Galveston man big fan of Rolling Stones

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - Brian Jarvis first heard of The Rolling Stones in 1962.

His father, who was in the U.S. Air Force, was stationed in Hawaii, and Jarvis, then 12, was hanging with a surfer crowd. He and friends were tuned into KPOI Radio, which usually played The Beach Boys, rock and roll duo Jan and Dean or The Beatles.

The Rolling Stones, formed in 1962 by blues purist Brian Jones, was edgy, the group's songs transcending the naiveté and innocence that initially defined The Beatles.

When Jarvis heard The Rolling Stones singing the American blues on KPOI, it was love at first riff.

"They just stood right out; I'd never heard anything like it before" Jarvis said. "They were counterculture, bad boys. The Beatles were singing 'I Want to Hold Your Hand;" the Stones were singing 'I Just Want to Make Love to You.'"

Jarvis, an island resident who still catches waves and owns C-Sick Surfing , has followed the band's 50-year career, amassing one of the most extensive collections of The Rolling Stones memorabilia in the Houston area, which he values at about $100,000.

Early this month, Jarvis laid out his collection, lending a rock-and-roll museum air to his home.

The collection, which takes several rooms to display, includes 160 albums from The Rolling Stones, some original releases and many in mint or near mint condition. His collection includes imports from England, Japan and Russia, along with bootlegs of concerts and off-labels. He owns hundreds of posters, including those promoting concerts or record releases and also venue posters, which are more rare.

Then there are newspaper rack inserts promoting concerts, which are even harder to find. He also owns games, puzzles, pins, buttons, calendars, key rings, bumper stickers, guides, lithographs, books, magazines with Mick Jagger or Keith Richards on the cover, schedules and contacts the band's roadies used while on tour. He also has a roadie jacket.

There's a story behind almost everything produced by or for the Stones, and Jarvis is happy to tell it.

For instance, he owns various versions of what was then a scandalous album cover for "Sticky Fingers," released in April 1971 and containing "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses." Conceived by Andy Warhol and designed by Craig Braun, the cover featured a close-up of a jeans-clad male crotch. The cover of the original vinyl release featured a working zipper that opened to reveal cotton briefs.

Censors in Spain banned the provocative cover, which was replaced with an image of female fingers emerging from an opened can of molasses. That Spanish album cover is worth about $150, Jarvis said. Jarvis owns both versions of the album and a poster of the macabre finger and molasses image.

Recently, he was going through his collection and rediscovered an unopened, first studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in the United Kingdom in 1964 on the Decca label, titled "The Rolling Stones," which Jarvis estimates is worth about $1,500.

Collectors like Jarvis know that few things make values rise better than deaths, band breakups or cancellations. Jarvis owns a poster promoting The Rolling Stones' canceled 1973 concerts at the Cardiff and Pembroke Castles. The colorful poster, featuring a dragon whose mouth is the image of the Stones' famous lips and tongue logo, was canceled because locals feared an outbreak of "violence and raucous behavior," according to reports.

His love of music goes beyond the Stones. He owns 1,500 other albums, including by Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and The Beatles, which he's selling at downtown island shop Past Perfect.

Jarvis said he doesn't have a favorite item in his Stones collection. It's the sum of the parts that make his collection so valuable. Sold off alone, the items wouldn't fetch as much, he said. And if the price were right, Jarvis would be willing to sell, especially if it would help him finance a surfing camp venture he'd offer out of state during the winter months.

But Jarvis does have a favorite song by The Rolling Stones — "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

His least favorite? "Angie."

What would be the ultimate prize for such a collector of The Rolling Stones memorabilia?

To meet the band's charismatic frontman Jagger, Jarvis said.

"I would like to talk to him," Jarvis said. "What man my age didn't want to be the next member of The Rolling Stones?"

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Information from: The Galveston County Daily News, http://www.galvnews.com