What was the first US venue that The Rolling Stones played? #fec #rollingstones #fyp

By: Ben Forrest (Far Out)

Rock and roll might have originated in the southern United States, but the infectiously rebellious sounds of the genre were perfected during the era of the British invasion. Young groups from Blighty took the influence of early rockabilly, R&B, and blues musicians from the States and imbued their own quintessentially British style into the music. By the mid-1960s, the American pop charts were dominated by British rock outfits, with few fostering as legendary a reputation as The Rolling Stones.

Devotees of American blues music from their very beginning, it should come as no real shock that the Stones found favour in the USA. However, nobody could have predicted the phenomenon that the young lads from London would become when they arrived from across the Atlantic Ocean. In the months and years that followed their initial touchdown on US soil in June 1964, the band witnessed an unimaginable rise in popularity, and countless pretenders followed in their wake.

The Rolling Stones, of course, were not the only band to be involved in the period of the British invasion, but they were certainly among the most popular. Plus, their arrival in the States predated that of The Beatles by a few weeks, making them one of the first British bands to truly break the United States. As you might expect, the schedule for their first US tour was fairly hectic, with the band immediately pushed into a press conference upon their arrival at JFK Airport in New York on June 1st, 1964.

From there, the band made their debut appearance on American television, performing on The Les Crane Show on June 2nd. However, their very first public performance in the United States arrived a few days later, once the band had escaped the chaos of New York City in favour of sunnier climbs on the West Coast. In total, the band played 13 shows on their first US tour, and the first was at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California on June 5th, 1964. With a capacity of roughly 10,000, the West Coast venue had previously played host to figures like Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, and Bob Hope. The arrival of The Rolling Stones, however, quickly gave the venue a reputation as being a haven for modern rock and roll, hosting artists like Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and The Doors in the years that followed. Unfortunately, the venue was later destroyed in 1981 following an air disaster.

Although the Stones’ performance in San Bernardino was enough to cement their place in the popular culture of America for decades, the setlist was far from being the raucous rock and roll that the group later became synonymous with. In reality, the vast majority of songs performed by the band during that first US tour were cover songs of old blues or R&B tracks, including the likes of Bobby Troup’s ‘Route 66’ and Chuck Berry’s ‘Beautiful Delilah’.

In fact, some of the only original tracks to feature on that tour were ‘Tell Me (You’re Coming Back)’, one of the first songs penned by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger as a partnership, and ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, which had been gifted to the band by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Nevertheless, Jagger and company managed to put their own unique spin on the cover-dominated setlist, making quite the name for themselves in America.

In the years that followed that initial 1964 tour of the USA, The Rolling Stones would return to the States year after year, even calling the nation their home for a number of years. The band laid the foundations for virtually every British group who have attempted to break America since, but very few have managed to do so with the poise or success of the Stones.

When was The Rolling Stones’ second tour of America?
Representative of just how quickly The Rolling Stones took off following their first steps onto US soil, the band returned a year later, in October 1965. By that time, however, the group came armed with an arsenal of original songs, including the likes of ‘Get Off My Cloud’ and ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’. The success of this tour is also marked by how much longer it was, seeing the band perform 41 shows across the USA and Canada.

Although the band’s first tour in the US was essential in establishing the period of the British invasion and allowing the Stones to make a mark on US audiences, it was really their 1965 tour that cemented their position as one of Britain’s most popular rock exports worldwide. 

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