Author: Charles Hutchinson

Christopher Simon Sykes’s photograph of Mick Jagger from his On Tour With The Rolling Stones 1975 exhibition at Sledmere House

IN June 1975, Christopher Simon Sykes, of 18th century Sledmere House, near Driffield, joined the Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas: his rock’n’roll baptism of fire  as a snapper after specialising in photographing stately home interiors.

“You’ve never been on tour have you, Chrissy. It’s not like country life, you know,” said Mick Jagger, on the Yorkshire aristocrat’s arrival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “That was a bit of harsh thing to say!” Christopher reflects.

Thrown in at the deep end, he would accompany the Stones on their three-month tour of North America and Canada, playing 40 shows in 27 cities: the biggest tour ever staged at that time. Fifty trucks, 100 staff erecting one version of the lotus flower set design at the next location while the Stones played on the same design in another city.  

Fifty years later, for the first time, Christopher has picked 34 photographs from the 1,600-1,700 he took for an exhibition on home soil in the Courtyard Room at Sledmere House, with all works on sale at £650 (printed, mounted, signed, framed) or £500 (printed, mounted, signed). Or you could acquire six postcards for a bargain £5 or £2 each.

Christopher, the third son of Sir Richard Tatton-Sykes, 7th Baronet of Sledmere, was 27, (Jagger was 31) when taking on his one and only rock’n’roll commission before he would go on to write 14 books.

“The reason I went on the tour was to do the photographs for a book as the Stones wanted to do a tour diary,” Christopher recalls, over a cup of tea in the early evening sun outside Castle Farm, in Sledmere, his venerable dog at his feet.

“It came out a year later, but it was a terrible, cheap paperback edition, where all the pages fell out after a month. The text was written by Terry Southern [the satirical American novelist, essayist screenwriter and university lecturer], after I sent Mick what I’d written about what it’s like to go on tour, but he’d said it was so ‘boring’ that he’d asked Terry to write the book instead, even though he wasn’t even on the tour!”

Catching Up With The News: Christopher Simon Sykes’s photograph of Mick Jagger reading a newspaper on the 1975 tour

Christopher recalls Southern’s words being “nonsenscical stuff” and the book also featuring American photographer Annie Leibovitz’s photographs from the same T.O.T.A. ’75 tour. “I was the official diarist; she was the official tour photographer,” he explains.

“I’ve still got a copy in London. I picked it up the other day, and there’s no glue holding it together now!  It was published in Holland by a company called Dragon’s Dream, which tells you everything.”

Not until 2001 did a book do full justice to Christopher’s photographs or make use of his copious diary notes. Step forward Genesis Publications, subscription publishers of gorgeously packaged and embossed books, to print 500 luxury editions at £500 and 2,500 standard editions at £300.

“It was like a text book on touring with The Rolling Stones. They all sold out, so you can’t get a copy now, apart from trying to get one online,” he says. Maybe, just, maybe, Genesis Publications might look to do a 50th anniversary re-print. Watch this space.

Until then, Christopher’s photographs, transparencies and negatives had been consigned to a filing cabinet in his London cellar. “I was having dinner one night with Mark Getty, who’d just started Getty Images in 1999, and I was telling him the story of my Rolling Stones photographs when  he said he’d love to exhibit them.”

Christopher Simon Sykes’s photograph of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on the Rolling Stones’ Tour of the Americas in 1975

That Getty Images show – the only comprehensive exhibition of Christopher’s iconic T.O.T.A. ’75 tour images until now – was seen by Genesis Publications and the book ensued.

Now Leeds photographer and documentary filmmaker Paul Berriff MBE has mounted and framed the 34 photographs that Christopher whittled down from 90 for the Sledmere show. “All the negatives are still in good conditions,” says Christopher.

“Let Christopher have what he wants,” Jagger informed the band’s lawyers, as the Stones  retain the copyright. “I’ve chosen what I thought were the most striking images, all unique, as I had a special access that nowadays, if you’re going on a rock’n’roll tour as a photographer, you wouldn’t get,” says Christopher.

“But when I did it, I was like an extra member of the band, staying in the best hotels wherever we went. With all the accreditation, I had complete freedom to be wherever I wanted to be, which could be Mick’s hotel room, the dressing rooms, on stage, on the bus, on the plane called the Starship, a wonderful Boeing 737 converted for rock bands going on tour!”

Only Led Zeppelin had mounted an American tour on such a grand scale before T.O.T.A. ’75, in terms of locations, itinerary and stage design. “It was the biggest rock’n’roll tour that had ever been done. The stage was in the shape of a lotus flower, all electronically controlled with closed petals,” says Christopher. “The lights went down, the music struck up and Mick would suddenly appear on top of one of the petals.”

Yet how did Christopher ever land such a gig in the first place? “I was working for Hesketh Racing, taking photographs for Lord Hesketh, a rich young chap, who wanted to prove he could finance a Formula One team to win a Grand Prix,” he recalls.

