pic showing that tuning peg bent out of shape but can't find it at the moment. Anyway, the guitar cost 80 guineas (84 pounds) & there was no way I had that sort of money. Whether it really was his guitar or who got it I have no way of knowing, but sometimes I dream...what if?....

thanks for the details, Vox12String!

>> As for the other guitars & maracas on that '64 RSG show (is that the bottom part of an acoustic guitar just behind Keith?)
maybe they recorded other songs which didn't make it to the final cut. <<

yeah, and that might explain why Brian's got two different guitars -
even if it was playback, they would want *plausible* playback. these cats were serious. :E

back to that Strat, though - there are actually two of them up there, aren't there.
here's another shot where you can see them both - well, almost! - this time with the maracas in gear as well:


- Ready Steady Go 1964, possibly by Dezo Hoffman, courtesy of the Sticky Fingers site



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2005-11-13 15:50 by with sssoul.

!@#$#% you're right, there's been 2 strats there all the time. Check out the b/w RSG pic & its just behind Bill on the left. On the colour pic I just posted, its BEHIND the amp at the top so that the 2 strats cross each other, one in front the other behind the amp. I've been looking at that pic for years & never noticed it.

>> I've been looking at that pic for years & never noticed it. <<

smile: same here, Vox12String! maybe it just now appeared. :E

seriously, thanks for letting me know i'm not the only one who somehow missed it before.
and i don't know what's stranger: that the Stones had not one but two Strats way back in 64 - and blue ones at that -
or that they seem to have used them so rarely, or that we didn't even notice them until now.
ahh, don't you just love the Rolling Stones?! :E

update! for the Further Adventures of those Pale Blue Strats, see this thread: [www.iorr.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-02-23 13:54 by with sssoul.

For some reason, vox12string's pic from manchester '64 ain't showing up on my screen -- can someone else post it? Thanks!

cc

i think Vox12String's photo host was just having a temporary spasm, but here is is anyway, cc:


- Manchester august 1964, courtesy of Vox12String

isn't that a beautiful photo?! LoFL: Keith with a Strat in 1964 - i am thrilled!
talking it over with BrownEyedGirll today, we theorized that maybe he used it in Manchester because his usual guitar
got trashed at that riot in Blackpool at the end of july.

that matching pair of pretty blue Strats really seems like it must have been some promotional deal
that Brian and Keith took to about as eagerly as they took to those matching houndstooth jackets. :E

(by the way, it turns out that same photo's on page 145 of Rolling With the Stones, but cropped differently,
and you can barely see Keith with the Strat. Bill's got the Manchester gig dated august 9th, not the 10th,
but ... oh who cares, it's Keith with a Strat in 64!)

Keith with Gibson Firebird

Photo 1965 no credits listed




ROCKMAN

far oot, Rockman - thank you!
i generally prefer the look of the (if you will) woman-shaped guitars, not the teardrops or these Jetson-style buddies,
but Keith actually makes that thing look pretty hip, doesn't he.
i still don't get the reasoning behind the design of these reverse Firebirds. was there any?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-02-18 20:12 by with sssoul.

Keith 1978...No credits listed



ROCKMAN

Thanks for reposting the pic.

I don't get the reasoning behind anything about the firebird. Maybe trying to duplicate some of the features of fenders?

Nice sneakers in '78!

cc

that 78 shot is by Lynn Goldsmith, by the way, and the guitar's that pretty doublecut LP Junior that the good Mathijs has already told us a bit about:
[iorr.org]
good thing too, since 78 is getting kind of out of the territory of Keith's *very* early guitars ... :E



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2008-02-18 20:12 by with sssoul.

I wonder if Keith uses the red gibson les paul jr ever?

if you mean the one in that photo from 78:
in that thread i gave the link to, Mathijs told us it was stolen.

Here's one of Keith with the Flying V, Hyde Park warm up?



And lets not forget he could play bass good enough for John Lennon at the Rock n Roll Circus



[/URL

thank you Vox12String!
the shot with the Flying V looks like the july 3rd 1969 Top of the Pops session - Chris Walter took some very similar photos that day.
nzentgraf says they did two takes of HTW, "probably live vocals on a prepared backing track".
it was quite a feat of professionalism to go ahead and do that show that day ...
i've never seen it - just the HTW they did on Tops of the Pops in december 69.


- all july 3rd 1969, all by Chris Walter

i've been told (no doubt by the gallant Mathijs!) that that's a 1958 Korina Flying V; last spotted at Nellcote, i believe ...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2005-11-15 16:10 by with sssoul.

and indeed Keith on bass cannot be denied! :E
this one looks like the Dirty Mac bass, no?


- june 1968 (from Sympathy for the Devil, courtesy of BrownEyedGirll)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-06-19 20:34 by with sssoul.

with sssoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> it was quite a feat of professionalism to go ahead
> and do that show that day ...

That's a nice way of putting it.

The dirty mac bass is a Fender Precision.

cc

the bass inclusions are important too. where is the 1975 pic of keith playing bass onstage?

Beautiful Guitar in the above 2 photos. I would kill to have one of those.

Milo, NYC
You're the easiest lay on the White House lawn

i'll see if i can get that 75 onstage bass shot scanned today. meanwhile here's an earlier one that always warms my heart.
i've somehow always reckoned these basses were not actually Keith's own instruments - do any of us know whether they belong[ed] to him or not?


- looks like 1967; from the Daily Mirror Archives

as advertised! here's that 75 onstage bass shot - can anyone tell us about the instrument, please and thank you very kindly?


- 1975, by Bob Gruen

The first bass is a 1959 Fender Precision bass, the second (1975) bass is a long scale Travis Bean TB2000 bass. Keith used it to play Sympathy for the Devil at the MSG, and Wood used it for Fingerprint File. Bill later on used short-scale TB2000 basses.

Mathijs

Dated but still interesting article from The Guitar Magazine 1992.






ROCKMAN