Rare, 40-year-old photos of the Rolling Stones rocking Sir Morgan’s Cove unearthed

WORCESTER — The morning after the Rolling Stones’ historic show at Sir Morgan's Cove on Sept. 14, 1981, Ron Pownall’s iconic photo of a shirtless, sweat-drenched Mick Jagger was published in the Worcester Telegram, the Evening Gazette and newspapers around the world.

Hired by radio station WAAF, Pownall was the only photographer allowed inside the Green Street club that night.

Exile on Green Street:40 years ago, the Rolling Stones rocked Worcester's Sir Morgan’s Cove

And for 40 years, he kept the other photos mostly to himself.

Until now.

At the top of this story is a gallery that includes some of Pownall's other photos from the greatest rock 'n' roll event in this city's history.

Equipped with two Nikon cameras (an F3 and a FE2) and five lenses, Pownall shot four rolls of Tri-X 400 black-and-white film (36 exposures) and a half-roll of high-speed Ektachrome color film.

Most of the photographs have never been published, some rarely seen.

Charlie Watts is in focus in five of the photos. Watts, the Rolling Stones' legendary drummer since 1963 who died Aug. 24, was positioned behind Jagger.

Pownall is a legendary rock photographer who has shot album covers for Aerosmith, Boston, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger and others. But the Sir Morgan's Cove job was one of the best of his career.

But it wasn’t an easy one. Pownall took many of the photos in bad light.

“I went to sound check and I had a couple of my own lights on either side of the stage," he said in a recent interview. "They were remote-controlled, essentially, by a modified garage door opener. Unfortunately, during the show one of the lights tripped out. I only had one light for part of the night.”

Space was also tight.

“I was smashed against the stage, for the first half of the show, literally, And then I ended up getting shots from the back of the club, shooting over people’s heads,” Pownall recalled. “It was a humid, rainy night and whatever the temperature was outside it was 20 degrees warmer inside. It was like a mosh pit in the entire place, just sweaty, sweaty. So I had a hard time. My lenses kept fogging up.”

After the Stones played, Pownall rushed back home to Boston to develop the film, which he dried with a hair dryer. He looked at the negatives without making contact sheets before printing four shots, two of which were “clear winners,” he said.

With his freshly printed 8-by-10 photos in hand, Pownall drove to the nearest Associated Press office in Boston and the iconic shots were wired around the world.

“Everything worked out smoothly,” Pownall said.

Early the next morning, Pownall’s phone was ringing off the hook and couriers from news agencies were knocking on his front door wanting to get their hands on more photos of the Stones playing Sir Morgan’s Cove.

The iconic city nightspot and concert venue closed in 2019.