In 1962, the Rolling Stones were broke, hungry, and unknown. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts were five young men chasing a recording contract with no guarantee it would ever come. The photos from that year, all taken by London photographer Philip Townsend, are the earliest on record of the band together.
Townsend’s path to the Stones started with a chance meeting in Monte Carlo. There, he crossed paths with a teenage Andrew Loog Oldham, who told him bluntly: “I’m going to go back to England, I’m going to find a rock and roll band and I’m going to turn them into the greatest rock and roll band in the world.” Oldham didn’t have a band yet, but he promised Townsend the first shoot once he found one.
Oldham made good on that promise. He became the Stones’ first manager and connected Townsend with the group in London later that year. During their first meeting, Townsend bought the band barbecued chicken — a small gesture that spoke to just how little they had at the time.
For the very first group photo ever taken of the Rolling Stones, Townsend positioned all five members on Ifield Road in London, near a “no parking” sign. The shot is unpolished and unscripted — exactly what the band looked like before any image-making had begun. Townsend later described them as “five fresh faced lads.”
After that first session, Townsend ferried the band around London in his Ford Capri Mark I for further shoots. Fitting five people into a four-seater made for tight trips. “Which was quite difficult because it was only a four seater,” he recalled. Still, they moved through the city, stopping at various locations to document the band’s early look.
These photos show the Stones at their most unguarded. There is no rebellious swagger, no carefully crafted rock star persona — just a group of young musicians at the very start of something none of them could fully see yet.
