Nigel Havers reveals how he helped keep Rolling Stones out of jail in rock drugs scandal

On the night Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were arrested in February 1967, Nigel Havers was a 16-year-old aspiring actor whose father was called in to defend two musicians

It was the notorious drugs bust of the hedonistic 1960s which pitted the Rolling Stones against the establishment and painted Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as the bad boys of rock’n’roll.

But what is far less well-known about the furore is the part played by Nigel Havers, then a 16-year-old aspiring actor. On the night the two rock stars were arrested in February 1967, Nigel found himself at the epicentre of the scandal because his dad, barrister Michael Havers QC, was called in to defend them.

It came after a police raid at Keith’s country pile – Redlands, in West Wittering, Sussex. Tales from the riotous weekend party are rock music folklore – including the moment Jagger’s muse-of-the-day, singer Marianne Faithfull, is said to have greeted police officers naked, while wrapped in a fur skin rug.

Now almost 60 years later, a new play – called Redlands – endorsed by Jagger and Richards and written by Charlotte Jones, is telling the story of what really happened on that hazy day when Mick and Keith found themselves banged up. And while it was Nigel’s dad who ultimately set them free to go on and conquer the world (thanks to their then-official bad boy image), the teenage Nigel was right there in the thick of it.

The Stones fan was brought in to bridge the generation gap between his dad and the band – at what would become one of the group’s biggest turning points. That’s why the new play, which had its gala night this week at Chichester Festival Theatre in West Sussex, is told through his eyes. “It brought it all back,” actor Nigel, 72, says. “I was very nervous.”

The Redlands raid was sparked by a Fleet Street reporter mistakenly thinking he overheard Mick in a nightclub arranging a drug-fuelled party at Keith’s home. When the day of the bash arrived, partygoers got a shock.

Nigel says: “People looked out of the window and said, ‘Cor blimey, there are lots of very little men running towards the house and they are all wearing the same clothes’. It was the police.” Nigel, who was a schoolboy at the time, was at home with his dad when he heard the news.

“Up on the TV came ‘Rolling Stones in drugs raid’,” he says. “My dad looked at the TV and said, ‘I hope to God they don’t ask me to defend them’. But an hour later the phone goes and my dad came back and said, ‘I shall be defending the Rolling Stones’. And what followed was this extraordinary summer.”

Police made many gaffes on the night of the raid, with naive officers even seizing Earl Grey tea from Redlands along with mayonnaise and bottles of suntan lotion. Nigel says: “There was no such thing as a drugs squad in 1967 so the police did not know what they were looking for.

“Because Mick and Keith had just flown back from Rome they had sachets of mayonnaise and the police thought they were suspicious.” Jagger and Richards were then charged with drugs offences. Nigel says: “When my dad got the call to defend them he shot to London. He met them and next day he said, ‘I would like you to meet them as I don’t understand them and you can interpret what they are up to’.” Mick and Keith stayed with the Havers family as they awaited trial at Chichester crown court.

Nigel says: “My dad made us swear that me and my brother would never tell my mates at school. I was a Stones fan and was dying to tell my friends, ‘I’ve got Mick Jagger staying’. I said nothing. It was kind of important.” The trial did not go as hoped. Jagger was fined £200 and sentenced to three months in jail for possession of amphetamine tablets, and Richards got a £500 fine plus 12 months in prison for allowing his property to be used for taking drugs.

The stars were imprisoned but Nigel’s dad got them released on bail the next day, pending appeal. Later, Jagger’s sentence was reduced to a 12-month conditional discharge and Richards’ conviction was quashed.

Nigel says: “Mick was terrified about going to prison. When... they were sent to jail, Dad got them off on bail. Keith had no drugs on him [at the time of the raid]. Mick had two amphetamine pills which he got on prescription. He got them legally.

“I remember after Dad got him out [of prison], Keith said, ‘I would like to prosecute the Queen’. My dad said, ‘What do you mean?’, and he said, ‘Well, last night I was in jail and I was offered dope. And who owns the prison?’.

“My dad said, ‘I don’t think we will go down that route’.” Things got more bizarre when Nigel’s mum Carol played nurse to Keith who got chickenpox on the eve of the appeal hearing. Nigel says: “Mick and Keith turned up at our flat in London. Keith said, ‘I am itching everywhere’. My mum said, ‘Take your shirt off’ – and he had chickenpox.

“I [still] have this image of him, he in his knickers and my mum with calamine lotion. We went to court and it was full of kids cheering. My dad said to Mick, ‘Can you stop that?’, and he did, he got them to stop. Two hours later the judge said, ‘Not guilty, thank you very much’.”

Nigel’s dad orchestrated a giant champagne party to celebrate Mick and Keith’s victory. Nigel says: “That night we partied on quite a bit. Marianne was sitting in a big armchair. I sat on the floor. I was worshipping her really.

“It was the biggest moment of my life. She was, and still is, highly intelligent and so beautiful. I don’t think I have ever seen such a beautiful girl in my life.” He even got to try on Mick’s courtroom suit after the singer borrowed his bedroom to change into a kaftan before being whisked off for a Panorama interview.

Nigel says: “I saw Mick’s suit on my bed, so I had to put it on. It fitted like a glove. In the back pocket was a roll of like £200. My dad said, ‘I will take that ’.” Mick’s younger brother Chris hit out at the Redlands bust in his 2021 memoir Talking to Myself, saying it was the establishment’s vendetta against the 60s counter-culture.

He wrote: “It illustrates the lengths the authorities were prepared to go to in order to curb the influence of the younger generation. It must have affected my parents even more than it did me.” Nigel agrees, saying: “The Beatles were sort of establishment and the Stones hated the establishment.

“Back then everybody went to work in a suit, tie, white shirt and a bowler hat. Mick Jagger went to work in a floral shirt with hair down to here and did not give a f*ck.” After the case, Nigel’s dad was a changed man, developing his own rebellious streak when in court.

Nigel says: “My dad used to say, ‘Look at them... they have long hair. Mick Jagger wears make-up’. I secretly used to go in the mirror with my mum’s lipstick. But [my dad] became so much more forgiving after meeting Mick and Keith. He was so surprised by how clever they were.

“After the case my dad never wore a stiff collar again, even in court. He used to wear striped coloured shirts. He was often ticked off by a judge and he said, ‘I am sorry. Frankly, I don’t care’. It really did change him.” His dad became a Tory MP in 1970 and served as Attorney General before being made Baron Havers. He died in 1992 aged 69.

Nigel says his dad played the Stones’ records in Parliament. “It was tremendous,” adds the Chariots of Fire star. That summer stayed with Nigel too. He says: “I still bump into Mick. Mick and Keith treated me like friends. It was fantastic.”

The play, Redlands, with Louis Landau playing Nigel, is at Chichester Festival Theatre until October 18. Visit www.cft.org.uk for tickets.