Sir Mick ignites a railing Stone

By IAN BURRELL in London

The two greatest Rolling Stones are at loggerheads after the one who is about to become a knight of the realm came under attack from the one who prefers a night on the tiles.

Keith Richards said he "went %$@ berserk" when he heard that Mick Jagger had decided to accept the "%$@ paltry honour" of a knighthood, and claimed that such awards were "not what the Stones are about".

The stinging rebuke, in an interview with Uncut magazine, is unlikely to break one of rock's longest-lasting friendships but showed there is no chance of Richards mellowing as he approaches his 60th birthday this month.

He told the magazine: "I thought it was ludicrous to take one of those gongs from the Establishment when they did their very best to throw us in jail.

"Just as we were about to start a new tour, I thought it sent out the wrong message. It's not what the Stones are about, is it?

"I don't want to step out on stage with someone wearing a %$

@ coronet and sporting the old ermine. I told Mick, 'It's a %$

@ paltry honour'."

Richards said Jagger had justified his acceptance of the honour by saying he was under pressure from Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"He defended himself by saying that Tony Blair insisted he took the knighthood. Like that's an excuse. Like you can't turn down anything. Like it doesn't depend on how you feel about it."

Jagger and Richards have had a fraught relationship at times but somehow managed to keep the band together.

Perhaps Richards thought his old friend was worth more than just a knighthood.

"If you're into this %$

@, hang on for the peerage. Don't settle for a little badge," he said.

Jagger told Uncut that Richards' commitment to band loyalty was both endearing and occasionally "over and beyond reason".

Such behaviour could be irritating but the pair's friendship was "amazingly long-lived, although I still don't really pretend to understand it".

- INDEPENDENT