Five Things: Wednesday 3rd July

River Island go for the Newport ’64 look

Kenny Rogers, questioned by Alexis Petridis in The Guardian
I found an old newspaper story online about you beginning a parallel career in professional tennis in the late 70s.  What was that all about? I’m kind of an impulsive obsessive, I don’t know if there’s a category like that. I get impulsively involved in something and I get obsessed with it. I did that with tennis. I didn’t start playing until I was 35 years old, and then I got obsessed with it and I played eight hours a day. I played in professional matches. I had a national ranking. I was one spot above Björn Borg in doubles.
You’re joking!* No! That’s just my nature. Then I couldn’t physically play tennis any more, so I took up photography. I studied for four years under a guy who’d been Ansel Adams’ assistant … [describes photographer Adams’ “zone system” codification of the principles of sensitometry in mind-boggling depth].
*He’s not.

Busker, Northern line to Old Street
As he tried to pick up a Polish girl (“Sorry, love, thought you said Portuguese…”) he starts playing “Three Little Birds”, all Glasto peace & love, but failing to feel any enthusiasm from a listless tube carriage, takes a weird right turn into “Blue Suede Shoes” – One for the money/Two for the show…

The Stones & The Times
The Evening Standard writes: The biggest fan of Mick Jagger still seems to be The Times newspaper. In 1967, its then editor William Rees-Mogg wrote in defence of Jagger after he was given three months in jail for possession of amphetamines, under the headline Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel? This weekend, prior to the Stones’ Glastonbury set, The Times returned to Jagger who had confessed that he might have liked being a teacher rather than a rocker. “The newly qualified teacher Mr Jagger was quickly taken off religious studies after he expressed sympathy for the devil,” began its leader. “His biology lessons were not much better, strangely dominated as they were by wild horses, little red roosters and the spider and the fly. Chemistry lessons were a disaster after Mr Jagger baffled the pupils with his insistence that jumping jack flash was a gas, gas, gas. He also showed a dangerous tendency to play with fire, which contravened the school’s health and safety regulations.” What have the Times leader writers been taking?

“A man of wealth and taste.” First part correct, not sure about second.

Ronnie Wood painting of Mick Jagger and hand-lettered guitar (words from “Sympathy For The Devil”)

Favourite Letter Of The Week
“Marie Paterson bemoans the coverage of classical as opposed to pop music (Letters, 1 July) but at least “pop” music is performed by the composers, whereas classical music, with some exceptions, is usually performed by a tribute band, often known as an orchestra.”
Derek Middlemiss, Newark, Nottinghamshire, in The Guardian