PARIS, Oct 20 — As legendary English rock band The Rolling Stones release their first album in nearly two decades, AFP looks back at standout moments in more than 60 years together.
July 12, 1962: a young band called “The Rollin’ Stones” gives its first concert at the Marquee Club, one of London’s top jazz venues.
1964: their first album, The Rolling Stones is a big hit in Britain.
1965: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction comes out, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and catapults the band into the big time. The song has since been widely covered by artists from Aretha Franklin to Britney Spears.
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1967: after a seizure of amphetamines at Richards’ home, he and Jagger are handed prison sentences that are later cancelled after a popular outcry.
July 3, 1969: guitarist Brian Jones, one of the band’s founding members with a history of drug use, drowns in his swimming pool at the age of 27 shortly after the band fired him.
December 6, 1969: a teenager is stabbed to death at a chaotic free concert headlined by the Stones in Altamont, California. The gruesome murder, caught on camera, is seen as symbolising the end of the “peace and love” 60s.
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1970: the Rolling Stones’ logo of ruby red lips is created by a London design student for the poster of the band’s European tour. It goes on to become one of the most recognisable in the music industry, appearing over the years on countless band memorabilia. In 2008 the Victoria and Albert Museum buys the original drawings.
1985: Jagger releases a solo album She’s the Boss, sparking a war between the singer and Richards, who says he should be focussing on the band. Richards responds with his own solo record Talk is Cheap (1988).
1995: Microsoft pays several millions of dollars for the rights to use the Stones’ song Start Me Up for the first Windows ad campaign.
February 8, 2006: over one million fans throng Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro for a free gig during the group’s A Bigger Bang tour.
March 25, 2016: the Stones become the first Western band to perform on the communist island of Cuba, with a free gig in Havana.
2022: they mark their 60th anniversary with a tour throughout Europe, but without drummer Charlie Watts, who had died in 2021.
October 20, 2023: release of their new album Hackney Diamonds featuring an array of stars including Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Elton John and Stevie Wonder. — AFP
Fans gather at night for the release of the The Rolling Stones’ latest album, ‘Hackney Diamonds’ at a music store in Geesteren, on October 20, 2023. Throughout the Netherlands, 30 record stores opened at night to sell ‘Hackney Diamonds’, the first album since the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2019, and the first containing original material since 2005’s ‘A Bigger Bang’. — Vincent Jannink/ANP/AFP pic
