Brian Jones!

кладу!
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IT'S CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT on Wednesday, July 2, 1969, and Brian Jones is dead in the deep end of his swimming pool.
The night air is silent and the poolside is deserted: his companions have disappeared. Steam rises from the heated water as he sinks to the tiles at the bottom, face down, his blond hair rippling around his head.
Moments pass in the peaceful, floodlit gardens of Cotchford Farm. Footsteps approach the pool. Janet Lawson, a guest, peers uncertainly through the steam.
"Brian?"
She runs back to the farmhouse, screaming for help from Anna Wohlin, Jones' live-in girlfriend, and Frank Thorogood, his builder.
There is panic, yelling, hysterical shrieking, as the body is dragged out of the pool and laid on the ground, clad in multi-coloured swimming trunks. Thorogood dashes to the house to call the emergency services while Janet, a nurse, turns Brian onto his stomach and tries to pump water out of his lungs. She rolls him round on his back and bangs his chest in a frantic attempt at cardiac massage, all the while shouting instructions to a shellshocked Anna, who is giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Janet knows Jones is dead. Anna believes his hand weakly gripped hers, and so the women continue for another 15 minutes. Janet then accepts the inevitable, although Anna keeps trying to breathe life into Brian until sirens and screeching brakes in the driveway herald the arrival of an ambulance.
The police find the ambulance crew endeavouring to revive Jones, but to no avail. He's then driven away from home for the last time.It's announced on July 7 that Brian died by misadventure while swimming under the influence of drink and drugs, and that his heart and liver showed signs of damage from drug and alcohol abuse.
Thirty-five years later, it's widely believed that Brian Jones was murdered. Conspiracy theories have abounded since it first emerged that Jones was an excellent swimmer, that the alcohol level in his
bloodstream was equal to a mere three-and-a-half pints of beer, and that the only drugs in his body were those prescribed by a doctor. Members of Brian's circle and a number of investigative authors have stated unequivocally that he was killed.
Stephen Woolley, directing a major film about the events leading to Jones' untimely demise at 27, is the man who will present this theory to the wider public.
Taking the working title of The Wild And Wycked World Of Brian Jones (see p52), the film attempts to answer one simple question: what was it about Brian Jones, the golden boy of The Rolling Stones, that condemned him to an early grave?
GIRLS LOVED HIM, even as a teenager. They loved his fair hair, his wide smile, his perfect manners, his romantic charm and his attentive conversation.
Brian wasted no time in getting down and dirty with his admirers, although he was never one for contraception. At 16, he impregnated his 14-year-old girlfriend Valerie. Lewis and Louisa Jones, his parents, were apoplectic. A huge family row ensued, and Brian was packed off to Germany while the dust settled. Valerie, to whom he'd pledged his love, was sent to France to sit out the pregnancy before returning to have the child adopted. This was the first of Jones' five known illegitimate children.
The whole escapade marked a new low in the relationship between Brian and his parents. It was 1959, and to a conservative, some might say snobbish family in leafy Cheltenham, this was one embarrassment too many.
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was born in the town's Park Nursing Home on February 28, 1942, the first of three children for Lewis, an aircraft designer, and Louisa, a piano teacher. Within the next few years, sisters Pamela and Barbara arrived. Pamela died from leukaemia as a toddler, and Brian - not that much older himself- never forgot his feelings of isolation. Years later, he told Wohlin how his mother had withdrawn into grief: "Instead of giving me a hug and trying to understand and comfort me when I was being difficult, she pushed me away. I felt rejected and unloved and I still don't know what she really thinks of me."
It was after entering secondary education as a promising pupil with an IQ of 135 that he started clashing with his father, a strict disciplinarian who accused him of squandering his opportunities.
Passing through Cheltenham Grammar School, the young Jones became increasingly insubordinate, and was suspended for rebelling against teachers and prefects. Still, he sailed through nine O-Levels and two A-Levels. But he wasn't interested in academia. Brian was in love with music. Louisa had taught him piano, and he'd graduated with instinctive ease to the recorder and clarinet.
At 15, he was playing washboard in a school skiffle band. A year later, immersed in Charlie Parker, he played sax with a local jazz combo. Lewis was coming to view his son's all-consuming passion for music as "evil", distracting.
By the time of the pregnancy scandal, the scene was set for a feud between parents and son that would rumble on for years -although Jones would never stop trying to earn their respect.
A ONE-NIGHT STAND WITH a married woman called Angeline resulted in Brian's second child. Unconcerned, he took up with Pat Andrews, a 15-year-old shopgirl.
Brian was playing guitar and sax with various jazz outfits, and half-heartedly worked a string of day jobs. In one apparently perverse attempt to antagonise his parents, he became a coal man. They were outraged. In December I960, they locked Brian out of the house and went away for Christmas, leaving him a suitcase and a note in the garden.
Soon Pat became pregnant. She later said that Mrs Jones "became hysterical, picking things up and throwing them at Brian and screaming at the top of her voice... then she ran into Brian's old bedroom, grabbed his guitar and started smashing it."
The same night saw Jones enjoy his first major drug experience, partying with a jazz band. Snorting and swallowing everything on offer, he proposed to the heavily expectant Pat. A month later, she found him in bed with a young teenage girl and ended the relationship.
A son was born in October l961,andthe couple reunited. Brian would never be a model father. He'd been making weekend trips to London, falling deeply
under the spell of the blues and mixing with
musicians. One early friend was Oxford singer
Paul Jones (later of Manfred Mann), with whom he formed a makeshift group. But his ambitions really came into focus when he heard Alexis Korner perform an electric blues set at Cheltenham Town Hall. Brian was overwhelmed. He dashed home for his guitar, introduced himself to Korner and showed off his skills. Korner took "this pent-up ball of obsessive energy" under his wing. They would be lifelong friends.

