This summer marked the 60th anniversary of the first Rolling Stones gig, although a few of the band members don’t think the band really started until they got the late, great Charlie Watts on drums in early 1963. But for posterity’s sake, the Stones played their first show on July 12, 1962, at The Marquee Club in London. The Stones embarked on a tour of Europe this summer, with a couple of shows in London’s Hyde Park on June 25 and July 3. I was present in London when Mick Jagger announced from the stage, “We played our first-ever gig just around the corner from here 60 years ago” at the first show. By the time the second show rolled around, he joked, “Welcome to the American Express summer BST super-spreader event,” as COVID definitely played a part in the tour.
But all stage banter aside, there’s been much going on related to the band in the past few months. There was the updated release of what is considered the greatest book ever written on the band, Under Their Thumb by Bill German; there was the private opening of a museum by superfan Matt Lee in London; there was a petition to get the band to release all the recordings from the 1969 concert that became Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! (read more at GoldmineMag.com); there was a fan-based gig in Islington (more about that later), and Jagger got COVID, which miraculously resulted in only one canceled show and one postponement. There were rumors (more like wish lists) of a club gig between shows in London; there were also train and taxi strikes in London, which is almost a mandatory custom whenever the band decide to play there.
We start our story where all Rolling Stones tour stories start: At the rehearsals. They are always a moving target in terms of which city and the location, for obvious reasons. I can tell you that with past rehearsals, the band got very smart and located themselves feet from the end of a major airport’s runway,
