Not only rock’n’roll: Saatchi exhibition to show Rolling Stones art and memorabilia

A once-in-a-lifetime show will show unseen photographs, vintage tour posters, memorabilia and instruments from the band's history
Let it Loose: costumes worn by Mick Jagger and the rest of the band will be on display
AP Photo/John Bazemore

A blockbuster exhibition charting half a century of the Rolling Stones through rare archives and memorabilia will open in London next year.

The band is taking a hands-on approach to the once-in-a-lifetime show, which looks at their collaborations with figures including Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Alexander McQueen and Martin Scorsese.

It examines how these partnerships shaped the band’s career through album and tour artwork, costumes and films such as Shine A Light. It will also reflect the band’s influences and how they in turn influenced others.

Sir Mick Jagger said: “We’ve been thinking about it actually for quite a long time —collecting things, thinking, ‘Ah, this would be good, we’d better save this because we want people to see it.’

“It is a kind of look at your career and I think it’s an interesting time to do it.” They had been “pretty hands on,” he added. “We’ve changed a lot of the ideas that were originally presented and substituted them with our own,” he said. “And there’s a lot of my costumes — and the rest of the band, too, but I think mine most.”

Stones Exhibitionism at the Saatchi Gallery - in pictures

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The exhibition was the brainchild of Australian company iEC, which will take over the whole of the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea to showcase 500 artefacts charting the Stones’ development. It will then tour worldwide.

The Stones agreed the gallery was the ideal location because it was so close to a flat shared by original band members in Edith Grove. They also all shopped in boutiques in the area. Ronnie Wood, who joined the band in 1975, said: “There was a little secret one-upmanship with the clothes.”

Patrick Woodroffe, creative director on their live shows and one of the exhibition’s curators, said: “The Rolling Stones has always been about much more than the music.”

He added that the organisers were trying hard to find the balance between being reverential while reflecting the band’s great sense of humour. But he was surprised the much-discussed exhibition was finally happening, saying: “This is a band that has never really looked backwards.”

Sir Mick insisted it did not imply imminent retirement. He said: “I don’t think it means to say it’s all over just because you’re doing a sort of retrospective exhibition. You know, we’re still working and still doing shows and I think we will continue to do so.”

Stones Exhibitionism will open at the Saatchi Gallery on April 6, 2016, with tickets on sale from July 10. stonesexhibitionism.com

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