“The law had been after Brian (as they had been after Mick and Keith). He was arrested in May 1966 for possession of drugs shortly after the first raid on Keith’s country home, Redlands. In October 1967, Brian was sentenced to nine months in prison. They released him pending an appeal. In May, he was arrested again for possessing cannabis. Twice during this time he was hospitalized for strain.
That these arrests bordered on harassment was supported by a London Times editorial relating to Mick Jagger’s arrest. The Times asked, “Has Mr. Jagger received the same treatment as he would have received if he were not a famous figure?”
William Rees-Mogg, as editor of The Times newspaper, used the “on a wheel” version of the quotation as the heading (set in capital letters) for an editorial on 1 July 1967 about the “Redlands” court case, which had resulted in prison sentences for Rolling Stones members Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.[8] The editorial, highly critical of the court’s decision, is thought to have contributed to the success of Jagger’s and Richards’ appeal against the sentences.
It concluded “If we are going to make any case a symbol of the conflict between the sound traditional values of Britain and the new hedonism, then we must be sure that the sound traditional values include those of tolerance and equity. It should be the particular quality of British justice to ensure that Mr. Jagger is treated exactly the same as anyone else, no better and no worse. There must remain a suspicion in this case that Mr. Jagger received a more severe sentence than would have been thought proper for any purely anonymous young man.”
