Is it true that the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards was a choirboy who sang at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953? He would have been nine years old. I’ve seen a few references to it, but no real evidence. I know there are videos/films of the coronation, and I wonder if anyone has been able to positively identify him if there were any closeups of the choir.
from Wikipedia’s entry on Keith Richards
From 1955 to 1959, Richards attended Dartford Technical High School for Boys.[1]:22[11] Recruited by Dartford Tech’s choirmaster, R. W. “Jake” Clare, he sang in a trio of boy sopranos at, among other occasions, Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth II.[1]:27–28
The footnotes for that are:
- “Sabella Recording Studios: Keith Richards Interview”. Sabellastudios.com. Archived from the original on 25 October 2005. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
- Wyman, Bill (2002). Rolling With the Stones . DK Publishing. ISBN 0-7894-9998-3.
So did he look like a mummy at nine years old? Any pictures of soprano Keith out there?
I’ve found references to his performing before the Queen in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1955 (he would have just turned 12 years old). He was part of a trio performing the “Hallelujah Chorus”. Still nothing more about his (alleged) performance at the Coronation in June 1953.
John McMillan’s biography Beatles vs Stones mentions it, but does not cite a source. This would have been before he went to Dartford, though.
He didn’t sing at the coronation, as you can see in this document, which lists names of all the choirs and individual choristers:
Music and Musicians at the Coronation Service
As I would have expected, the choirs were all royal choirs and Anglican cathedral choirs.
Ninja’d 
What, none of you have a copy of Keith’s autobiography, Life? You should; it’s really good. (Written by James Fox: got to give credit to my fellow ghostwriters.)
He gives page 52 to the choir. It’s something he was very proud of, and about the only thing he was good at when he attended Dartford. The only individual gig he mentions is the 1955 one in St. Margaret’s Church.
He didn’t enter Dartford until he was 11, so he couldn’t have been part of their choir in 1953. And that was his first choir.
"I don’t want to step out onstage with someone wearing a coronet and sporting the old ermine.”
You be the judge.
I watched the coronation in 1953, when I was 7, on our 12" (round screen) B&W Zenith TV.
I don’t remember seeing him there.
But you must’ve heard the guitar solo
Wasn’t that by Mick Taylor?
I’ve got a big ol booklet that came in the box set of the early stuff. He looked pretty good as a young dude. Heroin is a hell of a drug!