Rolling Stones give Rio the biggest bang

More than a millionpeople attended a free show by the Rolling Stones on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach, in one of the biggestrock concerts ever.

The Stones kicked off the Saturday night gig with their 1968 classic, Jumping Jack Flash. The sexagenarian rockers blasted out 20 songs in total as eight video screens and more than a dozen sound towers broadcast the concert to fans far from the stage.

Fire and police officials estimated 1.5 million people showed up for the concert.

"I wanted to see a legend, a myth," said Lazaro Rosas, 26, who had staked his tent out on the sand on Wednesday one of many who had begun to camp out on the four-kilometre beach earlier in the week. The artist travelled from his town in southern Brazil to see the event.

The concertattracted fans from around the world.Fleets of buses bringing people from all over Brazil and Latin America clogged city streets.

Tom Nolan, a 62-year-old businessman from New York state had already seen the band in Albany last September but said he didn't want to miss the Rio show. "They are an inspiration to our generation. They have given the world so much and they are still cranking it out."

The city deployed 10,000 police officers to keep watch at the concert, on streets and in volatile neighbourhoods. They were joined by at least 600 firefighters, lifeguards and civil defence workers, while port authority crews patrolled the shoreline. Police authorities had feared outbreaks of violence and crime but the show seemed to go off without a hitch.

The four Stones spent about two hours on the stage with singer Mick Jagger delighting the Brazilians by speaking to the crowd in Portuguese.The band ended the show with Satisfaction.

Theconcert was broadcast throughout Brazil live on television and radio and around the rest of the world via satellite radio and the internet.

A DVD may be issued later this year. The show was filmed by more than 50 cameras, including some mounted on helicopters or aboard boats just offshore.

The veteran British rockers and a number of their guests stayed at the Copacabana Palace, just oppositethe stage.

About 4,000 friends of the band, including sponsors and promoters, watched the show from a special enclosure around the stage.

The concert was part of the band's Bigger Bang tour, which opened in the United States in August 2005.

Concert organizers had touted it as the world's largest rock concert. But attendancefell well short ofthe estimated 3.5 million that turned out to hear Rod Stewart play on Copacabana Beach on New Year's Eve in 1994.