Narrator / Host (mostly Dominic Sandbrook)

Exactly. And I think no one's talking about that in 1964. No. But by 1967, people are talking about it a lot. It's in the media a lot. And of course, they're reporting the scenes from the counterculture in San Francisco and so on. I mean, the first reports of that are appearing in the British press.

So when you combine that issue, so drugs, which is already symbolic of deeper changes, and the Rolling Stones, who we established last time, are the supreme folk devils. for kind of Middle England and for the newspapers of Middle England, you get really the perfect story.

So when you combine that issue, so drugs, which is already symbolic of deeper changes, and the Rolling Stones, who we established last time, are the supreme folk devils. for kind of Middle England and for the newspapers of Middle England, you get really the perfect story.

So when you combine that issue, so drugs, which is already symbolic of deeper changes, and the Rolling Stones, who we established last time, are the supreme folk devils. for kind of Middle England and for the newspapers of Middle England, you get really the perfect story.

And it reminds me a little bit, obviously it's completely different, but it reminds me a little bit of the Profumo scandal, the great spy scandal and sex scandal of 1963, in that it's a very, very enticing and irresistible story that's actually about... a wider sense of a society that's in the throes of rapid cultural change.

And it reminds me a little bit, obviously it's completely different, but it reminds me a little bit of the Profumo scandal, the great spy scandal and sex scandal of 1963, in that it's a very, very enticing and irresistible story that's actually about... a wider sense of a society that's in the throes of rapid cultural change.

And it reminds me a little bit, obviously it's completely different, but it reminds me a little bit of the Profumo scandal, the great spy scandal and sex scandal of 1963, in that it's a very, very enticing and irresistible story that's actually about... a wider sense of a society that's in the throes of rapid cultural change.

Yeah, which people love. Yeah, exactly. Seedy poshness, I think. If there's old Etonians and there's bad behaviour, people love it. Absolutely love it. So actually, the funny thing is the Stones are slightly hard done by because although later on they become very much associated with drugs, obviously Keith Richards, at this point they are not especially keen drug users.

Yeah, which people love. Yeah, exactly. Seedy poshness, I think. If there's old Etonians and there's bad behaviour, people love it. Absolutely love it. So actually, the funny thing is the Stones are slightly hard done by because although later on they become very much associated with drugs, obviously Keith Richards, at this point they are not especially keen drug users.

Yeah, which people love. Yeah, exactly. Seedy poshness, I think. If there's old Etonians and there's bad behaviour, people love it. Absolutely love it. So actually, the funny thing is the Stones are slightly hard done by because although later on they become very much associated with drugs, obviously Keith Richards, at this point they are not especially keen drug users.

So Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts were nicknamed the straightest rhythm section in rock and roll. Yeah, they're going back to hang out and have their cocoa and... You're right, exactly. Keith Richards is not yet taking heroin. And there is an alternative story that the press could have told about the Rolling Stones.

So Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts were nicknamed the straightest rhythm section in rock and roll. Yeah, they're going back to hang out and have their cocoa and... You're right, exactly. Keith Richards is not yet taking heroin. And there is an alternative story that the press could have told about the Rolling Stones.

So Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts were nicknamed the straightest rhythm section in rock and roll. Yeah, they're going back to hang out and have their cocoa and... You're right, exactly. Keith Richards is not yet taking heroin. And there is an alternative story that the press could have told about the Rolling Stones.

So Mick Jagger, a few months after this, my favourite Mick Jagger fact of all time, is that he joined the Country Gentlemen's Association, a landowner society that had been first founded in 1893. I mean, that's what he chooses to do with his fame. What are the benefits you get for that?

So Mick Jagger, a few months after this, my favourite Mick Jagger fact of all time, is that he joined the Country Gentlemen's Association, a landowner society that had been first founded in 1893. I mean, that's what he chooses to do with his fame. What are the benefits you get for that?

So Mick Jagger, a few months after this, my favourite Mick Jagger fact of all time, is that he joined the Country Gentlemen's Association, a landowner society that had been first founded in 1893. I mean, that's what he chooses to do with his fame. What are the benefits you get for that?

Well, like you, Tom, I think he gets probably a special barber jacket of the kind that you wear when you go to your estate in Scotland. Yeah. Salmon fishing. So Keith Richards, the story you could tell about him is he's somebody who collects books about sea battles and spends his time watching old war films.

Well, like you, Tom, I think he gets probably a special barber jacket of the kind that you wear when you go to your estate in Scotland. Yeah. Salmon fishing. So Keith Richards, the story you could tell about him is he's somebody who collects books about sea battles and spends his time watching old war films.

Well, like you, Tom, I think he gets probably a special barber jacket of the kind that you wear when you go to your estate in Scotland. Yeah. Salmon fishing. So Keith Richards, the story you could tell about him is he's somebody who collects books about sea battles and spends his time watching old war films.

Charlie Watts, the model of loyalty to his mum and to his wife, sends his mum her favourite cake every Friday. But of course, those stories never appear in the papers at the time because they don't fit. The image that people want of the Rolling Stones is, as the critic Ian McDonald puts it, is wasted emblems of decadent hedonism. So that's the only story that people want to tell.