THE ROLLING STONES PERFORM THEIR FIRST CONCERT

The Rolling Stones

Today, The Grandma is at home revising old books and photos. She has found some old long plays. New technology like mp3's or iTunes have changed the way we listen to music but also the way we store it.

The Grandma has been tagging all her long plays and singles and she has found one of her favourites, As Tears Go By, a beautiful song written and performed by the Rolling Stones, the eternal English rock band that performed their first concert on a day like today in 1962, at the Marquee Club in London.

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. The first stable line-up consisted of bandleader Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica, keyboards), Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), Bill Wyman (bass), Charlie Watts (drums), and Ian Stewart (piano).

Stewart was removed from the official line-up in 1963 but continued to work with the band as a contracted musician until his death in 1985. The band's primary songwriters, Jagger and Richards, assumed leadership after Andrew Loog Oldham became the group's manager.

More information: Rolling Stones

Jones left the band less than a month before his death in 1969, having already been replaced by Mick Taylor, who remained until 1974. After Taylor left the band, Ronnie Wood took his place in 1975 and continues on guitar in tandem with Richards. Since Wyman's departure in 1993, Darryl Jones has served as touring bassist.

The Stones have not had an official keyboardist since 1963, but have employed several musicians in that role, including Jack Nitzsche (1965–1971), Nicky Hopkins (1967–1982), Billy Preston (1971–1981), Ian McLagan (1978–1981), and Chuck Leavell (1982–present).

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones were at the forefront of the British Invasion of bands that became popular in the United States in 1964 and were identified with the youthful and rebellious counterculture of the 1960s.

Rooted in blues and early rock and roll, the band started out playing covers but found more success with their own material; songs such as (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and Paint It Black became international hits. After a short period of experimentation with psychedelic rock in the mid-1960s, the group returned to its bluesy roots with Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1971), and Exile on Main St. (1972). It was during this period they were first introduced on stage as The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World.

The band continued to release commercially successful albums through the 1970s and early 1980s, including Some Girls (1978) and Tattoo You (1981), the two best-sellers in their discography.

More information: BBC

During the 1980s, the band infighting curtailed their output and they only released two more underperforming albums and did not tour for the rest of the decade. Their fortunes changed at the end of the decade, when they released Steel Wheels (1989), promoted by a large stadium and arena tour, the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour.

Since the 1990s, new material has been less frequent. Despite this, the Rolling Stones continue to be a huge attraction on the live circuit. By 2007, the band had four of the top five highest-grossing concert tours of all time: Voodoo Lounge Tour (1994–1995), Bridges to Babylon Tour (1997–1998), Licks Tour (2002–2003) and A Bigger Bang (2005–2007).

Musicologist Robert Palmer attributes the endurance of the Rolling Stones to their being rooted in traditional verities, in rhythm-and-blues and soul music, while more ephemeral pop fashions have come and gone.

The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. 

The Rolling Stones

Rolling Stone magazine ranked them fourth on the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list and their estimated record sales are above 250 million. They have released 30 studio albums, 23 live albums and numerous compilations. 

Let It Bleed (1969) marked the first of five consecutive No. 1 studio and live albums in the UK. Sticky Fingers (1971) was the first of eight consecutive No. 1 studio albums in the US. In 2008, the band ranked 10th on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists chart.

In 2012, the band celebrated its 50th anniversary. The band still continues to release albums to brisk sales and critical acclaim; their most recent album Blue & Lonesome was released in December 2016 and reached No. 1 on the UK Album Charts and No. 4 in the U.S. and won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. The band also continues to sell out venues, they have been on their No Filter Tour since September 2017 and will wrap up the tour with a North American leg over Summer 2019.

More information: ThoughtCo

Keith Richards and Mick Jagger became childhood friends and classmates in 1950 in Dartford, Kent. The Jagger family moved to Wilmington, Kent, 8.0 km away, in 1954. In the mid-1950s, Jagger formed a garage band with his friend Dick Taylor; the group mainly played material by Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley.

Jagger met Richards again on 17 October 1961 on platform two of Dartford railway station. The Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records Jagger was carrying revealed a shared interest. A musical partnership began shortly afterwards. Richards and Taylor often met Jagger at his house.

According to Richards, Jones named the band during a phone call to Jazz News. When asked by a journalist for the band's name, Jones saw a Muddy Waters LP lying on the floor; one of the tracks was Rollin' Stone.

Jones, Jagger, Richards, Stewart, and Taylor played a gig billed as the Rollin' Stones on 12 July 1962, at the Marquee Club in London.

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones have assimilated various musical genres into their own collective sound.

Throughout the band's career, their musical contributions have been marked by a continual reference and reliance on musical styles including blues, psychedelia, R&B, country, folk, reggae, dance, and world music, exemplified by Jones' collaboration with the Master Musicians of Jajouka, as well as traditional English styles that use stringed instruments like harps. 

Brian Jones experimented with the use of non-traditional instruments such as the sitar and slide guitar in their early days. The group started out covering early rock 'n' roll and blues songs, and have never stopped playing live or recording cover songs.

Jagger and Richards had a shared admiration of Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf. Little Walter influenced Brian Jones.

Despite the Rolling Stones' predilection for blues and R&B numbers on their early live set lists, the first original compositions by the band reflected a more wide-ranging interest.

More information: Infoplease

As Tears Go By, the ballad originally written for Marianne Faithfull, was one of the first songs written by Jagger and Richards and one of many written by the duo for other artists. Jagger said of the song, It's a relatively mature song considering the rest of the output at the time. And we didn't think of recording it, because the Rolling Stones were a butch blues group. The Rolling Stones did later record a version which became a top five hit in the US.

The band has received, and been nominated for multiple awards during their 55 years together including: three Grammy awards and 12 nominations, the Juno award for International Entertainer of the Year in 1991, U.K.'s Jazz FM Awards Album of the Year (2017) for their album Blue & Lonesome, and NME (New Musical Express) awards such as best live band and the NME award for best music film, for their documentary Crossfire Hurricane.

On Mick Jagger's 75th birthday, scientists named seven fossil stoneflies after present and former members of the band. Two species, Petroperla mickjaggeri and Lapisperla keithrichardsi, were placed within a new family Petroperlidae. The new family was named in honour of the Rolling Stones, derived from the Greek petra that stands for stone. The scientists referred to the fossils as Rolling Stoneflies.

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Lose your dreams and you might lose your mind.

Mick Jagger