As I was saying in a previous post, Jon, my partner, is used to my quirks (which I am sure he finds charming), but I guess even he didn’t understand what I was on about when I insisted we should spend the night in Dartford on our way to Scotland and go to the train station “in order to see a landmark”.
Said landmark was a blue plaque — I love blue plaques — that commemorates the “birth” of the Rolling Stones on the 17th of October 1961, when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met on platform 2.
As per usual with the Rolling Stones, the unveiling of the plaque led to a dispute, in which Bill Wyman claimed that things hadn’t happened that way and that it was in fact Brian Jones who had enlisted the other members of the band. Wyman went on to argue that his name should be on the plaque too.
When asked about the whole affair, Keith Richards replied, “A plaque? I thought we had a statue!” He then pointed out that he didn’t understand why the bass player took umbrage, since “Bill wasn’t there when the band was formed.” According to Richards, Mick Jagger sent a note to Wyman saying, “Bill, if a plaque went up in Penge [Wyman’s hometown] that said you were the founding member of the Rolling Stones, do you think we’d complain?”
After much debate, Council leader Jeremy Kite announced in 2015 that the inscription would be replaced so as not to “upset a Rolling Stone,” but the original blue plaque is still there as far as I know.
In conclusion, if you’re a fan of the Rolling Stones and you happen to find yourself in Dartford, don’t miss the opportunity to pay a visit to the site where history was made. Or wasn’t, if you listen to Bill Wyman.
