Since forming in 1962, the English rock band the Rolling Stones have performed more than two thousand concerts around the world, becoming one of the world's most popular live music attractions in the process. The Stones' first tour in their home country was in September 1963 and their first American tour began in June 1964. In their early years of performing, the band would undertake numerous short tours of the United Kingdom and North America, playing in small- and medium-size venues to audiences composed largely of screaming girls. As time moved on, their audience base expanded (in terms of both size and diversity) and they would increasingly favour larger arenas and stadiums. For many years, the group would choose to play in their native country along with Continental Europe and North America on a three-year rotating cycle.

Many audio recordings exist of Rolling Stones concerts, both official and unofficial. Seventeen official concert albums (eighteen in the United States) have been released by the band, six of which were previously unreleased concert recordings released from 2011 to 2012, including the highly bootlegged Brussels Affair. Several of their concerts have also been filmed and released under a variety of titles, such as The Stones in the Park which records the band's performance at Hyde Park in 1969 on the festival of the same name.

The most famous and heavily documented of all the band's concerts was the Altamont Free Concert at the Altamont Speedway in 1969, the final show of their American Tour 1969. For this concert, the biker gang Hells Angels provided security, which resulted in a fan, Meredith Hunter, being stabbed and beaten to death by the Angels after he drew a firearm.Burks, John, , Rolling Stone, 1970-02-07, URL retrieved 18 April 2007 Part of the tour and the Altamont concert were documented in Albert and David Maysles' film Gimme Shelter. As a response to the growing popularity of bootleg recordings, the album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! (UK 1; US 6) was released in 1970; it was declared by critic Lester Bangs to be the best live album ever.Bangs, Lester. "The Rolling Stones: Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out" . Rolling Stone. 12 November 1970 (accessed 28 April 2007)

The biggest concert the band gave was in front of two million people in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2006 as part of the A Bigger Bang Tour. The second largest was in 2016, when the band played for the first time in Cuba, during their América Latina Olé tour. An estimated 1.2 million fans, more than half of the population of Havana, saw the Rolling Stones whose music had been banned by the Cuban regime until only nine years before the concert. A live album and film, The Rolling Stones: Havana Moon, were released in 2016.

Concert tour chronology In bold, the tours which, when completed, became the highest-grossing of all time.

Year Title Date Associated album(s) Continent(s) Shows 1963 British Tour 1963 29 September 1963 – 3 November 1963 rowspan="3" Europe 60 1964 1st British Tour 1964 6 January 1964 – 27 January 1964 Europe 28 2nd British Tour 1964 8 February 1964 – 7 March 1964 Europe 58 1st American Tour 1964 5 June 1964 – 20 June 1964 The Rolling Stones North America 11 3rd British Tour 1964 1 August 1964 – 22 August 1964 Europe 11 4th British Tour 1964 5 September 1964 – 11 October 1964 Europe 64 2nd American Tour 1964 24 October 1964 – 11 November 1964 12 × 5 North America 11 1965 Irish Tour 1965 6 January 1965 – 8 January 1965 The Rolling Stones No. 2 Europe 6 Far East Tour 1965 22 January 1965 – 16 February 1965 Oceania Asia 36 1st British Tour 1965 5 March 1965 – 18 March 1965 Europe 28 1st European Tour 1965 26 March 1965 – 2 April 1965 Europe 11 2nd European Tour 1965 16 April 1965 – 18 April 1965 Europe 3 1st American Tour 1965 23 April 1965 – 29 May 1965 The Rolling Stones, Now! North America 22 3rd European Tour 1965 15 June 1965 – 29 June 1965 rowspan="4" Europe 15 2nd Irish Tour 1965 3 September 1965 – 4 September 1965 Europe 2 4th European Tour 1965 11 September 1965 – 17 September 1965 Europe 11 2nd British Tour 1965 24 September 1965 – 17 October 1965 Europe 48 2nd American Tour 1965 29 October 1965 – 5 December 1965 Out of Our Heads Europe 41 1966 Australasian Tour 1966 18 February 1966 – 1 March 1966 rowspan="2" Oceania 18 European Tour 1966 26 March 1966 – 5 April 1966 Europe 12 American Tour 1966 24 June 1966 – 28 July 1966 Aftermath North America 32 British Tour 1966 23 September 1966 – 9 October 1966 Europe 23 1967 European Tour 1967 25 March 1967 – 17 April 1967 Between the Buttons Europe 27 1969 American Tour 1969 7 November 1969 – 6 December 1969 Beggars Banquet North America 24 1970 European Tour 1970 30 August 1970 – 9 October 1970 Let It Bleed Europe 23 1971 UK Tour 1971 4 March 1971 – 26 March 1971 Europe 18 1972 American Tour 1972 3 June 1972 – 26 July 1972 Exile on Main St. North America 48 1973 Pacific Tour 1973 18 January 1973 – 27 February 1973 North America Oceania 14 European Tour 1973 1 September 1973 – 19 October 1973 Goats Head Soup Europe 42 1975 Tour of the Americas '75 1 June 1975 – 8 August 1975 Made in the Shade North America 46 1976 Tour of Europe '76 28 April 1976 – 23 June 1976 Black and Blue Europe 41 1978 US Tour 1978 10 June 1978 – 26 July 1978 Some Girls North America 25 1981 American Tour 1981 25 September 1981 – 19 December 1981Tattoo You North America 50 1982 European Tour 1982 26 May 1982 – 25 July 1982 Europe 36 1989 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour 31 August 1989 – 25 August 1990 Steel Wheels North America Asia Europe 1151990 1994 Voodoo Lounge Tour 1 August 1994 – 30 August 1995 Voodoo Lounge North America South America Africa Asia Oceania Europe 129 1995 1997 Bridges to Babylon Tour 23 September 1997 – 19 September 1998 Bridges to Babylon North America Asia South America Europe 97 1998 1999 No Security Tour 25 January 1999 – 20 June 1999 No Security North America Europe 43 2002 Licks Tour 3 September 2002 – 9 November 2003 Forty Licks North America Oceania Asia Europe 117 2003 2005 A Bigger Bang Tour 21 August 2005 – 26 August 2007 A Bigger Bang North America South America Asia Oceania Europe 147 2006 2007 2012 50 & Counting 25 October 2012 – 13 July 2013 GRRR! Europe North America 30 2013 2014 14 On Fire 21 February 2014 – 22 November 2014 Asia Europe Oceania 29 2015 Zip Code 20 May 2015 – 15 July 2015 Sticky Fingers (Deluxe 2015 Edition) North America 17 2016 América Latina Olé 3 February 2016 – 25 March 2016 South America 14 2017 No Filter Tour 9 September 2017 – 23 November 2021 Blue & Lonesome Europe North America 58 2018 2019 2021 2022 Sixty 1 June 2022 – 3 August 2022 Europe 14 2024 Hackney Diamonds Tour 28 April – 21 July 2024 Hackney Diamonds North America 20

See also List of highest-grossing concert tours List of highest-grossing live music artists

References

Works cited Carr, Roy. The Rolling Stones: An Illustrated Record. Harmony Books, 1976.