Breaking Stones

"I was impressed by The Stones. They were dressed casually, had mischief in them and were different to other bands." Terry O'Neill. In July 1962, a group of young men played a gig at The Marquee Club on Oxford Street, London. They called themselves 'The Rollin' Stones' and little did they know they would soon be making music history. This brilliant new book captures the youth, the times and the spirit of The Stones' formative early years. And documenting 1963-1965 were two young photographers just starting out in their careers. Terry O'Neill, aged just 25, had a few years' experience photographing musicians and knew that this group had the same magic as another British phenomenon that just recently started to chart, The Beatles. As the band was starting to record and tour, Gered Mankowitz came along. His first shoot, the now famous Mason's Yard session, was so fruitful, Gered was asked to tag along on tour to America. Gered was a mere 19 when he picked up his camera and joined the band on stage in 1965. Between these two legendary photographers, they document the band's beginnings and these indelible images are forever placed in music's consciousness.The photography throughout this book is embellished with various memoires and interviews, celebrating the early days and giving an inisght into what it must have felt like to go from a small club in Soho with no record deal to touring the world a few years later with a number one record. Terry O'Neill and Gered Mankowitz, two of the most respected, collected and exhibited photographers in the world were sitting in the front row. There are quotes from Andrew Loog Oldman, Norman Jopling, Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Bill Wyman, full interviews with Terry O'Neill and Gered Mankowitz, original articles from the Record Mirror (1963), Evening Standard (1964) and Detroit Free Press (1965), and many rare and previously unseen photographs and contact sheets are included.

Terry O’Neill is one of the world’s most collected photographers with work hanging in national art galleries and private collections worldwide. O’Neill began his career at the birth of the 1960s when he realized that youth culture was a breaking news story on a global scale and began chronicling the emerging faces of film, fashion and music who would go on to define the Swinging Sixties. By 1965 he was being commissioned by the biggest magazines and newspapers in the world. He photographed The Beatles and The Rolling Stones when they were still struggling young bands in 1963 and went on to capture iconic names such as Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, Elton John, The Who, Faye Dunaway, Brigitte Bardot and countless others. His images have adorned historic rock albums, movie posters and international magazine covers.

Gered Mankowitz is an English photographer who focused his career in the music industry. He has worked with a large number of well-known artists, from The Rolling Stones to Jimi Hendrix, and many of his photographs became the covers of these artists’ most successful albums. He has worked in all divisions of the photography industry including fashion, music, advertising, news, and private photography. He has worked from his own gallery in North London for the past 22 years.

Robin Morgan is an award-winning British journalist and editor who was the longest serving editor-in-chief of the London Sunday Times Magazine. He has worked as a news editor, foreign correspondent, and investigative journalist covering such events as the Iranian hostage crisis, Irangate, and the Gulf War, and was twice awarded the British Campaigning Journalist of the Year. He has published nine books, including photo biographies of Frank Sinatra, Elton John and James Bond. He lives in London, where he now divides his time between writing and managing the photography and multimedia creative agency Iconic Images.