The Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts, ‘Rehearsing at the Compass Point Studios’

2020 © Bill Wyman Archive
Nassau, Bahamas. 23 January 1979
Digital archival print embossed and hand signed by the photographer
Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity

This candid photography portrait depicts Charlie waiting beside his drums kit for Keith and Ronnie to arrive at the Compass Point Studios in Bahamas. Recorded throughout 1979, first in Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas, then Pathé Marconi, Paris and New York City at The Hit Factory. Emotional Rescue was the first  Stones album recorded following Keith Richards' exoneration from a Toronto drugs charge that could have landed him in jail. Fresh from the revitalisation of ‘Some Girls’, Richards and Mick Jagger led the Stones through waves of new songs, picking only ten for Emotional Rescue. Several of the tracks on the album featured just the core Stones band members: Jagger, Richards, Ronnie Wood, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman. On others, they were joined by keyboardists Nicky Hopkins and co-founder Ian Stewart, sax player Bobby Keys and harmonica player Sugar Blue.

Bill Wyman’s photography intimately captures life on the road with the Stones and catches the band, more often than not, unaware. ‘I try my best to photograph a subject while they are occupied doing something else,’ he says on his style, ‘preferably not looking at the camera. The photography just filled in the years of hanging around between the journeys and the hotel rooms.’ His love of photography started at a young age and he began to document the band, capturing them in rare and private moments behind the lens. His photography body of work is a closer look at one of the world’s most high profile music groups that challenges rock and roll stereotypes.

The Times
E.S.
Interview Magazine
In Chelsea
The Resident
Classic Rock
The Social Point
Apollo Magazine

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