The Rolling Stones - still utterly peerless on a magical night in Hyde Park

With Macca playing Glastonbury, with Elton John on stage nearby and with the Stones themselves reigning supreme in Hyde Park, Mick Jagger joked from the stage that this was a great weekend for the young hopes in the music biz – those dreaming of bright careers ahead of them.

It was a lovely moment, lovelier by the second as Mick, Keef and Ronnie then showed us quite why, even after 60 years, absolutely no one can hold a candle to the Stones at their best.

And boy, they really were at their absolute best on this blissful night in Hyde Park, a venue so rich in resonance for them down the decades in a city which has always been absolutely their own.

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I first saw the Stones 40 years before to the very day at Wembley on their 20th anniversary tour – and it felt uncharted territory even then. No band had been going at that level for 20 years back then. And blimey, we were watching men in their late 30s rocking their socks off.

I was convinced I was watching them for the very last time at my first very possible opportunity. How fabulous to be so outrageously wrong.

Fast forward exactly four decades, and wow. Just wow.

The years have enhanced their standing (I will never forget just how deeply unfashionable it was to adore the Stones back in 1982); but most amazingly of all, the years have left them totally, utterly undimmed in their power and glory.

These are now men in their late 70s, and they are astonishing – just as vibrant as ever, just as electrifying as ever, just as brilliant as ever.

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Jagger briefly seemed a little breathless a couple of songs in, but maybe he was toying with us. Thereafter he was a dazzling whirl of energy, forever prancing, dancing, goading, weaving, cajoling, beckoning and enticing – a performer of immense power who knows precisely how to use it.

And Keef, well, somehow Keef just keeps on Keefing, ever more gnarled, ever more piratical, a mesmerising, distinctive performer of the rarest kind, roguish and endearing with that throaty chuckle, ever the master with those idiosyncratic licks that define the band’s sound every bit as much as Mick’s vocals.

And Ronnie, it’s so odd that even after nearly 50 years, he seems the exciting newcomer, a huge stage presence and so crucial an element in that almost diabolical Stones mix that holds you and just won’t let you go.

They draw you to their dark side in that devilish trio of classics – Midnight Rambler, Gimme Shelter and Sympathy For The Devil – as wickedly hypnotic now as ever they were. No matter how many times you hear them, these are songs that will always send a shiver down your spine.

And of course we also had the songs that they simply wouldn’t dare not do – Jumping Jack Flash, Satisfaction, Honky Tonk Women, utterly timeless, the thrill of their opening bars growing with the years rather than diminishing.

And Paint It Black. Again those opening bars… You hear them and you are sent. Ditto Start Me Up. Ditto 19th Nervous Breakdown.

But lovely too were the surprises. I’ve never heard them to do Out Of Time live before; and even if we didn’t get Ruby Tuesday, I’m guessing we were all happy to settle for She’s A Rainbow (of pretty much that era).

And the other little surprise, Can't You Hear Me Knockin' – superbly done.

And what’s that line in Sympathy For The Devil… “I'm a man of wealth and taste”… The taste was impeccable.

The night opened with a heartfelt tribute to the late great Charlie Watts in this their first London concert without him, almost 60 years to the week since their very first London concert ever (with him).

Beautifully judged too was the moment, during their blistering Gimme Shelter, that the huge over-stage screens turned to the colours of the Ukrainian flag and then filled with heart-breaking images of the devastated Ukrainian streets. It was the strongest condemnation, wordless and yet so devastatingly eloquent.

It was a truly magical night.

The songs, the power, the charisma, the sparkle, the history, the sheer brilliance of the musicianship, their sheer enjoyment of their performance… no one, absolutely no one comes close.

This is a band with absolutely nothing to prove. They proved it all decades ago. And yet time and again they prove that they are peerless, as powerful as they ever where, but more and more remarkable as the years slip by.

And best of all, you just sense that they do it because they love it – and because they know that we love it every bit as much.