A quick look at the history of the Rolling Stones' visits to Toronto:

April and October 1965: Brian Jones was still alive, of course, as the newly formed band played Maple Leaf Gardens twice during their third North American tour. Enraptured fans mobbed the band, even climbing onto their limo. In London, Ont., an audience riot broke out and police pulled the plug.

June 1966: Back to the Gardens with Mick, Keith, Brian, Charlie, Bill and Ian Stewart. Satisfaction as an encore was a crowd favourite.

July 1972: Maple Leaf Gardens yet again, with Mick Taylor joining the band for the Stones Touring Party (STP) tour. Stevie Wonder was the opening act but the visit was renowned for its partying.

June 1975: The last Gardens visit was saved for Tour of the Americas. Billy Preston accompanied the band and two tracks on the Love You Live album came from the concert tapes.

March 1977: The most infamous Stones gig of them all, when the band made a surprise and rare club appearance at the legendary El Mocambo with April Wine as opening act. (Several tunes made it to the Love You Live double album.) Keith was busted for drugs by the Mounties, and Margaret Trudeau had left her PM hubby and partied notoriously with the boys.

April 1979: After Keith's drug-bust conviction two years earlier, the band agreed to a judge's order to play a couple of benefit concerts at the civic auditorium in nearby Oshawa. The Blues Brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi) introduced the band.

September and December 1989: Two visits during the Steel Wheels Tour, one at Exhibition Stadium, one at SkyDome. The band was backed by a four-piece horn section, chorus singers and a pair of keyboardists. At the Dome, Jagger taunted the typically subdued crowd of nearly 60,000: "I don't want you behaving like typically restrained Canadians now!"

July, August and December 1994: A bounty year for Stones appearances, when they performed another of their surprise club gigs, this time at the warehouse-like RPM (900 fans at $5 a ticket), a warmup for their Voodoo Lounge tour. Jeff Healey opened. Later they hit Exhibition Stadium and the SkyDome. Rehearsals were held at a private school in the city's north end. The tour set an industry record with $124 million US in grosses.

September 1997: Yet another club warmup, this time for their Bridges to Babylon tour, at the Horseshoe Tavern, with rehearsals at the Concert Hall. They also made a satellite appearance from Toronto for the annual MTV Awards. "I have a strange relationship with this town," Richards mused, recalling his drug bust 20 years earlier.

April 1998: The Bridges to Babylon tour arrives at the Dome, a concert postponed from January when Mick had a bout of laryngitis. It was the final stop on their 36-city North American tour.

February 1999: Bridges to Babylon returns, this time at the new Air Canada Centre, while many mused that it might be their last visit to the city with band members pushing senior citizen age.

July and October 2002: First, another of their rehearsal periods -- again at a private boys' school -- before the 27-city Licks North American tour arrived at the Air Canada Centre and two days later at SkyDome. In August, 1,000 fans were pleasantly surprised ($10 a ticket) when the Stones offered another of their impromptu performances, a sellout at the Palais Royale Ballroom (with another Stone, Sharon, hanging out backstage). The boys even rented bicycles to exercise during their time in town.