Fairytale launch celebrations of The Rolling Stones: 50 in London

Jumbo Editorial Team

It was a party to remember and cherish. The Rolling Stones stole the limelight in the launch of the Daily Mirror's book celebrating the band's 50th anniversary as Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards joined friends, family and celebrity guests at London's Somerset House over the weekend. The veteran group also joined forces to open the official photo exhibition running until August 27. 

50 years after first getting together, and with a combined age of 272, it seems the band still know how to have a good time at an age when most of us would rather relax with our ¬slippers on, the Rolling Stones showed that they can still party like 20-year-olds. 

Mick Jagger, 68, Charlie Watts, 71, Ronnie Wood, 65, and Keith Richards, 68, ordered endless bottles of wine and platters of food as they played cards until 5am in a private suite in London’s Dorchester Hotel. 

Sir Mick smiled at a 1964 photograph of himself draped around Keith. "Seeing this book is a real trip down memory lane. The photos are fantastic and I am delighted we agreed to be a part of this," he remarked. 

Drummer Charlie, who was the man originally behind the Rolling Stones 50 tome, also paid tribute to the project. 

"The quality of the pictures in the Mirror's archive, and the memories they brought back, were too good to ignore. It has been fantastic to look back through the past like this, and fifty years is another landmark for the Stones," he observed. 

Half a century after the group's first photoshoot at the legendary 60s haunt, the Marquee Club, the rockers are rumoured to be ready to tour again. 

They have reportedly met-up twice for rehearsals, fuelling speculation they will embark on a money-spinning 2013 world tour. The quartet last got together when they attended the premiere of Martin Scorsese's documentary Shine A Light in 2008. 

Curated, introduced and narrated by the band themselves, The Rolling Stones: 50 is the only officially authorised book to celebrate this milestone. 

With privileged access to a wealth of rare unseen material, the book is packed with superb photography, contact sheets, negatives strips, outtakes and much more from every period in the band’s history. With more than 1,000 illustrations, it also features rare Stones memorabilia. 

The contributions by legendary photo¬graphers Gered Mankowitz, Jean-Marie Périer, Dezo Hoffmann, Michael Cooper, Terry O’Neill, Bent Rej, Philip Townsend and many others make this the definitive celebration of 50 years of the Stones. 

This is one of those books the music lovers in particular cannot afford to live without. With a massive following of The Rolling Stones all over the world, the book should become a bestseller.