London: The Rolling Stones celebrated the 50th anniversary of their first gig at a bash in London on Thursday - and despite being well over retirement age, they have no plans to quit.
The group is marking its half-century with no letup in its productivity or rock 'n' roll style.
Now in their late 60s and early 70s, the band members celebrated the anniversary by attending a retrospective photo exhibition at London's Somerset House.
The show, which opens to the public on Friday, charts the band's career from their first official photo shoot in 1963 to their monster stadium tours in the 1980s and 1990s.
"We're here now in London together where we started out, which I think is kind of fun, and so I think that it's good to mark it, as long as you don't wallow in it," frontman Mick Jagger said.
His fellow Stones Keith Richards added that looking at the exhibition was "like finding a lost diary".
The Stones were speaking 50 years to the day since the young R&B band played London's Marquee Club.
Taking a name from a song by blues singer Muddy Waters, they were billed as "The Rollin' Stones" - the 'g' came later.
The lineup for the gig was vocalist Jagger, guitarists Richards and Brian Jones, bassist Dick Taylor, pianist Ian Stewart and Mick Avory on drums.
Taylor and Avory soon left the band, while Stewart switched to a backup role; drummer Watts joined in 1963 and guitarist Wood in 1975.
"You can just sort of tell by the attitudes in these photographs how we didn't care, when we started out, much about anything, that we were just having a laugh, really," Jagger said.
The band had its first hit, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On", in 1963, and soon became one of the world's biggest and most influential rock acts, rivalled only by The Beatles.
The Beatles split up in 1970, but the Stones are still going strong, something Jagger says he could never have imagined at the time.
The band has famously gone through rocky periods.Founding member Jones drowned in his swimming pool in 1969.
Jagger and Richards are both creative catalysts and sparring partners.But something - Richards calls it "chemistry" - keeps them going.
"When we do get together, no matter what's going on, or what hearsay, or blah blah blah, when we actually get together something changes and it all channels through, comes out in the music," said Wood.
The Stones have sold more than 200 (m) million records, with hits including "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Street Fighting Man" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want".
But in recent years much of their income has come from touring.Their last global tour, "A Bigger Bang", earned more than half a (b) billion US dollars between 2005 and 2007.
As they enter their sixth decade, more live shows are on the way.Richards said the band had begun rehearsing for the performances, which could come later this year.
