'I got time off school to see the Stones in 1964'

By Andrew Woodger BBC East
Published 9 October 2022




"Keith Richards, even then, looked the part of the rock star and his teeth were rotten," remembered music journalist Hugh Fielder on his first assignment, when he was 16 years old.

The Cambridge grammar school boy got the Friday afternoon off to see the Rolling Stones in Ipswich on 9 October 1964 - on condition he wrote an essay about it.

"It was tremendously exciting. These were the days of the package shows and while I wrote that the Stones were clearly the headliners, it was my first experience of seeing a US soul act - Inez and Charlie Foxx - and you could see where the Stones were getting some of their sound from," said Fielder.

Whereas in their 60th anniversary shows this year, where the Stones played for around two hours, their 1964 set lasted "about 40 minutes".




Fielder, now 74, went on to be news editor for weekly music paper Sounds - one of the big three along with New Musical Express and Melody Maker, which were selling hundreds of thousands of copies in their 1960s and '70s peak.

He currently writes for magazines including Classic Rock.

In 1964, the Stones released their self-titled debut album and had their first UK number one single, external with It's All Over Now.

On the autumn package tour, they were the headline act above Inez & Charlie Foxx, Mike Berry & The Innocents, Simon Scott & the Le Roys, The Mojos and Don Spencer.

'Liberally-minded' school
Shows at the Ipswich Gaumont [now called the Regent] were at 18:35 and 20:45, and the young Fielder and a friend had tickets for the early show.

"The Beatles had played at the Cambridge ABC Regal and I hadn't been because a friend said it was pointless going because all you could hear was screaming, but we thought the Stones would be different," he said.

As someone who had regularly been to watch Ipswich Town during their League Championship-winning era under Alf Ramsey, he knew he would have to bunk off early from Cambridge Grammar School for Boys [now Netherhall School, external] to fit in a two-hour journey by train and not miss the start.

"My father Dennis was a teacher at Cambridge's other boys' grammar school [Cambridgeshire High School for Boys, now Hills Road Sixth Form College] and he said my school fancied itself as a more liberally-minded place, so we should just ask and see what they said," he said.

"The deal with the headmaster, Mr Scarisbrick, was that I should write an essay about it."

Unfortunately, he never got his essay back, but said he remembered the gig clearly.




Fielder said the Stones' set included Route 66, Not Fade Away and It's All Over Now.

"I wrote about how the Stones were clearly the headline act. It was tremendously exciting," he said.

"I'd seen Gerry & The Pacemakers and The Hollies in Cambridge, but the Stones were better than any band I'd seen before, just in terms of playing ability. They locked hard and heavy.

"Each member had their own character - Bill Wyman on bass seemed older, Charlie Watts [drummer, who died last year] was unfussy.

"Brian Jones and Keith Richards [guitarists] seemed in friendly competition.

"Singer Mick Jagger had come back from the US and had seen James Brown and he was now dancing.

"With Inez & Charlie Foxx, it was the first time I'd seen a US soul band, and I could see that was where the Stones were getting some of their sound from.

"The audience was fairly split between boys and girls, so there was some screaming, but the Stones didn't have the hysteria The Beatles were getting, because it was more of a male audience."







Fielder only went to see the early show in Ipswich, whereas the East Anglian Daily Times's, external photographer Dave Kindred went to the later show, which featured a stage invasion.

As the paper's 18-year-old junior snapper, he was sent by his editors.

"This long-haired bunch of gits was not in their news-frame - it was just another show in town," said Kindred, now 76.

"About 150 people decided to join the band on stage.

"There was no aggression, no seats were ripped up, but nobody quite knew what to do when they got up there - it petered out and they left the stage."

MORE HERE: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nmj1rl97vo