The Rolling Stones, By the Numbers: Celebrating 50 Years Since They ‘Start It Up’

30: The Stones’ first show was a major moment in rock history—but they were only paid 30 guineas for their performance.

The band doesn’t want for money today, but the six young men in what was then called “Mick Jagger and the Rollin’ Stones”—who were filling in for Brian Jones’ other band, called Blues Incorporated, which had to miss their regular gig—only made the equivalent of £31.50, in the British currency of the time, to split between the six of them: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, plus erstwhile band members Dick Taylor, Mick Avory, Brian Jones and Ian Stewart. According to their biographer Christopher Sandford, writing in the Guardian, they didn’t split it evenly: everyone got £5 except Brian Jones, who took the difference.