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Charlie Watts biography

One of the great apocryphal rock n’roll stories is that Mick Jagger referred to Charlie Watts as “my drummer”. In response, the impeccably polite Charlie Watts allegedly punched Jagger in the face. He then corrected the statement clarifying with the Rolling Stones front-man that Jagger was “my singer”. Read all you need to know THE drummer of The Rolling Stones.
Watts grew up near Wembley Stadium. (A venue his band now easily sells out, and Mick Jagger sometimes, respectfully, refers to him as ‘The Wembley Whammer’.)

Watts was the son of a truck driver but his pre-teen discovery of jazz and blues music meant music would be his profession. The musically precocious Watts even listed Miles Davis and John Coltrane as key influences and converted a banjo into a snare drum to emulate his jazz drumming heroes.

He wasn’t, however, a music obsessive at school, and was a keen sportsman. He left school at 16, and then studied at the Harrow School of Art.

In 1960, Watts got a job with a London advertising agency. He showed his literary and artistic talents though his children's book about jazz legend Charlie Parker, ‘Ode to a High-Flying Bird’, which was published in 1961. Watts also played drums with a variety of groups, including Alexis Korner’s ‘Blues Incorporated’. Blues Incorporated was an important part of London's burgeoning blues scene, and featured appearances by such performers as Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, and others.

Watts, however, quit the band as it became more popular because he did not want to leave his day job. Guitarist Brian Jones went on to form the Rollin' Stones (later the Rolling Stones) with singer Mick Jagger, pianist Ian Stewart, and guitarists Keith Richards and Dick Taylor in 1962. After turning down the Rolling Stones previously, Watts finally agreed to join the group and played his first gig with the band in January 1963.

“For me it was just another job offer,” Watts explained in ‘According to the Rolling Stones’. He had no expectation that the group would soon be the next big rock sensation. In 1964, the Rolling Stones hit the No. 3 spot on the British pop charts with their cover of Bobby Womack’s “It's All Over Now.”
While the rest of the band was cultivating their image as rock music's bad boys, Watts was settling down. He married Shirley Ann Shephard in 1964, and the couple had a daughter named Seraphina four years later.

The Rolling Stones scored their first No. 1 hit in the United States in 1965 with ‘Satisfaction’. A string of other successful songs quickly followed such as 'Paint It Black' and 'Ruby Tuesday'. The self-described “World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band” continued to enjoy enormous popularity for the next two decades.

By the 1980s, Watts found time to pursue projects outside the Rolling Stones. He returned to his first love, jazz, by forming a number of different groups, including a 32-piece band called the Charlie Watts Orchestra. Around that same time, Watts worked with early Rolling Stones member Ian Stewart in the band Rocket 88.

In the early 1990s, Watts released several albums with another group, ‘The Charlie Watts Quintet’, including a tribute to Charlie Parker. He joined forces with drummer Jim Keltner for 2000's Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project, which covered a broad spectrum of musical styles. In 2004, he put out an album with Charlie Watts and the Tentet, another jazz ensemble. Watts, a long-time smoker, was also diagnosed with throat cancer that year. He received treatment, and made a full recovery.

Watts continues to record and play with the Rolling Stones and expects to stay with the band until Mick Jagger or Keith Richards decides to retire. “We couldn’t go on without them. Maybe as the Keith Richards All Stars, but it would be a different band—which I wouldn't mind playing for,” Watts said.

I loved Watts and band members ability to seamlessly ‘switch things up’. From boogie woogie, to jazz, to swing and everything else in between. You know you are in the presence of great musicians all-round when you get a sense of every genre of music in the musical alphabet in one set! As for the face pulling… Well, as with many gigs where musical royalty is present, we have to be careful how we use our cameras and lenses. We are not guaranteed a stress free evening despite previous approval and agreement by management. There was much conversation amongst photographers leading up to this gig. There was a worry that we would not be allowed to photograph the gig first and foremost and even if we were allowed, there might be fireworks of some kind. However, Charlie was a delight to photograph with his dry wit and ‘looking down my lens’ facial expressions. What a drummer!

Musicians: Charlie Watts – drums, Axel Zwingenberger - piano, Ben Waters - piano,
Dave Green – bass & guest Mick Hucknall - vocals

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