The Rolling Stones

From Dartford to the Marquee

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, both born in Dartford in 1943, met again at Dartford railway station on 17 October 1961 and played in an early group called the Blues Boys. Brian Jones, born in Cheltenham, was the founder of the band proper. They played their first gig at the Marquee Club in London on 12 July 1962, billed as the Rollin' Stones, a name taken from the Muddy Waters song Rollin' Stone. Bill Wyman auditioned on 7 December 1962, and Charlie Watts played his first show as a permanent member at the Ealing Jazz Club on 2 February 1963. Ian Stewart, the pianist, was dropped from the official line-up that year by the manager Andrew Loog Oldham, but he stayed on as road manager and session player until his death in 1985.

Their first record, The Rolling Stones, came out in April 1964 and spent twelve weeks at number one in Britain. Almost all of it was blues and R&B covers, and only Tell Me was a Jagger and Richards song. The first American tour followed in June 1964.

Satisfaction and Aftermath

In May 1965 the band recorded (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, built on a fuzz-guitar riff Richards said came to him in his sleep. It reached number one in the United States in July 1965 and made them international stars. Their American label gathered it with other songs on Out of Our Heads that summer.

Aftermath, released in April 1966, was the first Stones album made entirely of Jagger and Richards songs, and Jones filled it with sitar, dulcimer, marimba and koto. The American edition opened with the single Paint It Black. In 1967 drug charges shadowed the band, and Their Satanic Majesties Request, their first self-produced album after Oldham left, was an unhappy experiment. Richards later called it a load of crap.

The run from 1968 to 1972

With Jimmy Miller as producer, the band changed direction. The single Jumpin' Jack Flash reached number one in Britain in 1968, and Beggars Banquet followed that December, opening with Sympathy for the Devil. Jones played his last show with the group at the Rock and Roll Circus filming in December 1968. On 8 June 1969 he was told the band would continue without him, and on 3 July he was found dead in the pool at his home in East Sussex. Two days later, in Hyde Park, Mick Taylor played his first show with the Stones in front of an estimated 250,000 people.

Let It Bleed, with Gimme Shelter, came out in late 1969. On 6 December the band played the free Altamont concert in California, where Meredith Hunter, 18, was killed by a Hells Angel during their set. The Maysles brothers' film Gimme Shelter recorded it. In 1970 the group left Decca and founded Rolling Stones Records, whose first release was the single Brown Sugar and then Sticky Fingers in April 1971, a number one in both Britain and the United States. As tax exiles in France they made the double album Exile on Main St. in 1972, mostly in the basement of Richards' rented villa near Villefranche-sur-Mer. Rolling Stone later ranked it number seven in 2003.

Changes and endurance

Goats Head Soup in 1973 was Miller's last album with the band. Taylor left in December 1974, and Ronnie Wood, who had played with the Faces, joined in 1975 and became an official member on 23 April 1976. Some Girls, recorded in Paris, was a US number one in 1978, and Tattoo You in 1981 was assembled from outtakes. Wyman left in January 1993, and Darryl Jones took over the bass on tour.

The stadium tours became a business of their own. The A Bigger Bang Tour of 2005 to 2007 is the highest grossing of their career, and on 18 February 2006 they played a free show on Copacabana Beach in Rio for about 1.5 million people. Blue & Lonesome, an album of blues covers, reached number one in Britain in 2016. Charlie Watts played his last concert with the band on 30 August 2019 and died on 24 August 2021, aged 80.

Hackney Diamonds, released on 20 October 2023, was their first album of new songs in 18 years. It carries Watts' last studio drumming and a bass line from Wyman, and it won the Grammy for Best Rock Album. Foreign Tongues followed on Polydor on 10 July 2026.