Sir Mick Jagger visited Kent today to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a performing arts centre named after him.<\/p>\n
He was there to open it in the year 2000, and now the Rolling Stones frontman has made a surprise return to help the community arts venue celebrate.<\/p>\n
The Rolling Stones frontman returned to Dartford Grammar. Photo: Pete Bresser<\/p>\n
Named in his honour, the Mick Jagger Centre is based at the singer\u2019s old school, Dartford Grammar School For Boys in West Hill, Dartford.<\/a><\/p>\n An actor and film producer, Sir Mick is, of course, best known as the lead singer with the Rolling Stones, the bad boys of rhythm and blues, and fierce rivals to The Beatles in the 1960s.<\/p>\n Sir Mick grew up in Dartford, living at a modest house in Denver Road and attending first Wentworth Primary School, before going on to Dartford Grammar, where he picked up eight O Levels and two A levels.<\/p>\n Fellow Rolling Stones band member Keith Richards lived just around the corner from Sir Mick in Chastilian Road and also went to Wentworth Primary, though the two parted company for a while when Richards went to the Dartford Technical High School, in Heath Lane, for his secondary education.<\/p>\n A chance reunion on Platform 2 of Dartford Station when they were both 18 led them to discover a shared taste in blues that led them a year later to found the Stones and to one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in history.<\/p>\n The Mick Jagger Centre, erected in 2000 at a cost of \u00a32m, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a series of performances and events covering all aspects of music.<\/p>\n The visit by Sir Mick has been described by the school\u2019s headmaster, Julian Metcalf, as \u201cthe icing on the cake.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to KentOnline during his visit today (November 19), Sir Mick said it was \u201creally nice\u201d to come back to the town.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cEveryone’s very welcoming, and so it’s really nice to come back. I haven’t been back for a long time.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s lots of new things about the school \u2013 there’s a new recording studio, there’s a new music room.<\/p>\n \u201cAll these things are great to see, and then I look the other way out the window, and there’s my old playground from when I was 11, so it’s a combination of the new and the old, which is really interesting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really brings back, obviously, lots of memories. Of course, now they’re tinged with the rose glasses of time.\u201d<\/p>\n He recalled the time he was involved in a school dinner strike as a pupil at the school, explaining: \u201cI was one of the leaders of that.<\/p>\n \u201cThe food really was awful, so we got fed up with that, and even some of the staff joined us because they had to eat the same thing!<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a lot of support, and to be fair, we expected to get into a lot of trouble, and we were hauled in front of the head and assistant head.<\/p>\n \u201cBut in the end, they asked us for our input and if we had any suggestions, so it was quite successful.\u201d<\/p>\nMick Jagger returned to the centre named after him at his old school Dartford Grammar. Photo: Pete Bresser<\/p>\n
Mick Jagger opening the centre in 2000. Picture: PA<\/p>\n
Mick Jagger’s childhood home in Denver Road, Dartford<\/p>\n