Visiting Korner in London, Brian met many of die leading players and, in another revelation, discovered Elmore James. He started calling himself Elmore Jones, then Elmo Lewis, bought an electric guitar and practised night and day so he could emulate his hero.
He moved to London at 19.
"Brian was the first person I ever heard playing slide electric guitar," recalled Keith Richards. "Mick and I both thought he was incredible."
Early in 1962, Alexis Korner had opened a weekly R&B night at the Ealing Jazz Club, west London, with his own outfit, Blues Incorporated. On April 7, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were in the audience to see Charlie Watts drumming with them. Brian Jones sat in for an electrifying rendition of Elmore James'
"Dust My Broom". Mick and Keith, both from Dartford, had a band called Little Boy Blue And The Blue Boys, inspired by Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Jimmy Reed. They chatted with Brian, who said he was forming a group although he made no overtures. He intended to be careful in his recruiting, and he wanted Paul Jones as his singer.
Jones advertised for musicians in Jazz News, and pianist Ian "Stu" Stewart from Cheam, Surrey responded. He recalled Brian as "a strange character, but very knowledgeable... deadly serious about the whole thing."
Jones bagged Stu, and they spent weeks auditioning in one pub - and then another, after Brian was caught stealing cigarettes. Paul Jones had dropped out, so Brian and Stu proceeded with singer/harmonica player Brian Knight and guitarist Geoff Bradford. Weeks later, Knight walked out to set up Blues By Six.
It was Stu who invited Mick Jagger along, one day in June. Jagger, now singing with Blues Incorporated, arrived with Keith Richards and the Blue Boys' drummer-turned-bassist Dick Taylor - and all three lived up to Brian's exacting standards. They were in. Shortly afterwards, Geoff Bradford left to join Brian Knight and, later, Charlie Watts in Blues By Six.
Brian named the band The Rollin' Stones, and they –
made their debut at London's Marquee club on July 12 with Mick Avory, later of The Kinks, on drums. They advertised for a full-time drummer in Melody Maker and selected Tony Chapman from London band The Cliftons. But Brian wanted Charlie Watts.
THEIR CRUMMY FIRST-FLOOR flat at 102 Edith Grove, Chelsea was bitterly cold that winter. Brian, Mick and Keith rarely had money to feed the meter. Living in two filthy rooms with various friends, one bare light bulb and a riot of unwashed clothes, dirty dishes, cigarette butts and broken cups, their determination was tested to the limit.
Mould and snot clung to the walls. The pipes froze, and a visit to the bathroom was an ordeal that everyone except Brian tried to avoid: he washed his hair daily, whatever the discomfort.
Keith Richards had finished his course at Sidcup Art College and he stayed in the flat, broke and hungry, while Mick attended the LSE and Brian served at WH Smith in Kingsway. Jones had been fired by another store for dipping his fingers in the till, and he was still doing it. Fired again, he shivered with Keith in their Chelsea hovel.
Still, Jones cracked the whip. He arranged rehearsals at the nearby Wetherby Arms and initiated hours of preparation in Edith Grove, replaying LPs by Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Elmore James and
Chuck Berry while he, Mick and Keith huddled under blankets. Sometimes the air was so arctic that they stayed in bed all day, playing their guitars under the covers until their fingers turned blue. Many believe that the backbone of the Stones was forged from this period of hardship, along with the unique sound of their two interacting guitars. Brian and Keith established a telepathic musical partnership that, in Stu's I opinion, made Jagger jealous: "I could sense back then the beginning of Mick's desire to distance Keith from Brian."
Brian, meanwhile, was taking lessons in blues harmonica from the esteemed Cyril Davies. As the boys' morale, and funds, began to plunge, Brian booked a string of gigs for November and December '62. This was no easy task, since the sniffy jazz establishment dominating the live circuit had little time for the younger generation of scruffy blues boys.

