22nd August 1964

The Rolling Stones play St Helier

This was a big year for The Rolling Stones. They appeared on the first ever episode of the BBC’s Top of the Pops, recorded a jingle for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies breakfast cereal, and appeared for two nights at St Helier’s Springfield Hall.

The band’s third British tour, which ran from 1 to 22 August, included stops in London, Manchester and Guernsey (for three nights). Their Jersey dates were 21st and 22nd, during which they performed a set that included Not Fade Away and Can I Get a Witness.

Back from the US

The tour came hot on the heels of an American outing, with 12 shows in eight cities, including New York, Detroit and Pittsburgh. In total, the band completed four British tours and two American tours in 1964, performing 106 dates. On almost all of their British dates, they appeared twice in two separate concerts to satisfy the number of people wanting to buy tickets.

The Rolling Stones had only formed two years earlier and, like The Beatles, which had played in Jersey the previous year, they had found phenomenal success very early in their career.

A changing line-up

At the time of its Jersey dates, the band consisted of Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, with Ian Stewart joining the other members on tour to play piano. Ronnie Wood didn’t join the band until the mid–1970s.

The band’s debut album, the self-titled The Rolling Stones, had been released in April, both in the UK and, under the title England’s Newest Hit Makers, in the United States. At the time, they were in the middle of a series of recording sessions for their second album, 12X5, set for release in October the same year.