A bizarre name. An embarrassingly bad rock band. And a lifestyle even his dad thinks is louche. Why Mick Jagger is tearing his hair out over Rubberlips Junior
By Paul Scott
The Daily Mail, UK
Last updated at 2:55 AM on 02nd January 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1240020/A-bizarre-An-embarrassingly...Beneath the pavements of Soho, in a rather grotty-looking nightspot, are an assortment of media types, a few out-of-place-looking tourists and, huddled together in one corner, a band of young men intent on sampling the bar’s dubious pleasures.
At the centre of this motley group is a decidedly oddly-attired individual. He is dressed in a faded denim jacket, the sleeves of which have been artfully removed, above-the-knee schoolboy’s shorts and a pair of greying tennis socks, itched up to somewhere just south of mid-calf. The look is topped off with a wide smudge of bright red make-up applied rather haphazardly around his left eye.
Nonetheless, his every word is being hung on by the gaggle of beautiful, leather-clad, public school-educated girls who are clustered around him.
There is something oddly familiar about the lop-sided stare, loose limbs and pneumatic lips of the 24-year-old known to his friends by his nickname Jimbo Mutant Shinobi — which might have something to do with the fact that in his everyday guise he’s better known to his father, Sir Mick Jagger, as James. He is the rock star’s eldest son.
Turbogeist: Using the name Jimbo Mutant Shinobi, Jagger Jnr performs with his heavy metal bandTonight, as he is most nights, James is surrounded by members of a set of rich, like-minded ‘trustafarians’ known in the West London watering holes they frequent as The DC Crew. Admittance to the group is strictly by invitation only, and reserved exclusively for the impeccably wellbred.
They include 22-year-old Burberry model Laura Fraser, granddaughter of the Earl of Warwick, and brewing heir Tom Guinness, 23, chisel-jawed youngest son of Lord Moyne and grandson of socialite Diana Mitford.
Suffice to say only those with titles, money and looks may apply. Even then, a strict initiation process must be observed.
Each new member is required to have the letters DC tattooed somewhere on their body (the origin of the initials is a closely guarded secret, though members of their circle whisper privately that they stand — strangely — for ‘discharge’).
Then there is the legend that in order to be admitted to the highliving clique, new recruits must first succeed in a ritual that, bizarrely, involves them making a baby cry.
That, by the way, is a feat which — given the ear-splitting performance would-be rocker Jagger Junior and his heavy metal band Turbogeist have just given this evening — could easily be achieved without any recourse to physical violence.
Like father, like son: Mini-Mick (right) bears a striking resemblance to his rock star fatherIndeed, songs with titles like Filthy Vampire Sl**s and Monster P***y might well bring tears to the eyes of adult listeners, too. Even so, James remains the focal point of the cool and rather superior set he founded.
It also includes his hedonistic on-off girlfriend, model Alice Dellal, who is heiress to an £800 million property fortune and who shares the house in Kilburn, North London, that Sir Mick bought for his son last year.
The pleasure-seeking Jagger Junior would be lost were it not for the largesse of his reputedly tight-fisted father. For how else would he be able to fund an unremittingly workshy existence and constant round of partying that is said to be increasingly a source of friction between father and son?
For while James bares an uncanny likeness to his snake-hipped father on stage, the band he founded six months ago seems unlikely to emulate the accomplishments of the Stones.
Turbogeist have yet to gain a record deal, and, despite a handful of sellout gigs at the tiny down-at-heel St Moritz club in London’s Wardour Street, James, who sings and plays guitar, was forced to resort this summer to begging for bookings on his personal Twitter page.
Family connection: Elizabeth and Georgia JaggerIt’s all an added irritation to his father, who is said to have become more and more frustrated that James has yet to find a niche for himself, even though he reaches the midway point of his 20s next August.
A member of the 66-year-old singer’s entourage told me: ‘Mick has been on at James to get himself a proper job for years. He wanted him to get an education and a profession, but James is a bit of a dreamer.
'He’s a nice kid, but he just doesn’t have Mick’s drive. I think it sends his dad mad.’
But while James certainly doesn’t seem to have inherited his father’s musical talent, the second of Jagger’s four children with model Jerry Hall has, like Mick before him, developed a reputation for being catnip to an increasing collection of the most beautiful of London’s society girls.
Hence his loathed nickname of ‘Mini-Mick’.
In a recent and somewhat wistful admission, the ageing Stones’ front man bemoaned the loss of his onetime sex symbol image, and declared: ‘I see James as that person now.’
Others appear to agree. Tatler magazine put James on its list of Britain’s most eligible men when he was just 18, and he has since found his way on to GQ’s roster of Britain’s best-dressed men.
