'Redlands', the play telling the untold story on '67 drugs bust of Jagger and Richards

By VMZ Staff on September 26, 2024

'It’s only LSD but I like it'. But was the real story overlooked? We return to the 60s at their most swinging.

Charlotte Jones's new play Redlands, running from 20 September to 18 October at Chichester Festival Theatre directed by Justin Audibert, is about the famous 1960s drugs trial of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

The entirely apocryphal rumours about Mars Bars and Marianne Faithfull; the band’s brief attempt to escape the press attention by travelling to Morocco, where Richards began a long relationship with guitarist Brian Jones’s then-girlfriend Anita Pallenberg.

 

The cast is Anthony Calf as Michael Havers, Ben Caplan as Allen Klein / George Harrison, Clive Francis as Cecil Havers, Louis Landau as Nigel Havers, Emer McDald as Marianne Faithfull, Brenock O'Connor as Keith Richards, Olivia Poulet as Carol Havers and Jasper Talbot as Mick Jagger, alongside Melody Chikakane Brown as Constable Slade / Daphne, Lara Rose McCabe (Ensemble), Sam Pay as Inspector Dineley / Judge Block, Akshay Sharan as PC Willis / Vivek Chakrabarti, Ellla Tekere (Ensemble) Riiley Woodford (Ensemble) and Adam Young as Sniderman / Derek Carter. 

1967. At Keith Richards’s country house Redlands in deepest West Sussex, the Rolling Stones are enjoying a bohemian night in with the likes of Marianne Faithfull and George Harrison, until the constabulary swoop down and charge Keith and Mick Jagger with drug offences. This account of possibly the most bizarre English court case ever held evokes a turning point in cultural history and the clash between the generations.At the time of the trial, they was dealing with a very different kind of youth rebellion from Jagger and Richards’ LSD-soaked weekend in the country.

To Charlotte Jones'  delight, she discovered that not only had Nigel Havers been around the trial, he had become close to Faithfull, who – as Jones notes – was in some ways the biggest victim of the Redlands controversy, despite not actually being on trial nor even giving evidence. “I went to visit Marianne in Paris a few years ago, and she was really angry about Redlands. She felt it ruined her life. I really empathised with this woman who wasn’t allowed to speak at the time, but at the same time, the tabloids were writing about as Miss X.”

 

 On September 1982, Keith' country home  Redlands went on fire.
The Rolling Stones guitarist survived more than one fire in his life

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(picture from Miss-Anita Pallemberg blog)

On September 2, 1982, the country home of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, known as the Redlands in West Wittering, Sussex, was severely damaged in a fire. A newspaper of the time reported: "Sixty-five firefighters spent six hours keeping the fire under control. Three-quarters of the thatched roof was destroyed, along with half of the building's contents."

It was actually Marlon (who was barely 4 at the time) who first noticed the fire and raised the alarm to his parents and younger sister by shouting “FIRE! FIRE!”

That was not the first or even the last time that Keef's name was associated with that of the flames.

As reported by Ultimate Classic Rock, by 1973 the same house had already burned down and its time partner, Anita Pallenberg, and their children survived by a miracle. What really happened is all to be verified: Keith Richards said that the fire was caused by a mouse that had chewed on electrical cables, other people said that the musician had fallen asleep while smoking and triggered the incident.

 

 

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