Filming The Historical Rolling Stones First Rock Music Video

Hello, I'm Jerry Martin and in 1978, as a young television cameraman, I had the good fortune to be asked to shoot a historic experiment with the Rolling Stones that would change the course of music forever.

That experiment in 1978 was rolled into a show in America called "In Concert" and its equivalent show in England. It would be another three years before the launch of MTV in 1981 when the three songs off of the "Some Girls" album would come to be known as the first "Rock Video". It would later be followed by "Music Videos" in every form from Rock to Rap and everything in between.

It would become the new way that music would be marketed. It was controversial in the beginning and certainly expensive, but the experiment paid off big and continues to this day.

Now all these years later in 2012 as I reflect on what will no doubt become the Rolling Stones last world tour, I remember that sunny summer day in 1978 at an upper East side sound stage in Manhattan, NY around twelve noon when Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ron Wood and Bill Wyman walked into the studio carrying their own clothing bags. They were all together and all on time. They must have known even then how important this was going to be.

I was just happy to be spending the next twenty plus hours with them. I brought along my Nikon film camera to shoot souvenirs for myself and lucky I did. I posed and shot them a lot during the time that we weren't shooting the video and when I had to pick up the heavy hardware that passed as "hand held" video cameras at the time, I set my Nikon on a wide angle and asked the stage hand to shoot me shooting them. All I wanted was souvenir pictures of me and the Rolling Stones.

They became part of my memories over the years, but I preserved the negatives and realized that this would be a good time to share that historic day with their fans. These are the only pictures in existence of that day and the Rolling Stones, as young men who launched us into a new era of pairing music with video.

I tried to tell the story of that day and night into the next morning as it unfolded and place you there with me behind my camera, hanging with each of them together and individually during breaks.

As a fan myself, I knew that I should tell the story with mostly pictures and just enough words to answer the obvious questions. So, it's mostly a picture book from cover to cover and not a wordy novel.

I wanted you to see what I saw, as I saw it and the best way to do that is with pictures. I also knew that Rolling Stones fans would want to preserve it, so I had it made on a thick excellent quality glossy paper that will last you a lifetime.

I also priced the book as low as possible because it is a once in a lifetime event and I want every fan of the Rolling Stones to be able to have one, it is a great Rolling Stones memorabilia.

I enjoyed my time with the Rolling Stones, as well as the writing this book for you and I know you'll love owning it.

Thank you.