I would like to have been a 23 year old photographer staying at The Villa Nellcote, for the summer of 1971….

Keith Richards rented and took refuge at The Villa Nellcote, France in the spring of 1971. Having had to leave England, along with the rest of the Rolling Stones as they were about to be hit with large taxes and confiscation of funds if they werent out of the country by April 5.

unable to find a suitable recording studio The Stones decided to set up in the cramped villa basement (also ensuring that a heroin head Richards would be
on hand). A mobile recording truck was parked outside, which was later immortalised in Deep Purples ‘Smoke On The Water’. Stones crew members illegally wired the electricity for the truck , to bypass the meter at the villa, instead taking a feed from a local railway.

The band recorded in the basement, in various forms depending who was around, what time of day or night it was and also which other musicians were guests at the house at any given time. The Basic band consisited of Richards, Bobby Keys, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts and engineer Andy Johns. Wyman was less than happy with the drug situation and loose recording schedule, rented a seperate house down the coast and eventually only appeared on 8 of the finished tracks.
Kieths love of country music was allowed to flourish, encouraged by Gram Parson who was staying, although he never guested on any tracks and eventually he had to leave after pressure from French Police to clean up the house of narcotics, which were regularly buried in the grounds to avoid confiscation. It was estimated a couple of thousand pounds worth of heroin passed through the villa on any given week.
During that summer Mick Jagger and Bianca got married which ensured a whole batch of fresh talent and guest including Anital Pallenburg, Eric Clapton, Ian Stewart (the sixth rolling Stone), William S. Boroughs and even John Lennon.

There is no doubt that this must have been an amazing summer.

The actual 23 year old photographer who was there was Dominique Tarle.
She recently published a leather bound book through Genesis Press of
the infamous summer that became the recording of ‘Exile On Main Street’.

The Villa itself is still there and i guess a rock n roll monument in its own right.
During the second world war it was used as a Gestapo Headquaters, and when the Stones moved in there were still swastikas painted on the floorboards in some of the room. One night there was a small fire in the kitchen which Richards put down to ‘Gestapo Vibes’….

all photos Dominique Tarle.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 12:47 and is filed under smoking, Guitars, time travel, wine, q & a, Photography, music, rock n roll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.