58 years ago today the Rolling Stones played their first US concert in front of 3,500 maniacal fans in Los Angeles’ Inland Empire.
No, really, the kids went nuts.
“When they opened the doors, the screaming crowd jammed through en masse,” San Bernardino Sun writer Ronald Plotkin reported the next day. “The doors, literally, were ripped off the hinges. One window was broken.”
Once inside, the fans were almost invited to mob Mick, Keith, Brian and the Stones during the show due negligence from the organizers who never saw what was to come.
“The previous weekend San Bernardino High School had held their graduation ceremony at The Swing and stairs had been put in at the front of the stage so graduates could walk up and receive their diplomas,” the promoter Bob Lewis told the Sun in 2013.
“Well, we just left those stairs there for the Stones concert. We were so new at this. We didn’t know what to expect. Well, with those stairs, there were all these girls rushing the stage during the show. They could just run up there. In fact, one of those girls actually stole Mick Jagger’s tambourine,” he recalled.
The band was supporting its debut U.S. release, The Rolling Stones, England’s Newest Hit Makers. which had just been released a few months prior. As would be the case for their first five US albums, it would contain mostly covers by the band’s favorite Black rock and blues legends like Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Marvin Gaye, etc.
Kicking off the show that night at The Swing, however, were the fateful words penned by Buddy Holly – “I’m gonna tell you how it’s gonna be. You’re gonna give your love to me.”
“Not Fade Away” was such a powerful opening salvo in the set in ’64, the Stone dusted it off as their set opener for the Voodoo Lounge Tour 30 years later for 130 shows.
read more at: Setlist.fm
