The Rolling Stones-Crossfire Hurricane

I'm really looking forward to this documentary by Brett Morgen on The Rolling Stones that will air for us "Yanks" on HBO Thursday November 15 @ 9pm.

Bring on the swagger!

http://www.rollingstones.com/crossfire-hurricane/

The Rolling Stones Mobile Studio

Picture an ugly truck maybe still painted camouflage to be concealed during a Frank Zappa film or maybe catching on fire and becoming a lyric in Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water and you would have
The Rolling Stones Mobile Studio conceived back in 1968.

Basically the band was tired of being constrained to recording in a studio under ordinary working day schedules. So they wanted to be able to record on location...thus they needed a mobile studio they could roll right up anywhere. It just so happened that Mick Jagger bought his country home, Stargroves, and now with the mobile unit right outside his home they could play inside. Who wants all that equipment cluttering up the inside of a 16th century country home?!
In fact the studio became so popular the Stone's rented it out to bands like The Who,Led Zeppelin,Deep Purple and many more.

Here's some more background at a great blog resource for Classic UK Recording Studios by Phil Burn's and here's the The Rolling Stones Mobile article.

Mike Smith-The Showbiz Kids

Happy Birthday Keith Richards

 

Keith Richards was born December 18,1943.  I'll let Keith sing his own song in honor of his birthday.

"Happy" was recorded for the  the Exile On Main St. album and at the time the vocals,guitar and bass were all done by Keith himself during  the summer of1971, at the villa Nellcôte in southern France.

Mike Smith, The Showbiz Kids

Happy Birthday B.B.

The King of Blues is 86 years young today and if you want to wish him happy birthday in person you may need to see where he is on tour first.  He is on tour September through November according to his website and has been a steady performer for many many years and was just in London at Royal Albert Hall.  Some biographical information states that he has played over 15,000 shows over a 52 year span. 

I found it interesting that he was the opening act for the Rolling Stones on their 1969 American Tour which gave him some exposure to rock audiences even though  B.B. had been a recording star for R&B since the 1950s.

Happy Birthday!

B.B. King's Official website
B.B. King on wikipedia

Mike Smith, The Showbiz Kids