Bringing infamous Rolling Stones drugs bust to the Chichester stage
The world premiere of Redlands — Redlands: A raucous, psychedelic account of possibly the most bizarre English court case. A fictional account, inspired by the famous ‘Redlands’ trial of the Rolling Stones.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now, lovely
00:06this afternoon to speak to Charlotte Jones about the new play, Redlands, which is going
00:10to tell the story of the infamous Rolling Stones drugs bust of 1967, not far from Chichester.
00:17And this is going to be on the main house stage from September the 20th to October the
00:2118th. Now, Charlotte, why the Rolling Stones? Why did you go back to them? And it's obviously
00:26a cracking story, isn't it? But why?
00:30Well, I am a real 60s chick, actually. I mean, I grew up in the 80s, but I was listening
00:34to Bob Dylan and the Stones and Joan Baez and Marianne Faithfull. I was a kind of retro
00:40kid. So I knew about Redlands. And then when I had my last play on at Chichester, The Meeting,
00:47which is about seven years ago, I started to think this would be a great story to tell
00:53in this space, in Chichester, because I keep meeting people who say to me, oh, I was there.
00:59You know, it's really a living memory of the Chichester populace. And I think, you know,
01:04some people said to me, it's the most exciting thing that's ever happened in Chichester.
01:09I don't know if that's true, but it was certainly a really...
01:12Some would agree, some would disagree. But why was it an important moment, culturally?
01:18Well, I think it was a really important moment because it crystallised, for me,
01:24it crystallised the sort of the emergence of the counter-revolution in the 60s and
01:30the generational and generational and culture clash that happened at that time, because you have
01:36the establishment, so the police force, the jurisprudence, you know, the lawyers and the
01:44judges versus these two strutting peacocks, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who've emerged
01:52from nowhere. And at this time, it's 1967, they've already got a huge following, but they haven't
01:58got world domination. They haven't gone to America. And I think, you know, and they're
02:05accused of taking drugs. And we find out in the play that it's more complicated than it first
02:11seems. And there were things that happened involving the police and journalists, which,
02:18you know, weren't exactly above board. But it's, I think it's, you know, it's that first moment
02:25where a huge celebrity case really captures the imagination of the world, certainly of Great
02:33Britain. And, you know, and people still talk about it. There's a very famous editorial,
02:39Butterfly on a Wheel, that William Rhys-Mogg wrote at the time, that, you know, a lot of
02:44older people remember very clearly. But I think there's a real link to that with Redland's case,
02:50right up to the Levenson Inquiry about media intrusion, and, you know, and lies being written
02:57about celebrities. And so I think this court case really-
03:01The reverberations go on.
03:03The reverberations go on and on. And, you know, and what was really interesting for me was the
03:10role of Marianne Faithfull within it. And I went to meet Marianne, she was living in Paris at the
03:15time. And she said to me that it ruined her- Redland's ruined her life. And, you know,
03:21she was going out with Mick Jagger. And she had had, you know, a couple of hits. She'd been
03:29discovered at a party. But she was very much, I suppose, in Mick's shadow. And she had been at
03:36Redland's that night, and she'd been wearing a fur rug. And there was something to do with
03:40a Mars bar that we talk about delicately in the play, whether it was true or not.
03:46And she wasn't allowed to testify in court. They said, oh no, we don't want to put a young
03:51lady on the stand. And when I met her, she was saying, I wanted to talk, you know, she was
03:56silent. And at the same time, the papers became totally obsessed with her. They called her Miss
04:02X and The Girl. And, you know, they basically made out that she was a prostitute.
04:07But she was identified in the end, wasn't she?
04:10She was identified. And I think even when they were talking about Miss X and The Girl,
04:14everyone knew who they were talking about, because she was going out with Mick Jagger,
04:17and she was there that night. But she felt very maligned by the whole thing. And she felt that
04:23the boys had been let off, and she hadn't really. And I think, you know, and her life did really
04:29spiral down in the 70s, and she became a drug addict.
04:32There's so many strands to this story.
04:35So many strands to it.
04:37One of the most interesting things you were saying is that the Stones themselves have allowed you to
04:42have four of their songs in the play.
04:45It's a miracle.
04:46How good is that?
04:47Well, it's so good. I mean, what I want to say is that, you know, talking about these serious
04:52issues, there are serious issues in the play, but it is also, I hope, it's going to be a sort of
04:56riotous comedy. And it's going to be a real event, because we've got an R&B band on stage,
05:04and we've got lots of songs. So I know that Chichester was asking for another musical,
05:08and we might just have one for you. But I think it's sort of a play with music.
05:13Well, I mean, everyone said to me, you will not get the rights to any of their songs,
05:18because they just don't allow it. I mean, my friend who's a documentary maker, he said,
05:22oh, my God, I tried so hard to get one song, they wouldn't allow it.
05:26But the theatre worked very hard, and Justin, our director, got to know Marlon, his Keith
05:34Richard son, and Marlon read the play and gave it to his dad. And so I think we've got their
05:41approval. I mean, it's quite extraordinary. The day that we found out, it wasn't that long ago,
05:46actually, and the cast all screamed with joy that we can use some of the most iconic Stone
05:54songs in the play. And we've got some other songs as well, which are less well known,
05:58but work really well thematically in the play. So it's going to be a really interesting thing.
06:01Songs which the Stones covered, obviously.
06:03Yes, songs that the Stones or Marianne Fable covered. Yeah, yeah.
06:08It sounds absolutely fantastic.
06:10Oh, thank you.
06:12Off the street of a lot of people. Brilliant.
06:16Thank you. I know I'm talking to the Ur fan, the most original Rolling Stones fan.
06:25Well, I hope you enjoy it. I hope everyone enjoys it.
06:28Really lovely to speak to you.
06:29And to you. Thank you.