We now turn our consideration to the early stones, the formation of the group,
the first gigs, how things really got started.
The last video I was saying they really came out of this London,
british blues scene.
And the british scene was like a lot of other scenes, stifol, and trajazz.
That, country blues, in the UK that really glorified and
really revered, highly revered, American folk and, and vernacular styles.
Things that seem really direct,
really honest, really free in a certain kind of way.
So the Stones come out of all of that.
The band, the, the first gig, for
The Rolling Stones is at The Marquee Club on July 12, 1962.
They shared the, they shared the bill with a band put together by Long John Baldry.
It was supposed to be that night a Blues Incorporated night.
But Blues Incorporated got an opportunity to perform on the BBC.
And so you'd think,
well they would just take that night off and come back the following Thursday.
But as the story goes,
there was a little bit of concern that if they let the gig go, on that Thursday,
somebody else might come in, and get the gig, and they'd lose it.
And they didn't want to do that.
So Alexis Korner figured out a way to get some of his his people from his circle,
Long John Baldry and Mick and Keith.
To have their band fill in that evening on Thursday so he could have,
the gig back for the following Thursday, and, and, and, and those hence.
And so out come the,
the Rolling Stones featuring Brian Jones going under
the name of Elmo Lewis I think [LAUGH] on that that first gig, that stage name.
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ian Stewart on piano, Dick Taylor on the bass.
Bill Wyman still not in the group.
And Mick Avory, I think it's been determined, on the drums.
That's the first line up that actually, does this very first gig.
Now, by December of 1962, Bill Wyman had had joined the group.
And Charlie Watts ends up joining the group in January of 1963.
Interesting thing about Wyman, as we said before, is he's a few years older than
the rest of the guys so he'd been doing lotsa gigs around town for years.
The Rolling Stones were newbies at this time, you know, nine,
Ke, Mick and Keith, 19 years old, hadn't done many gigs.
Had really lousy equipment and gear and
stuff, you know, like beginning bands often do.
Especially if you haven't got a lot of money to spend,
you haven't got rich parents that can buy expensive amplifiers.
But Wyman was a few years older, and he had been playing around.
He'd accumulated some equipment.
So he comes to the first first rehearsal, a tryout.
And he's got, you know, his bass amp plus an extra guitar amp or two, you know.
And the other Rolling Stones thought that, they say, wow, this guys great.
Look at all the gear.
And Bill Wyman was a great bass player but part, I think, what got him in the group
initially was they really loved the gear, I mean, he had a Vox AC30 guitar.
And so he comes in with all the gear and, anyway, so, he was in, December, 1962.
Charlie Watts as I mentioned before had played around town with a lot of
different kind of groups.
Really, you know,
Charlie was more interested in jazz, than, than, than rock and roll.
But he figured himself not to be a very good drummer.
That he was g, he was, went, went back to college, could see that
Blues Incorporated was moving on so he said your he, was, was developing.
And he said, you know,
you really pro drummer, you know, I'm going to go back to college.
But he was somehow convinced to join the Rolling Stones in January of 1963, so
by the beginning of 1963, we have the classic lineup.
Still including Ian Stewart,
because Andrew Lou Goldem isn't in the picture yet.
Well they play a bunch of gigs around town, a,
whatever they can, whatever they can grab.
You know, going from place to place, this kind of thing.
They begin their residency at The Crawdaddy Club,
remember this is a place owned by Georgio Gomelsky out in Richmond.
That happens in late February 1963.
Boy this is a fast time scale when you think about it.
The first gig, the summer of 1962.
By Christmas time or so Bill Wyman is in the group.
January Charlie Watts is in the group.
February they're playing the Crawdaddy Club.
It's all happening sort of very quickly, but
they've got nothing else to do they're basically doing the band all day everyday.
These shows at the Crawdaddy Club become increasingly popular and
they're noted for the high energy of the performances.
It's often said that the Stones on stage would do similar things to
what the Yard Birds would do with rave up.
Or a so called rave up section, where they'd get you know,
to the end of the tune and they would just kind of you know,
play over the, the maybe a repeating chord progression.
There'd be a lotta slow and the thing would just get excited and
the dancers would get excited but you know, the, the, the way sometimes teenage.