Nevertheless, the Stones had a residency at the Ealing Jazz Club, while Brian secured gigs at the Marquee, Piccadilly and Flamingo jazz clubs, as well as pubs and halls outside London.
Soon, bassist Dick Taylor left to concentrate on his art studies, later re-emerging as lead guitarist with Pretty Things, and Tony Chapman recommended his old Cliftons bassist, Bill Perks. Ex-RAF man Bill was a few years older than the rest of the Stones, and he lived a quiet family life in Penge. He also had a huge bass cabinet, his own amps - and packets of cigarettes. He played his first gig as a Rolling Stone at the Ricky Tick Club in Windsor's Star And Garter Hotel on December 14, and in the new year he changed his surname to Wyman.
January 1963 also saw the Stones grab Charlie Watts, a graphic designer still living with his parents in a prefab in Neasden. Jones happily sacrificed a furious Tony Chapman.
BRIAN JONES' DOWNFALL began before the Stones had even released a record. In every sense, he was the leader. He was still hustling gigs, now including the Crawdaddy Club, Richmond and Eel Pie Island, Twickenham. He managed the finances, assumed the managerial role in business meetings, and sent handwritten letters promoting the group to magazines, venues and radio stations.
He was also, in those days, the star of the Stones on account of his musicianship, his vivid sense of fashion and a beautiful, blond presence that was at the same time impenetrable and unsettling- the intriguing counterpart to Jagger's unbridled sexuality.
Brian could not have guessed at the repercussions of the management and recording contracts he signed on behalf of the group with Impact Sound-Andrew Loog Oldham and Eric Easton - in May 1963. He was correct that Oldham, a former part-time Beatles press officer, would kickstart their career. But he never dreamt that Oldham would gradually strip him of everything that mattered.
Anita Pallenberg-lover of Brian, Keith and Mick-may or may not have been making mischief when she declared that Brian's alienation began in Edith Grove: "Brian did break up a lot of things by actually going to bed with Mick. And I think Mick always resented him for having fallen for it... it was as if Brian violated Mick's privacy by revealing his weak side..."
Even in his schooldays, Brian had cut a striking
figure, fastidious about his appearance. Author
Jeremy Reed has examined his effeminate glamour
and fixation with his hair, which he regularly
highlighted to glow ever more brightly. He proposesi
that it was the "gay components of Brian's complex
gender orientation which accounted for his creative
panache as a musician and as a fashion leader to
his generation". Reed concludes that he was a
decadent, textbook narcissist whose greatest
love was for himself. Certainly, Brian's many
charismatic qualities were offset by a sweeping
arrogance, an ill temper, a coldness towards others
and a propensity for jealousy, manipulation and
mind games. He was kind, affectionate and
vulnerable, cruel and untrustworthy.

Bill Wyman: "He could be the sweetest, softest, most considerate man in the world and the nastiest piece of work you've ever met."
Pat Andrews, who'd come to join Brian in London with their baby in spring 1962, left him for long periods, finally cutting her losses on discovering he'd slept with Keith Richards' girlfriend Aleema. Brian was simultaneously enjoying a relationship with 16-year-old hairdressing student Linda Lawrence.When Andrew Loog Oldham moved in with Mick and Keith at 33 Mapesbury Rd, West Hampstead, Brian went to live with Linda and her parents in Windsor. He was now estranged from the band.
OLDHAM ORDERED KEITH to drop the "s" from his surname and sacked Ian Stewart, allegedly because his face didn't fit. Brian didn't contest the edict. He personally broke the bad news to Stu, suggesting he could be roadie and driver while continuing to play on studio recordings. Stu accepted the consolation prize.
Expertly promoting the Stones as wild opposites to The Beatles' clean-cut boys next door, Oldham shifted the focus to Jagger as a sex symbol, forcing Brian to the sidelines. He then instructed Jagger and Richards to write songs, which removed Jones' musical authority.
Still, he was the people's favourite. That much was evident from the fans' screaming during the band's first British tour in the summer of 1963. Brian got his share of screen time on TV shows such as Thank Your Lucky Stars and Ready Steady Go/He received the most fan mail. And he contemptuously dismissed the first Jagger/Richards compositions as sell-out rubbish.
The Stones' first hits -"Come On" (1963), "I Wanna Be Your Man" (1963), "Not Fade Away" (1964), "It's All Over Now" (1964) and "Little Red Rooster" (1964) -were all covers, sufficiently grounded in blues and R&B to satisfy the purist in Brian Jones. He was equally pleased with their debut, self-titled album, a No 1 early in 1964. Then Mick and Keith hit a songwriting winning streak, and with "The Last Time" they would give the Stones their third chart-topping single in 1965.
The important decisions were now being made by the Oldham/Jagger/Richards power base at Mapesbury Road. Brian wasn't considered importantenough to be consulted. The parts he played in the studio were sometimes wiped, or not recorded at all. He was excluded from press interviews. His musical role was steadily reduced to that of a colourist, adding exotic touches to existing compositions, and although this would often be enough to turn a great song like "Paint It, Black" into something truly sensational, Jones realised he'd lost control of his own band.
He fought back for a while, doubtiess encouraged by fans in America who, during the Stones' first visits in 1964, made banners idolising "Sweet Innocent Little Brian". (His bandmates explosively queried that sweetness when Oldham revealed a secret deal under which Brian earned £5 a week more than they did.)
Jones competed with Jagger for the limelight on stage, and he tried to write, but his confidence vanished. Thereafter, the insecurity and paranoia he felt was fuelled by his voracious appetite for alcohol, uppers, downers and LSD. Emasculated within The Rolling Stones, Brian entered fully into a life of debauchery. He became a playboy prince, hobnobbing with rock's elite, befriending art dealers and film directors, and indulging in expensive whims. On tour, his every erotic wish was someone else's command.

