IT was towards the end of 1963 when Judith Yaxley, Student Union Secretary at the Regional College of Art in Bradford, booked a group she had never heard of for the college dance.

Her first choice was unavailable so, scanning the list of options, she selected another group simply because she quite liked its name - the Rolling Stones.

"They arrived in good time," recalls Judith. "We supplied refreshments after they set up their equipment and the treasurer and I manned the entrance, praying that our publicity had done its work and we'd take enough in ticket sales to cover the band's fee."

Taking to the stage at Kings and Queens Hall in Bradford on December 11, 1963 were five young men from the South who exploded onto the music scene, sharing their passion for R&B and blues with a society still in the grip of post-war austerity.

Judith's recollections are among several local anecdotes in a new book chronicling a "people's history" of the Rolling Stones. You Had To Be There: The Rolling Stones Live 1962 - 69, offers a front row perspective from fans who were at the early shows, including concerts in Bradford in 1963, 1964, and 1965.

The book, by Richard Houghton, features more than 500 accounts of performances, beginning with smoky jazz clubs and culminating in the famous 1969 Hyde Park concert.

Richard has loved the Stones since he saw Mick Jagger strut to Brown Sugar on Top of the Pops. He had the idea for a book watching the band in Stockholm last year. "Mick Jagger was about to turn 71, it occurred to me that many of the people who saw the Stones starting out would be of a similar vintage," says Richard. "Fifty years ago they were teenagers, I thought it would be good to capture those memories before they fade.”

He compiled interviews with people who saw the Stones as they evolved from playing for a handful of people to packed arenas. While not a definitive history - Richard concedes that "some tales will have been embellished and other memories will be incomplete" - it's an account of an era shaken by a cultural revolution, recalled by those who were in the front row, the wings and the side alley waiting for autographs.

It's a window on growing up in early 1960s Britain when the pubs shut at 10.30pm, there were two TV channels and ration coupons were a living memory.

"Teenagers hadn’t really been invented until the Rolling Stones came along," says Richard. "They helped make the Sixties swing.”

Ken Dorrington was 19 when the Stones came to the Gaumont in Bradford on October 19, 1963, sharing the bill with the likes of the Everly Brothers. "I think we paid twelve shillings and sixpence," recalls Ken. "I remember vividly the Stones performing Come On and Keith with his little run across the stage, a feature at that time."

Aged 14, Ann Holmes saw them at St George's Hall on May 14, 1964. "I went with a group of schoolfriends from Belle Vue Girls' Grammar - heaven knows how we persuaded our parents," she says. "We sat on the balcony and screamed through the performance.

"My real memory though is afterwards when we went round to the stage door. I don't know how, but Brian Jones got separated from the rest and started running up Bridge Street past the Victoria Hotel. It must have been awful to have a load of hysterical teenagers chasing you.

"Unfortunately for him, he fell on the pavement in front of us! At this point those screaming teenagers turned into an embarrassed group of schoolgirls looking at each other as if to say: 'Oh dear, what do we do now?'"

Leslie Smith was a police officer on traffic duty that night. "The Stones were escorted back to the police garage. I asked for autographs, which they gave me," recalls Leslie. "Mick Jagger was still recovering in the back of the car. I went and sat with him and he asked for two minutes to come round. He was exhausted, sweat was all over him."

A 17-year-old Mike Roberts took his girlfriend, Maureen - now his wife of almost 50 years - to see the band at the Gaumont on September 26, 1964, and remembers watching Bill Wyman who, throughout the entire performance, kept chatting to a stagehand in the wings. "He became obscured from the audience, leaving only the fingerboard of his bass guitar in sight!"

John Heffron was at the same concert, aged 20, with his eight-and-a-half-months pregnant wife. "One of the music papers did an article about one of them liking jelly babies. When they started playing they got bombarded with jelly babies, the fans had brought bags in," he recalls. "Charlie Watts's drum kit was covered with them, the Stones were laughing their heads off."

The Rolling Stones first performed in 1962 and their first regional show was in Middlesborough the following year. It was just two years from that night on July 13, 1963 to topping the US Billboard charts with (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction on July 10, 1965.

"This was an age when there was no YouTube, internet or X Factor, no Radio 1 or Top of the Pops, and the music industry was controlled by record company moguls who thought they knew what young people should be listening to better than the young people themselves," reflects Richard.

By the end of 1966, the Stones had played more than 800 shows around the UK, learning the stagecraft that was to make them the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band.

As a young child in the Sixties, Richard didn't see the early Stones shows, although aged four he was taken by his mum to a Beatles Christmas show. The Fab Four are the subject of his next book, You Had To Be There: The Beatles.

“I’d love to hear memories of anyone who saw the Beatles in the 1960s," says Richard. "They set the entertainment world alight - there will be lots of people who saw them and thought 'Wow'.”

To share Beatles memories with Richard email thebeatlesinthe60s@gmail.com

* You Had To Be There: The Rolling Stones Live 1962 - 69 is published by Gottahavebooks, priced £17.49, and available from gottahavebooks.co.uk/stones or by emailing sales@gottahavebooks.co.uk