It was the end product of a summer's decadence on the Cote d'Azur. ‘Exile on Main Street', the album many consider to be the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Opus is to be re-issued in a dazzling array of repackaged and remastered special edition CD's and on vinyl, early this summer. Recorded in the rambling Villa Nellcote - a mansion and former Gestapo HQ on the water at Villefranche - the stories behind the recording add to the aura of the album itself.

Exile on Main Street is one of Tom Waits', Mick Jones (The Clash), Johnny Depp's and Martin Scorsese's favourite albums and today widely acknowledged as the very pinnacle of the enduring song writing partnership of singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Doomed country rock singer Gram Parsons stayed for much of its drug soaked recording, until he and his girlfriend where kicked out by Richards' then girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg. Movie star royalty, such as James Caan and Fay Dunaway, dropped by to join the party along with droves of other celebrities, musicians, friends and freeloaders. The mansion, rented by Keith Richards featured a large basement (a Gestapo pre-requisite, no doubt) and it was here, from June until November 1971 that the Stones produced their defining musical work.

The re-issue will feature film material - including footage of the infamous Stones documentary Cocksucker Blues - film of the bands' 1972 American tour and a brand new documentary about the making of ‘Exile On Main St'. There's plenty of material for the filmmakers. ‘Nellcote' with its macabre Nazi connections (including swastika air vents) was the perfect backdrop for the chaos which Richards successfully transferred from his London home. When a kitchen fire broke out, he shrugged it off as ‘Gestapo Vibes'. On October 1, 1971, thieves broke in, while Richards and his coterie of admirers where still in the building, and stole nine guitars and a number of saxophones. Allegedly, drug dealers, angry over unpaid bills, perpetrated the raid. Following a succession of drug busts by the French police, the Stones where forced to leave France in November 1971 to complete the album at Sunset Studios in LA.

Most exciting of all for Stones fans is the prospect of the inclusion of ten previously unreleased Exile On Main St tracks. Titles of these songs revealed so far are 'Plunder My Soul', ‘Following The River' and ‘Sophia Loren'. It is hard to believe today that Exile on Main St received a distinctly mixed critical response upon its initial release in May 1972. Perhaps the record was just too eclectic for the period and its earthy live sound against the grain of the smooth Progressive rock studio albums of the era. Whatever the critics made of it, Exile On Main St was the album (a Number One in both the UK and America), that provided ample proof to the Stones' claim to be ‘The Greatest Rock ‘N' Roll Band In The World'.

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