The Rolling Stones’ messy launch party of ‘Beggar’s Banquet’
The Rolling Stones have thrown some epic parties in their time. There is perhaps no other band quite as encapsulating of the sex, drugs and rock and roll spirit as this London lot whose history is littered with police raids on big blowouts, drug busts at their mansions, carnage in their recording studios and rowdy tours swarmed with groupies. The band knew how to work hard, affording themselves the decades-long career they boast, but they also knew how to party when the day was done and when celebrations were in order. The release party for Beggars Banquet is a prime example of that.
By their 1968 album Beggars Banquet, the band knew how all this went. As their seventh album, they were now incredibly well versed in the process of releasing a record, doing the media circuit, waiting for the public reaction and so on. The routine of making a record, releasing a record and then touring the record was all they’d known for close to a decade now and ever since establishing themselves in the mid-’60s as one of the biggest acts in the world, that dizzying height likely felt somewhat like a golden ceiling as the question is asked, where do you go once you’re hit the top?
For a lot of people, this is where things get dark. It’s a well-known story in music about the countless icons who hit the big time, see their name up in lights, and then simply don’t know how to handle it. That process of working and celebrating becomes fogged by the shining lights of fame, making them become overwhelmed, scared, and retreat, or sometimes pushing them over the edge into a dangerous and regularly deadly life of hedonism.
The Stones were seeing the perils of that with Brian Jones as Beggars Banquet would end up being his final album with the group to be released in his lifetime. But part of what made the band struggle so much with Jones’ behaviour is the fact that, really, the rest of them seemed able to balance work and play much better. The entire band loved drugs. They loved to party, but when the time came, they were in the studio, working to the best of their abilities to push their career. Mick Jagger and his troupe were intent on not being stopped by any perceived top; they were going to break through. But first, they were going to celebrate.
Ahead of the release of Beggars Banquet on December 6th, the band organised a get-together of friends, peers and some select press at the elegant Gore Hotel in London. However, always knowing how to have their fun, the band emerges dressed up as beggars, sauntering into the glamorous venue. It was a high-brow affair otherwise as the band sat at the head table, treating their guests to a seven-course meal in the candle-lit ballroom. It was all very classy until things got a bit wild.
The first pie was thrown. As dessert was served, Mick Jagger, dressed up as a medieval beggar, stood up, custard pie in hand, and smashed it into Jones’ face. From then, all hell broke loose as the band descended into kids again, chucking food at one another and then at their guests. Soon, the whole room was involved as even the Stones’ label executives, usually so pristine and demure, were at it too, arming themselves with cakes and pies to throw like grenades at the journalists sitting at the next table.
Across the chaos, Jagger declared, as quick-witted and smooth as ever, “Send your clothes cleaning bills to Austere’s.”
After breaking out of line to blow off steam, the band’s album was then released to the world and as they always have, they moved on to working on the next, with these moments of childlike silliness perhaps being the secret to enduring success.