Returning to Linda from America in November 1964, he rebelled against the life of domesticity he'd initiated with the birth of their son - his fourth child - in July. At this same time, Brian learnt that another lover, Dawn Molloy, was pregnant.
Despite his promises of love and marriage to Linda, he escaped to London to avoid the whole mess.
By now, he was exhausted - stressed, strung out, assailed by asthma attacks, resentful of his treatment by the band and profoundly disturbed by Oldham's ousting of his one ally, Eric Easton, in favour of US businessman Allen Klein in the summer of '65. He was also hit with paternity proceedings by Pat and Linda.
Brian started missing gigs and sessions.
ANITA PALLENBERG MET BRIAN at a Stones gig in Munich on September 14,1965 and decided to "kidnap" him. Anita, a model, remembered: "I asked Brian if he wanted a joint and he said yes, so he asked me back to his hotel and he cried all night. He was so upset about Mick and Keith still, saying they had teamed up on him."
The more Brian felt victimised, the more he drank and dipped into his pills, and the more unreliable his performances became, compounding the band's frustration. It was a vicious circle, and Jones couldn't touch Mick and Keith. They were hot, taking the Stones to No 1 with "Satisfaction" and "Get Off Of My Cloud" in 1965, scoring a No 2 with "19th Nervous Breakdown" in February 1966, and regaining pole position three months later with "Paint It, Black".
The Jagger/Richards partnership also triumphed with the band's fourth LP, Aftermath, in April '66. For the first time they'd written a whole LP, and it made No 1. However, it was Jones who'd supplied its exciting experimentalism, contributing dulcimer, marimbas, harpsichord and various other unusual instruments.
Brian and Anita swanned around London in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, purchased from George Harrison. They moved into a flat at 1 Courtfield Rd, South Kensington, complete with a minstrel gallery, and decorated it with rich fabrics and embroideries that Brian had bought in Morocco.
In Anita, who was every bit as impulsive and tempestuous as Brian, he'd met his match. Theirs was a turbulent relationship, ardent and argumentative. On holiday in Morocco in 1966, they fought endlessly,
with Brian breaking his wrist when he missed Anita and punched a window frame. Jones' violence towards women dated back to his earliest relationships. With Anita, he also became involved in S&M and cross-dressing. The pair began to look identical. Anita would later build a sinister reputation as an occultist. She once claimed to have cast a spell on Jones, giving him stomach pains.
They became one of rock's most famous couples, with Brian composing the film score for 1967's A Degree Of Murder, starring Pallenberg.
Discretion was not a virtue of Brian's. One night at Blaises club in Kensington, he chatted blithely about drugs and showed hash and amphetamines to two strangers who were buying him drinks. They turned out to be News Of The World reporters, but they didn't know their Joneses from their Jaggers. Early in February 1967, Brian's quotes were splashed all over the grand expose - attributed to Mick.
A livid Jagger sued the newspaper, which sped into action. If it could get Mick Jagger busted, his legal case would collapse. Investigative journalist Trevor Kempson was assigned to the task, later revealing that he recruited someone well-placed within the Stones organisation to dish the dirt. This informant rang Kempson with details of a gathering at Keith Richards' home, Redlands, in West Sussex on February 12.
The News Of The World told Scotland Yard, and the result was the infamous raid in which Jagger, Richards and art dealer Robert Fraser were arrested for drug offences and the mythical story of Marianne Faithfull and the Mars bar entered into rock legend.
Keith arranged a holiday to duck the media scrum. Brian and Anita went, too. Jones' chauffeur and minder Tom Keylock drove all three, in Richards'
Bentley, to France, from where they would continue to Spain and Morocco, there to meet Mick, Marianne, Robert Fraser and sculptor Christopher Gibbs.

