A recent documentary shows exactly how wild things were back in the day for Rolling Stones fans.
The Stones and Brian Jones, which aired on BBC Two, delves at the relationships and conflicts inside The Rolling Stones during their formative years.
It also looked at Jones’ unique musical talent, which was crucial to the rock group’s success until his death in July 1969.
While the band’s live concerts are still full of beans with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood, it’s fair to say they’re not like as rowdy as they once were.
The documentary, which premiered on Monday night (May 15), shows previously unseen footage of Stones fans causing genuine disruption at their concerts in order to get near to them.
Clips from their glory days show young ladies not only yelling and chanting for their favourite performers, but also attempting to jump on stage with little regard for the repercussions.



‘The band in 1963 played over 300 gigs,’ explained Nick Broomfield.
‘When you’d come on stage, a whole crowd would just pour forward.’
Indeed, they did.
‘There was rioting whenever the Stones played.
‘It was an outpouring of emotion against the authorities and the traditional ways of doing things.’
On what made the rockers so attractive, he explained: ‘The way the Stones looked and dressed, their hair and sexuality, was a whole new feeling.
‘Everyone fancied both Brian and Mick, both male and female.



‘They had this extraordinary androgynous quality.’
Crowds were booted and shoved by security personnel as they caused disorder at Stones gigs, seeking to come within touching distance and even tugging on their microphone lines.
Some even jumped onto the platform, with police officers practically yanking their hair away!
And, when officers attempted to restore order, the audience appeared to get more aggressive.
Fans were spotted hurling objects at cops, forcing them to cover behind stage curtains, running up and sparking disturbances, and even pulling on the curtains and leaping into the audience.
And the Stones kept playing while all of this was going on.
Truly, wild.

Watching Nick Broomfield’s Brian Jones film, amazed at the violence at the early gigs, stage invaders being kicked, hurled back into the crowd. #bbc2
— Tim F (@CulturalSnow) May 15, 2023
Blimey those early Stones gigs were a bit scary… @bbcstoryville #BrianJones
— Neil Murray (@Neil_Murray57) May 15, 2023
Omg! That gig. The security kicking the audience and dragging them by the hair. A total riot. #thestonesandbrianjones
— Laura (@loggy01) May 15, 2023
Mad times. You couldn’t make it up! #thestonesandbrianjones
— Laura (@loggy01) May 15, 2023
Taking to Twitter as the doc aired to express their disbelief, one fan wrote: ‘Watching Nick Broomfield’s Brian Jones film, amazed at the violence at the early gigs, stage invaders being kicked, hurled back into the crowd.’
‘Blimey those early Stones gigs were a bit scary…’, wrote another.
‘The Brian Jones doc on BBC2 features the earliest stage drive I’ve ever seen’, another wrote, referencing one young man hurling himself out across a sea of people in a bid to cause carnage.
‘Omg! That gig. The security kicking the audience and dragging them by the hair. A total riot’, one fan wrote.
‘Mad times. You couldn’t make it up’, they later added.
Others were keen to heap praise on the documentary, hailing the unearthed footage ‘fascinating’ for offering an insight into the ‘gifted musician’.
‘This Brian Jones documentary is absolutely mint – wonderful footage, lots unseen by my eyes’, one person tweeted.
‘If you’re not watching the Stones & Brian Jones thing on #BBC2 right now you need seriously to rethink your life choices’, one added.
It was also noted how ‘heartbreaking’ the film was, as it ventured into Jones’s battle with drug addiction ahead of his death at the age of just 27.
Watch The Stones and Brian Jones on BBC iPlayer.