Much was made, last year, of the arrival of the Stones’ official history, the lavish coffee table-crushing tome that held open the door for the Stones to pass into the brave new world founded on the success of The Beatles’ Anthology. For the first time, Jagger, Richards, Wood, and Watts came together to lay their own thoughts down on the story of the Stones. But there were omissions: Wyman, for a start; Mick Taylor; Oldham - no single person can be credited with keeping the Stones together, but there are an awful lot who helped, and the strangest thing about According To The Rolling Stones is the absence of almost all of them.

Stu does not make that mistake. Among 80+ contributors, all six surviving members of The Rolling Stones discuss their old friend via some of the longest retrospective interviews they have given in years. Wives and girlfriends, management and assistants, friends, fans and family weigh in as well, while Stewart’s own voice is heard via a previously unpublished interview from 1972. Then there are the photographs, hundreds of them piling in from both Stewart’s own archive as well as the collections of band- mates and associates.

As publishing events go, the limited edition (950 copies) arrival of Stu probably won’t even register at the cash registers. As milestones in rock history are measured, however, the true story of Stu does indeed rate alongside The Beatles’ Anthology as a genuinely untold retelling of the story we all thought we knew. In terms of the Stones’ own history, only Oldham’s Stoned/2Stoned duology comes closer to touching the true essence of the band’s greatness.

Stewart was born in Pittenweem, Scotland, on July 18, 1938, making his way down to London in the 1950s to work and, he hoped, follow his piano-playing dream wherever it led. Friends from the time talk of his enthusiasm for rock ‘n’ roll and skiffle, but it wasn’t until he joined what Brian Jackman described as “this amazing band that played at the Station Hotel, Richmond, and had all the girls screaming at them” that that dream looked as if it would come to fruition.

By that time, of course, the nascent Rolling Stones had already made their way through the tentative lineups that hung around the core of Stewart and, to a lesser extent, Brian Jones ... even Richards, auditioning for the pair at the Bricklayers Arms in Wardour Street, knew that Stewart was the power behind the group: “if Stu hadn’t liked me,” he writes, “he’d have kicked me out. It would be Stu who decided who really hung and stood with the band in those days.”

How ironic it was then, that when the time came for final changes to be made to the band, it was Stu who was shunted aside, as the incoming Oldham studied the six musician before him and deduced that they were one man too many. Looking at pictures of the band at the time, lining their mugshots up alongside the competition of the day, you can understand his thinking as well.

Stu didn’t look bad, but he did look old - even Wyman, who was in fact his senior, was happy to dress up for the proceedings and disguise his seniority behind the hippest threads around. Stewart, however - as Wyman puts it - “looked like - a layabout or a workman or an electrician. The average person wouldn’t have known he was our piano player unless he’d seen him playing piano with us.”

Of course, the nature of The Rolling Stones is such that no single person can truly be credited with overseeing their survival….But Ian Stewart, ‘ Stu’ to his friends, came as close as anyone, and if any further evidence of that alchemy is required - further, that is, than the band’s continued existence- then the publication of Stu delivers it on a plate.

There was plenty of opportunity for that, of course. Although Oldham mixed Stewart’s playing out of some early Stones recordings, because nothing looks as “silly” as a group “miming on telly to a sound that was not there ... he remained very much a part of the band,” both in the studio and on stage. He didn’t join in the interviews; he rarely got his name in the papers.

But that, Wyman believes, is how Stewart preferred it. “He was quite happy to step back...Stu’s whole music industry was mainly jazz, Big Band stuff, piano players. We were going somewhere else. Provided he could still partake in playing piano on certain tracks he liked.... I don’t think he minded stepping down.”

His presence might have been minimal, but his importance was never diminished. Catch any significant piece of piano on the first 20 years of Stones records and, chances are, it was Stewart who played it (a full discography wraps up the book). Other keyboardists passed through the sessions, but Stewart was the “real” one - and he didn’t play only piano.

Among the wealth of seldom-seen photos littering Stu is one double-page spread, perhaps taken at a European TV performance, where the Taylor-era group performs with Stewart standing in for Wyman. Though Oldham’s instinct is borne out once more - he still doesn’t look “a part of the band” -
the expressions on his bandmates’ faces let you know how much he belongs.

Even more dramatic is a Wood painting at the back of the book, part of a five-page folio by Wood and Watts. It re-creates the infamous Beggars Banquet gatefold photo of a genuine beggar’s banquet but with a couple of extra guests, Wood and Stewart.

“He had to be in the picture,” Wood explained. But he’s reading the newspaper, “which is what he would have been doing.” But he was still vital to the scene. (Each copy of the also includes an accompanying signed and numbered edition screen-print of Stewart especially drawn for this tribute by wood.)

Yet as the discography (and, as the book goes on, the interviews) makes clear, the Stones scarcely even begin to encompass all the music Stewart was involved in. From BB Blunder to The Yardbirds in the 1960s, from Pete Townshend to Led Zeppelin in the 70s, through his own short-lived career leading The Railroaders and onto sprawling aggregations such as Watts’ Rocket 88 and Danny Adler’s Deluxe Blues Band, Stu’s imprimatur can be found on more records than you might have expected - but once you know he’s there and you listen once again, who else could it be? Zeppelin’s “Rock And Roll,” The Stray Cats’ “Rev It Up,” Ronnie Lane’s “Walk On By,” Richards’ “Run Rudolph Run”. . . yep, that’s him.

Hardbound in leather and slipcased, with 432 heavy-duty pages and legions of color photographs, Stu is the result of two years’ collaboration at the private press Out-Take Limited (www.out-take.co.uk). It has no ISBN and will not be available from either high street or online bookstores. Rather, it is available only directly from the publisher, Out-Take Limited, priced a hefty (but, in view of its nature, understandable) £580 (about $1,000).

There are a lot of coffee-table sized books around right now professing to tell the story of The Rolling Stones, and most do their job rather well. Stu, though its price tag means it’s more of an investment than an idle read, is an essential addition to that teetering pile - and an especially heartfelt one as well.

Goldmine
April 16th 2004
By Dave Thompson