Crossing into Spain, Brian took ill - some say he overdosed while others cite suspected pneumonia - and he spent his 25th birthday in hospital. It seems he encouraged the rest of the group to continue without him, which is when Anita and Keith ignited their love affair.
Finally arriving in Marrakech, Jones was frequently stoned. Anita caught him cavorting naked with two local whores. Allegedly, her refusal to join in provoked Brian into a violent attack, whereupon she rushed to the protective Richards.
Now there was a getaway plan. While Brian was whisked off to visit a group of Moroccan musicians, the Stones party checked out of the hotel and disappeared. He returned to find himself abandoned, and had to be sedated.
"First they took my music, then they took my band and now they've taken my love."
Brian was devastated, his position in the Stones truly compromised. After years of conflict with Jagger, he could hardly bear seeing Richards with Anita on his arm. Worse was to come.
The News Of The World was now targeting Brian. He was busted on May 10 for having drugs in his flat.
JONES THEN found a new girlfriend, Suki Potier, and moved her into his Courtfield Road apartment. They comforted each other. Brian was still in shock over Pallenberg, and Suki was mourning the death of their mutual friend Tara Browne in the crash immortalised by J The Beatles: "He
blew his mind out in a car/He didn 't notice that the lights had changed." Suki had been a passenger.
Brian believed he was being bugged. He was certainly harassed. A string of hoax phone calls alleging burglaries, fires and suicide attempts at his home were made to the police by someone purporting to represent the Stones.
On July 6, Brian was admitted to the Priory clinic in Roehampton to be treated for drug and alcohol abuse, and was diagnosed as paranoid. Trevor Kempson contended that his fears were justified: "Of course Brian was being set up, all through 1967 and later in 1968. First the police would be tipped off that Brian was holding drugs, and a few minutes later the tip-off would come to me. I think... someone in the Stones organisation wanted him out of the way."
Brian got wind of a plot to plant drugs in his flat, and he and Suki then flitted among a number of hotels, boltholes and rented apartments.
It was around this time that Oldham parted company from the Stones.
Brian pleaded guilty to cannabis possession at the Inner London Sessions on October 30, although the cocaine and methedrine also found in his home were not mentioned. There was uproar in the public gallery when he was sentenced to nine months. Bail was refused. He spent a hellish night in Wormwood Scrubs before being released on medical grounds to await his appeal.
Brian was at an all-time low. He had to be restrained from jumping into the Thames and out of a hotel window. He was hounded by the police, and he went in and out of clinics and hospitals as he teetered on the edge of his mental precipice.
On December 12, the Court Of Appeal replaced his sentence with a £1000 fine and three years' probation, hearing that he might harm himself in prison. The psychiatrist's report described an intelligent and sensitive person losing touch with reality. It also referred to sexual problems: "He experiences very intense anxiety surrounding phallic and sadistic sexuality because of his implicit aggressive strivings."

The Stones had just released Their Satanic Majesties Request, which Jones had rightly predicted would be badly received. Ironically, his decorative touches on flute, recorder, mellotron, harp and percussion were considered to be among the saving graces of an album generally dismissed as a second-rate answer to Sgt Pepper.
In Jones' opinion, the next recordings - for what would be Beggars Banquet- needed some killer riffs, more rock and blues and less psychedelia. Mick and Keith reached the same conclusion, and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" would duly return the Stones to the top of the chart for the first time in two years. Brian's ideas were now being accepted in the studio, but his new, positive attitude didn't last.
In the spring of 1968, police found his on-off lover Linda Keith (formerly Keith Richards' girlfriend) naked and unconscious from an overdose of sleeping pills, having caught Brian with another woman. Immediately evicted by his landlord, he returned to Suki Potier. And then he was busted again.
Early one morning in May at his flat in Chesham St, Belgravia, officers found a lump of cannabis inside a ball of wool, which Brian insisted was planted: "I was absolutely shattered. I felt everything swimming." He was charged and bailed.
Bill Wyman suggested: "The fact that the police had secured a warrant with no evidence showed the arrest was part of a carefully orchestrated plan. Brian and the Stones were being targeted in an effort to deter the public from taking drugs."
Jones took refuge at Redlands while Richards I was out of the country, and was placed under the | supervision of Tom Keylock, now road manager.
Instantly, there was tension. It was Keylock who'd orchestrated Keith and Anita's escape from Morocco, leaving Brian behind. Now he felt like a prisoner.
He broke away with a couple of return trips to Morocco. During the first, he beat Suki so severely she had to be hospitalised. Like most of his women, she forgave him. On the second, he recorded musicians from the village of Jajouka and subsequently released an album, The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka.
On September 26, the jury at Marlborough Street Magistrates Court found Brian guilty of possessing cannabis. "No, no, no. It can't be true," he gasped as girls sobbed loudly in the public gallery. Amazingly, he got off with a £50 fine, plus costs.
Brian made his last live appearance with the Stones at the Rock And Roll Circus, their own production filmed in a big top in December. Joined by, among others, John and Yoko, The Who, Eric Clapton and a circus troupe, they intended it for worldwide TV broadcast. However, the Stones were disappointed with their set, and withheld the tapes for almost 30 years.
Rock And Roll Circus is now on DVD. Brian looks off his head, ending his performance in fits of laughter - possibly because he'd spent most of "Salt Of The Earth" banging into Keith, who was trying to sing.
Beggars Banquet, released in December 1968, was a formidable return to form, containing such fine Stones classics as "Street Fighting Man" and "Sympathy For The Devil". It made No 3.

