'Pretty Thing'

Pretty Thing 

Directed by: Giorgio Gomelsky

Running Time: 20 min   Black & White  Date: 1963

Shot by Giorgio Gomelsky in April 1963 in 35mm black and white film this documentary featuring the club

scene and the Rolling Stones was aimed at records companies and the press attention in order to promote the band.

Giorgio Golmesky had much of the responsibility in managing and promoting the Rolling Stones in the early days, when he booked them to Sunday evenings at the Station Hotel in Richmond, at what came to be called the Crawdaddy Club, taken from the Stones 20min rave-up version of Bo Diddley´s Crawdad. He announced to the press that he would make a short promotional doc-style film of the rising popularity of R`n´B in the UK and the Rolling Stones. He took the Rolling Stones in April into the RG Jones recording studio, two songs were recorded, Pretty Thing and I´m Allright with extra footage shot in the club. The film starts with Stu´s transit van arriving at the Station Hotel and the band´s gear being unloaded, the crowd gathered inside and the band performing the pre-recorded songs. The 7 minutes documentary, originally supposed to be 20 minutes in length, was never completed, due to the Stones signing with Andrew Oldham. No complete copy known resulted.

One of the earliest UK coverage of the Stones in RECORD MIRROR, May 11th 1963, written by Norman Jopling,

who gave them some early publicity, unusual for a band that had not yet released a record

It makes a reference to the 20 minute film of the sextet in action, produced by their then-manager Giorgio Gomelsky