Rolling Stones Celebrate Turning 50 With An Exhibition Of Their Pictures At Somerset House (VIDEO)

How The Rolling Stones Celebrated Turning 50

The Rolling Stones turned 50 yesterday - exactly half a century since their first gig - so how did they celebrate?

Smashed a few mike stands? Threw back several whiskys? Escorted a harem of young fans to a nearby nightclub?

Rolling Stones - still smiling after 50 years

All a bit more sedate for the quartet, now all in their 60s. Rock's most established band satisfied themselves with a more sedate affair, attending Somerset House in London, where a new exhibition celebrating their milestone was unveiled.

During the event, frontman Mick Jagger revealed that the band had not been scheduled to take part in the Olympics entertainment offering because they "weren't ready yet", despite ongoing rehearsals.

He told ITN, "I didn't think, to be honest, we were quite stage ready. We haven't played in a long time... and it's a very big gig and it's very risk-taking. I didn't think the band themselves felt they were really ready to do it at this point."

But Ronnie Wood also affirmed that he thought the band had one more tour in them, telling the Sun newspaper that the band had been rehearsing their huge back-catalogue in the States - "We had a good play in New York five days ago. We did 50 songs in five days. It was brilliant." Read more here...

Looking back at half a century of rock and roll...

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