BRIAN HAD BOUGHT himself a country retreat in November of the same year. Picturesque Cotchford Farm, at the village of Hartfield, East Sussex, was the former home of Winnie The Pooh author AA Milne. Surrounded by landscaped gardens and a woodland, Jones saw it as a place of peace and sanity. He stopped taking illicit drugs, although he continued to drink, and he gained weight. He swapped his trademark glitz for practical country clothing. He became passionate about his gardens, acquired dogs, walked, swam, and tried to fit into the community. Rather than dazzle the villagers with his latest Rolls,

he rode a scooter to the shops and The Hay Waggon Inn, an olde-worlde pub with wooden beams and a large fireplace. Here, he charmed the locals with his modest and polite conversation - although eventually they would come to know the Jones who drank too much, held deafening parties and crashed his scooter through the window of the shop across the road.
Brian appreciated Mary Hallett and Michael Martin, the housekeeper and gardener he inherited with the property. Mary, who'd been born and brought up in Cotchford Farm and now lived in the next lane, adored "Mr Jones".
"You couldn't have wished for a nicer boy," she said. "He was kindness itself."Brian got the builders in. He wanted to make renovations, and Londoner Frank Thorogood -who'd previously worked at Redlands - rounded up a team of three labourers.
Thorogood was an old friend of Tom Keylock, and it's believed that as well as supervising the building work he was expected to keep Brian in line and report back to Keylock about him. Frank was also permitted to bill the Stones' office for expenses incurred by his gang, and these were charged to Jones.
Brian tried to make friends with the builders. But they were ordinary working men, and they could not identify with this strange pop star who spent his days drinking and parading a succession of beautiful women around the house.
Frank's relationship with Brian was particularly
difficult. Jones allowed Thorogood to live in the flat
above the garage on weekdays to save him commuting.
He treated him to dinner at the farmhouse every
night, and they often drank into the early hours.
But Brian's humour could be taunting, nasty,
sometimes gay, and Thorogood had no answer to any
of that. While despising Brian, he was also enjoying a
good life at Cotchford.
By the time Brian had dumped Suki and moved 22-year-old Swedish student Anna Wohlin into the farmhouse in May 1969, the builders were roundly taking advantage. They helped themselves to Brian's
food, his drinks, even the vegetables from his garden. They did little work, even though Thorogood was draining large sums from Jones' bank account.
Anna, who'd known Brian for only a short time, paints an idyllic picture of tender love-making, dips in the pool and strolls around the garden, where her hero would remark upon the plants and trees. Jones had characteristically vowed his love, proposed marriage and children. At the same time, Anna was expected to cook the meals and to forgive Jones' violent attacks -there were two in the few weeks they were together.
MICK, KEITH AND CHARLIE Watts swept into the drive of Cotchford Farm in Jagger's Mercedes on Sunday June 8,1969. They'd come to sack Brian.
They were touring America soon, and Jones had problems with US immigration over his convictions. They didn't reckon he could handle a big tour anyway. And he'd withdrawn from the studio again. Jones was unhappy with his standing in the Stones, and with their headlong plunge into rock'n'roll.
Supported by close friends John Lennon, Alexis Korner and John Mayall, who'd all visited Cotchford, he was making plans for his own group. He'd already done some recordings with Korner.
He showed his visitors into the dining room. Bill Wyman wasn't around: the others had been mixing, and he wasn't needed. The conversation was amicable, if awkward and painful. Brian accepted a settlement of £100,000, with a further £20,000 a year for as long as the band continued. The Stones office would still deal with his business affairs.
Jones later released a statement: "I no longer see eye to eye with the others over the discs we are cutting. We no longer communicate musically. The Stones' music is not to my taste any more. I have a desire to play my own brand of music rather than that of others... The only solution is to go our separate ways, but we shall remain friends. I love those fellows." He appeared to accept the situation, though others weren't so sure. Charlie commented: "We took his one thing away, which was being in a band."

