The Rolling Stones, or as they were known on the Marquee that night … the Rollin’ Stones, played their very first show at the Marquee Club in London on 12 July 1962.
The line-up then was Mick Jagger on vocals, Keith Richards on guitar, Brian Jones on guitar, Ian Stewart on keyboards, Tony Chapman on drums and Dick Taylor in bass. Bill Wyman joined on 7 December, 1962. Charlie Watts joined in January, 1963.
When Dick Taylor visited Noise11.com in 2012 he recalled that there was no thought of success in the early days. “The thought of making a living out of it was far from our minds, far from the Stones minds,” he tells Noise11.com. “Well, maybe Brian (Jones). Brian really wanted to crack it.”
Dick also rejects the story that The Stones was originally Brian Jones’ band. “There was always the big rift between to do with him thinking he started The Rolling Stones,” he said. “The fact is it was an amalgamation of two bands. It was his band and the thing we were doing already.
That “thing” was called Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. Taylor was in the Blue Boys with Mick and Keith. They merged with a band Brian Jones was putting together and became The Rollin’ Stones.
“Imagine what would have happened if that happened to be the big success,” Dick says.
Phil May says The Stones would have happened with or without Brian Jones. “I think Mick and Keith had produced enough material even if Brian hadn’t joined. I think Brian was an incredible ingredient and owed to the success of The Stones but if I had to take one of the three of them out, or even two of the five of them out, I suppose Bill (Wyman) and Brian would be the two you could have lost and still had a band that meant something”.
Brian does speak highly of Charlie Watts. “I think Charlie was essential. He was the Ringo to their whatever,” he says.
Watch the Noise11 interview with Phil May and Dick Taylor.
The setlist for the very first Rolling Stones show from the Marquee, Londone 50 years ago was:
Kansas City (Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller)
Baby What’s Wrong (Willie Dixon)
Confessin’ The Blues (Walter Brown/Jay McShann)
Bright Lights, Big City (Jimmy Reed/Mary Lee Reed)
Dust My Blues (Elmore James)
Down The Road Apiece (Tony Raye)
I’m A Love You (Jimmy Reed)
Bad Boy (Eddy Taylor)
I Ain’t Got You (Calvin Carter)
Hush-Hush (Jimmy Reed)
Ride ‘Em On Down (Eddy Taylor)
Back In The USA (Chuck Berry)
Kind Of Lonesome (Jimmy Reed)
Blues Before Sunrise (Elmore James)
Big Boss Man (Luther Dixon/Al Smith)
Don’t Stay Out All Night (Billy Boy Arnold)
Tell Me That You Love Me (Jimmy Reed)
Happy Home (Elmore James)
‘Ride ‘Em On Down’, the Eddy Taylor song, was first released on the ‘Blue & Lonesome’ album in 2016.
‘Down The Road Apiece’ was released on the 1965 album ‘The Rolling Stones Now!’.
‘Confessin’ The Blues’ popped up on ‘12×5’ in 1964.
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