Unzipped, Groninger Museum

Unzipped returned to Groningen, as the pandemic prevented most people to go and see it a few years ago. The idea seems a bit odd, to go and see a band in a museum. As David Bowie had already shown, the link between rock, art and fashion is totally interlinked and if anything came across in the Unzipped exhibition, it was just that. It is not enough to write, record and play a nice song. To become a superstar it takes a package. The final, unmentioned element is marketing.

The Rolling Stones is a band that does not need an introduction. For over 60 years today it is in the news and when a new record is released or a new tour announced, it's headline news. Still breaking boundaries, with its last remaining colleagues, McCartney, Dylan and The Who.

Unzipped, after the Warhol sleeve of 'Sticky Fingers', starts with the very first photo taken of the band and leads the visitor through the messy house most of the band members lived in in 1962-63, where they learned their chops. Anyone who has lived in student house or youth-infested spot, will recognise most of it. Edith Grove 102 was the start of the journey that lasts right up to today.

That journey takes the visitor through time. From a band playing R&B songs, it is transformed slowly but surely. Manager Andrew "Loog" Oldham markets the band as the anti-Beatles. They stop dressing as Beatles, grow their hair just a bit longer and become the band every parent has to hate. A band for boys more than girls. And boys riot given half the chance.

What happens next is extraordinary as the band started to cross-dress, ever more extravagant and getting away with it, with these boys, remember. Swinging London and the Stones certainly were a match made in heaven. And they kept it all, it turns out.

Step further in time and you'll notice how it all started to intertwine. Album covers and art blend, high fashion and rockshows blend, photoshoots become art, design and rockshows blend, construction and rockshows blend, video art and rock blend, commerce/marketing and rock blend and finally accountancy and rock blend. The Rolling Stones became a multi-million dollar industry and organised in such a way the product was placed in the right way. All band members played their individual role. Not much was left to chance. Not even with the ultimate rockstar: Keith Richards.

For Unzipped two eyes and two ears were not enough, I found. There's so much to see, so much to digest, so much to listen to. The important thing remains the music. Standing in front of multiple screens, with six 'Sympathy For The Devil' suits worn by Mick Jagger over the years, a mix of the DVDs over time showing them as well and one live version of the song playing the whole time, it is like being at that show, easy to dance along to. In 2019 when Unzipped was created, The Stones were just four people: Mick, Keith, Ronnie and Charlie and that is rammed home alright.

I have one point of criticism. The early Stones were with Brian Jones and for thirty years Bill Wyman. Especially Jones' role ought to have been a little bigger. He was the most extravagant Stone for a few years and certainly a driver in their first successes. Mick Taylor is just a footnote, but then in 2023 he is of course. The glory shone on the most important sidekicks is well-deserved. As a comment. What was better organised at the Bowie exhibition, was that all was one because of the headphones every visitor was given. I became one with the exhibition. That was missing with Unzipped.

With 'Hackney Diamonds' the band is totally back as a relevant, albeit older rockband. "Old Gods, Almost Dead', a book title, I think from the 1990s, read. It couldn't have been more beside the point in turns out. Taken literally, by now it is undeniably true but there's still a lot of life in this band and its legacy will live on for quite some time. In a few years they will be rock gods forever.

Wout de Natris