1964 Rolling Stones-signed Record
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GUEST:
When my parents came back from their first vacation to Europe, they had perfume and different gifts for my sisters. And then they suddenly looked at me and goes, "Oh, well, maybe you would like this." And my father pulled out this 45-RPM record. And it was signed by the artists. At the time, I had never heard of them. It was a group of people that he ran into at the hotel he was staying at in Paris.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
And Dad, looking around, he sees these young guys in ripped blue jeans and a little disheveled. He just needed to understand what they were doing in this nicer hotel that he was at. So he went over to their table, and he got the story that they were a rock band, and they had just cut their first record.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
And were touring Europe for the first time to try and promote it. So Dad being Dad, you know, and they had the record with them.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
So he gave them five dollars, and they all signed the record. And then Dad in leaving, you know, he says, "Well, guys," you know, "I wish you a lot of luck, but you might want to think about getting a real job."
APPRAISER:
(laughing) What a great story-- that's amazing. And what year was that?
GUEST:
This was 1963 or 1964, I think.
APPRAISER:
1960... I think it probably is 1964, because this particular E.P. for the Rolling Stones came out in '64, so that pretty much matches up with your story.
GUEST:
Yeah. I've had the record for years and years.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
And then back in the 1990s, they were doing a tour of North America, and we decided, "Well, maybe they'd like it back for their archives, or something."
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
So I contacted the Rolling Stones' road manager.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
Through my mother, who worked at a local playhouse. They wrote back offering us, you know, to come to a show, they'd be happy to have it.
APPRAISER:
So you never got the tickets?
GUEST:
No, we tried getting back to them, but they had left New York, and I had no way of reaching them anymore.
APPRAISER:
So they didn't get the record.
GUEST:
We didn't get the record back.
APPRAISER:
(laughing) Which is probably a good thing, in hindsight.
GUEST:
For me at this point, yeah.
APPRAISER:
Let's have a look on the back. We've got four signatures. Now, I can see Brian Jones, we've got Keith Richards; Mick Jagger, of course, and we've got Bill Wyman. There's one missing, I notice, which is Charlie Watts.
GUEST:
He could have been off to the bathroom at the time.
APPRAISER:
Right, right.
GUEST:
Or he maybe didn't like what Dad said to them. I don't know what the reason is.
APPRAISER:
Well, the good news is-- sorry, Charlie, if you're watching-- but Charlie Watts is not the particularly important signature here. If you were going to not have one of the signatures, Charlie is probably the one.
GUEST:
Charlie is the best one not to have? Good to know.
APPRAISER:
So that, in terms of the value, that's, that's a good thing.
GUEST:
But it would be nice to have them all, though.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, absolutely. However, this being such an early E.P., it's very collectible. I would say conservatively at auction today, you would probably be looking at, in the region of between $2,000 and $4,000.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
Very desirable. If you had the complete set, it might be worth a little bit more, but it's, it's an exceptional piece. And being so early in the, in the whole evolution of the Rolling Stones...
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
it's a really desirable item.
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