Christopher Simon Sykes’s tour pass as photographer on The Rolling Stones’ Tour of the Americas in 1975, aged 27

The memorial album he made for Lord Hesketh came to the attention of the Rolling Stones’ financial manager, Prince Rupert Loewenstein, who told him of the tour diary project.

To pitch for the job, Christopher met the band in rehearsal at Andy Warhol’s house on Long Island. “Prince Rupert said I’d have to pay my fare there, but if I got the job he’d refund me,” he says.

“It was a ‘don’t ring us, we’ll ring you’ situation, where no-one did ring after I showed them my ideas, but the smart thing I did was to get the phone number of the place where they were rehearsing. I used to leave messages for Mick, but he never returned my calls.”

When Prince Rupert told him he ‘couldn’t get Mick to make up his mind’, Christopher  phoned Mick once more. “Look, he hadn’t said ‘No’. I’d had quite a few drinks that night to drown my sorrows. I saw the telephone number by my bed and thought I’d give it one last try,” he recalls.

For once Jagger picked up the phone. ”He said, rather crossly, ‘what do you want?’.” Christopher duly explained. “What, Rupert told you I didn’t want you on the tour?” said Jagger, always the decision maker. “Well, you call Rupert now and tell him I do want you to come!”

“So the mixture of bloody-mindedness and persistence paid off for me, which I think is a good message to young people,” says Christopher. “Never give up; keep trying. Three weeks later, on June 8 1975, I found myself in Milwaukee, feeling terrified as I didn’t know anyone in the rock’n’roll world, so it was rather like the first day at school.

“I went to the hotel, where they had my name for a room, on the same floor as the Stones, but they wouldn’t let me through as I didn’t have a pass and the security guards were as big as elephants.

Time For A Fag: Christopher Simon Sykes’s photograph of Keith Richards from On Tour With The Rolling Stones 1975

“Then all these cars rolled up and Mick took me round to meet all the band, who I’d first met on Long Island, so it was all bit unnerving on that first day.”

Even more so that night when Christopher had no security pass for the Milwaukee concert, forcing him to film from the back of the stage. As chance would have it, it produced the opening picture of this exhibition, the one occasion Jagger faced him.

“I had to pinch myself, standing in front of 70,000 people,” says Christopher. “There I was, in touching distance of the Rolling Stones. I could only take photos of their backs, but then suddenly there was Mick, standing only six feet from me, his shirt covered in sweat, taking deep breaths as he prepared for the encore. I got this fantastic shot.”

Looking back on that tour, “I would say the Stones were absolutely at their peak, and it was even bigger than the Led Zeppelin tour. Mick Taylor had left the band and this was Ronnie Wood’s first tour with them, so we called each other the ‘two tour virgins,'” says Christopher.

“He was a sweetheart and he still is. I saw him at Eric Clapton’s 80th birthday party. He thinks of himself more as a painter than a musician – but I say ‘Don’t give up the day job, mate’!

“Ronnie and Keith were like two naughty boys on that tour, spending all their time together. The thing about Keith is that because he’s so cool, you think you’d be a bit scared, but he’s such a straight guy, such a nice man.”

What about Mick Jagger? “Mick is Mick. He could be very nice one day, crotchety the next. Very driven. The businessman in the band,” says Christopher.

After three extraordinary months, he would never photograph a rock band again. “At the end of the tour, I learned a lesson: I didn’t want to be a rock’n’roll photographer. You go for ten weeks with the band on tour, it’s all exciting for the first week, but after that you’re taking the same photograph day after day,” he says.

Mick Jagger in pink on The Rolling Stones’ Tour of the Americas 1975. Picture: Christopher Simon Sykes

“However much you like the band, there’s nothing challenging. It was a great experience but I knew it wouldn’t be my career. I probably could have got a load of work but it wasn’t for me.

“Though it’s exciting, even if you’re young it’s very tiring. For the band, their lifestyle means they sleep in the day, but for photographers, you’re just waiting for the next gig. I made a vow each day to get up and site-visit, because nothing would happen till four or five o’clock.

“Sometimes Mick would do the same. He liked looking at things, going to great art galleries, but it’s always more difficult for him as he can’t move anywhere without security.”

T.O.T.A. ’75 would be last time, as well as the first time for Christopher, but what photographic memories he produced. “I still get a thrill looking at the [Genesis Publications] book, with the photographs, the diary, the memorabilia, beautifully packaged in a box and blue bag,” he says.

“I would like to think that this is the book to show how a rock’n’roll tour works,” he say. “It has everything you could possibly want to know about what happens on tour…

“And the fact is, the music is still fantastic. It just doesn’t age.”

On Tour With The Rolling Stones 1975, A 50th Anniversary Exhibition of Photographs by Christopher Simon Sykes, Sledmere House, Sledmere, near Driffield, June 13 to July 6, except Mondays and Tuesdays, 10am to 5pm. Tickets: sledmerehouse.com.

Christopher Simon Sykes’s photograph of bass player Bill Wyman on The Rolling Stones’ Tour of the Americas 1975