JUNE 29. IT WAS a quiet Sunday at the farmhouse until a support beam from the kitchen ceiling came crashing to the floor, narrowly missing Anna. For Jones, it was the last straw.
The builders had been around for months abusing his hospitality, drinking throughout the day, and things were nowhere near completion. What work they had done was clearly shoddy, dangerous. Frank Thorogood strode around Cotchford Farm as though he owned it, and brought mistresses to his garage flat without permission. Jones rang Fred Trowbridge, the Stones' accountant, stopped any further payments to Thorogood, and asked for copies of his bills.
The next day, said Wohlin, Brian confronted Thorogood and there was an explosive row, during which Brian fired him, demanding that I the workmen fix the fallen beam. It's been stated by other sources that Thorogood insisted Jones owed him £8000, and that Brian promised to pay so long as he and the workmen left. If Brian did indeed fire Thorogood, he was in no hurry to go anywhere. That same Monday night, Frank received a visitor. Janet Lawson, a nurse from Gosport, Hants, arrived at the garage to stay. She was thought to be another of Frank's mistresses but, it has transpired, she was actually seeing Tom Keylock.
It had been decided at the Stones' office that Keylock, a frequent visitor to the farm, would continue to supervise Brian, since any bad publicity would reflect on the band. Also, wild rumours were emanating from Cotchford that Lennon, or Hendrix, would collaborate with Jones, or that he was joining The Beatles. It was useful for the Stones to know what musical competition he might present.
THERE ARE MANY CONFLICTING stories about what happened on Wednesday, July 2. Anna Wohlin has stated that she and Brian enjoyed a quiet afternoon
and evening. Other accounts mention visitors to the
farm, including Gary Leeds of The Walker Brothers,|
a group of fans, Suki Potier and friends, Nicholas
Fitzgerald - a pal of Brian's who also claimed to
have been sleeping with him during this period, the
building labourers and their girlfriends. Some say
the evening brought a full-on party.
What is certain is that Brian and Anna ate dinner and watched Rowan And Martin's Laugh-In on TV. At some point during or after the programme, Jones went to the garage flat to invite Frank and Janet over for drinks. Anna said he felt guilty about sacking the builder and wanted their association to end on a friendly note. Around 1 Opm, the four gathered in the dining room. Brian was drinking brandy, Frank vodka, and Anna wine. Janet didn't drink.
The party then moved outside to the pool. Brian, Frank and Anna, now in swimming costumes, slipped into the water. Janet didn't. She had reservations, since the three seemed quite drunk, although she felt they were safe enough.
At some time between 11.15pm and midnight, Janet returned to the house and Anna went upstairs to take a phone call. This left Jones and Thorogood in the pool together. About 10 minutes later, Frank entered the house.
Janet wandered into the garden. Looking into the pool, she saw Brian spread-eagled on the bottom, and ran to the farm screaming for help. She couldn't manage him on her own, and she couldn't swim. Anna heard her yells and came rushing downstairs,
passing Frank, who was smoking in the kitchen, apparently oblivious to the commotion.
Anna plunged into the water and struggled with Brian's body. Frank, following, jumped in too and helped pull Brian out. While the women desperately tried to save Jones, Frank hurried into the house to phone 999. The police arrived at 12.10am.
Frank was trying to get hold of Tom Keylock. He spoke to Keylock's wife, Joan, and blurted out the bad news. Joan rang Olympic Studios in Barnes, where the Stones were recording. Jagger took the call.
Keylock wasn't there. Around midday, he'd reportedly left Cotchford, where he'd spent the night, and travelled to Redlands. Early in the evening, he drove Keith to the studio in London. Richards then sent him back to Sussex to pick up a guitar, and he hadn't yet returned. Charlie called Wyman, who'd already left the studio; he could "hardly find the words" to tell him.
Brian was taken to the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, for a post-mortem. Keylock returned to Olympic at around 2am and drove immediately to Cotchford, arriving at 3.30am.
When daylight broke, gardener Michael Martin found Keylock burning all Brian's clothes on a bonfire. Thorogood dumped a pile of books on the flames, including Brian's leather-bound Bible. Martin rescued it.

Mary Hallett said she was warned by Frank: "Say nothing to nobody about anything." She saw two of Thorogood's labourers loading boxes into a truck and discovered, as the vehicle pulled away, that most of Jones' possessions had disappeared from his house. Keylock later contended that Brian's father had asked for his personal effects and requested Tom to burn everything else. It's since been reported that not all of Brian's treasures made it to Cheltenham.
In London, Charlie Watts was still tearful. The Stones decided to continue with their free concert in Hyde Park on Saturday, July 5 and dedicate it to Jones. Jagger said: "Brian will be at the concert." At the time of his death, Brian's finances were in chaos. He was broke.
The inquest showed Jones had consumed six or seven units of alcohol. Urine tests revealed an amphetamine-like substance, undoubtedly Jones' prescription Durophet ("black bombers"). There was a possible presence of Mandrax, his "sleepers". His other prescriptions were for Valium, Piriton for hayfever and an asthma inhaler. Jones' liver was fatty and enlarged. His heart was heavier than normal, the chambers were dilated, and the muscle was flabby.
In 1994, Dr CM Milroy at the University Of Sheffield pathology department re-examined the evidence. He stated: "Deaths from amphetamine abuse are rare," and added: "I cannot exclude the possibility that Jones was held under water... [it] would be easier when the victim was under the influence of alcohol and other drugs."
BRIAN JONES WAS BURIED on Thursday, July 10 in a solid bronze coffin near Prestbury in Cheltenham. The 500 mourners included Charlie, Bill and Stu. Mick and Marianne, filming Ned Kelly in Australia, sent a wreath. Keith didn't attend.
Anna Wohlin was also absent. In her book The Murder Of Brian Jones, she claimed that straight after Brian's death, Thorogood told her what to say to the police and coroner. She was then kept hidden from sight by the Stones organisation with Keylock's help, allegedly offered money to keep quiet, prevented from going to Hyde Park and coerced into signing a document in which she conceded copy approval to Stones PR Les Perrin in any press interview she might give. The day before the funeral, she was driven to Heathrow Airport and informed she was returning to Sweden. There, she miscarried Brian's sixth child.
Anna stated her belief that Thorogood murdered
Jones, having heard Brian taunting him in his usual
manner before she went indoors. She had also seen
them ducking each other. Some investigators are
certain that the building row erupted again and that
Frank simply snapped.
Other authors have named Thorogood as Brian's
killer while proposing that he didn't act alone.
Nicholas Fitzgerald said he approached Cotchford
Farm from the back, via Bluebell Wood, in time
to see three people holding Brian under the water while a man and woman watched. He claimed that he and his friend, Richard Cadbury, were chased away from the bushes by a Stones employee with glasses and a Cockney accent - thus identifying Tom Keylock. The latter has admitted ejecting two men from the property, while giving different timings...

