Rolling Stones Hit Toronto

Apr. 25, 1965 - The Rolling Stones arrived in Toronto tonight and performed for 25 minutes before 12,000 screaming teenagers at Maple Leaf Gardens. The Stones are a British rhythm and blues group something like the Beatles — at least in appearance.

The crowd and the $20,000 fee were second only to the Beatles. A year ago, the Gardens refused to bring the Stones in because they drew only 627 at a concert in Boston. But now, the Stones are hot.

Those on the ground floor stood atop their rickety folding chairs throughout. One girl fell and cut a deep gash in her leg and had to be taken to the hospital on a stretcher.

Numerous shoving matches developed, and things weren’t helped by the Stones, who kept beckoning the youngsters to rush the stage.

At the end of their performance, several hundred of the audience, mostly girls, rushed a police line in front of the stage.

They didn’t make it through the line to their idols, but several girls fainted, and screams of adoration could be heard for quite a distance.

Some police and many of the Gardens security staff were not so gentle. Some waded into the kids and treated them very roughly.

One screaming young boy was picked up by his jacket and thrown to the floor and then ejected by a burly policeman. A girl was dragged out by her hair by a Gardens’ usher. When a boy tried to intervene, he was told he’d get punched out of his seat. Then, the police threw him out of the building.

Outside, when the Stones were being whisked away, the driver of their car charged full tilt into the crowd, throwing several up on the hood. At one point, so many were on the hood that one girl was pushed up on the windshield.

Staff Inspector Harold Adamson admitted afterwards that “it was more good luck than anything else” that “nobody was badly hurt.”

“They’re a bunch of mangy kids,” said one policeman of the crowd.

Tomorrow night, the Stones will perform in London, Ontario, and then will embark on a tour of several U.S. cities.

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