First paid gig (July 12, 1962)

July 12 is the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones' first ever paid gig.

The then line-up of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart (piano), Dick Taylor (bass) and Mick Avory (drums) played a 50-minute set of blues and R&B covers to a 100-strong audience of mostly disinterested jazz fans at London's Marquee club.

The gig was, by all accounts, a nervy, somewhat slapdash affair, with the band downing whiskies for Dutch courage; although this probably contributed to what the Melody Maker described as their "very suspect tuning and internal balance" in its review a week later.

What do critics know, eh?

Even if they'd won the most glowing of reviews that night, nobody could have predicted the half century of sex, drugs, and, most importantly, genre-defining rock 'n' roll to come.

So that's one seminal Stones moment out of the way, brace yourself for 49 more...