This is an Important and outrageously RARE Vintage Rolling Stones New Barbarians Rock & Roll Roadie Leather Equipment Bag, used during The New Barbarians very short-lived Canadian tour in 1979. The New Barbarians was formed by Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, and famously included Keith Richards, among others. This camera bag has a label on the top, made of an adhesive fabric similar to a band-aid, which reads: "CREW" and has the infamous logo of the New Barbarians. This bag likely belonged to a roadie who was carrying camera equipment, due to its size, but may have also held a small piece of musical equipment. On both sides of the bag, there is a stencil painted word that seems to read: "F.T.L." and some other writing which is faded and illegible to me. On the inside of the bag is a painted red number "34." The bag is in good condition for age and traveling work use, with some wear and scuffing to the leather (please see photos.) This might be one of the rarest pieces of Rolling Stones memorabilia to ever come up for sale, as the New Barbarians only lasted a few months in 1979 before breaking up. I can find nothing remotely comparable to this anywhere online, and I am sure it is the only one still in existence. This would be a rare gem for any serious Rolling Stones fan or classic Rock & Roll memorabilia collector. Acquired from an abandoned storage locker in Los Angeles, California. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique items!
About the New Barbarians:
Remembering the New Barbarians / MECCA Arena riot of 1979
Buried in the long, storied, and debauched history of The Rolling Stones is a peculiar footnote: The New Barbarians. A side project, of sorts, of Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, the band formed in the spring of 1979 and essentially flamed out a few months later. And buried in The New Barbarians’ brief run is another peculiar footnote: a good old-fashioned riot at Milwaukee’s MECCA Arena.
First, some background. With the Stones deciding not to tour in 1979, Wood formed The New Barbarians to not only kill some time, but to promote his third solo album, Gimme Some Neck. He quickly formed a “pickup band” that would perform his solo songs and a host of blues and rock covers. That band was a doozy: bassist Stanley Clarke, keyboardist Ian McLagan, saxophonist Bobby Keys, drummer Joseph Zigaboo Modeliste, and, most notably, Keith Richards. (The band’s name, meanwhile, was suggested by Neil Young.)
It was Richards’ involvement that shaped much of the Barbarians’ brief existence. Two years earlier, the Rolling Stones guitarist had been busted for heroin in Toronto. His sentence called for addiction treatment and a benefit concert for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). So, where and how would The New Barbarians make their debut? In Canada, of course, playing two CNIB charity shows on April 22, 1979. Oh, and the headlining act for those shows? The Rolling Stones.
From there, free from the Stones and any further court-mandated obligations, Wood, Richards, and The New Barbarians played one show in Ann Arbor and two in Detroit. They landed in Milwaukee on April 29. Like those previous gigs, the Milwaukee date was plagued by rumors that certain “special guests” would be making appearances. Everyone from Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan to Rod Stewart and Jimmy Page was promised and/or hoped for. Wood initially welcomed—and even spread—the rumors, but by the time the Barbarians arrived in Milwaukee, he was having none of it. Then, the night of the MECCA show, a riot broke out.
A similar incident occurred on May 7 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, “where production manager Ken Graham remembers using his body to block the mixing board from flying furniture.”
Milwaukee wasn’t pleased with the riot, and the city brought suit against The New Barbarians for damages done to the MECCA. Thus, a “make-up” show was set up for January 1980, albeit one with a far different (and diminished) lineup. This time, Wood was joined by Andy Newmark, Reggie McBride, Johnnie Lee Schell, and, um, MacKenzie Phillips. Keith Richards was nowhere to be found.
And thus The New Barbarians came to an end. But the band’s unlikely Wisconsin ties don’t end there. Because of Richards’ 1977 heroin bust, Barbarians’ tour chief Richard Fernandez was initially wary of the guitarist stepping foot on Canadian soil for the band’s first two charity shows. His solution? Have the Barbarians set up shop in the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and use it as a headquarters for the tour’s Midwest dates. Instead of staying in Canada, Richards and company would fly in and fly out—or, as Fernandez said, “Get in and get out, spic and span.”
“There was a lot of X-rated stuff going on,” Stanley Clark remembered in 2016. “It was a complete rock-and-roll tour—the kind you read about in magazines. Just what you think a rock tour should be. Everything was there—bells and whistles, perks, the extras…all the ups and downs.”
New Barbarians: Inside Rolling Stones’ Wild Seventies Spin-Off
Hear rare live material from Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards’ short-lived side project, documented in new book
Remember that time when Ronnie Wood released a solo album, put together a band to promote it that included Keith Richards and fusion bassist Stanley Clarke, and played a bunch of arena shows centered not around Richards but – perversely – Wood and his songs?
Unless you’re the most diehard of Rolling Stones fans, you probably have zero memory of that moment. But Rob Chapman’s new book, New Barbarians: Outlaws, Gunslingers and Guitars (Voyageur Press), finally tells the story of one of the most oddball and least-chronicled moments in the Stones’ history.
As Chapman details in his art-crammed book, Wood and his new label, Columbia, decided he should play some shows to promote his 1979 solo album, Gimme Some Neck. Richards, who was in between Stones sessions, signed on to his bandmate’s ad-hoc group. Richards was also eager to hit the road, because, as Chapman writes, he was “on the run from heroin, [girlfriend] Anita Pallenberg and endless psychotherapy sessions” after his 1977 drug bust in Canada. The band, a truly odd lot of musicians, included two naturals, Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan and on-again, off-again Stones saxman Bobby Keys, along with two others – Clarke and Meters drummer Ziggy Modeliste – who had barely played rock & roll before.
For a brief moment, Chapman reports, Neil Young almost joined the lineup after stopping into early rehearsals for the tour. He eventually opted out due to the birth of one of his children and the editing chores involved in his then-upcoming concert movie, Rust Never Sleeps. But after Young remarked “you guys are nothing but a bunch of barbarians,” the ad-hoc band at least had its name, adding a “New” after learning there was another band called the Barbarians. Ringo Starr and Boz Scaggs also stopped by rehearsals but, like Young, didn’t join up.
Over the course of its month-long tour, ending with shows at England’s Knebworth Festival on a bill with Led Zeppelin, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and Todd Rundgren and Utopia, the New Barbarians crammed in a lifetime of rock & roll. Drugs, booze and private jets were a daily treat; a small room was built near the back of the stage so the band could get high without the audience noticing. When Clarke offered Richards a health shake, Richards just replied, ruefully, “Stanley, Stanley.”
As Chapman reports, drama was also part of the recipe. Unsure if Wood’s name would sell out arenas, some on their business side began suggesting to reporters that the shows could include “special guests,” hinting at Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan and Jimmy Page. None of those musical pals ever materialized, and early in the tour, fans showed their displeasure at not seeing Mick but hearing an hour and a half of Wood originals, covers of blues and country songs, and the very rare Stones cover (usually “Honky Tonk Women”). In Milwaukee, a riot broke out, resulting in 81 arrests and a very pissed-off Richards.
Packed with details of stage designs, offstage and onstage photos and reproductions of tour T-shirts and limousine bills, New Barbarians is surely the last word on one of rock’s most oddball superstar tours. As a bonus, it also comes with a 10-track CD of previously unreleased live recordings – including Wood’s “Mystifies Me” and covers of Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Rock & Roller” and the blues standard “Rock Me Baby” – that revel in the band’s proudly sloppy swagger. Would a similar lineup with a similarly quirky set list make it anywhere near a 20,000-seat arena these days? Probably not, which only makes the story of the New Barbarians that much more flabbergasting today.