Memories of the night The Rolling Stones were forced to flee Blackpool as they release new album Hackney Diamonds

A teenage mob forced The Rolling Stones to flee from the Empress Ballroom, as they stormed the stage wrecking their kit.

The cheers and screams of the teenagers turned into threatening boos and the five band members ran from the stage to safety.

The Rolling Stones – featuring Watts along with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Brian Jones – played hundreds of shows around the UK in the 1960s.

Music writer Richard Houghton captured memories of these shows in a book, The Rolling Stones – You Had To Be There (spenwoodbooks.com)

He said: “The Stones quickly built a reputation as a fearsome live act, playing R&B and blues covers, with perhaps the most famous lead singer in music in Mick Jagger.

“The Stones played Lancashire three times in 1964, as their fame began to skyrocket, starting at the Public Hall in Preston in January of that year.”

In March 1964, the Stones were back in the North West, playing at the Opera House in Blackpool.

Syd Bloom, who was 17, remembers: “We were sort of old enough to go into the bar and I spent my time ripping beer mats, getting Keith Richards to sign them and flogging them to girls outside. Mick Jagger was nowhere to be seen but Charlie, Bill and Keith were very friendly.”

But it was their second appearance in Blackpool which is remembered, for all the wrong reasons. The riots actually led to the band being banned from Blackpool for almost 50 years.

Richard explained: “The concert was held during Glasgow Fair and Glaswegian audiences were famously hard to please. The evening ended in a riot, with the Stones unable to perform the second of their sets and Charlie’s drum kit being rescued from the stage as sections of the crowd set about destroying the ballroom.”

Eileen Cornes was at the show. She said: “I was on holiday in Blackpool.

“Three quarters of the way through the concert the venue seemed to get rowdy.

“Our Scottish friend advised us to take off our shoes and run to the back of the venue as she feared that there was going to be trouble ahead. I hesitated at first, not really sensing danger, and she screamed at me to move. We all went back to the hotel. The following day we found out the Stones’ piano had been thrown off the stage into the crowd.’

Syd Bloom was also at the Empress Ballroom for the second time. “Roy Carr from the Executives started winding everybody up by doing ‘I’ve Got My Mojo Working’ and starting the song up again.

“So there was a bit of a tension because people were telling him to get the Stones back on. Two or three Scots guys got their way to the front right by the stage and one of them threw a fork at Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards, who promptly went forward and kicked his teeth out with his Cuban heel and it just kicked off from there.

“The Stones ran for it. Charlie’s cymbals were being thrown around. Can you imagine a more deadly weapon than a cymbal?”

In pictures: 9 incredible pictures of The Rolling Stones Blackpool gig which ended in a riot - as they release Hackney Diamonds