Saint Tropez provided the backdrop and Chapelle Sainte-Anne the venue as Mick Jagger exchanged vows with Blanca Pérez-Mora Macías, soon to be known as Bianca Jagger, on May 12, 1971.
The sixties were over, Altamont was still a recent memory and The Rolling Stones were a band in transition, having exiled to the south of France at the bequest of their financial advisors to avoid the UK’s soaring tax rates.
And it was here, in a picturesque chapel overlooking the Place du Maréchal-Leclerc, that Jagger would marry the Nicaraguan actress in front of guests including Sir Paul and Linda McCartney, Ringo Starr and royal photographer Patrick Lichfield.
But it was the image of bandmate Keith Richards, arms folded, underdressed and clearly bemused as he watched Jagger marry his new wife, that told the real story, according to a new biography about the legendary band.
Documenting their extraordinary career in forthcoming book The Rolling Stones: The Biography, author Bob Spitz says Richards was stunned when Jagger told him about the planned wedding, just seven days before it took place.
According to Spitz, Jagger, now 82, broke the news while the band rehearsed songs that would eventually be included on their 1972 album, Exile on Main St.
Saint Tropez provided the backdrop as Mick Jagger exchanged vows with Blanca Pérez-Mora Macías, soon to be known as Bianca Jagger, on May 12, 1971
‘The first rehearsal, on May 5, was a loose review of recent material,’ he writes. ‘Halfway through it, Mick let slip that on May 12 he and Bianca were marrying in St Tropez.
‘The news was a bombshell, especially for Keith. Mick hadn’t taken him into his confidence – Keith had a contempt for the tradition, viewing marriage as a bourgeois affair.
‘Neither did Mick tell him that Bianca was four months pregnant.’
Spitz claims the entire ceremony was arranged at the eleventh hour, with guests given just 48 hours notice and many of them boarding the same flight to France from Gatwick Airport.
He writes: ‘Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and their wives were on board (seated at opposite ends of the cabin as McCartney was suing his Beatles bandmates), as were Eric Clapton, members of the Small Faces, including the future Stone Ronnie Wood, Pete Townshend and Keith Moon from the Who, Peter Frampton, Stephen Stills, the film director Roger Vadim, the photographer Patrick Lichfield, the designer Ossie Clark and Mick’s parents – 75 passengers in all.
‘The music producer Jimmy Miller, who marvelled at the amount of pot and cocaine circulating on the flight, quipped, “I don’t think this plane needs any fuel to fly.”’
With Saint Tropez rapidly overrun with ‘stargazers, tabloid press and paparazzi,’ Mick and Bianca’s civil ceremony was followed by a Catholic service at Chapelle Sainte-Anne.
But according to Spitz, the bride and groom were ‘angry and frazzled’ ahead of the service, with Bianca eventually leaving her new husband to party into the early hours at their star-studded reception while she retired to their bedroom.
‘The party raged until the morning, fuelled by champagne, cocaine and performances by the famous guests,’ Spitz writes.
‘Mick largely ignored Bianca, who decamped to her hotel room early on. He sang lead on a number of R&B staples, finally stealing away slightly before 5:00am.
‘The next day Mick and Bianca boarded a yacht for a ten-day honeymoon to Corsica and Sardinia. Any new music would be put off for at least two weeks.’
The couple would welcome their only child, daughter Jade, in October 1971. They divorced seven years later, with Bianca later claiming her ex-husband was ‘… in some ways a misogynist, because there are too many women available to him.’
Keith Richards with his partner Anita Pallenberg and children at Jagger’s wedding in 1971
The Rolling Stones’ new album Foreign Tongues is released on July 10 and will feature appearances from former Beatles bass player Sir Paul McCartney and Robert Smith
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The Rolling Stones’ new album Foreign Tongues will feature appearances from former Beatles bass player Sir Paul McCartney and The Cure frontman Robert Smith.
The record follows 2023’s Hackney Diamonds that also featured Sir Paul playing bass on the song Bite My Head Off, and it will also feature appearances from Steve Winwood, formerly of The Spencer Davis Group and Traffic, late drummer Charlie Watts, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers drummer Chad Smith.
A new single, titled In The Stars was recently unveiled, alongside the record’s opening song Rough And Twisted, with the single getting a physical release on May 15.
Foreign Tongues will be released on July 10, and features the band’s current members, frontman Sir Mick Jagger and guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, along with core collaborators Darryl Jones, Matt Clifford and Steve Jordan.
The Rolling Stones: The Biography is released on May 28.
