APRIL 14, 1963 – Still unsigned to a label, The Rolling Stones played at The Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, England. The Beatles had a rare night off so, after their third appearance on the ITV show “Thank Your Lucky Stars”, they drove to the venue to see the new group they’d been hearing about for themselves. All four members of The Beatles were in the audience and the two future chart rivals met for the first time.
John Lennon’s recall : “We first went to see the Stones at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond and then at another place in London. They were run by a different guy then, Giorgio Gomelsky. When we started hanging around London, the Stones were up and coming in the clubs, and we knew Giorgio through Epstein. We went down and saw them and became good friends.
Ringo : “I remember standing in some sweaty room and watching them on the stage, Keith and Brian – wow! I knew then that the Stones were great. They just had presence. And, of course, we could tell – we’d had five weeks in the business; we knew all about it! We talked to them. I don’t know what about and I don’t know if we ended up backstage.”
