Jenny Brown remembers handwriting the invitations. It was a hot Thursday night in February 1973, the night before The Rolling Stones were due to roll into Melbourne; the night before the Stones’ scheduled afternoon press conference in the mud-brick surrounds of the artist colony at Montsalvat; the night before Brown’s full moon twenty-first birthday pool party at her parents’ home in North Balwyn.
Brown decided to invite the Stones. ‘What can I say?’ she grins, as we order breakfast at the Northcote cafe where her daughter was working. ‘It was a brave time.’...
A sensational party,’ says Brown. ‘It was one of those parties you’d want to have if you were turning twenty-one and you were in the rock press.' And, then, The Rolling Stones came. ‘They just sort of materialised, like this amazing mist. I think it was about 3 a.m. Things were getting quieter. And lo and behold this limo pulls up out front.’
Through a side gate and into the Japanese-style garden area wandered Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, horn player Bobby Keys and some road crew. ‘It astonished me they came that late,’ says Brown, ‘because we all knew they had a noon show at Kooyong the next day.’
Taylor had a conversation about architecture with Jen’s mother. ‘He was very interested that Robin Boyd had co-designed the house with my father and I remember this very beautifully dressed, stunning and quite shy young man talking at length to Mum.’
Keith stayed outside, smoking in the Japanese garden. ‘A beautiful spot. Dad had built it with a little platform out over a small waterfall, and a pond, and a weeping cherry.’...
She remembers Keith decorating the room. ‘He was saying “the room’s too bright”, and he put scarves over the lights, really nice-looking scarves. He made it look more like a pirates’ cove.’
She goes on: ‘Most of the coke went to Keith. The pretty one, Mick Taylor, he might have had some. I know that soon after I came back they all started playing cricket with the crockery. Up and down the hall. They were using the cups as balls.’
I ask if the cricket-loving Jagger was involved. Karen shakes her head. ‘I hardly saw Mick. He was in his room the whole time, locked in. It was actually quite weird, I thought. They had this joke going where they’d call him a girl’s name, “Mabel” or “Martha” or something. “Mabel’s in her room, she’s carrying on again.”’
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