Sir Mick Jagger yesterday supplemented his state pension by striking a £7.5 million deal that will take four decades of the Rolling Stones’ catalogue away from his long-time record company EMI.

His decision, revealed by Times Online, is the latest in a series of clashes between musicians and EMI’s new owner, Guy Hands, Britain’s best-known venture capitalist, who was the best man at William Hague’s wedding. Sir Mick and his fellow Stones will switch all the albums since Sticky Fingers in 1971 to the rival Universal Music whom the band described as “forward-thinking, creative and hands-on music people”.

Mr Hands’s Terra Firma bought the long-struggling EMI a year ago for £2.1 billion but since then the company has had difficult relations with some key artists. Radiohead quit last year, opting to self-release In Rainbows via the internet.

Although the Stones only occasionally release new material - the last, A Bigger Bangappeared in 2005 - what makes the deal so important is the back catalogue. Albums such as Black and Blue and Exile on Main Street are estimated to generate about £1.5 million a year.

Universal also controls the Stones’ Sixties output in Britain, released through the Decca label, and the deal unifies the band’s entire recorded collection. In the US, that catalogue is controlled by Abkco.

Sir Mick has always been one of the most financially astute rock’n’roll artists, and selected Universal after asking for bids from all the world’s music companies. The Stones’ last tour grossed an all-time record $558 million. Their biographer Philip Norman once said: “Today they’re like company directors who convene this board meeting once every three years on stages all across America.”

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