Stones Take Fresno

May 22, 1965 - The Rolling Stones, one of the top-rated rock ’n’ roll groups in the world, appeared this afternoon at Ratcliffe Stadium in Fresno, Calif., and in the space of 28 minutes managed to:

— Set a new noise level record for the stadium

— Inspire more tears than an Irish wake.

— Touch off some of the best broken-field running seen in Ratcliffe in a long time.

What the Stones did not do was cause an avalanche of ticket sales.

Richard Charles, general manager of radio station KMAK, the sponsor, estimated the crowd at 4,500. The police said it was more like 3,500. Reynolds Bagby of Los Angeles, president of Montclair Productions, shook his head.

“I had it pegged for a 10 grand profit,” he said. “We’re working on a couple of Beatle shows this summer. Fresno was on the list. Now, I don’t know.”

The Stones, he added, were guaranteed $4,500 for their Fresno appearance.

Their chartered plane arrived at about 12:30 a.m., and they immediately were hustled to the Holiday Inn at Ashlan Ave. for the rest of the night.

By 10 a.m., the audience already was squealing to the music of backup entertainers — the Ladybirds, Cindermen, Road Runners, Byrds, and so on. The Stones were just waking up.

When they arrived at the stadium, Fresno could have been jolted by a score of sonic booms, and nobody would have heard them.

By 11:36, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, Keith Richard, and Charlie Watts were on stage, banging away with “Everybody Needs Somebody.”Whether anyone heard it is questionable. The girls screeched, wailed, moaned, and cried.

“Mick, I love you,” they screamed. “Oh, Charlie, oh!”

They pulled at their hair, held tightly clenched fists to their temples, waved, and sagged to their knees.

One long-haired blond, her face twisted, fumbled with a camera.

“It won’t work! It won’t work!” she cried through her braces. “Oh my God, they’re beautiful.”

Finally, Jagger announced “our last number, ‘The Last Time.’”

They never got to finish it.

At 12:03, the first of about 25 youngsters jumped the rail and charged the bandstand. Helmeted policemen crouched and picked off the glassy-eyed attackers. The concert was done.

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