1. Stray Cat Blues - Instrumental, 2. Jam #1, 3. Stray Cat Blues, 4. Unknown Song, 5. Jumping Jack Flash, 6. Jam # 2, 7. Short Jam, 8. Hold On I m Coming, 9. Rock Me Baby, 10. My Home Is A Prison, 11. Slow Blues Jam, 12. Phone Ringing Jam, 13. River Deep, Mountain High, 14. Interview with MJ, KR, CW and Jimmy Miller By NME Journalist Keith Altham.

This is the best version one will get to hear of the Stones Surrey Rehearsals from 1968, which were the pre production sessions for the band s Olympic Studio sessions that would produce seminal songs like Jumping Jack Flash or Stray Cat Blues and many other classics that would end on the Beggars Banquet album. Only Mick Jagger (Vocals & Guitar), Keith Richards (Guitar) and Charlie Watts (Drums) were there, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman not being present at these rehearsals. From the accompanying text: they were on Reels to Reels of   Stones concerts from the June / July 1975 US Tour, featuring  Washington 1^st July 75, Boston 11^th & 12^th July 75, New York City 22^nd July 75, Los Angeles 9^th , 10^th , 11^th , 12^th  & 13^th  July 75 (it seems they were not Mike Millard recordings) and San Francisco 15^th July 75. On Side Two of the reel to reel having the incomplete recording of Los Angeles 9^th July 1975 were the Surrey 1968 rehearsals.

All the Reel to Reels had the set lists either written on the front of the boxes if there was space or written on sheets of paper & put inside the boxes.

The info regarding the Surrey recording simply stated it was in Mono recorded at 7 1/2 IPS & that they were pretty crummy. It seems the original collector was told that someone at R.G Jones studio sold it for either 50 or 100 British pounds.

Listening to the tape it can be said that this version on the reel to reel can t be that far off from the tape that was sold, be aware that many tracks fade in or fade out.

Sometimes in the early 80 s a Reel To Reel Player was used to transfer all reels onto cassette and now transferred into digital format. Present at the sessions was the new Producer Jimmy Miller and engineer Eddie Kramer.

On the entry for Surrey there is also mention of Ian Stewart being there during My Home Is A Prison but really no piano can be heard. More or less this is continuous jamming rather than a rehearsal of proper titles, additional guitar by Mick Jagger on many cuts; it begins with an untitled instrumental featuring Stray Cat Blues Riffs, a very embryonic version, followed by the first Jam; then more Stray Cat Blues. A big mystery is Track 4 the unknown song. Looking at The Complete Works it is stated that it could be Jimi Hendrix Can You See Me but Track 4 doesn t sound like it. Even though Jagger s vocals are off-mic some lyrics can be heard and at one point he sings: down on my knees, the word knees does appear in Can You Hear Me in the line Begging you on my knees. After countless listens a few lines such as I m coming home have been deciphered and was found something like Hats off to my baby, in my own store / story??? in my home. None of those lines appear in the lyrics of Hendrix song. So what is it, a new song or some other mid 60s song not as well known as Hold On I m Coming & River Deep Mountain High? Somebody called it a Psychedelic Blues Song.

Then comes Jumping Jack Flash the e arly version (but not the legendary original demo featuring Bill Wyman - who claimed to be the author of the intro riff - on keyboards), an early embryonic instrumental take, followed by a couple more jams and by the Isaac Hayes-David Porter song Hold On I m Coming, again with Jagger off mic vocals on Rock Me Baby, the famous B,B, King hit featuring initial vocals (plus Satisfaction-lyrics coming from Sam & Dave s original); My Home Is A Prison by James Moore (Slim Harpo) has Jagger on harmonica; piano by Ian Stewart which was mistakenly known as I ll Coming Home or mistaken for Jimmy Reed s Shoot My Baby. After 2 more jams, the first of which features some slide doodles which might be an embryonic version of No Expectations, comes the Spector-Barry-Greenwich anthem River Deep Mountain High of Ike & Tina Turner fame that ends the set that should have been recorded around February 28, 1968.

Compared to the cd The 1968 Surrey Rehearsals (VGP 108), Beggars Banquet Sessions   OMS 239-243) 4 cds & 1 DVD, the LP of the same name (no label) plus a fan made cdr, this seems the best version of the 1968 Surrey Rehearsals so far available.

The tape ends with an interview conducted by Keith Altham from the NME at the R.G Jones studio. Interviewed are Mick, Keith, Charlie & Jimmy Miller, the Stones new producer. This tape is probably Keith Altham s working tape from which he ended up taking portions of what was said for the article published in the NME (New Musical Express) 16^th March 1968 issue; there is also a short piano playing, but it does not seem to be Ian Stewart playing it.. These are historical recording and having them in such good quality is great, the next best thing would probably be to locate the first version of Satisfaction on tape with Keith Richards snorting (just a bit).

Packaging is nice, VGP style, however due to the nature of this recording a front cover shot without Wyman and Jones would have been more adequate.