Unseen Rolling Stones photographs found in south London loft

Intimate pictures unveiling life on the road come to light after deathbed revelation by son of ‘Spanish Tony’, the band’s friend and fixer

A collection of personal photographs revealing life on tour with the Rolling Stones will go on display after the revelation of a family secret led to their discovery.
The intimate pictures of the band had been gathering dust in a south London loft for decades before being discovered by the grandsons of Tony Sanchez, the Rolling Stones’ close friend and fixer.
Nicknamed “Spanish Tony” by Keith Richards, Sanchez lived with the Stones for many years and had unprecedented access to the band.
After his death, the collection of photographs was passed down to his son, Steve. However, Steve had a complicated relationship with his father, being raised by his grandparents and believing “Spanish Tony” to be his brother.
Not wanting to be reminded of the man, he locked away his father’s collection in the attic of his house in Biggin Hill.
It was only on his deathbed that Steve told his sons, Nick and Matt, about their family connection to the Stones, which led them to rediscover the treasure trove of band memorabilia. 
“Spanish Tony” worked with the band from one of their early albums, Beggars Banquet, released in 1968, through to their live album The Rock and Roll Circus, which was released in 1996.
He also joined the band during their exile in the South of France in the spring of 1971, when they fled the UK following the Labour government’s 93 per cent tax on high earners.
“Spanish Tony was a hard man. Biff bang! One of those. He ran a gambling casino for Spanish waiters, after hours. He was a dope dealer… with a Mark 10 Jaguar, two-tone, all done up pimp-style,” Keith Richards wrote of Sanchez in his memoir, Life, published in 2010.
“While the Stones were busy becoming The Stones in the 60s and 70s, Tony was snapping away and his pictures give an unrivalled view of a band at a time in their lives when anything was possible,” said Oliver Bayliss, owner & founder of Bayliss Rare Books.
In 1979, a few of the pictures surfaced when Sanchez published his memoir, Up and Down with The Rolling Stones, prompting fans of the world’s greatest rock band to wonder where the originals were being kept. 
Thousands of negatives, including pictures of the Stones, the Beatles and naked photos of Anita Pallenberg, the German-Italian actress and Stones muse, were sealed up in boxes and forgotten about in a loft until Sanchez’s son, Steve, spoke about them on his deathbed.
Sanchez’s grandsons decided to start sharing his collection of photos with the world, and now run his estate, Spanish Tony Media.
The photographs will be on display at a gallery in Notting Hill in an exhibition titled The Rolling Stones – Elegantly Wasted from Feb 29 to March 5.
Mr Bayliss said: “One will never see pictures like this of The Rolling Stones again. No one [else] had this level of access to them and then was allowed to snap away.
“These pictures show the Stones as never seen before. Tony is a fascinating figure: drug dealer, writer, photographer – a true freewheeling spirit that in my mind perfectly encapsulates the century he occupied.
“I spent months trawling through Tony’s archive – thousands of negatives and contact sheets – and am blown away by Tony’s unique eye and the quality of these images. Fans and collectors alike are in for a real treat.”
Matt Dominguez, director of Spanish Tony Media, said: “This is a rare opportunity to see unique and unseen images of the band. 
“Naturally there has been a lot of interested collaborators, however we chose to work with Oliver Bayliss due to his love of the band, his strong reputation and his ideas on exhibiting the collection tastefully.”