Kentish Express Ashford & District
What’s the real story of how Keith met Mick?
“I was born in a cross-fire hurricane,” sang Mick Jagger on Jumpin’ Jack Flash, but he wasn’t; he was born in Livingstone Hospital in Dartford, on July 26, 1943.
It was a Monday, and according to website www.weather. sumofus.org, the weather was “windy and sunny”, but probably not windy enough to be a hurricane, of which there’s certainly no record of in the KM Group archives.
What’s that? It was the middle of Second World War? Oh right, well maybe he was referencing that, or maybe he was dialling into a long-held blues tradition of mythologising your origins, or maybe the song’s about someone else completely – a gardener called Jumpin’ Jack – but whatever, we’re not here in Dartford for meandering critical song analysis. We’re here for cold hard fan facts about the home town of Sir Mick and his long-standing guitar-slinging partner Keith Richards – the beating heart and soul and creative nucleus of “the world’s greatest rock and roll band”, The Rolling Stones.
These days we can’t go and see Mick and Keith on tour, even if we could afford it, and Dartford’s most famous sons seem further away than ever. Divided and locked away in isolation, Mick and Keith could be in any one of their various homes; Keith perhaps lurking like a pirate king in a secret Caribbean hideout, Mick maybe in a gold-lined bunker deep inside a Swiss alp. Who can say for sure?
Wherever they are, Mick, Keith and fellow Stones Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood have managed to keep busy. Assisted by the wonders of modern telecommunication and computerised recording techniques, the Rolling Stones have put out a number of new songs this year, including Living in A Ghost Town, a track from a much-heralded new album which they decided was too apt for coronavirus lockdown not to release early,
“Now they come from all round the world, but they’re mainly from Argentina. There’s a big fan base there – they’ve got a bar in Buenos Aires dedicated to the Rolling Stones.”
Maybe there should be a bar like that in Dartford, where Stones’ fans from around the world could gather... but for now it’s down to the station and into the back of Ken’s Vauxhall Crossland, or at least that was the usual routine for fans until coronavirus hit the world.
“I meet them at Dartford Station and off we go from there”, says Ken. “The first call is Livingstone Hospital where they were both born in the same year – Mick was born in July and Keith was in December.
From there we go on through Dartford to where the statue is in Central Park, and from there we go to Keith’s teenage home in Spielman Road.
“I use the car if it’s only two or three people, but if there’s more I hire an eight seater or 12 seater car.”
After that, it’s on to Holy Trinity Church, where Mick was christened and Keith sang in the choir, and then to Keith’s teenage home in Chastilian Road.
“They moved around because the war was on,” says Ken. “He was an only child and they lived above a greengrocer’s.
“Mick’s family moved around in Dartford but then they settled in Denver Road. His brother (Chris) came four years later.
“From there they went to Wentworth Primary School, which is where they first met up. If you go into the school there’s a cabinet with photos of them in their various classes.
“From there we go to the school where Keith went – Dartford Technical College (now Wilmington Grammar) – and then to Mick’s teenage house in The Close in Wilmington – it’s number 24. Really from that point, that’s where they become Rolling Stones.
“After that we go to Dartford Grammar School where Mick went to school and the Mick Jagger Centre.”
Now 80 years old, Ken has a few years on Messrs Jagger and Richards, and was already into rock and roll when Mick and Keith were in their school uniforms listening to the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry.
So perhaps he knows more than most how it would have felt to encounter a fellow aficionado at that time.
“Mick was carrying some records he had from Chess Records in America,” says Ken. “He was on his way to London School of Economics and Keith was carrying a guitar his mum had bought him, and was on his way to Sidcup Art College.
“That was in 1961 – they started meeting regularly in Dartford and then the following year in 1962 they went up to London and met Brian Jones – he was the one that called them The Rolling Stones.”
Another insight into that meeting comes from Keith himself in his book Life, which records a letter he wrote to his Aunt Patty, shortly afterwards.
“You know I was keen on Chuck Berry,” writes Keith, “and I thought I was the only fan for miles but one mornin’ on Dartford Stn. (that’s so I don’t have to write a long word like station) I was holding one of Chuck’s records when a guy I knew at primary school 7-11 yrs y’know came up to me.
“He’s got every record Chuck Berry ever made and all his mates have too; they are all rhythm and blues fans, real R&B I mean (not this Dinah Shore, Brook Benton crap) Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters,
Chuck, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker all the Chicago bluesmen real lowdown stuff, marvellous.
“Anyways the guy on the station, he is called Mick Jagger and all the chicks and the boys meet every Saturday morning in the ‘Carousel’ some jukejoint. Well one morning in Jan, I was walking past and decided to look him up. Everybody’s all over me I get invited to about 10 parties.”
And Keith goes even further to say, perhaps prophetically: “Beside that Mick is the greatest R&B singer this side of the Atlantic and I don’t mean maybe.”
Well, that’s all ancient history now.
Mick and Keith went to London, helped found The Stones, and embarked on a career that would take them around the world, playing to millions of fans, selling millions of records and carving themselves out a big fat tongue-shaped niche in history. Scroll forward to the Covid-blighted world of September 2020, and Ken’s on the brink of calling it a day, but like his heroes, he’s got a keen eye for a business opportunity.
“I’m thinking of selling the tour,” he said. “I think the The London Paramount park will improve the tourism, and Rolling Stones fans will want to come here, so I’m looking for someone to take it over.
“I’ve had people from Norway, I’ve had a guy from Winnipeg.
There’s people from Japan, South America, not so many from Spain and Italy. One weekend I had a group of about 40 from Belgium I usually do weekends because of the schools having children there – you can’t have people taking photos outside and you get so much traffic.
“They’re sort of amazed that Mick and Keith came from this area,” he adds.
“I think when they go outside Mick’s teenage house in The Close they get excited about that because he’s the star of the group.
“There definitely should be more done to promote The Stones here. I think the council could do a bit more. Mick and Keith have put Dartford on the map to a certain extent, and it would be nice to have a statue of the two of them near outside Dartford Station on the roundabout. The one in Central Park is just of Mick, and it’s at the back of the park behind the running track.
“I don’t know why they put it there.”
Meanwhile, The Glimmer Twins show no signs of letting up. Keith’s allegedly cut down on the booze and cigarettes, Mick’s bounced back from a minor heart operation, and coronavirus permitting, surely another world tour will follow the rumoured new album.
If things don’t work out though, perhaps they could take over Ken’s Satisfaction Tour. Keith could drive the bus and Mick could strut up and down the aisle with a mic narrating, while they manouvre through traffic.... “Keith! What ya doing? Lowfield Street’s one way now!”
Bill Wyman for one might buy a ticket, so he could sit at the back and heckle.
But perhaps that’s harsh – as Keith also reportedly said after plaque spat “we love him dearly, and he was a hell of a bass player.”
As for Ken, from Sinclair Way, Dartford, he’ll always love all the Rolling Stones, whether they buy him out or not, and still cherishes the memory of seeing them live.
“I went to Twickenham in 2015,” he recalls. “I had a good spot and got right up close.
“I’m still a fan of The Stones. When they come on telly or the radio I turn it up.”
‘ If they wanted to put a plaque up at Penge Station honouring Bill Wyman, he and Keith probably wouldn’t complain’