On this day in 1964 two British bands were on the up. The Beatles made their first appearance on american TV. The Jack Paar Show aired film taken from a BBC film ‘The mersey Sound’ that showed the Fab Four playing ‘She Loves You’. Jack Paar was patronising and commented, negatively, on the Beatles’ hair cuts and music.

Gawd knows what he would have made of the Stones.

They were embarking on their first tour in the UK on which they were the headliners having previously backed people like Bo Diddley, Little Richard and The Everly Brothers. This tie round they were supported by the Ronnettes (as was usual at the time a strange pairing it seems to me). Jack Paar may not have liked the Beatles’ hair Phil Spector did not like the Stones’ morals. He sent a telegram to the Stones warning to stay away from ‘his girls’. Mind you Ronnie of the Ronnettes was his wife at the time.

Apparently, the Stones ignored the telegram.

The tour started in the Harrow Granada, not the best venue they would ever play, but certainly not the worst. One notable thing from the tour was that the Stones stopped wearing their band uniform. One of the first bands to do so. These days it seems hard imagine that any band would wear a uniform, but it was the norm in those days. That they stopped wearing them enhanced their loutish, bad boy image. parents (mine included) hated them because of it. The kids (me included) loved them because of it (and the music, of course).

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