Rolling Stones keep giving satisfaction, 50 years on

By Jahanzaib Bin Liaquat

Correspondent, SAM Daily Times

LONDON —Most London shoppers rush by 165 Oxford Street without a second glance but it was here 50 years ago that The Rolling Stones played their first gig and changed the landscape of pop music forever.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones played The Marquee Club on July 12, 1962 with three others, the first time they performed under the band name which would become synonymous worldwide with excess and musical flair. Childhood friends Jagger and Richards were aged just 18 at the time and Jones—who drowned in the swimming pool at his home in 1969 was 20 years old.

But it was at the club now a branch of Santander bank that the seeds were sown of worldwide success which, half a century on, has seen the British band notch up over 200 million album sales globally.
Hits like “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Brown Sugar” are legendary rock favorite’s decades after topping the charts. The band’s continued popularity, even though they are now pensioners aged in their 60s and 70s, is shown by the flurry of speculation about whether or not they would mark the anniversary with a gig.

Rolling Stone magazine named after the same blues song which gave the band its name reported last month that Jagger, Richards and their bandmates were considering at least one live concert this year to mark the anniversary.

Despite the obstacles, the band has continued to perform regularly over the years, although Richards nearly died when he fell from a coconut tree in Fiji in 2006 while touring to promote the band’s last album, “A Bigger Bang”. Few would bet against them entertaining millions more fans before their final encore.