MAYHEM THE NORM AT ROLLING STONES CONCERTS
RIOTS at concerts were an irregular, regular occurrence on early Rollings Stones tours, as were jibes from town officials, politicians and the like about their scruffy, unkept appearance.
There was even the media question at the time: “Would you let your daughter go out with a Rolling Stone”.
The group was often banned from hotels, partly because of trouble with fans, and had to flee fanatical, screaming fans after many concerts.
Female faintings and knickers wetting during shows were common.
POLICE PUT FANS IN STRAIGHTJACKETS
Rioting audience causes concert in Belfast, Ireland, to be called off after only 12 minutes. Hysterical girls carried out in straightjackets. (1964)
POLICE USE WATER CANNONS
5000 screaming fans dispersed by police with water cannons at Dusseldorf airport as the Rolling Stones begin a brief German tour. (September, 1965).
TEAR GAS
Police use tear gas to disperse a riot at a 15,000 fan show in Boston, USA, after audience members tried to storm the stage. (1966)
TWO POLICEWOMEN FAINT
> as well as 100 girls > and more than 40 police needed to control the crowd at a concert in Manchester, England. (1964)
IT’S SHORT BACK AND SIDES, FARNSWORTH
Almost a dozen boys suspended from a school in Coventry, England, for wearing *Mick Jagger* haircuts.
ANIMALS, CLOWNS AND MORONS
That was how a magistrate in Glasgow, Scotland, described the Rolling Stones after one of their fans was arrested for breaking a shop window.
ROLLING STONES GATHER NO LUNCH
The headline in one the British tabloids after the band were refused entry to a Bristol hotel for not wearing ties. (1964)
FANS SEE RED
Communist police, including on horses, use batons and tear gas to disperse 2000 fans outside the Rolling Stones concert venue > the Palace of Culture > in Polish capitol Warsaw. The Communist Party chiefs had kept the tickets for themselves and their families and cronies, leaving the real Rolling Stones fans seething outside.
TV SHOW RIOT
An audience riot on US variety show The Ed Sullian Show, with the host vowing he would never let rock and roll bands back on his high-rating show. But he did, the Stones among them. (October, 1964)
TAKING IT TO THE STREETS
150 people arrested, the theatre damaged during street riots at the show at the Olympia in Paris.
AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE
A 3000 fan riot upon arrival at the airport in Sydney for the Rolling Stones first Australian tour. (January, 1965). The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper said of the group: “They’re shockers. Ugly looks, ugly speech, ugly manners”.
THE INJURY LIST
ELECTRIC BLUES
Keith Richards survived being knocked unconscious by an electric shock during a performance in Sacramento, USA. (1965)
ALL STITCHED UP
Mick Jagger had to get eight stitches to his head after being decked by a chair thrown on stage.
*Some source material from books The Rolling Stones Story by George Tremlett and Rolling With The Stones by Bill Wyman.
