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Today is a historic day in rock n’ roll history: exactly 50 years ago the Rolling Stones played their first gig — although way back then they were known simply as The Rollin’ Stones. Now half a century later, arguably the world’s most successful band is still going strong. To celebrate the landmark event the Stones unveiled a photographic exhibit today at the Somerset House in London that includes rare images of the band throughout the course of their career. The pictures will also appear in an upcoming book, ROLLING STONES: 50, set to be released in October. But even more exciting, the band has hinted at a string of live shows next year. “I’d like to get a couple of shows down and see how it goes,” Keith Richards recently told Rolling Stone of the possibility of a Stones tour. “But I’d love it.”

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The band — including  Richards and singer Mick Jagger, the only remaining members of the original band – gathered in late April in the New York area for a full week of rehearsals, marking their first time playing together at length since the final night of their A Bigger Bang tour in London in August 2007. Says Richards of the week, “I thought I’d be quite rusty, after all we hadn’t done it for a while, five years or something. But it sounded as fresh as you could hope for. It was a great week.”
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Rumor has it that the band may play a one-off gig sometime this year to rev up for a possible tour. one opporunitry they did pass up with a gig at the Olympics. “I didn’t think we’re stage-ready,” Jagger said in a recent interview with ITN. Does Richards also see another Stones album potentially in the works? “I’d love to cut some tracks, yeah,” he said. “I’d love to get some tracks down and see what songs we’ve got. “