How Alexis Korner’s Blues Inc. Gave the Rolling Stones Their First Stage

Before the Rolling Stones were a band, they were just a few suburban blues fans hanging around Alexis Korner. Korner’s Blues Incorporated was the first British R&B group to really matter, and its ever-rotating lineup became a training ground for half of London’s future rock stars. Mick Jagger and Brian Jones first met when Jones sat in with Blues Incorporated at the Ealing Club — the same night Jagger was singing with them. Keith Richards was in the audience.

Korner didn’t just let them play; he actively pushed them to form their own thing. When the Stones needed a name, they cribbed it from a Muddy Waters song Korner had taught them. And when the band hustled for their first recording deal, it was Korner’s recommendation that got them a test session with Decca. Without his patronage — and the free stage at the Ealing Club every week — the Stones might have stayed a loose jam band instead of becoming the self-contained unit that conquered the world.