Peter Webb, Curious Stones© Peter Webb
A glimpse of the hedonistic world of The Rolling Stones opens in London today (November 22) with a chance to see a collection of previously unseen photographs of one of the world’s enduring rock bands.
Dominique Tarle, Bill Wyman in his garden in Saint Paul de Vence (1971)© Dominique Tarle
Public and intimate personal images feature among the recently-discovered collection, including portraits taken during the 1970s, when the Stones were riding high at the peak of their creative powers.
The band escaped to a French villa for most of 1971© Dominique Tarle
They include the negatives of the day-long photo-shoot by Peter Webb for the Sticky Fingers album, released in 1971, as well as the legendary photographic diary, Rolling Stones in Exile, by Dominique Tarle.
Mick Taylor in the basement of Villa Nellcote, Villefranche sur Mer (1971)© Dominique Tarle
“I could call this entire session Tales of the Unexpected,” says Webb, reflecting on his shots. “As in putting the band into a semi-restricted studio area, and drawing five widely differing responses to each instruction from five widely disparate characters.”
The sessions led to the album Exile on main Street© Dominique Tarle
Tarle was an unknown French photographer who became a friend of the band when they fled to Villa Nellcote, in the south of France, to avoid domestic tax authorities between spring and summer 1971.
Charlie Watts in the basement of Villa Nellcote (1971)© Dominique Tarle
The sprawling villa is described “a circus of girlfriends, hangers-on, children and dogs” and “a life where pleasure and work bled seamlessly into drug-fuelled angst.” Tarle’s photos are a candid documentation of the band during the recording of Exile on Main Street.
- The Rolling Stones: Brown Sugar on Main Street is at Zebra Gallery, London until January 26 2013.
