Right place, right time...

I hadn’t realised Ronnie wasn’t in the band from the beginning. He first saw them live in 1963 at the Richmond Jazz & Blues Festival — just a shaggy-haired punter in a tent that he later said throbbed like an elephant. Watching them on stage, he thought: that looks like a good job. Even though he was already in another band, he became convinced he’d end up joining them one day.

That level of focus feels like a useful thing to carry into a new year at SCA, as we put our helmets on, cracking on with our own creative pursuits and who we might want to work with soon.

Marc sometimes says you’re as good as the company you keep, and Ronnie’s story backs that up. He worked with brilliant people, crossed paths with the Stones again and again, and then — twelve years later — the moment arrived. At a Robert Stigwood party, Ronnie was sitting on a sofa between Jagger and Mick Taylor (the original string plucker) when Taylor casually announced he was leaving the band. After he left, Jagger turned to Ronnie and said:

“Oh God, what am I going to do? Would you join?”

Ronnie looked at Jagger and said: “I thought you’d never ask.”

Right place, right time — but only because he’d spent years doing the work, honing his craft, and putting himself in the right rooms. The seed was planted back in that festival tent in 1963, and he never really let it go.

We can borrow a lot from the mindset of Mr Wood as 2026 gets cracking here, to find ourselves in the right place at the right time with the right talent.

Anyway — I’m off to Google to look up advertising’s regular boozers… catch you in a bit.

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