Charlie's Good Tonight: The Authorised Biography of The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts

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The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts performs on stage during their "No Filter" tour at NRG Stadium on July 27, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP) (Photo credit should read SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images) SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP/Getty Images After art college Watts secured a job as a designer with a London advertising agency, Charlie Daniels Studios, in 1960. First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author: “W.L. Shelton / with Best Wishes / F Scott Fitzgerald”. 9. The Dain Curse, Dashiell Hammet (1929) He also distracted himself from the squabbles and struggles of the Stones by putting together the Charlie Watts Big Band, which featured many top British jazz players.

Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Life, the Times, and the Rolling Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Life, the Times, and the Rolling

Charlie was born at University College Hospital, London, to Charles Watts, a lorry driver, and his wife Lillian (nee Eaves). The family (including his sister, Linda) lived in Wembley, north-west London, in a prefabricated home. In the 1980s Watts finally found time to pursue his passion for jazz and formed a 32-piece band called the Charlie Watts Orchestra. Their first gig was in the legendary London jazz club Ronnie Scott’s, where Watts was a frequent, if undercover, visitor.American first edition inscribed by the author: “With A Conan Doyle’s kindest recollections of pleasant partnership in travel June 13 th/91.” 8. All the Sad Young Men, F Scott Fitzgerald (1926)

Charlie Watts obituary | Charlie Watts | The Guardian Charlie Watts obituary | Charlie Watts | The Guardian

He was given his first drum kit as a Christmas present in 1955, and while other kids were shaking a leg to Bill Haley or Elvis Presley, he dreamed of playing drums with Davis, or stepping into Art Blakey’s shoes with the Jazz Messengers. While working at the agency he was lured away from jazz by Alexis Korner, who recruited him for his band Blues Incorporated in 1962. While touring and studio work with the Stones continued as ever, in 2009 he began playing with the ABC&D of Boogie Woogie – the name came from the first-name initials of its members, who were the pianists Axel Zwingenberger and Ben Waters and bassist Dave Green. They recorded the albums The Magic of Boogie Woogie (2010) and Live in Paris (2012). Charlie Watts meets the Danish Radio Big Band was recorded live in Copenhagen in 2010 and belatedly released in 2017. First edition, inscribed by the author: “I perambulated Dartmoor before I wrote this book, A Conan Doyle.” 4. The Thirteen Problems, Agatha Christie (1932) In 2004 came Watts at Scott’s, a live recording of the Charlie Watts Tentet at Ronnie Scott’s club in London. The disc appeared as news emerged that Watts had been undergoing surgery and radiotherapy for throat cancer. The treatment proved successful and the cancer went into remission.

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The son of a lorry driver from Wembley, Watts was unquestionably, to everyone who knew him, a gentleman, in his manner, temper, appearance and bearing. While a part of the Stones, he always seemed curiously apart from them – a man with his own passions and enthusiasms. Watts was always happiest curled up with a good book – and, as the items in Charlie Watts: Literature and Jazz suggest, not simply “good”, but rare and valuable, too. King says that “Charlie was a very down-to earth, straightforward bloke. He wasn’t snobby in any sense of the word, but he definitely liked the good things in life. He was a total gentleman, and he liked other gentlemen.” He numbered among his friends Alexis von Rosenberg, Baron de Redé – the banker, aesthete, collector and socialite. It was de Redé who pointed Watts in the direction of George Cleverley, bespoke shoemaker to the Duke of Windsor – and subsequently to Charlie Watts. He went on to acquire several pairs of the Duke’s shoes, and two of his suits. Charlie and Shirley Watts at the Pride of Poland Arabian horse sale in 2012. They bred horses at their Halsdon Arabians farm in Devon. Photograph: Janek Skarżyński/AFP/Getty Images Watts’s ambiguity was there from the outset. He grew up in a prefab in a drab north London suburb, and jazz, his first love, became a passport to a world of crisply dressed cool and dazzling artistry, his heroes alto saxophonist Charlie Parker – jazz’s Picasso – and drummer Chico Hamilton. One of a talented pool orbiting around blues pioneer Alexis Korner in the early 1960s, Watts was headhunted by Jagger, Jones and Richards but faltered. “Should I join this interval band?” he asked his fellow travellers, relenting only after the trio secured enough gigs to match his wage in an advertising agency. Art – his only O-level – remained a passion. He sketched every tour hotel room he occupied, and later advised on the Stones’ elaborate stage sets.