Stash de rola

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Stash de Rola's father: the painter Balthasar Kłossowski de Rola, known as Balthus

Stanislas Kłossowski de Rola (born  October 13, 1942 in Bern , Switzerland ) is a British actor , singer , writer and music producer who, as Stash de Rola, was one of the outstanding personalities of the Swinging Sixties in London and Paris . His father was the Polish - German - French painter Balthasar Kłossowski de Rola (1908–2001), known as Balthus .

life and work

Villa Diodati in Cologny on Lake Geneva

De Rola's mother was Antoinette de Watteville (von Wattenwyl), a Swiss aristocrat from Bern who his father had married in 1937. De Rola spent part of his childhood in the Villa Diodati in Cologny above Geneva , once the residence of Lord Byron , a distant relative of de Rola. Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley had visited Lord Byron in the Villa Diodati in 1816. Mary Shelley was inspired to write her novel Frankenstein by her stay in the villa .

In his youth, which he spent in Swiss and English boarding schools, de Rola developed a strong interest in acting and rock'n'roll . After finishing school he lived between Rome , Paris and London . In 1959 he was discovered by director Luchino Visconti in Rome and signed a film contract. In 1960 he attended the Cannes Film Festival with Federico Fellini . De Rola was friends with a number of musicians, including the late Tony Williams , the lead singer of The Platters . In late 1962, de Rola went to New York and from there to Hollywood to pursue his acting further.

Vince Taylor 1963

At the end of 1964, de Rola returned to Paris and played as a percussionist in the backing band of his friend Vince Taylor . In the spring of 1965 Vince Taylor and the Playboys appeared in the Paris Olympia as the opening act for the Rolling Stones . In this way, de Rola got to know the band members and befriended the guitarist Brian Jones . Later, a friendship developed with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards . Soon after, he also became acquainted with the Beatles .

After Vince Taylor's band broke up in the summer of 1965 due to drug abuse , de Rola formed his own band with Bobbie Clarke as drummer and Ralph Danks as guitarist. After a number of gigs at the Paris Club Bilboquet and a performance at the American Center , the band was offered a recording deal that would market them as the French Beatles. However, her aversion to contemporary French pop was a primary reason for her decision to turn down the offer. Instead, band members decided to follow the Everly Brothers , who they met in Paris, to Los Angeles .

The Everly Brothers 1965

In Los Angelos, de Rola and the other band members met with numerous musicians and took an active part in the music scene. They played with the Yardbirds , saw a James Brown concert , appeared on a television show with Sonny and Cher, and attended Bob Dylan's concert at the Hollywood Bowl . The director Bob Rafelson and the producer Bert Schneider offered de Rola a leading role in the planned TV series The Monkees . After de Rola had read the script , he declined to participate in the later very successful format.

In late 1965, de Rola left Los Angeles and the band after having trouble getting a work permit. He moved to Copenhagen and recorded a solo single there, which was released on the music label Sonet. The song on the A side was called Peace , and the B side was a cover version of Bob Dylan's Chimes Of Freedom . The single was released under the name Stach de Rola . Stachou is the Polish nickname for Stanislas and is occasionally found as the given name of de Rola. Balthus also made a watercolor of his son entitled Stachou . De Rola called himself Stash a short time later because the English pronunciation of Stach sounded too harsh.

The Rolling Stones 1967

After de Rola had turned down a recording contract with French producer Eddie Barclay because he did not want to make a recording in French , de Rola came to London in early 1966 and recorded a cover version of Arthur Lee's A Message to Pretty . Mick Jagger, John Lennon and Paul McCartney took part in the production . Shortly after the song was recorded and produced, however, the end result disappeared without a trace. However, this project cemented de Rola's friendships with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

De Rola took part in a few sessions of the Beatles and apparently contributed to the 1967 song Baby, You're a Rich Man , which was on the B-side of the single All You Need Is Love . De Rola was also present when John Lennon developed the chord structure for All You Need Is Love on the piano. Allegedly Lennon and McCartney supported him in planning their own music album . McCartney is also said to have composed a song for de Rola. He shared a passion for esoteric and mysticism with George Harrison .

Although Stash de Rola remained a marginal figure in the music scene, he was at the center of the party scene in Swinging London. He regularly went to the Bag O'Nails , Ad Lib or Speakeasy clubs , where he met with Jimi Hendrix and members of The Animals and The Who . De Rola was considered a dandy and was called Peacock , called (Peacock) because it expensive vintage -Clothes from velvet and silk was wearing, which he had partly designed himself. He frequently exchanged clothes with Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones.

Brian Jones 1967

On May 10, 1967, Scotland Yard searched Brian Jones's apartment on Courtfield Road in London and arrested him and Stash de Rola, who was also present. Both have been tried for drug possession. De Rola was acquitted in the trial that did not take place until October 30, 1967 . Brian Jones was sentenced to one year in prison for drug possession . This sentence was suspended on an appeal hearing on December 12, 1967.

The indictment was a traumatic experience for those involved. De Rola's passport was revoked, he was at the mercy of hostilities and his reputation was damaged. During the trial, de Rola received a lot of encouragement and support, especially from Paul McCartney, who let him live with him. Brian Jones, however, followed the advice of his lawyers and stayed away from the band members of the Rolling Stones during this time, which further worsened his mental state.

