Like what you see? Help keep it going! This site runs on the support of readers like you. Your donation helps cover costs and keeps fresh Rolling Stones content coming your way every day. Thank you!
January 6 pops up again and again as one of those dates where the Rolling Stones’ story quietly shifts gears. From early UK theatres packed with screaming fans in 1964, to chaotic road tales that sound half-myth, half-misadventure, this day captures the band in motion. It marks moments of ascent, excess, creativity, and closure: co-headlining tours, infamous on-the-road episodes, unlikely jams that would take decades to surface, and finally, a founding member choosing to walk away. January 6 isn’t just a date—it’s a snapshot of the Stones growing up, blowing up, and moving on.
January 6, 1964: Granada Theatre, Harrow-on-the-Hill, England (2 shows) This was the first night of a 14 date UK tour named Group Scene 1964 (the Stones’ second theatre tour of Great Britain, and their first as co-headliners), also featuring The Ronettes, Marty Wilde, The Swinging Blue Jeans and Dave Berry and The Cruisers, and which finished on January 27 at the Colston Hall, in Bristol.
January 6, 1965: ABC Theatre, Belfast, Northern Ireland (2 shows) Keith: “We stopped at an old clothing shop, sort of an army surplus, in a little village on the road to Cork. We went in and this old Irishman grabbed hold of Brian’s balls and dragged Brian outside and pointed to the church tower, there’s these huge holes in it, and he said, Cromwell’s balls did that, now let me see what I’m gonna do to your balls. So Brian got his cock out and pissed all over his old overcoats and everything. We all went haring out of the shop and leapt in the car, and – he was very old, this cat – and suddenly he leapt up across the street and onto the bonnet of the car and started kicking the windscreen with his huge boots.”
January 6, 1974: Keith, Ronnie and Jimmy Page jam together at Ronnie’s home studio, The Wick, in Richmond, England. This will eventually end up as the song Scarlet, which finally saw the light 45 years after as part of the deluxe version of the Goats Head Soup album.
January 6, 1982: Release of (Country singer) Guthrie Thomas’ LP This One’s For Sarah, with Ronnie Wood as guest on four tracks: 1. Dead Ahead/ 2. I’ve Got To Go/ 3. The Window/ 4. Friends And Family
January 6, 1993: London Tonight (UK TV) In an interview with Matthew Lorenzo, Bill Wyman officially announces he is officially quitting the Stones. “I really don’t want to do it anymore. I have many special memories. It’s been wonderful. But I thought the last two tours with them were the best we have ever done, so I was quite happy to stop after that. When I joined this band, we thought we would last two or three years with a bit of luck and come out with a few shillings in our pockets. Now, here I am 30 years later, and I haven’t done any of the other important things in life.”
Like what you see? Help keep it going! This site runs on the support of readers like you. Your donation helps cover costs and keeps fresh Rolling Stones content coming your way every day. Thank you!
