Nellcote Hangovers
Video: The villa Nellcote is located in Villefranche sur Mer, a beautiful village between Nice and Cap Ferra. A pilgrimage I’d like to take some time soon.
I’ve enjoyed all of the recent hoopla surrounding the re-release of Exile on Main Street . Exile is definitely my all-time favorite Stones album from, in my opinion, their best period. One of the cool things I happened to stumble upon a few nights ago (on the Jimmy Fallon show of all places) was the US premier of Stones in Exile the new documentary about the making of the album. If you’re a Stones nut you likely know all about the story (escaping England’s high taxes, running off to France, making an album…) but for even the die-hards this film definitely adds some new imagery and detail that I don’t think many people have ever seen or heard before. The bits that particularly amazed me were how many “guests” flopped, crashed or perpetually hung out for months on end at Keith’s mansion in Nellcote, France (where most of Exile was recorded). The film also paints a much clearer (to me anyway) picture of the level of debauchery that went on - and to that end - how dark those last few months must have been for everyone staying there. I kept watching the documentary and thinking to myself “the hangovers must have been epic.” Even when you’re at their age at the time, to party that hard for that long must have led to being incapacitated for days on end. It’s amazing that the band was able to be that prolific (it was a double album remember) with all that stuff going on.