Memories don’t fade away of visit by Stones
“POLICE officers, security men, commissionaires and first aid men linked arms last night to prevent screaming fans from rushing the stage at both performances by the Rolling Stones at the Odeon Cinema, Cheltenham.
“One girl managed to clamber onto the platform, but was quickly hauled down. During their lively act the Stones were pelted with sweets and other objects as tokens of affection.
“After the show crowds of fans waited outside in front of the cinema, but the Rolling Stones slipped out the back way with a police escort and went off in their own car”.
That was part of the report that appeared in the Echo on September 11, 1964 the day after Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts appeared in Cheltenham. It was their third visit to perform in the town and they arrived on the crest of a popularity wave.
The group had barely been out of the pop charts for the 12 months previous to their fourth UK tour. This included shows at 37 venues across the country of which the Cheltenham gig was sixth.
“It’s all over now” was a million selling hit at the time. It had been preceded by “Not fade away” and “I wanna be your man”, both huge selling records, as was another million seller “Little red rooster” the release that followed.
Playing bottle neck guitar on the latter, the first time anyone had played bottle neck on a record by a British band, was Brian Jones who was born and brought up in Hatherley, Cheltenham. His multi instrumental talents were used to add a distinct difference to numerous Rolling Stones’ records.
When they arrived in town in September 1964, the Stones were not only selling more seven inch singles than anyone else, they were also at the top of the EP (extended play) record chart with “Five by five” and top of the 12 inch LP (long player) chart with their album “The Rolling Stones” released in April of that year.
A local man who had special reason to remember the day the Rolling Stones came to town was Trevor Lewis whose story was reported in the nostalgia pages of the Echo and Citizen on July 17, 2014.
“In the mid 1960s I delivered fruit and vegetables on an Open All Hours type bike with a wicker basket on the front for George Vic’s greengrocery and florist shop in Winchcombe Street” remembered Trevor.
“I used to take orders to all the hotels and restaurants in town, including the one in the Gaumont, or Odeon as it became.
“One day I was going up the back stairs in the cinema when I was followed in by Brian Jones, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, who were playing on stage there that night.
“I asked if I could have their autographs and they said yes, but the only thing I had for them to put their names on was a Vic’s paper bag from the shop. They signed their names, I said thanks and cycled back to the shop, where I put the bag with their autographs on the side while I went to the loo.
“When I came back the bag had gone. I asked the shop assistant where it was and was told she’d just filled it with a pound of tomatoes and given it to a customer.”
Members of a local pop group named Tony Faye and the Fayetones also had reason to recall the visit to town by the world’s greatest rock band.
While the Stones were on stage at the Odeon in Winchcombe Street, Tony Faye and the Fayetones were playing at a dinner dance half a mile away in the Irving Hotel in the High Street.
This happened to be where the Stones were staying overnight and when they returned to the hotel Mick Jagger joined Tony Faye and co to play impromptu harmonica.
Brian Jones wasn’t the only member of the band with close local links. The Stones’ drummer Charlie Watts, who died in August 2021, lived in the Gloucestershire Severnside village of Ashleworth.
The Rolling Stones, featuring local lad Brian Jones on guitar, played their third gig in Cheltenham to a sell out audience.