The 60th anniversary of the Rolling Stones becoming the resident band at Richmond's Crawdaddy club is being marked this evening – Monday.

While the Beatle's had The Cavern in Liverpool, so the Crawdaddy was the place where the Stones and many others, such as The Yardbirds, made their name.

It was attached to what was then known as Richmond's Station Hotel and has, more recently, become known as One Kew Road.

The first performance of the Rolling Stones took place at the club on February 24, 1963, and they famously met the Beatles there a few weeks later on April 14.

The anniversary is being marked by the Richmond Local History Society with a talk, which is being held at Duke Street Church at 8pm, revealing some of the secrets of those early days,

The event is being led by Andrew Humphreys, who is the author of Raving upon Thames, which, among many fascinating insights, offers a guide to Richmond's place in the nation's music pop and rock culture.

Barry May, then a reporter for the Richmond & Twickenham Times, and now Chairman of the Richmond Society, saw the Stones perform, and wrote about it in the local paper.

Over a 16-week residency at the Crawdaddy, the group would rapidly progress from unknowns to the verge of stardom.

The band honed their stage act at the club, received their first reviews, landed a manager, recorded a first single, and played their first festival. They also made their first TV appearance and signed on for a UK tour supporting one of their heroes, Bo Diddley.

What the Cavern was to the Beatles, the Crawdaddy was to the Rolling Stones. But Mick Jagger and Keith Richard were from Deptford, while Bill Wyman was from Lewisham and Charlie Watts from Wembley.

Jagger subsequently went on to make Richmond his home with Jerry Hall for many years.

The talk will reveal what brought the band to Richmond and the part that the borough played in their early success.

Andrew Humphreys is a member of our Society who has spent 25 years in global newspaper and magazine publishing. He lives in Richmond, where he now runs Paradise Road, a publishing company producing non-fiction books about London.

His book Raving upon Thames: An Untold Story of Sixties London was published in 2022.

Interestingly, the current owners of One Kew Road - the pub company Mitchells & Butlers - have signalled they want to bring back live music to the venue.