A chance meeting on a Dartford platform that launched the Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first met as primary school classmates, then drifted apart. On 17 October 1961 they bumped into each other at Dartford station, where Jagger happened to be holding Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, and a famous songwriting partnership grew from that shared love of rhythm and blues.
Jagger was born on 26 July 1943 into a middle-class Dartford family. His father Joe taught physical education and helped popularise basketball in Britain, while his Sydney-born mother Eva worked as a hairdresser. As a boy he sang in the church choir. He and Richards shared a classroom at Wentworth Primary School from September 1950, but lost touch once they went to different schools, Jagger passing the eleven-plus and moving on to Dartford Grammar.
After the encounter on Platform Two, the pair teamed up with Dick Taylor, with whom Jagger already had a garage band, in a group dubbed the Blues Boys. Having finished school in 1961 with seven O-levels and two A-levels, Jagger studied finance and accounting at the London School of Economics on a government grant, even weighing careers in journalism or politics, while sharing a Chelsea flat on Edith Grove with Richards and Brian Jones. Sitting in with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated at the Ealing Club, he became its lead singer.
Named after a Muddy Waters song, the Rollin' Stones made their debut at London's Marquee Club on 12 July 1962, later switching to the more formal Rolling Stones. Jagger eventually abandoned his degree. Beyond the band he starred in Performance and Ned Kelly in 1970, released four solo albums, and topped the charts in Britain and Australia with his 1985 David Bowie duet, Dancing in the Street. In the 2000s he co-founded Jagged Films, whose first feature was Enigma in 2001.
His tally is staggering: counting the Stones and his solo work, he has 13 chart-topping singles across Britain and America, 32 top-10 hits and 70 top-40 entries. He entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the band in 1989 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004, and was knighted in 2003 for services to popular music.
Source: Mick Jagger
