Stone me! Poster treasured for 60 years sells for record £38k
A ROLLING Stones poster promoting one of the band’s first gigs has been sold for a record-breaking £38,000 by a fan who had it on his wall since the Sixties.
The 19 by 30in print adorned the Thames Hotel in Windsor, Berks, where the Stones regularly performed in 1962.
It was taken as a memento by an avid music lover who followed up-and-coming bands in the area.
The creased and waterstained poster was kept by him for almost 60 years until it sold at auction.
It had been expected to sell for as little as £800 but because it is one of the earliest Stones’ posters known to exist it sold for £30,000. With auction house fees added on the total sale price came to £38,000.
It broke the British record for the most expensive Stones poster ever sold.
It was twice the price of the previous record, a poster from 1964 issued during the band’s first UK tour. It sold for £15,000 in 2019.
The Thames Hotel was the home of the iconic Ricky Tick Club, which hosted some of the world’s most influential artists including The Who, Cream and Jimi Hendrix.
The Stones performed at the club almost 40 times between December 1962 and 1964.
Peter Mason, of Dawson’s Auctioneers in Maidenhead, Berks, said: “This would have been a pub gig for the Rolling Stones with only a few people in the audience.
“The vendor is someone who was around Windsor in the 1960s. He followed local bands and frequented the Ricky Tick Club, which promoted the Stones at the time.
“He just loved the music and kept the poster as a souvenir because he liked the look of it.
“He had no idea how valuable it would become. It spent many years on his wall.
“It was made in 1962 – the year the Stones formed. It is certainly one of the earliest ever to come to auction and the fact that it has survived after all this time makes it very unusual.”