Sub-titled 'Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and the Women Behind the Rolling Stones'. The first woman to take the young Rolling Stones in hand and glam them all up was Anita Pallenberg. Women around rock bands, such as Mick's girlfriend Chrissie Shrimpton, were very much in the doll-like Carnaby Street image, and according to Pattie Boyd, Anita's sophistication was "a bit scary", with her cosmopolitan chic and fluency in languages. Brian Jones was leader of the band in those days, sexually knowing and well into the drugs scene. Anita introduced him to glam rock, exchanging outfits with him and introducing him to Eton-educated art dealers and other aristocratic hipsters. When he and Anita hit the headlines as Chelsea's coolest couple Brian was debating going solo because the two songwriters, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, were getting all the attention. Mick was the puritan of the group, hating mess, initially refusing to drop acid and keeping Chrissie away from what he saw as unsuitable friends. But in 1965 he met Marianne Faithfull and the dynamics of the group changed again as Keith fell in love with Anita, Marianne fell in love with Keith, while Mick was becoming keen on Marianne. The Stones' manager signed Marianne up for her looks, and meanwhile Chrissie took an overdose, waking up in hospital with nurses calling her by a different name because Mick wanted to avoid publicity. It was Marianne who took Mick to see Nureyev, and Mick was immediately entranced, seeing him as an alter ego. Eventually Mick and Marianne became a celebrity couple living on Cheyne Walk, but Marianne was increasingly out on barbiturates. In 1970 Marsha Hunt was pregnant with Mick's child, though that did not stop him from marrying the angular and severe Bianca the following year. Anita hated Bianca and resorted to voodoo in a vain attempt to limit her power. The author describes how these strong women struggled free of the misogyny, gaslighting and belittling that befell all the Stones's partners to forge a creative path for themselves. 276pp, photos.
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