Previously unseen photographs of the Rolling Stones before they were famous go on display for the first time next month.

British photographer Philip Townsend captured the band’s first photoshoot, on London’s Belgrave Square in 1963.

Frontman Mick Jagger was broke and hungry and seeking his first record contract at the time, Mr Townsend said.

“Mick said ‘I’m really hungry, mate. Go buy us a chicken’. So we got Bill and Brian and went up King’s Road where there was a little barbeque place and got them two chickens.

“They had no money at all – they were getting £15 a gig. We headed off to Belgrave Square where I saw this house on a side street with graffiti all over it.

“Andrew Oldham (their manager) had told them they had to look mean and nasty,” he said.

More than 60 of Townsend’s images will be on display at The Lowry in Salford Quays from September 18.

The collection features some of the biggest names of the 1960s, from Grace Kelly to Twiggy, and the Beatles to Winston Churchill.

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