Rolling Stones at Hyde Park review: Five-star performance dripping with memorable moments

“Who was here in 1969?” asked Mick Jagger, referencing the Rolling Stones' historic Hyde Park show, held just two days after original guitarist Brian Jones’ death, at which a crowd estimated at a quarter of a million people turned up to pay their respects.

“Welcome back,” he said in response to those who stood with hands raised. “It’s nice to see you again.”

Back then, nobody had paid a penny to see the Stones; 44 years on, some tickets were changing prices for upwards of a thousand pounds.

Inevitably, the times, they have a changed.

And while a sizeable section of today’s audience weren’t even born the last time Mick and co ambled through Midnight Rambler here, the fact that they’d turned out in their thousands to tread in their parents’ sandal-steps speaks volumes about the band’s enduring appeal.

Things got off to a less than auspicious start.

Keith Richards fluffed not one, but two of opener Start Me Up’s opening three chords - a riff one suspects, given the number of times he’s played it, would be harder for him to play wrong than right.

Fortunately they proved to be the only bum notes of a near-immaculate set that not just recreated the previous weekend’s Glastonbury crowd-pleasing histrionics, but arguably surpassed them.

Richards looked more relaxed and far better dressed, trading licks and cigarette smoke with long-term sparring partner Ronnie Wood.

Drummer Charlie Watts was the epitome of insouciant cool, providing the rock-solid foundations from which the likes of It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It),  Honky Tonk Women and an epic Paint It Black were majestically constructed.