Mick Jagger by Philip Norman

Author:Philip Norman [Norman, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780062200327
Google: CE5auAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0061944858
Barnesnoble: 0061944858
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-10-02T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Someday My Prince Will Come

THROUGHOUT POP MUSIC history, most artists who decided to fire a powerful manager and run their own career have landed themselves in the most almighty mess. Lawsuits from their vengeful former protector have crippled them financially for years to come, while the attempt to run their own career has only run it into the ground. Such stories traditionally end with a humiliating admission of defeat and hasty rehire of conventional management to pick up the pieces. The most famous exception the music industry has seen over six decades was Mick’s jettisoning of Allen Klein and skillful handling of a resultant financial crisis which made the Beatles’ cash troubles look petty by comparison. Yet even for him the victory was not total.

In so many ways, the stocky New Yorker with his greasy cowlick and malodorous pipe had been just what the Stones needed. The $1.25 million advance Klein bludgeoned out of Decca in 1965 had put them into a financial league far above any other British rock band, the Beatles included. It also had transformed the economics of an industry in which record companies were accustomed to calling the shots and even the most celebrated performers accepted miserly royalty rates and dubious accounting practices simply for the honor and glory of being associated with them. From then on, power moved from the labels to the artists.

If the Stones’ fame, or ill fame, was mostly generated by Andrew Oldham, Klein had apparently brought wealth on a commensurate scale to them all, regardless of rank within the band. Charlie Watts had moved into a luxurious cottage near Lewes, Sussex, formerly owned by the lawyer and politician Lord Shawcross; a perfect place for autodidact Charlie to tend his collection of American Civil War memorabilia and antique silver and for his wife, Shirley, to indulge her passion for horses. Bill Wyman had gravitated from Penge to a moated fourteenth-century mansion named Gedding Hall, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, which brought the former electrician the feudal rank of lord of the manor. Even Brian, despite palpably having “no expectations,” had been able to pay £30,000 for Cotchford Farm, near Harefield, Sussex, the former home of the author A. A. Milne.

But only Mick so far owned both a town and a country house. The latter was Stargroves, a rambling Gothic pile located in the Berkshire village of East Woodhay, dating back to the sixteenth century and previously owned by an eccentric nobleman named Sir Frederick Carden. Mick had bought it at the same time as 48 Cheyne Walk for a mere £25,000, but both the house and its extensive grounds were in a badly run-down state and many thousands more would have to be spent on renovations. His unofficial realtor, Christopher Gibbs, advised caution, especially as Mick made an atypically snap decision to buy Stargroves after one late-night visit with a carload of friends and hangers-on including the American writer Terry Southern. But he insisted he’d finally found a place where “the atmosphere felt right.

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