AT the old Northwich Memorial Hall in 1963, crowds were blown away when they gathered to watch a new band by the name of The Rolling Stones.

Fast-forward to 56 years later and arguably the biggest rock band of all-time are still going strong.

But now exclusive to the stadium tours and festival headline spots, Jagger and co’s tours are a far cry from Cheshire’s market towns, and those wanting a taste of what they may have missed in their hometown more than five decades ago are now looking forward to watching The Rolling Stones Story at Northwich Memorial Court tonight, Friday.

“We called it the story because it’s taking the audience back through the eras of The Rolling Stones,” said Mick Jagger impersonator, Paul Ashworth.

“It’s about coming along and enjoying the music of The Rolling Stones. We have just done a year of this show and we have been absolutely knocked out by the response. Every show we have people coming up to us afterwards to say how much they enjoyed it.”

The fact that the tribute show has just celebrated its one-year anniversary when it comes to Northwich, as The Stones had in ’63, is for from the only similarity between the two acts.

The band behind The Rolling Stones Story prides itself on the authenticity of their performances, changing costumes, styles and stage personas as they move through the eras.

But perhaps the most striking of similarities with the rock and roll legends, is frontman Paul.

From his school days, Paul found that his rather unusual career was already laid out for him.

“I first got into it because I was a world-leading Mick Jagger double. That came first, before the singing,” Paul said.

“From an early age people told me all the time that I looked like Mick Jagger. I was taunted in school and stuff like that. I got into working as a Mick Jagger double and then I decided to do something more with it and went to get singing lessons.”

After putting a ‘Mick seeks Keith’ advert in the paper, Paul met the talented lead guitarist and Keith Richards impersonator Adrian Prounce.

The pair have played together for years in various Rolling Stones tribute bands, but just over a year ago, had the idea to take it to the next step in a more theatrical way.

“It’s a seated audience and maybe more of an evening out as opposed to going out for a drink and a dance,” Paul explains.

“The seated shows tend to be a little calmer, but we finish on a high, so it does tend to get a bit more lively towards the end.

“We start off with the 60s. Most people’s memories of The Rolling Stones in the 60s is watching them on black and white TVs, standing very static and staged playing their music. Then we move onto the 70s where things got a bit freer. After that we go off for a break and after the interval we come back moving into the 80s and we really try to get across the feeling of being at one the band’s big, high-energy stadium concerts.”

Perhaps luckily for him, Paul grew up as a huge fan of the band, and now finding himself touring the world and playing their hits to fellow fans, he’s living his boyhood dream.

“This last year has been so much fun and I suppose in many ways, I am living many people’s dream of being Mick Jagger, being in The Rolling Stones, and playing their hits to crowds all over the world.

“I’ve enjoyed playing some of the most amazing places around the world. But like most of these things, I think it probably looks more glamorous than it truly is. There’s a lot of tedious hard work that has to go into it, but I’m not complaining. It’s an incredible job to have.”

The Rolling Stones Story has been wowing crowds and the demand for talented and authentic tributes is growing fast along with the hefty price tags that come with seeing the top music acts.

But Paul says the reason people go along to see The Rolling Stones Story is less about the price of the real band, and more to do with getting that up-close feel of the more intimate venues.

“It’s a high price that the likes The Rolling Stones charge for concert tickets now, but it is one of the greatest acts of all time, so I think people are more than willing to pay it,” Paul said.

“I think when people choose to come to see us it’s less about the price and more about what they want out of it. They want to be more close-up and personal. When you come to one of our shows you’re right there and you can feel the band.

“Tributes have exploded recently, but there are so many acts that call themselves tributes there becomes such a huge range of quality, so that can create a bit of a bad name for tributes.

“It’s a great thing to go and see a really good, talented band. Whether it’s a tribute band or not. I think these days, with the X-Factor generation, people seem to be less inclined to watch a band when they don’t know a lot of their songs, which is sad in a way. But people do just want to go out and have fun and sing along to songs they know and love.”