18th August 1964

The Rolling Stones played St Peter Port

1964 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 three nights at the New Theatre Ballroom, Guernsey.

The band’s third British tour, which ran from 1 to 22 August, included stops in London, Manchester and Jersey (for two nights). Their Guernsey dates were 18th to 20th, during which they performed a set that included Not Fade Away and Can I Get a Witness.

The tour came hot on the tail of an American outing, which had seen them stage 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 on 106 days. 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 in 1964

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

At the time of its Guernsey 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, 12 X 5, which was set for release in October of the same year.