Now gentle reader it is time for me to confess, I am a huge fan of the Rolling Stones and have been ever since I bought their third single, Not Fade Away in early 1964. This one purchase led to a 30-year obsession with collecting their music, it was always the music rather than the band themselves. Actually that is not quite true, like many teenagers at the time I was almost transfixed by their attitude and stage persona. The obsession with their music meant that every record had to be purchased and every slightly different version of the same song had to be hunted down and collected, looking back now, it did get a bit silly.

In writing features for Remember When I have always tried to suppress my own enthusiasms but the desire to write about the Rolling Stones first appearance in Middlesbrough in 1963 was overwhelming, and could not wait for the 50th anniversary in 2013. Nevertheless, a lot of research went into the article and with help from my friend Stan Laundon the article took shape when some eye-witnesses were tracked down. The memories of these eye-witnesses of the Rolling Stones performance at the Outlook Club in Corporation Road were crucial to the article.

One problem remained; we had no photographs of the Rolling Stones in Middlesbrough in 1963 rather unsurprisingly for what was then a minor performance at a small club by a relatively unknown band on Saturday July 13, 1963. So after extensive searching around our own archives, those of the Newcastle Chronicle, the Birmingham Evening Mail and the Daily Mirror I found enough pictures between the period of 1963 and 1964 to illustrate the online feature. Pleased with the results I published the article, and was even more pleased when, some kind and interesting comments made by our readers were sent in.

However, the article soon came to the attention of Bill Wyman. Bill read the article and was interested enough to email his comments on what had been written. It was so fascinating I have reproduced what he had to say here:

Middlesbrough was not a tour date, but our first northern ballroom gig
outside of London.

Also, we supported the Hollies - not the other way around - so that boy's
memory is a bit off key

The first photo you show of the Stones playing with flowers in front of
them is from the Great Pop Prom from the Royal Albert Hall - nothing to
do with Middlesbrough or touring

There are a lot of other errors in this article, but they're all
historical, and I can't get into correcting any more

I made an error here - I thought it was called 'The Alcove Club' -
because that was the name Mick Jagger said this club was called in an
interview for 'Beat Monthly Magazine' that month.

Thanks

Bill Wyman

Now, most Rolling Stones' fans know that Bill has kept diaries and a vast collection of memorabilia about his time with the Rolling Stones, he is of course the definitive authority. If he says it happened or it didn't happen then you can count on it being so. Over the years Bill Wyman's books have gone along way to dispelling some of the myths about the Rolling Stones. So it was with a mixture of elation and desolation that I read his email. Elated that he had written at all, but devastated that there were, quote; 'a lot of other errors in this article.' What could they be?... I thought I had covered everything.

But as I said, Bill Wyman is the ultimate authority on the Rolling Stones so I will have to be big enough to take his mild admonishment. However, I have to point out that he was gracious enough to admit that he had also made a mistake over the naming of the Outlook Club, which he explains in his email.

Coincidently I found that my obsession with the Rolling Stones waned once Bill had left the group and for me they are not the same band without him. So I was over the moon to receive an email from him, because of all the band members it was always Bill who I wanted to talk to most... but this is probably the closest I will ever get.