Story

This was the first painting I managed to get signed. I painted this during December 2005. I had just recently purchased tickets to the stones Australian leg of their ‘ Bigger Bang ’ World Tour.

When the stones arrived in Sydney during April ‘06, I thought to myself, ‘how cool would it be to find out where in Sydney they would be staying so I could try and catch a glimpse of them in public’. Further still I then thought, if I could find them ‘how cool would it be to try and get them to sign my painting’. So after following the newspapers upon their arrival, it was revealed what hotel the stones had booked into.

The morning after their Sydney show, I woke early & took my painting, armed with a marker pen and stood at the entrance to their hotel and waited, waited, and waited…

A crowd of fans was steadily building…then, finally, 6 hours later, early afternoon, chauffer driven cars arrived to collect the rock stars themselves, Rolling Stones entourage, back up vocalists, Blondie Chaplin, Bernard Fowler, Lisa Fischer and additional musicians, Bobby Keys, Chuck Leavell and Daryl Jones one by one came out of the hotel stopping at the requests of fans to sign autographs, each of them signing my painting happily, and then the first of The Stones, Charlie Watts emerged from the hotel doors, and promptly got into his car and started to move along the driveway. I held my painting up for him to see & hoped that I could attract his attention through the tinted glass & that he would stop to sign for me. To my amazement, the car pulled up directly beside me, the window slowly came down, and Charlie Watts asked for my painting & pen. I gave them to him, he signed & dated my work, smiling the whole time, I thanked him and then he was gone. I’d just met Charlie Watts!

More waiting & then Ronnie Wood casually walked out of the hotel over to the crowd of fans, looking at me holding my painting, he walked directly over to me first & signed . Oh my god! Ronnie Wood admiring my work! 2 down, 2 to go!

Yet again, more waiting, and then…Keith Richards !, who climbed straight into his tinted van without looking at any of the crowd, I was devastated & thought that there was no chance of him signing my work…but… I held my painting against the tinted glass and begged out loud for Keith to ‘please, please, sign my painting‘! within seconds, the window opened & Keith’s bejewelled hand & wrist reached out, his face smiling he took my pen, signed & then said “you got it”! The window closed & the van sped away.

Mick Jagger proved more of a challenge. His car speeding away out of a side exit. Stopping for no-one, leaving disappointed fans. But I didn’t give up. I decided having got all the others, I would do everything it took to get Mick’s autograph, even if it meant following him to Melbourne! So I took the next flight to Melbourne & after 2 long days & nights waiting in the foyer of their hotel (that I had checked into!), I finally got my moment, Mick Jagger walked into the foyer, I called out to him, begging for his autograph, he kept walking, so I called out that I had flown from Sydney & that all the other stones had signed except him, he paused…slowly turned around…signed & then walked away.

Having got the biggest band of all time to sign my first piece of work, I decided I was going to try and get all of my other favourite bands to sign my paintings for my own private collection. Now I want to share them, and so I am offering limited edition prints, signed & numbered by myself. These prints will prove to be true collectors items that shall only be available in very low quantities for a short time.