STASH DE ROLA

Stash De Rola, actually, Prince Stanislaus Klossowski de Rola – friend of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Syd Barrett, played percussion in Vince Taylor’s band, exotic dandy and lover, actor, musician, aristocrat and son of the controversial artist Balthus was the dandy aesthete of swinging London; Refined and rebellious, immaculately dressed and someone who everyone wanted to know.

In late 1964, Stash joined The Playboys. When in 1965, Vince Taylor co-topped the bill with The Rolling Stones at Paris Olympia, Stash befriended Brian Jones and the rest of the band.

In late 1965 he recorded a solo single for Sonet label. The song was called P.E.A.C.E. and a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Chimes Of Freedom’ was recorded as a B-side.

Here with Brian Jones and girlfriend Anita Pallemberg.

May 11th, 1967 – Brian and his friend and co-defendant Prince Stanislaus Klossowski De Rola, Baron de Watterville, leave West London Magistrates Court in Kensington.

The two were remanded on bail until June 2, after appearing at a London Magistrates Court charged with being in possession of dangerous drugs, 50 grains of cannabis resin.

Here listening to the track “You Know My Name” in the recording studio with The Beatles.

In 1967 the artist Dudley Edwards and Stash de Rola moved in to Paul McCartney’s.  Stash — as he was known — had just been charged with possession of cocaine and cannabis, along with his friend, the Rolling Stone Brian Jones.

In St John’s Wood, the three men entertained what Stash describes as harems of girls, while Beatles fans camped outside, periodically bursting in through the gates. One night in May 1967, Paul, Dudley and Stash drove over to the Bag o’Nails, one of London’s trendy clubs, where Paul met an American photographer called Linda Eastman, who was in town shooting pictures of musicians. The rest is history.

The trial was a traumatic experience for Stash: Instead of starring in John Huston film in Hollywood with my fiancee Romina Power, I was deprived of my passport, forbidden to travel.

holding photo of Romina Power.

In 1967, Stash did an infamous photoshoot in his family mansion Villa Medici. The photos, initially intended for Playboy ,were aiming to outshine tasteless lifestyles of American playboys. Stash posed with models Marayat R. and Liz Thompson.

The project was abandoned halfway through, but the photographer, James Baes, sold the photos to Italian magazine Playmen in 1968. The photos caused scandal at the time and angered Stash’ father.

Here with Anita Pallenberg, Gerard Malanga, Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol and ?, with rabbits.

The early 1970’s brought a role in a Hollywood production Saturation 70 alongside Gram Parsons, playing in Joe Cocker’s band, hanging out with Marlon Brando numerous trips to Ceylon, and another drug bust, this time with Keith Richards in 1973.

The film was shot, but never completed, at a 1969 UFO convention at Giant Rock, in the Mojave desert, and in Los Angeles. It tapped into the spectrum of esoteric interests such as aliens, psychedelics and time travel.

Julian Jones, son of Brian Jones, and Ida Random stand with the National Guard off Skid Row, in downtown Los Angeles, in a production still.

De rola also performed in Roger Vadim’s La jeune fille assassinée, 1974.