Charlie's Good Tonight: The Authorised Biography of The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts

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Watts applied himself diligently to the task of being the rock-steady heartbeat of the Rolling Stones, but what he always yearned to do was play jazz. He created artwork for some early Stones releases and collaborated with Mick Jagger on the design of their elaborate stage sets for such tours as Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle (1989-90), Bridges to Babylon (1997-98), Licks (2002-03) andA Bigger Bang (2005-07). On the one hand, there are ‘completists’ who aim to amass perfect sets within their field of interest: an artefact from every Apollo mission, say, or a print of all known Ravilious woodcuts. Paul Sexton, author of the highly acclaimed biography Charlie’s Good Tonight, believes that Watts’s fascination with the printed word sprang from the same source as his love of music. Watts, who died in 2021, amassed the works of mostly 20th-century authors including James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Graham Greene, George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway.

Charlie Watts: the calm, brilliant eye of the Rolling Stones Charlie Watts: the calm, brilliant eye of the Rolling Stones

There were moments when Watts’ drumming could be showy – as on his thunderous performance on 1966’s Paint It Black – but usually, Watts majored in less obvious skills: perfect timing, a swing to his playing rooted in the hours he’d spent drumming along to jazz records in his bedroom in the late 50s, a particular brilliance with shuffle patterns, an ability to provide a rock-solid footing regardless of whether they were venturing into psychedelia, disco, reggae or funk. It’s “no coincidence”, says Wiltshire, that the outstanding item in the collection, The Great Gatsby, is the novel that defines the Jazz Age. The sale of the library of the late Charlie Watts, a deeply thoughtful bibliophile as well as one of the world’s great rock drummers, shows that he was both types of collector at once.The 1990s began with Charlie’s uncredited role as design consultant with the Rolling Stones becoming more significant than ever. A meeting with Jagger and Richards prompted the formation of the Rolling Stones, although it was a few months before the cautious Watts could be induced to leave Korner’s band to join them, which he eventually did in January 1963. s Undercover of the Night, meanwhile, is laden with then-hip studio effects, in one of the latterday Stones’ regular bids for contemporaneity, but Watts’s playing cuts through it all.

Charlie Watts obituary | Charlie Watts | The Guardian Charlie Watts obituary | Charlie Watts | The Guardian

Chuck Leavell’s arrival in the Stones’ touring company had begun with the 1982 European tour and continued through the next two albums, so he was a no-brainer of a choice when the Steel Wheels circus hit the road. The collection, described by Mark Wiltshire, the rare books specialist at Christie’s, as “the best of its kind in a generation – I know of nothing comparable”, is, quite simply, staggering, in both scale and quality. Talking to me in 2013, during his temporary reintroduction to the fold for the Stones’ 50th-anniversary celebrations and beyond into the 14 on Fire tour, he mused: ‘I’d say the beginning of the modern-day Stones in terms of theatre presentation was … well, it was always very theatrical and musical as well, but in terms of big presentation and stage lighting, there was such a huge development between ’69 and the ’80s.Certainly Watts – given to suggesting he was “not particularly talented” but “very lucky” – wasn’t going to draw attention to himself.

Sympathy for the Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters Sympathy for the Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters

While being a member of one of the the world’s best-selling bands during his lifetime, Watts, more than two years after his death in August 2021, is now responsibile for two world records: works from his esteemed collection – first edition copies of The Hound of the Baskervilles and Christie’s The Thirteen Problems – sold for more than any other printed book by the classic authors in auction history. Charlie Watts meets the Danish Radio Big Band was recorded live in Copenhagen in 2010 and belatedly released in 2017. The tour was, at the time, the biggest in terms of sheer volume of different elements used to construct the stage. They have a really fantastic team and the same people [each time], and I don’t think people know quite how involved he was. Hundreds of rare books owned by the Rolling Stones drummer and bibliophile Charlie Watts will be put up for sale this autumn, representing the “best collection of modern first editions” to come to auction in over 20 years.The son of a lorry driver from Wembley, Watts was unquestionably, to everyone who knew him, a gentleman, in his manner, temper, appearance and bearing. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley and Agatha Christie — who produced these murder mysteries by penning a chapter each, then passing the manuscript on to the next author. Even if this library had not belonged to a Rolling Stone, it would still be counted the best modern collection to come to auction in the past 25 years. G. Wodehouse wrote,’ says Christie’s Books and Manuscripts specialist Mark Wiltshire, who has catalogued Watts’s books ahead of their sale on 28 September 2023 (additional works will be offered in an online auction, from 15 to 29 September).