Biography

The Foundation

Learning from
the Sixth Stone

Much of Ben's early style was shaped by studying a player most of the world never properly knew. Ian Stewart — the Rolling Stones' pianist, road manager and the man Keith Richards called "the sixth Stone" — was a giant of boogie-woogie who never sought the spotlight. Through rare videos and recordings shared by family friends who knew Stu personally, Ben absorbed his playing at a formative age: the economy, the authority, the way he made a piano sound like a force of nature.

It was an education that would shape everything that followed — and one whose significance Ben could not have fully understood at the time. Years later he would find himself in the studio with the Stones, making music directly in tribute to Ian Stewart's legacy. But that story comes later.

The Band He Created

A Letter to
Charlie Watts

One of the proudest chapters of Ben Waters' career began not on a stage, but with a letter nobody asked him to write.

He was performing with pianist Axel Zwingenberger at the Tivoli Theatre in Wimborne when the idea came to him. He knew Charlie Watts had a lifelong love of boogie-woogie. Nobody suggested it, nobody arranged it, and nobody asked him to do it — Ben simply sat down and wrote to Charlie personally, inviting him to join them.

The reply came some time later, on a day Ben was driving to a concert in Ilminster. His wife Ruth rang to tell him Charlie Watts had called back — and wanted to do the gigs. That single phone call, taken on an ordinary road on an ordinary afternoon, was the moment The ABC of Boogie Woogie was born.

The original group featured Ben, Axel Zwingenberger, Charlie Watts, together with Chris Jagger, Derek Nash, Willie Garnett and occasional guests. But Charlie had a different vision. He loved those old 1930s films of Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson playing together — just two pianos, drums and double bass, stripped right back — and he wanted to recreate exactly that feeling. No big band, no extras. He also wanted his lifelong friend Dave Green on double bass. From that point the group became The ABC&D of Boogie Woogie.

The band went on to perform almost one hundred concerts across England, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Norway and the United States. Their live album — recorded at Le Duc des Lombards jazz club in Paris and released on Eagle Records in 2012 — stands as one of the finest documents of boogie-woogie piano ever committed to record.

The Rolling Stones

Part of the
Story

In December 2011, Ben spent four days recording in the studio with The Rolling Stones. Some years later he played piano on Rough and Twisted, now available on Spotify.

One of the more unlikely chapters in that story began on one of Ben's Rock and Roll Holidays tours to Las Vegas. A Rolling Stones concert was cancelled after Mick Jagger fell ill with laryngitis. Keith Richards invited Ben and his wife Ruth to his hotel suite for a private preview screening of Olé Olé Olé, the Stones' documentary film, before it had been seen publicly.

Later that same evening, Ben was called up to guest with the band at the Sand Dollar Lounge. The room was full of Stones fans — not exactly his usual crowd. He didn't know many Stones tunes, so he played a couple of Chuck Berry numbers instead. They went down a storm. It was that moment — someone in the room said they should do a Chuck Berry tribute album — that planted the seed for something special.

That conversation became Ronnie Wood's Mad Lad album — recorded, as it happens, at the Tivoli Theatre in Wimborne. The same venue where Ben had first played with Charlie Watts in The ABC&D of Boogie Woogie.

Beyond the Stage

Entrepreneur &
Founder

Ben Waters has always understood that great music needs a world around it — and has spent much of his life building one.

For over fourteen years he founded and ran Rock and Roll Holidays, bringing together music lovers and world-class musicians for extraordinary journeys to remarkable destinations — Las Vegas, South America, the Orient Express and beyond. He also founded the Raising Spirit Festival, a celebration of live music and community that carries Ben's particular philosophy in its name.

Today, as CEO and founder of RARE — Rock And Roll Events, Ben has brought all of that experience under one roof. RARE is the home of world-class music experiences: hand-crafted holidays to destinations across the globe, one-of-a-kind live events, and a growing artist agency dedicated to the musicians Ben believes in most.

The agency is growing — a hub where a family of like-minded music lovers can discover what their favourite artists are doing, where they're playing, and how to be part of it. And at the heart of everything is the RARE Members Club: a place where true believers can go deeper, with exclusive benefits, discounted holidays, priority tickets and access to experiences that simply cannot be found anywhere else.

For those who want to be truly part of the story, there is the opportunity to become a Founder Member — an integral part of this family from the very beginning.