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Rock-and-roll icons The Rolling Stones were back in the Midlands to delight crowds at Coventry's Ricoh Arena.

The gig was the first time the band had played in the city in 47 years - after last playing Coventry Theatre in 1971.

Our sister title, CoventryLive sent a team of reporters to soak up the atmosphere - here's what reporter Bobby Bridge's thought of this landmark in Coventry's musical history.

The verdict

One day in the not-so-distant future, jaw-dropping evenings like these could be an experience only kept alive in our memories.

Rolling Stones top a list of iconic rock-and-roll powerhouses still plying their trade to the masses way beyond any financial requirement from any of its band members.

Some 47 years after Mick Jagger and company first played in the city, the Stones rolled into the Ricoh Arena with insatiable force and energy that defied their ever-advancing years.

While absorbed in the relentless wall of sound and kaleidoscope of colour flickering through four giant screens, there was a sinking moment of reflection - how many more nights like these can the legends of music's finest genre continue to produce?

In 20 years time, which current guitar-riffing, swaggering offering from today's market will be able to rock up on stage and deliver an awe-inspiring set of instantly-recognisable tunes?

Will there even be a thirst for live music in the year 2038 with music so readily available on phones allowing for a zombified generation of heads-down youths with over-sized earphones wandering vacantly into traffic?

For the time being, let us celebrate and indulge in a pass-time like no other, and a group of protagonists who've been at the top of their game far longer than the stadium they were playing in and many of those who'd paid to come along and watch.

Special guests

'Coventry's favourite sons' The Specials - as Mick Jagger later coined them - warmed up the crowd with a foot-tapping set that concluded with a string of their most successful songs.

Before 'A Message to You Rudy', guitarist Lynval Golding declared it a dream to be performing in his home town before the esteemed headline act.

With little fuss nor introduction, messiahs Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards and Charlie Watt took up their positions along with a swelled group of backing singers and musicians and struck the first chords of Street Fighting Man, first recorded 50 years ago.

Out powered Jagger with youthful verve and tangible joy for his craft, entertaining crowds into his 75th year on this planet.

It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It) kept the fever pitch alive with the song, heard so frequently on radios and television screens for decades taking on a deeper, taking on an achingly brilliant Blues feel when being performed live.

While Jagger's cavorting and eye-catching outfit changes caught the eye, I was locked onto the master craftsman of arguably the greatest guitar pairing in British music history as Ronnie Wood locked into his riffs and Keith Richards - still in love with the music pouring from his fingers after all these years.

Coventry memories

After Paint It Black completed Jagger reminisced about the bands' previous visits to Coventry, the first way back in the early 60s at the Matrix Ballroom: 'Now a car showroom' mused the frontman, then a subsequent concert at the Locarno - 'now a library', he added.

A slower, acoustic-led section of songs followed before 1969 hit Honky Tonk Woman powered in and Jagger delighted his crowd with words of praise for Coventry City after their promotion-sealing season, returning the club to 'the days of Jimmy Hill'.

Start Me Up, Jumpin' Jack Flash and Brown Sugar drew the main set to a close by 10.05pm, but of course the boys were back on stage just a few minutes later.

The finale

Inevitably the evening concluded with Satisfaction.

Appropriate given the mood of the thousands delighting in every chord, every word pumped out of the huge banks of speakers.

Nights like these, with icons of music, might be lost in years to come, so we must seize upon these opportunities to create lasting memories.

And it all happened, right here in Coventry in the confines of the Ricoh Arena, an evening to treasure, an evening to remember.