The Rolling Stones on the Riviera: (tax) Exile on Main Street

When the Stones fled the British taxman for Villa Nellcote in 1971, they wrote one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of rock on the Côte d’Azur.

The summer of 1971 was a turning point for the Rolling Stones. Faced with a 93% tax rate in the UK, the band took refuge in Villa Nellcote, a sixteen-room mansion on the Villefranche-sur-Mer seafront, in one of rock’s most famous tax evasion moves. TV Monaco recounts the group’s Mediterranean adventure in an immersive (French language) podcast .

A masterpiece born in a basement

In the bowels of the mansion with a disturbing  decor – a close friend of the band, Andy Johns, says that the floor heating vents were painted with gold swastikas, remnants of its past as Gestapo headquarters – ‘Exile on Main Street‘ was born. The album, recorded in the historic mansion, became one of the British band’s masterpieces.

Their time on the Côte d’Azur became more than just a financial strategy. It embodies the romantic image of rock stars in exile, with the French Riviera as a creative sanctuary. You can hear about Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Mike Taylor, Bobby Keys and Keith Richards and their unusual studio on TV Monaco and YouTube.