In the summer of 1967, de Rola traveled with Jones and his ex-girlfriend Anita Pallenberg to the Cannes Film Festival, where the film Murder and Manslaughter by director Volker Schlöndorff was shown. The leading actress was Pallenberg and the music was by Jones. The end of 1967 took Stash de Rola, Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd and some friends a trip to Wales in the Black Mountains . There they took LSD intensely , apparently causing Syd Barrett to break down psychologically, which eventually led to his expulsion from the band.

In the 1960s, Stash de Rola had numerous affairs and romantic relationships. His partners included Joan Blackman , Tuesday Weld , Nico , Suki Potier , Linda Eastman , Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg. He was briefly engaged to Romina Power , the daughter of Tyrone Power , and wanted to make a film with her under the direction of John Huston in Hollywood, but was not allowed to leave the country at the time.

In 1967, Stash de Rola held a problematic photo session at the Villa Medici in Rome. The villa was the seat of the Académie de France à Rome , of which his father was director. De Rola wore his best dandy clothes and posed with two nude models in the photos . Although the project was not pursued, the photographer James Baes sold the photos in 1968 to the Italian men's magazine Playmen . The photos caused a scandal at the time and angered his father.

In the late 1960s, de Rola resumed acting, playing supporting roles in Le dolci signore , a romantic comedy by Luigi Zampa starring Ursula Andress , and Saturation 70 , a psychedelic science fiction by Gram Parsons that was never completed . Five-year-old Julian Jones, a son of Brian Jones, who died in 1969, also starred in this film, which was shot near Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert . De Rola had remained connected to Brian Jones despite his drug problems and was deeply affected by his death.

In the 1970s de Rola wrote the dialogues for Roger Vadim's film La Jeune fille assassinée , played in Joe Cocker's band, traveled with Marlon Brando , made numerous trips to Ceylon and was once again involved in an arrest for drug possession. On June 26, 1973, police stormed Keith Richards' home on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea and took Richards, his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg and Stash de Rola into custody. On payment of a deposit , the three were released the same evening.

Keith Richards and Ron Wood 1982

In the 1980s, de Rola founded the recording company Thrill Records, which he later renamed Thrill Entertainment. In 1987 he produced the album The Dirty Strangers by the band of the same name. Keith Richards and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones played guitar along with some of the songs. In 1992 de Rola made the film Shining Blood , in which he was actor, screenwriter , director and producer at the same time . He also published two books on alchemy . In the early 2000s, de Rola published the love letters between his father and mother, which they wrote to each other from 1928 to 1937. One of the reasons for the publication was to give the reader an insight into what Balthus really thought about the painting and the people.

Publications (selection)

  • Stanislas Klossowski de Rola: Alchemy: The Secret Art. Bounty Books, London 1974, ISBN 9780517517116 .
  • Stanislas Klossowski de Rola: Alchemy: The Secret Art. Droemer Knaur , Munich 1988, ISBN 9783426041055 .
  • Stanislas Klossowski de Rola: Balthus - paintings. Schirmer / Mosel Verlag , Munich 1987, ISBN 9783888141744 .
  • Stanislas Klossowski de Rola: Balthus. Thames & Hudson , London 1996, ISBN 9780500092606 .
  • Stanislas Klossowski de Rola: The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century. Thames & Hudson, London 1998, ISBN 9780500279816 .
  • Stanislas Klossowski de Rola (Ed.): Balthus. Correspondance Amoureuse avec Antoinette De Watteville 1928–1937. Buchet / Chastel, Paris 2001, ISBN 2283018609 .
  • Stanislas Klossowski de Rola (ed.): Balthus - Antoinette de Watteville - love letters 1928–1937. Gachnang & Springer, Berlin / Bern 2005, ISBN 9783906127743 .

Filmography (selection)

  • Feature film: Les démons de minuit (1961) - Actor
  • Feature film: Le dolci signore (1968) - Actor
  • Feature film: La jeune fille assassinée (1974) - screenwriter
  • Feature film: Shining Blood (1992) - Actor, screenwriter, director and producer
  • Documentation: International Velvet Superstar (1994) - Actor
  • Documentation: Tim Leary: The Art of Dying (2008) - Actor
  • Documentation: Harumi - La beauté du printemps (2010) - Actor
  • TV Miniseries: Kanaga (2018) - Actor

Discography (selection)

Single Peace from 1965

As a musician

  • 1966: Stach de Rola: Peace / Chimes of Freedom (Sonet)

As a producer

  • 1988: The Dirty Strangers: The Dirty Strangers (Thrill Records)

literature

  • Robin Bell: The History of British Rock and Roll: The Psychedelic Years 1967-1969. Robin Bell Books, Kristinehamn 2017, ISBN 9789198191684 .
  • Stephen Davis: The Stones. Europa Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 9783203760759 .

Web links

Commons : Stash de Rola  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10368278/ (07.03.2019)
  2. ↑ http://www.artnet.com/artists/balthus/stachou-TUgGBTwiArjOSB125bM0vw2 (07.03.2019)
  3. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/05/saturation-70-the-gram-parsons-ufo-film-that-never-flew (06.03.2019)
  4. ↑ https://www.discogs.com/Stach-de-Rola-Peace-Chimes-of-Freedom/release/12074038 (07.03.2019)
  5. ↑ https://www.discogs.com/The-Dirty-Strangers-The-Dirty-Strangers/release/2414682 (07.03.2019)
personal data
SURNAME De Rola, Stash
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kłossowski De Rola, Stanislas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor, singer, writer and record producer
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern , Switzerland