So who was at the gig, and what did you think of it? And did you fall in the mud???

The Rolling Stones are an English rock and roll band that rose to prominence in the early 1960s during the British Invasion. They were leaders of the English R&B boom of the 1960s and presented a rebellious, bohemian image that many other bands continue to emulate. During their 1969 American tour, the Stones were introduced and have often since been referred to as "The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World."

Originally an R&B outfit that recorded Rock n' Roll as well as ballads on their first album, they later took up country blues, country music, psychedelia, and reggae. Starting in 1965 lead singer and harpist Mick Jagger with guitarist Keith Richards began writing almost all of the band's new material, including a string of number one songs for The Stones that continued until the early eighties.

The Rolling Stones continue to record and perform and are one of the longest running and most successful acts in show business. They are often the highest grossing concert act the years they tour, and every album of primarily new studio material has placed in the top 5 in the United States.

For the 40 plus years of The Stones; Jagger, Richards, and drummer Charlie Watts, have been constant members. Founder, guitarist, and harpist Brian Jones died in 1969. Jones's replacement Mick Taylor left in December 1974. His replacement has been guitarist Ron Wood. Long time bassist Bill Wyman retired in 1991. In 1963 Pianist and founding member Ian Stewart was removed from the lineup early on and became their tour manager, but nonetheless played piano for the band until his death in 1985. The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

In 2002, The Rolling Stones released Forty Licks (UK #2; US #2), a greatest hits album that spanned their career, that contained four new songs recorded with the latter day core band of Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wood, Leavell and Jones. The same year, Q magazine named The Rolling Stones as one of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die", and the 2002-2003 Licks Tour gave people that chance. On July 30, 2003, the band headlined the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto concert in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to help the city - which they had frequently used for pre-tour rehearsals - recover financially and psychologically from the effects of the 2003 SARS epidemic. It was attended by an estimated 490,000 people. On November 9, 2003, the band played its first ever concert in Hong Kong as part of the Harbour Fest celebration, also for revival from SARS. In November of 2003 the band exclusively licensed the right to sell their new 4-DVD boxed set, Four Flicks, recorded on their most recent world tour, to the U.S. Best Buy chain of stores. In response, other music retail chains (including Tower Records, Virgin Megastore and HMV) pulled all Rolling Stones CDs and related merchandise from their shelves and replaced them with signs explaining the situation.

On July 26, 2005, coinciding with Jagger's birthday, the band announced the name of their new album, A Bigger Bang (UK #2; US #3), which was released September 6 to typically strong reviews, including a glowing write up in Rolling Stone magazine (often noted for its consistent support of the group). The album included perhaps the most controversial song from The Stones in years, "Sweet Neo Con", a criticism of American Neoconservatism from Jagger. The song was reportedly almost dropped from the album due to objections from Richards, who prefers to avoid music that's overtly political or topical, because he believes that such songs rarely stand the test of time.

The subsequent A Bigger Bang Tour began in August 2005, and visited North America, South America, East Asia in a mixture of venues. In February 2006 the group played the high-profile slot of half-time of Super Bowl XL. By the end of 2005, the tour had set a record of $162 million gross receipts, breaking the previous North American mark also set by the Stones in 1994. Later that month the band played to a massive crowd on the beach in Rio de Janeiro. After performances Down Under, Keith Richards went in hospital in May 2006 for brain surgery after an apparent fall from a coconut tree on the island of Fiji, causing a six week postponement in the European leg of the tour. The following month, it was reported that Ron Wood was entering rehab for a couple of weeks following increased recent alcohol abuse. The Stones returned to North America for another round of concerts in September 2006, and are expected to return to Europe in the summer of 2007. By November 2006, A Bigger Bang Tour had been declared the highest-grossing tour of all time, earning the band $437 million in receipts.