James initially rejected a career in music in favour of acting, and seemed destined to break out of the shadow of his famous father. He received rave reviews for his acting debut in London two years ago in two plays by American author James McLure at Islington’s tiny King’s Head theatre pub.
He was chosen to make his bigscreen debut playing a music student in Vivaldi — The Red Priest. But delays have meant the film, which was due to be released last spring, has still not made it to cinemas.
Meanwhile, he has managed to land a small part in Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll — a forthcoming film about the life of British singer Ian Dury.
Given his uncanny likeness to his father, there has even been talk in film circles that James is in line to star as the Stones singer in an as yet untitled £5 million biopic of Sir Mick.
Certainly, former Stowe pupil James gives a faultless impression of his father while on wild nights out in town with his on-off lover Miss Dellal. The couple, who have known each other since they were children, are strict about describing each other as no more than housemates.
It says something perhaps about their thoroughly modern approach to dating that they insist their relationship is nothing so suburban as being mutually exclusive.
Alice, the darling of London’s fashion set, is famed for her trademark hairstyle — shaved on one side, with long honey-blonde tresses on the other. Her striking looks have made her the face of High Street clothes shop Mango and body of lingerie firm Agent Provocateur.
But sources say Alice, the daughter of a Brazilian model and granddaughter of Iranian property magnate ‘Black’ Jack Dellal, has recently been threatened with being cut off by her rich family over her increasingly louche behaviour.
Model behaviour: Jagger Jnr's on-off girlfriend Alice Dellal is pictured alongside a a card, hollowed out tube and line of white powderIn September last year, she was photographed wide-eyed and grinning, sprawled on the floor of a friend’s flat. Lying next to her on the carpet was a DVD cover, on which was laid out a line of what looked suspiciously like cocaine.
James, who also counts Richard Branson’s 24-year-old son Sam and Harrods’ owner Mohamed Fayed’s beautiful daughter Camilla as part of his set, has shown precious little inclination to settle for just one girl.
He is a well-known figure in St Tropez’s chicest nightclubs, where, a cigarette clamped between his lips, he casts an appreciative eye over rich European females.
He is an old flame of Alexandra Richards, the daughter of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards — who, ironically enough, disapproved of James’s party lifestyle. According to those close to him, Mick, too, has come to bemoan his son’s freewheeling existence.
Friends say he has clashed frequently with James over his wish for him to go to university. (After gaining modest grades in his Alevels, James was offered a place on a science course at Loughborough University, but never took it up.)
Three years ago, James declared he wanted to become an actor and took off to New York to study at the famous Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Soon, though, he was describing the notoriously hard-working ethos at the school a ‘nightmare’ and moved on.
With his father said to be pulling his hair out over his inability to commit to a career, James later signed up with acting coach Susan Batson, who trained Nicole Kidman and George Clooney. But he admits, somewhat sheepishly, that much of his Manhattan sojourn involved little more than ‘pansying around’.
It’s a description that could also apply to James’s elder sister Lizzie, who, like her brother, recently decamped to New York to try her hand at acting, but with — so far at least — less than encouraging results.
After being quietly dropped from her contract modelling for Marks & Spencer, 25-year-old Lizzie has been telling friends she’s tired of the fashion business and wants to launch a career in film.
Mick Jagger with Jerry Hall and their children Elizabeth Scarlet Jagger (right) and James Jagger in BarbadosIt’s a move which, despite the fact she is once again reliant on her father for hand-outs, is welcome news for Mick, who had always been opposed to the coltish Lizzie giving up her education to follow her Texan mother Miss Hall into modelling.
Likewise, Mick is rumoured to have been ‘apoplectic’ in September when his gap-toothed youngest daughter Georgia, 17, went topless in a series of ads for jeans brand Hudson.
Miss Hall, who also has a 12-year-old son Gabriel by the singer, is said to be on a collision course with Mick over the future of A-level student Georgia, who last month was crowned UK Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards and has signed deals to be the new face of Versace and make-up firm Rimmel.
Mick is keen that Georgia, who is studying sociology, photography and fine art at school, should go to university.
Suffice to say, then, that Mick, at an age when most men are looking forward to a peaceful retirement, has his hands full with his three eldest children by Jerry Hall.
Certainly, he’s given up hope that James, who, like all Jagger’s children with Miss Hall, is dyslexic, might return to his studies and eventually find a job in the law or accountancy, rather than the precarious world of rock music.
A member of their circle told me: ‘Mick has always had trouble getting his kids to do what he wants. He’s spent a fortune on their education, but whenever James is with his friends, he puts on a mockney accent to make himself sound more cool.
‘He’s always complaining that his dad keeps him on a tight leash when it comes to money, but I can’t see him wanting to get a proper job. He’s having too good a time.’
No wonder that the spoilt ‘Mini-Mick’ is driving his irritated father to distraction.
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