As the Rolling Stones return to Southern California for a pair of shows at SoFi Stadium this month, we started to think about all the times they’ve come to California in the 60 years since the band played its first show in the United States.
That was at Swing Auditorium on June 5, 1964, and since then they played everywhere from the Forum to the Hollywood Bowl, the Long Beach Arena to Staples Center. They played the Echoplex, the Fonda, and the Belly Up – tiny venues for one of the biggest bands in the world – and they’ve played all the stadiums too – the Rose Bowl, Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
So it stands to reason there are a whole lot of you out there who have seen the Rolling Stones live and have a story to tell. And we’d like you to share those tales with us for a story — we’re assembling a kind of oral history of fan memories of the Rolling Stones’ shows over six decades of rock and roll.
Were at you Swing Auditorium in 1964 for that very first show? Maybe you drove north to the Altamont Speedway in 1969 when the Stones played one of their most infamous gigs ever?
Were you at Anaheim Stadium in 1978 for the Night of the Flying Shoes? If you know, you know …
Were you at the Coliseum in 1981 when a then-little-known Prince opened the show and the Rolling Stones fans booed him – Prince! – off the stage.
Were you one of 780 lucky ducks who got to see the Stones play the Echoplex in 2013? Ugh, we hate you but still want to talk to you.
It doesn’t really matter when or where you saw the Stones. If you’ve got a story to tell, a memory to share, we’d love to receive it and possibly include it in a published story to preview the SoFi shows on July 10 and July 13.
Send an email to Peter Larsen at plarsen@scng.com. Write “Rolling Stones Memories” in the subject line. Inside tell us your story but also leave a way for us to contact you if we need to follow up. Mention whether you have any physical memorabilia – ticket stubs and programs, photographs, and souvenirs and so on.
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