A rock and roll dream came true for Ottawa fans of the Rolling Stones Sunday night: Their heroes played a concert there for the first time in 40 years.

Last time, they played for about 1,500 people. Sunday, they had an audience of 43,000 at Frank Clair Stadium.

Rick Bailey of Barrie, Ont. is one of those fans, having seen the band as a single man years ago and is now taking his pre-teen daughters to the show.

"It's like the rock and roll never dies," he told CJOH News in Ottawa on Sunday. "It's the Stones. They are rock and roll. They epitomize rock and roll."

One of his daughters, who appeared young enough to be a granddaughter of one of the 50- and 60-something Stones, said, "I just like every song that I've heard." Added the other: "They rock."

While the band has existed since the early 1960s and lived quite hard at times, they can still rock.

Reviews from their tour-opening show at Boston's Fenway Park a week ago were superlative.

Here is what the New York Post had to say: "The ultimate question is: Do the Stones still have the right stuff? If the Fenway show is the tour standard, the answer is absolutely."

While the band hasn't truly had a hit record in almost a generation, very few artists can compete with its greatest hits catalogue.

This tour also supports the band's forthcoming new CD, A Bigger Bang, which hits record stores on Sept. 6. That disc will be the first all-new one since 1997's Bridges to Babylon.

Ottawa isn't the only first-time venue. The Stones will be playing a show for 80,000 on Moncton, N.B.'s Magnetic Hill on Saturday.

"The Rolling Stones want to play other different venues and cities that they haven't played before because they know their fans stretch out around North America and around the world," said Ken Craig, promoter of the Ottawa show.

Calgary and Toronto are the other two Canadian cities that will host shows during this 18-month world tour.

Toronto is where the Stones rehearsed prior to the tour, as has become their habit. They even treated some lucky fans to a very rare small-venue show.

Asked why the Stones' popularity and star power endures in a business where short careers and one-hit wonders are the rule, Kath Thomson of Ottawa radio station The Bear 106.9 said: "I think we love them.

"I just think they are crazy characters. They're enough of a personality that even if you're not a Stones fan, you know who Mick Jagger is," she said, then affecting a faux English accent, "and you know who Keith Richards is."

The timeless nature of the Stones' classic rock may also have something to do with it.

In an interview earlier this summer, the Stones' Keith Richards said people will still be listening to songs like Jumping Jack Flash 100 years from now. "And I'll probably still be playing it," he said with a chuckle.

With a report from CTV's Chris Day