Beschreibung:

The Rolling StonesA typescript management contract, signed and executed by the band and Andrew Loog Oldham, [ca. 1964] Becoming the Stones Two leaves (328 x 203 mm) typed on rectos, signed on the second page by Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones Charlie Watts, and Andrew Loog Oldham; remnants of previous mount adhered to verso at corners, three old horizontal folds, slight split along one fold of one leaf at outer margin, creasing at margins and corners, several holes to upper left corner of each leaf, a few tiny marginal nicks and closed tears, stray spots, lightly browned, more so at margins. The transformative contract between the Stones and their most influential manager and producer The contract begins: 1. I hereby engage you individually and jointly as 'The Rolling Stones' to render such services as I may require in the production of phonograph records, and you hereby accept such engagement and agree to render such services for us for a period ... terminating August 31st, 1970. 2. A minimum of 40 (forty) 78 r.p.m. record sides or their equivalent shall be recording during the term hereof; additional recordings shall be performed by you and recorded by us at our election. ... It further stipulates, along with standard licensing agreements, the breakdown of royalties, which help to date the present contract: 5. We shall pay you for services to be rendered hereunder and for the rights granted herein, a royalty of seven per cent (7%) on sales up to February 28th, 1965 and twelve per cent (12%) on sales after February 28th, 1965 of the wholesale sellers price (exclusive of all taxes) of ninety per cent (90%) of all records sold and paid for in the United Kingdom containing on both sides thereof a composition or compositions performed by you and recorded hereunder ... Andrew Loog Oldham was essential to The Rolling Stones' success. After being tipped off to the band, Loog Oldham went to see the Stones performing as the house band in a Richmond club and immediately saw their potential for pop stardom. He returned to London certain that he had seen the next British sensation and offered to partner signing them with his then employer, Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein . His boss passed on the chance to work with the scruffy band, and so the then Rollin’ Stones signed their first management contract with Loog Oldham in May 1963. Oldham was only nineteen years old, so he partnered with Eric Easton, as he wasn't legally allowed to sign contracts or obtain an agent's license on his own. The arrangement of joint management with Easton came to an end in 1964 over the split of royalties due the band for original songs and his underhanded manipulation of licensing and publishing. Loog Oldham then took the reins of marketing the band alone and in earnest, with an unorthodox and transgressive style that became a template for rock managers thereafter from Led Zep’s Peter Grant to the Sex Pistols’ Malcolm McClaren. It was Loog Oldham who initially pushed them to pursue writing their own songs, rather than sticking with their R&B covers. And although he originally thought to model the band off The Beatles—with whom he had worked before—he instead decided to situate them in opposition to the Fab Four, encouraging a dishelved and heterogenous appearance: to create a group of dangerous-seeming "undesirables," against the The Beatles' safer charms. He orchestrated such press as “Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?” and when one of the band was nicked for urinating against a gas station wall, even that became a press moment. He carefully curated the band’s image, first by relegating the piano player Iain Stewart to an offstage role (not photogenic enough) and then by pushing Jagger rather than founder Brian Jones to be the front man and face of the group. Loog Oldham also produced most of the classic Brian Jones era Stones albums, including all their iconic mid-60s hits, from "Satisfaction," "Paint it Black," "Get off my Cloud," "19th Nervous Breakdown," etc. From setting the band’s image (album covers photographed by Derek Bailey and longer hair), and courting controversy to insure press coverage to sitting behind the mixing board, Loog Oldham steered the Stones to stardom. It was one of the most enviable and legendary production and management runs in rock. Though he only managed the band until 1967, when they parted ways amidst strained relations, few others exerted such an impact on the band. Without Andrew Loog Oldham's influence and vision, it is arguable if they Stone’s would have made it out of the Crawdaddy Club. PROVENANCEChristie's London, 20 June 2014, lot 105 “…They only wanted exploiting. They were all bad boys when I found them. I just brought out the worst in them.” (ALO. Stoned. St. Martin’s Press, 2001. Pg. 257) “It had never crossed my mind to be a songwriter until Andrew came to me and Mick…” Keith Richards in The Rolling Stones in Their Own Words.