| 20th January 2007 08:09 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
No satisfaction the day Mick rolled into village
SIMON PIA
Scotsman.com
Evening News
Jan 20,2006
IS there no end to the talents of the ubiquitous Inspector Rebus author Ian Rankin? Here he was popping up in the News on Tuesday as a songwriter as he's now penning a tribute to the Sixth Stone. Only the week before, he was in the paper lecturing Merchiston Community Council on how to fight crime (be sure always to lock your door).
But it was not too much of a surprise as Rankin always wanted to be a rocker rather than a rozzer. A couple of years ago at the Book Festival, as he was waiting to get his special editions signed by Muriel Spark in Charlotte Square, he proudly told me his first CD was due out - "Jackie Leven Said". He'd referred to the Fife songwriter in his Rebus novel Resurrection Men and Jackie had got in touch. They hit it off and, as Rankin has been a music fan ever since he played in proto-punk band the Dancing Pigs as a callow youth at the Co-Op hall in Cardenden, he jumped at the chance to work with Leven.
Now he's written a song The Sixth Stone for former Arab Strap frontman Aidan Moffat about Ian Stewart. Pete Best may have been the fifth Beatle but not a lot of people know the sixth Stone was Ian Stewart, a lad from Pittenweem. Back in September 2003 when the Stones were last in Edinburgh I wrote in a piece that if Mick and co had some spare time during their visit to Edinburgh they might like to make a pilgrimage to the East Neuk, where Stewart was born in the farmhouse of his mother Annie Black.
Stu, as the Stones called him, had met Brian Jones and became part of the band. However, when Andrew Loog Oldham, the svengali behind the Stones, took over he didn't think Stu had the sexy, androgynous look required, looking too much "like a Fife coal miner".
Stu was out but he remained close to the Stones and played on records such as Let It Bleed and Emotional Rescue. He died in 1985 but both Bill Wyman and Keith Richards fondly remember him in Wyman's book Rolling with the Stones.
This obviously hit a nerve as I got a call the next day from an excited Norma Rogan, daughter of well-kent former Edinburgh councillor Pat Rogan. She'd just about crashed into the harbour in Pittenweem. "I've just spotted Mick Jagger . He's with another bloke who I didn't recognise, but it is definitely Mick. I had to let you know as the piece was uncannily prescient."
The phone kept ringing. The Crusoe Hotel in Lower Largo had just had him in. No, he'd not ordered a pint of Mick Jagger but a half of Guinness and a packet of crisps. "He's a bit like the Queen" mine host at the Crusoe, Stewart Dyke reckoned. "His minder paid for it. I don't think he carries money". The King of rock 'n' roll duly left his autograph behind the bar.
A source in The Balmoral, where the Stones were staying, informed us that indeed Mr Jagger had spotted the article over his coffee and croissants after his workout in the gym.
He'd asked how far away the East Neuk was and could they get a car to take him there. Our man in the East Neuk told us Jagger had come looking for Stewart's relatives, Marion Meldrum and Margaret Darwood. Unfortunately both had no forewarning and were out. Margaret was Stewart's mother's cousin and it was in her house he'd first learned to play the piano.
Meantime, Rankin is not the only writer with aspirations as a musician - it is the highest form of art after all. His neighbour - "the old bassoon next door" as he fondly refers to Sandy McCall Smith - is a member of Edinburgh players the Really Terrible Orchestra.
Surely they could churn out a charity CD and rope in JK Rowling, who lives just up the road. I don't know her musical forte but JK could shake her maracas just like Ian Stewart in that cracking picture in Tuesday's News. Sometime DJ Irvine Welsh could remix it.
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
| 20th January 2007 04:54 PM |
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| StonesChick |
That was sweet of Mick to visit. He must miss him a lot. |
| 20th January 2007 05:08 PM |
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| mojoman |
it takes a village |
| 20th January 2007 07:30 PM |
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| Bitch |
MICK is so thoughtful. and sweet. and adoreable. and charming. |
| 20th January 2007 07:43 PM |
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| StonesChick |
quote:
Bitch wrote:
MICK is so thoughtful. and sweet. and adoreable. and charming.
I think so too, a lot more thoughtful than some fans give him credit for.
[Edited by StonesChick] |
| 20th January 2007 10:13 PM |
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| jaggergurl |
That was thoughtful and caring of Mick , the love for Stu goes on...  |
| 21st January 2007 05:54 AM |
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| corgi37 |
Why are the Stones in Scotland? |
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