The have dedicated the first UK show of their 60th-anniversary tour to late drummer Charlie Watts.
The legendary rockers hosted a ginormous crowd at Anfield, Liverpool on Thursday and paid tribute to Watts, who was the band’s drummer for almost 60 years.
After delighting the crowd, Sir Mick Jagger, 78, Keith Richards, also 78, and , 75, gave some special words about their friend and bandmate.
‘In 1962, we met a drummer called . This is our first tour in England we’ve done without him so we’d like to dedicate this show to Charlie,’ they told the crowd.
Watts died in August 2021 at the age of 80, after missing a large part of the band’s US No Filter tour last year.
Steve Jordan, 65, has been performing on drums for the band ever since then, having worked alongside the Stones himself for almost 40 years.
The audience were also treated to a cover of Beatles song I Wanna Be Your Man, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in 1963.
The song may have been written by the famous duo but it ended up being released as the Stones’ second single in the UK in November 1963.
It then appeared on The Beatles’ second album, With the Beatles, a few weeks after the Stones’ version reached the top 20 in the UK charts.
Frontman Sir Mick told the crowd that they were actually planning to cover Liverpool FC anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone.
But that news received a mixed reception, as there were no doubt many Everton fans present at the home stadium of their biggest Premier League rivals.
‘But we decided instead to do a cover of a song written by some other local lads,’ Sir Mick announced, ‘so we’re doing this especially for you, Liverpool, okay?’
Before the show’s encore, the crowd belted out an impromptu rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone, just before the band came back to the stage.
The Paint It, Black hitmakers last performed on the banks of the Mersey in 1971 at the Empire Theatre, during their Goodbye Britain tour.
Before the show, Sir Mick visited some famous landmarks in the city, hugged a statue of Liverpool icon Cilla Black, and treated himself to a chippy tea.
The Jumpin’ Jack Flash singers will perform in Amsterdam on Monday and will later return to the UK for Hyde Park’s festival.
