Rolling back the years
Rock art Renowned fantasy artist Rodney Matthews revisits his classic Rolling Stone artwork for a special collector’s anthology
Illustrator Rodney Matthews found a surprising place in The Rolling Stones’ history when his iconic artwork Another Time, Another Place was used without credit during a tour by the group. The picture has now been reimagined for a compilation of live and rare performances.
Another Time, Another Place was first released as a poster by the Big O Poster Company between 1976 and 1978. Rodney settled on the idea of depicting the Rolling Stones as fantasy warriors, because he saw them as the bad boys of rock. “They were ‘stone’ faced most of them time, though I managed to get a smile out of Jagger and Richards in the picture,” he says. “A bird could take a Beatle home to show her mum, but not a Rolling Stone.”
Despite being initially troubled to learn that the image was used without acknowledging him during a US tour in the mid-80s, Rodney can now take it as a compliment. “It was enormously flattering and the momentary thought of suing The Rolling Stones was banished in favour of feelings of – ahem – satisfaction,” he says.
Representing an earlier style of his painting process, the poster was first outlined with a Rotring pen on hardsurfaced artboard and coloured with pigmented ink and an airbrush. However, the reworked artwork, dubbed Another Time, Another Place II, had to include Brian Jones in place of Ronnie Wood.
“Sarah, my PA, Googled some images, so that I was able to paint the head of Brian Jones and Photoshop it into the existing picture,” Rodney explains. “At first Brian’s bonce looked too photographic, so I had to rough it up a bit to fit in.”
Limited edition prints of Another Time, Another Place II are available to order now at