Hidden Rolling Stones letters found in drawer hints at Brian Jones love affair

Unseen Rolling Stones letters hinting at an unknown love affair between band founder Brian Jones and a London shopgirl could fetch thousands at auction after being found hidden in a set of drawers.

Terry Wainwright was going through his late mother Sylvia’s personal belongings when he made the discovery of “one of the most incredible pieces of rock memorabilia seen in many years.”

It included remarkable personal letters with one note signed by Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards – providing a fascinating insight into the early years of the swinging sixties.

Sylvia was living in a rented flat in Chiswick, West London, and working in a clothes shop, having applied to study dress design at the Royal Academy of Art, when she started hanging out with the famous band in 1964.

Penned to her sister Lynn, she describes parties at Mick Jagger’s flat, nights out with “all the pop stars,” plans for the band’s American tour, and her burgeoning romance with Brian Jones.

One says: “You’ll never guess who I’ve got in the flat with me at the moment? Three of that disreputable group called the Stones. They are busy making plans for their tour in America in April.”

In one note, she writes: “Brian should be here in about ¼ of an hour. It doesn’t seem 2 minutes since I got up.”

Rather than depicting the troubled rock icon of later years, her letters capture the 22-year-old as a “boy next door” offering gifts of flowers, an Easter egg, and even dropping off a jigsaw for her.

Jones himself contributes messages, signing one: “Hi love! Brian here. How are you? Pity I wasn’t here to see you when you come next week. Never mind – maybe someday. Lots of love, Brian.”

One of Sylvia’s letters begins: “That party at Mick’s was an absolute WOW! Everybody was there, and I mean everybody.”

Elsewhere, she mentions “Jeff (Beck) from the Yardbirds”, references model Jean Shrimpton’s sister Christine, and describes social gatherings in Chiswick packed with musicians and “loads of boys”.

Terry, from Thornton-Cleveleys near Blackpool, Lancs., said: “Many years ago, my mom told me how in the early sixties she and her sister had briefly been dating Mick Jagger and Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones, but we took it with a pinch of salt.”

But when sorting out her belongings at her home in Knott End-on-Sea, Lancs., after she died this year, aged 78, he came across an envelope at the back of a display cabinet.

He added, “It was the last thing I came across.

“These personal letters with messages from the band and signatures. I did my research too, and all of it adds up.

“They were hidden at the back of a display cabinet, so were obviously long treasured by my mom.”

The archive of letters and snapshots are expected to fetch between $2,010-$2,680 when they go under the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers in Etwall, Derbys., tomorrow (Wed).

Hansons Auctioneers’ music expert, Claire Howell, said: “At the time, the Rolling Stones were famous but not the global megastars they would later become.

“Sylvia’s letters are littered with some of the most famous names of the decade, as well as giving an insight into a band on the brink of worldwide stardom.

“They also shine an intimate light on Brian Jones, the band’s founder and perhaps its most troubled member, who, a few years after the letters were written, would be found dead from an overdose aged just 27.”

In his short life, Brian Jones had a famously turbulent romantic life with his high-profile girlfriends, including models, actresses, and musicians.

Among them were the German-Italian model Anita Pallenberg, who left Jones for his bandmate Keith Richards, Linda Lawrence (who later married the singer Donovan), and the German singer Nico.

Claire added: “But these letters reveal a thoughtful young lover who dropped off 1,000-piece jigsaws at Sylvia’s flat –seemingly nothing like his behaviour in his later highly-strung relationships.”

Another letter mentions the actor Roger Moore, then starring as Simon Templar in the television series The Saint, whom Sylvia had served at work.

Claire said, “Collectors see thousands of signed scraps.

“What is rare is a first-hand contemporary account with an unknown, and touching, romantic connection.

“This record is even more significant because it pre-dates the mythologising of the 1960s counterculture and gives a wonderful insight into an on-the-brink band.”