The Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas, 1975 (Deluxe and signed limited edition)

SYKES, Christopher (photographs & text). The Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas 1975. Guildford: Genesis Publications Ltd., 2006.

Folio (36 × 31 cm). Full black leather, decoratively blocked. Extensive archive of previously unpublished photographs throughout, with personal diary entries and narrative text by Sykes. Housed in a decorative cloth solander case with compartments containing: forty facsimile backstage passes; two replica hotel room keys; facsimile of the twelve-page Starship promotional brochure. First Deluxe Edition. Limited to 350 numbered copies, this being number 332. Signed by Christopher Sykes and Ridge within the book. Additional photograph of Mick Jagger, signed by Sykes, included. All contents collated and complete.

In the summer of 1975, the Rolling Stones returned to North and South America for the first time since their legendary 1972 Exile on Main St. tour — and they returned in considerable style. The Tour of the Americas, known to those who were there as T.O.T.A. '75, ran across forty shows from June to August, introducing their newest member Ronnie Wood to American audiences and presenting, on a series of ever more elaborately designed stages, a band at the peak of its powers and its appetite for spectacle. The tour's logistics were as theatrical as its performances: the band, their entourage, and their invited companions travelled aboard a specially commissioned Boeing 720 rechristened the Starship, equipped with a piano bar, deep carpeting, swivel armchairs, and a bedroom suite. It was less a means of transport than a declaration of intent.

Christopher Sykes was brought along as the tour's official chronicler — a trusted friend with a photographer's eye and a documentarian's instinct for what would matter when the music stopped. For the full duration of the forty-show run, he was embedded with the band, travelling on the Starship, present at rehearsals and press encounters and the countless hours of waiting and movement that constitute the vast majority of any touring musician's experience. The photographs he made during those months — a substantial archive of which had never been published before this Genesis Publications volume — record the tour from the inside: not the stage-managed images of official photographers but the candid visual diary of a companion who was trusted enough to be unseen.

The text of the book draws on Sykes's personal diary entries made during the tour, giving the photographs a narrative and contextual frame that promotional photography by definition cannot provide. The result is one of the most intimate documents of the Rolling Stones at the height of their commercial and artistic power.

Genesis Publications, founded by Brian Roylance, has established itself over four decades as the foremost producer of ultra-luxury limited edition books in the field of music and popular culture. Their productions are overseen, in the case of books about active artists, by the subjects themselves; this volume was produced with the full participation and approval of the Rolling Stones, giving it an official status that distinguishes it from unauthorised publications. The physical production — full leather binding, solander case with individual compartments for the facsimile passes and hotel keys, the Starship brochure reproduction — reflects the premium Genesis brings to everything it produces.

The Deluxe Edition, limited to only 350 copies, is the rarest and most finely produced of the several formats in which this title was issued.

Fine. Impeccably preserved inside solander case. All contents collated and complete, including all passes, keys, and brochure. Solander case shows some minor markings only.

Please note: This item is large and heavy. Additional postage costs will apply. Please contact us for a shipping quote before purchase.

This book is currently on display in the rare book section of our Penrith store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: rarebooks@harryhartog.com.au

Catalogue Number: HH000259