Jagger at 80: The night Stones fans rampaged in Lanarkshire

What changed his mind was a trouble-torn gig at the town's Chantinghall Hotel on May 19 by Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. The Stones were big, and getting bigger. They had already had several chart hits - the Chuck Berry-penned Come On, the Lennon-McCartney composition I Wanna Be Your Man, Not Fade Away - and It's All Over Now would shortly give them their first Number One.

They kept up an exhausting pace in 1964 - no fewer than 206 concerts, made up of four British tours and their first two tours of the States, to say nothing of numerous appearances on radio and TV. But they were already one of the most exciting bands in pop, with Jagger, 80 years old today,  the most charismatic lead singer of them all. That January, they had played the Barrowland in Glasgow, which involved them flying to a gig for the very first time.

An early portrait of Mick Jagger, circa 1963 (Image: Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Everyone wanted to see them. Three thousand fans tried to mob the group at the Hamilton hotel, and wire netting had to be erected to keep the fans from the musicians.

The Rolling Stones: always there when you need them

According to news reports, one thousand extra teenage fans crammed into the hotel's dancehall and more than 100 young people "collapsed in the blast-furnace heat" of the venue.

Reported the Evening Times: "Ambulancemen worked non-stop for five hours in a makeshift casualty station in the foyer... Ambulances ran a shuttle service to Hairmyres Hospital...Buses were stoned... Police had to clear 400 angry teenagers demanding their money back ... Half-naked girls who had collapsed in the heat of the hall had to be dragged into the foyer ... Windows in the hotel were smashed and seat-cushions slashed with razor blades".

Mick Jagger at the SECC, 2003 (Image: Mark Gibson)

As hotel staff dealt with the aftermath Mr Kirkwood said: "After last night's trouble I doubt very much if the police will allow any further beat dances to be held - but regardless of that I have no intention of staging any more shows of that nature.

"By the time I refund money to those who did not get into the dance I will be lucky if I break even financially. Last night's scenes were the worst I have experienced in the years I have been promoting shows.

"This was my first - and last - beat dance. From now on I will stick to organising jazz dances, which I have been doing for years".

The hotel proprietor, Isaac Smith, said: "Mod girls in long dresses were jumping up and down on the satin-covered seats in the hall."

Memories of the Stones' Hamilton concert have filtered down the years. Writing on Twitter three years ago, Julian Bray, a journalist and broadcaster, recalled: "I was there! Hotel now gone. Loads of forged tickets, Stones behind chainlink floor to ceiling barricade in corner of ballroom and dozen bouncers also behind barricade!"

In an email to the Herald this week, Bray added that the stage was a temporary affair in a corner "with a thick wire chain-link fence all around and about 1O bouncers inside the fence facing the audience.

"The gig was a sell-out but fake tickets had also been distributed so it was totally oversold. I was right down at the front. The Stones were the antidote to the squeaky-clean Beatles and the music was loud and very raw.

"Due to the overcrowding the set was curtailed earlier than advertised but we did experience the Rolling Stones as they should have been heard - loud, raw, but totally polished and professional.

"We knew then the Rolling Stones would still be around in, say, 10 years' time. It's over 60 years now and they still continue to excite new generations. Long may they continue".

Speaking to the Hamilton Advertiser in 2014, Stones fan Mick Prater recalled that he was one of the 1000 people stuck outside the venue.

“I couldn’t get in", he said. "I didn’t get a ticket, I was playing football with the cubs, but I went along and stood outside. I saw the car with them going in and Mick Jagger was wearing a striped t-shirt, I’ve never forgotten it. I was only 10 and my mum asked me where I had been when I got back.

“I was right up against the door, it was blasting out. From the moment I heard them, it changed my life forever, it’s like chemistry.”

The Rolling Stones opening the Glasgow music store, McCormacks, in 1963 (Image: Newsquest)

He added: “I think they had booked them when they were still a pub band but by the time the gig came around they had a couple of number one songs.

“One of the bouncers later told me he was speaking to Brian Jones, and when he dropped his cigarette dout all the girls jumped on it. A lot of lassies fainted. Mick Jagger still talks about it and says it’s one of the gigs he remembers".

Interviewed by the Daily Record in 2002, Bill Wyman, the Stones' bass guitarist until his departure in 1993, said: "We had an amazing gig in Hamilton. We were behind 10ft fencing and kids were climbing it and cutting their fingers. It was about 130-degrees inside and we were playing with our shirts off. We were drenched in sweat.

"To us it was just another booking and we didn't even know where Hamilton was. It was supposed to be 2000 people and there were twice that many packed inside because the promoters had printed up extra tickets.

Jagger and Richards in concert in London, May 1976 (Image: Agency)"About 4,000 came and it was mayhem. Once we got inside we were stuck there. People got hurt because of the crush. Kids were pressed up against the fencing.

"The fence was chicken wire but it had been cut off rough at the top. Kids would climb it and cut their hands. Girls were getting their clothes torn. It was insane, but it was incredible that night."

Such reaction from fans became a nightly occurrence for the Stones during their frantic tours of 1964 and 1965. Keith Richards, speaking to drummer Charlie Watt's biographer Paul Sexton, recalled that the fans' screaming drowned out the music to such a degree that the band would amuse themselves by playing Popeye the Sailor Man.

In time, the Stones became huge. They played a number of concerts in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Apollo, in Glasgow, welcomed them in March 1971 (when the venue was known as Green's Playhouse) and again for two nights in September 1973, for three nights in May 1976 and, finally, in May 1982.

ick Jagger at the Glasgow Apollo, May 1982 (Image: free)

The Stones went on to play the SECC, as well as several stadium gigs at Hampden and Murrayfield. When they played the national rugby stadiumin 2018, it was, sadly, their final Scottish concert with Charlie Watts on the drum stool.

Rolling Stones, Murrayfield, Edinburgh, 1999

Speaking to music writer Billy Sloan in 1999, Jagger said: "We've always enjoyed playing in Scotland.

"You always have to be good up there. If you don't deliver on stage you're in trouble. I remember in the Sixties we played the Barrowland Ballroom. It was crazy. The heat from the audience was incredible. There was steam coming out of the windows and it looked like the place was on fire.

The Stones at Murrayfield, 2018 (Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)

"The Glasgow Apollo was fantastic too. The stage was very high but it was a real favourite of ours. The Apollo audience was always very enthusiastic. But only if you were good, not if you were crap".