Watch the Rolling Stones perform at a New Musical Express Poll Winners show in 1964 here:

On 12th July 1962, the Marquee was the venue for the Rolling Stones’ first ever live show. Formed by former schoolmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards with fellow R&B enthusiast Brian Jones and named after a Muddy Waters song, the line-up was completed by Ian Stewart (piano), Dick Taylor (bass) and Mick Avory (drums). However, Taylor left soon after and was replaced by Bill Wyman, while Charlie Watts became the Stones’ permanent drummer. The band’s association with the Marquee continued when they were hired to perform in the set breaks during Cyril Davies All-Stars’ Thursday night residency at the club in January 1963, but legend has it that they were sacked at the end of the month for asking for more money! Not that the Stones needed to worry. Unofficially managed by Giorgio Gomelsky, they secured a popular eight-month residency at the Richmond Crawdaddy Club where their potential was soon spotted by the entrepreneurial Andrew Loog Oldham. In May 1963, Oldham signed them up for management, pushing Stewart into the background and marketing the remaining five band members as the ‘bad boy’ alternative to the more clean-cut Beatles. The rest is history.

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