‘I caught British rock stars on film raw and up-close before they were famous'

Daily Mirror

2 days ago

Six decades ago photographer Gus Coral went on tour with a penniless band and took hundreds of candid photos. Now the band are global superstars and the unseen snaps have gone on show at a new exhibition
When photographer Gus Coral looked under his bed he unearthed a treasure trove of unseen pictures of The Rolling Stones – stashed there more than 60 years ago.
Fans of the rockers will undoubtedly feel the six decade wait was worth it when 100 candid pictures go on display in London from Friday June 6 in a new exhibition, Rolling Stones Unseen '63.
‌
The snaps from 1963 show The Stones' first ever UK tour, before they achieved global fame, documented by photographer Gus Coral.
‌
Now 87, Gus, of Camden, North London, was just 26 when he first encountered the then penniless blues loving band, touring as the support act for their idols Little Richard, Bo Diddley and The Everly Brothers.
Gus tells The Mirror: "I have almost 200 hundred images of The Stones in total which I took after I was invited to photograph them on their first British tour.
"Aside from showing a few photos to some friends over the years, the majority of these photographs have never been seen before because they have been under my bed for all those years.
"It was only thanks to one of my children who said one day, 'Shouldn't you be doing something with those?' that this exhibition has come about.
"So here we are. We will be having 100 photos on show for this exhibition and I am excited to see them on public display for the first time.
‌
'Some people have asked why I have hung onto them for so long, but my philosophy about photography is that I wanted to take photos that were going to be important in the future and of historical importance."
Gus's black and white images capture a baby faced Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts launching their first UK tour, which took in tiny music halls in places including Cardiff, Watford, Southend-on-Sea, Hanley, Wolverhampton and Cheltenham.
‌
The Stones performed two 10 minute sets at each venue and the tour was organised and promoted by Sharon Osbourne's late father, music impresario Don Arden and gave the band the exposure that helped make them global stars.
Gus says: "I got to meet The Stones through my friend, film-maker Dick Fontaine, who was working for ABC Television at the time. We had been to see The Stones at The Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, west London, where they were the resident band.
"Dick thought they were really good and he wanted to try and convince ABC to make a television film with them. He'd already filmed The Beatles, so he had a very good track record.
‌
"Cardiff was the nearest time we could catch them. It was their first national tour and I think Cardiff was the second date. So off we went.
‌
"But there was no hassle in getting access to them back then. We just went into the theatre, no press, no "access all areas" passes needed and all that stuff.
"In fact, the guy on the stage door at Cardiff's Capitol Theatre told us they were in the cafe around the corne,r so we went and met them there. And then backstage and during the show I had complete access, no other photographers were there."
‌
By the end of the 30-date tour, the band's first single, a cover of Chuck Berry's Come On, reached number 21 on the UK chart and Gus knew The Stones were on the cusp of greatness.
"When I took those photos I was 26. A little bit older than them, maybe 10 years older than some. But The Stones look incredibly young in these photos. So did I back then," laughs Gus.,
"Mick Jagger has a baby face in these images, but it was all there. You know, like the seeds of what he was to become. At that time they were a blues band. It wasn't rock n roll, it was blues and I was a real fan. The blues kind of just hit me, got my soul.
‌
'After I photographed them in Cardiff they invited me to see them recording at a studio in Holborn, in central London."
Just two two years later, in 1965, the The Stones took the music world by storm with (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, penned by Jagger and Richards, gave the band their first number one in the UK and the US.
‌
Now, after selling 250 million albums worldwide and amassing $2.9 billion from ticket sales during their 63-year-long career, The Stones are still rocking.
And Mick, 81, Keith Richards, 81, and guitarist Ronnie Wood, 78, are back in the studio in London recording the follow up to their 2023 album Hackney Diamonds.
Gus says: "I knew they would make it but nobody could have guessed how big they would have become. When I took the pictures of the band in 1963 The Stones had no money but Mick Jagger had great energy.
‌
"It is phenomenal they are still going, as touring is hard work. But I guess it is all down to Mick. He has always had a fantastic image. Without him it would not have happened in the way it did.'
Excited about hopes of transferring his exhibition to New York after his London showcase, Gus adds: "These photographs have been a closely guarded secret for over 60 years, seen only by a handful of people.
"They capture The Rolling Stones in a way the world has never witnessed, raw and ambitious. I'm thrilled to finally share them with the world.
• The Rolling Stones Unseen '63 exhibition runs at Dockside Vaults in London's St. Katharine Docks, from Friday (June 6) to September 10.