Джон Ли! Спасибо, очень познавательно!

Stoned

ALISTAIR HARKNESS


DENNIS Leary used to do a great skit on Jim Morrison in which he mocked Oliver Stone for making a two-hour film about the Doors when the singer's life could be better summed up thus: "I'm drunk: I'm nobody. I'm drunk: I'm famous. I'm drunk: I'm dead."

You could probably say something similar about Brian Jones, the angel-faced Rolling Stones guitarist who got so mashed on drugs and booze he was fired from the band and drowned in his pool at the age of 27.


A posh-spoken kid from Cheltenham, Jones may have been responsible for forming one of the most iconic bands of all time, but had he not become a high-profile casualty of 1960s excess, it's doubtful he'd be anything more than a footnote in the annals of pop history.

The Stones' music, after all, was all down to Mick'n' Keef. Which begs the question: what possible interest could there be in making a film about him? Simple: the mystery surrounding his death.

Though Stoned, which marks the directorial debut of veteran Brit producer Stephen Woolley (Scandal, The Crying Game), tries to make a case for the reassessment of Jones's significance as a pop-culture revolutionary, it works best when focusing its energies on piecing together a plausible explanation for his demise.

The coroner recorded it as "death by misadventure", but conspiracy theorists have long suspected foul play. Surprisingly, Stoned doesn't sit on the fence, suggesting not only that Jones was murdered but fingering the responsible party.

To say it was the builder wot did it is not to spoil the plot. Woolley isn't interested in the "Who?" so much as the "Why?" The builder in question is Frank Thorogood (Paddy Considine). He's a friend of Tom Keylock (David Morrissey), road manager for the Stones and unofficial caretaker of Jones. When Jones decides to renovate his mansion, Keylock hires Thorogood to do the work and keep an eye on Jones.

The film takes place in the three months running up to Jones's death in 1969, by which point the guitarist has long ceased being an active member of the Stones. Too smashed to attend recording sessions, his police record also means he can't join the band on their frequent US tours. With nothing else to do, he gets wasted.

Thorogood initially views Jones as a bit of a meal ticket, but it's not long before the extravagant lifestyle starts piquing his interest and pretty soon, he's let his hair grow out and stopped returning home to his wife at nights.

It's almost as if he's falling in love, which, of course, the film suggests he was. In one scene he wakes up in the middle of the night to find Jones slinking into his room. It's an elegant way of preparing us for what's to come and Woolley builds on this by showing us how much Jones enjoyed messing with people's heads.

Here the film offers a neat exploration of the power of jealousy and suppressed attraction, so it's a shame that Woolley is so obviously also in thrall to the mystique of the 1960s. Stoned is yet another film that fetishises that decade and Woolley can't resist going all-out with rock'n'roll clichés in a series of flashbacks fleshing out Jones's biography.

You could argue these scenes are necessary to prove how important Jones was culturally , but we all know that the only reason films like Stoned get made is because its subject lived fast and died young. After all, nobody's rushing to tell the Eric Clapton story on film, are they?

http://news.scotsman.com/

2Betsy:

>Джон Ли! Спасибо, очень познавательно!
Фсегда рад чем-либо помочь, милая Бэтси :)
(кста, Вам не кажется , что на фотографии одна рука чья-то лишняя?(самая правая) :))

Для нашей дорогой Бэтси, чуточку картинок валийского эльфа...

с риккеном на сцене

с Мыколкой на сцене

Банкет нищих

опять с Мыколкой

на съёмках "На старт, внимание, марш!"

там же с Билли