If anyone tells you they saw the Rolling Stones on their first tour of America be prepared to either think they were very lucky or they may be confused. The Stones’ tour in June 1964 was a handful of gigs, watched by just a few fans. Yet, within less than a year, America became their second home, as the tours got longer and many of their iconic hits were recorded there.
The Stones’ huge US tour in 1969 culminated in the fiasco of the Altamont Festival that could have finished a lesser band, yet it galvanized them into becoming a touring machine. Their 1970s shows became ever more lavish, decadent even, and their increasingly long tours of North America in the last three decades have taken touring to an industrial scale.
Today, “The greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world” has been watched in concert by more people than any band in history…
