Bill Wyman joins the Rolling Stones

Following Dick Taylor’s departure in September, Bill Wyman joins the Rolling Stones in December 1962.

Bill says: “I went to the Wetherby Arms pub in World’s End, Chelsea. I was introduced to Mick, who was quite friendly, and I was then introduced to Brian and Keith. And they were very cool and showed little interest. However, I got the equipment out and set it up and suddenly there was lots of interest because I had a huge bass amp that I’d made. I had an AC30 Vox amp, and another smaller amp, a Watkins Westminster. They had horrible amps, so they were happy. I bought a round of drinks for everyone and offered them cigarettes, and of course, they were jumped upon immediately because they all smoked but couldn’t afford any.

“We rehearsed some Jimmy Reed songs and some pretty authentic Blues. I thought the general opinion from the boys was ‘really good amps, bass playing is nothing special, but we’ll keep him so we can use the amps. They asked me to come to the next rehearsal and I agreed.”