Rolling Stones Unseen: a rare glimpse at the band before they became the world’s biggest

For fans of The Rolling Stones – and rock music aficionados in general – Rolling Stones Unseen is a must-see.

For more than 60 years, The Rolling Stones have been one of (if not the) biggest, most recognisable, most culturally significant bands in the world. But before the 250 million record sales, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, multiple Grammys and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and busting records for the all-time highest-grossing concert tours, they were just a bunch of boys from London’s suburbs wanting to play the blues.

Brand-new exhibition, Rolling Stones Unseen, offers an intimate, never-before-seen glimpse into the group’s infancy that details the graft they put in prior to becoming a global sensation.

Photographer Gus Coral followed the budding band – 26 years old himself at the time, the same age as The Rolling Stones’ elder statesman in bassist Bill Wyman – in what was their first ever UK tour, as the five American blues obsessed boys geared up to support idols like Bo Diddley, Little Richard and The Everly Brothers on the road. A time capsule of sorts, these photos have lay dormant until now, unearthing the spirit and excitement from a band on the cusp of greatness. The original photos were quite literally stashed beneath Coral’s bed for decades.

Held at Dockside Vaults, the exhibition legitimately feels like a secret vault you stumble into as you turn the corner from Tower Bridge and meander into St. Katharine Docks. Adding to the sense of archeological discovery, the Grade II-listed Ivory House is the only original warehouse left in the docks, with Dockside Vaults tucked away in the basement.

Hi-def prints of the band preparing for a 1963 show in Cardiff are draped around the underground cavern, weaving around the venue’s main concourse and exposed brick cellars that branch outward. Though it doesn’t seem like there’s a specific order as such, the series of fly-on-the-wall photographs lead up to and culminate in The Rolling Stones’ electrifying concert.

There’s an expected rawness to the gallery – Brian Jones ‘secretly’ scribbling his songwriting ideas with pen and paper, Keith Richards champing at the bit with his guitar slung across his back, jamming out in the studio, Mick Jagger (before he conjured his celebrated swagger) looking unusually pensive, the band idly sipping in coffee in café’s and pulling on a seemingly endless supply of cigarettes. But there’s a rare innocence to the exhibition too. At this point in time, The Rolling Stones were merely hopeful blues enthusiasts riding high on the wave of youthful exuberance, with no idea what successes would await them in the wake of Beatlemania and the British Invasion.

For fans of the band – and rock music aficionados in general – Rolling Stones Unseen is a must-see.