Charlie's Good Tonight: The Authorised Biography of The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts

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offered Mick Jagger, after a performance of Chuck Berry’s Little Queenie on the 1970 live album Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! The Jazz Age in the US coincided with the golden years of detective fiction in Britain, and Watts’s collection is rich in English crime novels from the 1920s and 1930s. He was not a flamboyant, risk-taking showman in the manner of the Who’s Keith Moon, nor an exponent of pummelling raw power along the lines of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, nor an expert in tricky time signatures like Rush’s Neal Peart.

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

One of a talented pool orbiting around blues pioneer Alexis Korner in the early 1960s, Watts was headhunted by Jagger, Jones and Richards but faltered. After a year and 115 shows, the combined Steel Wheels/ Urban Jungle pageant bowed out with two more concerts in August 1990 at Wembley Stadium, for an awe-inducing total of five there. Even if this library had not belonged to a Rolling Stone, it would still be counted the best modern collection to come to auction in the past 25 years. The group maintained enormous popularity for decades with classic albums like “Aftermath” (1966), “Sticky Fingers” (1971), “Some Girls” (1978) and “Tattoo You” (1981), and with massive stadium tours that took them all over the world.Satisfaction abounded as bidders landed rare first edition copies of books by Agatha Christie and PG Wodehouse on day two of the sales event, named “Charlie Watts: Gentleman, Collector, Rolling Stone – Literature and Jazz”, which started up at famed auction house Christie’s on Thursday (28 September). It’s “no coincidence”, says Wiltshire, that the outstanding item in the collection, The Great Gatsby, is the novel that defines the Jazz Age. He remained a devoted husband and father (later grandfather) and maintained friendships that stretched back to childhood. On the other hand are the ‘eclecticists’, who are curious about all aspects of human creativity and endeavour, and so will happily acquire a dinosaur skull or a Chinese jadeBuddha just because it might look well on their Danish sideboard.

Charlie Watts’s prized book and music Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts’s prized book and music

G. Wodehouse wrote,’ says Christie’s Books and Manuscripts specialist Mark Wiltshire, who has catalogued Watts’s books ahead of their sale on 28 September 2023 (additional works will be offered in an online auction, from 15 to 29 September). Paul Sexton, author of the highly acclaimed biography Charlie’s Good Tonight, believes that Watts’s fascination with the printed word sprang from the same source as his love of music. American first edition inscribed by the author: “With A Conan Doyle’s kindest recollections of pleasant partnership in travel June 13 th/91. Drummer Steve Jordan, a former member of the house bands for “Saturday Night Live” and “Late Night with David Letterman,” is scheduled to take Watts’ place for the Stones’ upcoming tour, which is scheduled to start on September 26 in St. Nothing if not a quick student, Watts not only learned to rock, but came to be hailed as one of the greatest drummers in rock history – sometimes the greatest of all – although he certainly occupied a unique place within that particular pantheon.We kindly request that the privacy of his family, band members and close friends is respected at this difficult time. Pausing at a display of plates and dishes of the Huguenot silversmith Paul de Lamerie – valued at some 3. There are lists of who guested at which shows and on which albums, praise for Charlie Watts’s unerring timing and ability to hold together a rowdy, loose-limbed band (bassist Bill Wyman gets rare praise for his part too) and some commentary on drum technique, but the impact and meaning of the Stones’ music stays unremarked. King tells the story of Watts once staying at Shugborough Hall, the home of the photographer Patrick Lichfield – and being given a tour of the house’s treasures.

Charlie Watts obituary | Charlie Watts | The Guardian Charlie Watts obituary | Charlie Watts | The Guardian

I have tried to resign after every tour since 1969, but each time they talk me back into it,” he tells author Paul Sexton later in his career. He created artwork for some early Stones releases and collaborated with Mick Jagger on the design of their elaborate stage sets for such tours as Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle (1989-90), Bridges to Babylon (1997-98), Licks (2002-03) andA Bigger Bang (2005-07). 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. Charlie had immense pride in the Stones’ dedication to their work, but knew that it was somewhat at odds with the unjust idea that their collective hedonism somehow undermined their commitment to their craft. The titles, which will be auctioned by Christie’s, reflect “an incredibly sensitive curiosity about the very best of literature,” said Mark Wiltshire, a books and manuscripts specialist at Christie’s.In time he was elevated to the role of music director of the Stones’ shows, with an especially vital channel of communication with Charlie. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Stones in 1989, and was voted into Modern Drummer magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2006. This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason. And when you find books published in the 1970s it’s because he was a completist collector of the authors who had their heyday in the pre-war period, Twenties and Thirties. In the early 1990s, Watts released several albums with another group, the Charlie Watts Quintet, including a tribute to Charlie Parker.